At some point when I was gathering bras, someone told me that nature centers will take bra clasps to help turtles heal that have cracked shells. The picture above is just an internet search photo example of how the bra clasps are glued to the turtle's shell to help hold a cracked shell together.
My head exploded. Making art AND helping turtles, sign me up!!! I believe Brart to be a recycled art form, and part of that is finding a use for all parts of the bra once it is cut up. I sent my first full bag of bra clasps to Nature's Nursery in Whitehouse, Ohio. Nature's Nursery (natures-nursery.org) I'm currently saving up for the next back to mail off. I message nature centers before sending them, to make sure it is something that can actually be utilized. If I just arbitrarily send it some nature center, it's probably much more likely to still end up in the trash. Thinking creatively, we can repurpose a lot of items that we just so casually toss in the trash to sit in a landfill. Just because we have put something in the trash, doesn't mean it has gone away. I'm still looking for a use for underwires. I have a box of underwires. If someone has a good idea for them, message me.
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I have been wanting to make a portrait of RBG since I finished my portrait of Michelle Obama. I imagine their portraits sitting in my living room together discussing the state of the world. I have received a lot of black bras, so I was waiting for the perfect bra to be her dissent collar. I think it is important to wait for the right bra to come along, because purchasing a bra would defeat the purpose of keeping bras out of the landfill.
She is made entirely out of bras except her glasses and earing. Her earrings are actually buttons I gathered in a different trash saving project. For my set design of These Shining Lives, I gathered buttons and broaches from the community, attached and hung them all around the set to give the set glimmering feeling. I have a bucket of buttons left over from that project, so I pull from it for various projects. I did have a friend with a 3D printer create her glasses, because I thought the proportion needed to be accurate. I made her head about 1.5 times the size of a normal head, so I couldn't use a regular pair of glasses. There are a few pictures in my process video about finding just the right pair of glasses. Below is a link to a short video on my process. Ruth Brart Ginsburg - YouTube These are some of my favorite RBG Quotes; "Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you." "I don't say women's rights - I say the constitutional principle of the equal citizen stature of mean and women." The Second Brart Portrait Michelle Obama was my second Brart portrait. I completed her very shortly after I completed Anna Dickie Olesen. Bras come in so many different colors, so I wanted to explore how color helps create shapes and lines. At this time, she doesn't have a frame. Anna Dickie Olesen was the first woman nominated to run for Senate by a major political party. She is a part of the Ramsey County Historical Society's exhibit Persistence. Persistence: Continuing the Struggle for Suffrage and Equality, 1848-2020 (rchs.com) It is only fitting that she is also the first Brart portrait I've ever made. People often ask how I came up with Brart. As part of the RFP process for the Persistence exhibit, the Ramsey County Historical Society had posted a list of women they were thinking of featuring in the exhibit. When I was reading though the list of women, I was amazed by all of their accomplishments and I immediately thought 'And they all probably did this in a corset.' So of course my mind made the mental leap to take old bras, cut them up, and make a portrait. I believe that the message is in the medium of art, and I strive to use recycled/repurposed materials. I want you to think not just about aesthetic level, but additionally about where it came from. I repurposed fabric from donated/used bras to create a fabric collage portrait. Often when I think of the suffrage movement, I am inspired when I think of everything they accomplished while wearing restrictive corsets. The suffrage movement represents a breaking of bondage, I believe the shift from corsets to bras also represents that breakage from bondage. While it seems taboo to highlight bras, undergarments are generally something very personal, yet is also very universal. Voting is the same; very personal, yet universal at the same time. We all know a bra is there for support, and I believe that through the medium of bras, viewers could reflect on what it means to support women to participate in politics. Social change takes the work of many people. As a Minnesotan, I’m proud that the the first woman nominated to run for Senate is from Minnesota. I hope my unusual bra art helps you remember the name Anna Dickie Olson and gives you a reason to bring her up in conversation. We stand on the shoulders of women who came before us. Youtube links: Persistence Exhibition: Artist Sadie Ward - YouTube Sadie Ward's 2nd Video - YouTube RCHS Persistence Exhibition Virtual Celebration - YouTube History Revealed: The Art and History of the Persistence Exhibition - YouTube Process shots |
AuthorMinnesota native, Sadie started making brart (bra-art) in 2019. Archives
February 2024
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