2020
Object
Materials: Stainless steel and nylon coating (underwires), Nickel silver
Dimensions: 23″ x 16″ x 15″
Photo credit: Michael Arrigo
Performance
single channel HD video
3:46 minutes
Statement
Invented in the nineteenth century, the underwire emerged as a modification of the corset. While the underwired bra marked a revolutionary moment in women’s dress, it continued to carry traditional attitudes inherited from historical ideals of the female body. Despite their invisibility, underwires are designed to discipline, restrain, and control women’s bodies.
Using this material, I construct a wearable object whose form references a pair of double bandoliers. Through this gesture, I challenge the authority of structural control and subvert its patriarchal power into a new, unconventional expression of beauty. By transforming an instrument of covert regulation into an overt presence—by exposing what is typically hidden and the pain it produces—the bandoliers function not only as protection, but as declaration.
The performance explores the act of wearing a piece charged with revolutionary and liberal messages, navigating the restraints of nature—of origin, identity, and expectation—before stepping into the industrialized world and journeying toward the future.
Awards
Best in Jewelry and Metal Work, Zanesville Museum of Art, 2025
President’s Award, Adrian Center for the Arts Gallery, 2024