The pieces are designed to be experienced in conversation with the city of Vierzon, where they each present a conversation with its past, present, inhabitants, and dreams for the future. Integrated within the landscapes of everyday life, the exhibition is divided into four themes: “The Utopia of Territories,” “The Third Feminism,” “Subversive Tenderness,” and “The World Built by Women.” The latter is a parallel exhibition bringing together three French collections (Centre Pompidou, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, and FRAC Centre-Val de Loire) exploring the works produced by women architects.

The Biennale’s website explains: “The concept of ‘feminist democracy’ that we borrow from author Marie-Cécile Naves gives rise to several questions that lie at the heart of the Biennale: which cities and urbanism programs are devised by and for women? How can their productions emerge from their invisibility? What interpretation of the history of the arts can be seen through the lens of feminisms?”

“Entitled Infinite Freedom, A World for a Feminist Democracy and dedicated to the exclusive invitation of around fifty women artists and architects, the 2022 Biennale of FRAC Centre-Val de Loire is primarily intended as a festival geared towards a new imaginary founded on equality, in which various social, militant, and artistic readings cohabitate, with a view to instilling a new kind of common sense.”

The Utopia of Territories consists of works highlighting new dynamics of participatory democracy, such as women’s marches, set within highly visible urban locations in Vierzon. “While the geography of gender has demonstrated that urban space is a sexed territory where women have always maintained complex relationships with the city, this Biennale is intended as a site of symbolic appropriation,” the organizers explain.

The Third Feminism explores ways in which feminism can maintain its diversity and its heritage of participation in political, social, and anti-colonial struggles as interpreted through art. The organizers add “If this Biennale wants to overcome its singular relationship to the history of art and to use the concept of feminist democracy to update the interpretation of the discipline, it therefore needs to question the new practices of equitable citizenry, the role of women in the creation of cities and territories, while taking into account the specific history of Vierzonnaises.”

Subversive Tenderness focuses on “the contemporary alternative to the modernist avant-garde,” defining tenderness as the juncture between nature and culture. To subvert that is to flip it on its head with an exhibition that “occasionally makes us pay a visit to some of the beings that we refuse to look at. At other times, it reminds us of our recurring temptations to contain freedoms, or twist bodies to injure them. Especially those of women.”

The 2022 Biennale of FRAC is on display through January 1st, 2023, and a map of the public works can be found on the FRAC Centre-Val de Loire website.

The post 55 Women Artists Showcased in the Exhibit “Infinite Freedom, A World for Feminist Democracy” first appeared on Dornob.

These pieces were dreamed up by Slovenian-born designer and Bohinc Studio founder Lara Bohinc. The armchairs and poufs are not “naked,” she insists; they’re modestly upholstered in fine, soft wool fabric. She was inspired to create them after working as a jewelry designer in the fashion industry for many years, where curvy bodies are not typically welcome. She wanted to craft pieces that not only feel like sinking into the body of a woman you love, but encourage acceptance of real bodies, flaws and all.

“The female form has always been a source of inspiration in art, photography, and design, but often with an unrealistic eye or as a response to society’s perception of how the female body ‘should’ look,” says Bohinc. “I wanted the Peaches collection to be a pure and unabashed celebration of femininity and the female form, celebrating every curvy, voluptuous, and fleshy detail.”

“Although my previous work has always had a feminine touch, my pieces have often featured more geometric qualities. The Peaches collection is my most curvaceous to date, reminiscent of all the gorgeous shapes of a woman’s body and with no straight lines or sharp angles in sight.”

The Derriére armchair might just be the boldest of the three pieces in the collection. The inspiration pointed out by the name is front and center, immediately recognizable, in both the back and seat. The “arms” of the chair are really more like softly folded legs. The matching Peachy pouf is a mass of breast-like forms upon which to rest your weary feet.

The Big Girl armchair, the largest piece in the collection, is just slightly more abstracted. Swelling, sensual shapes come together to offer a low-slung seat that cradles the body with six bulbous supporting elements. Wood and steel are used to create the frames of each piece, while foam fills them out. Each one is handmade in a North London upholstery workshop and can be purchased from Bohinc Studio’s online shop, with prices ranging from just over £7,000 to £14,000 (about $8,300 to $16,600). Every purchase is individually numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

If you find Bohinc Studio’s pointedly mammalian Peaches collection a little lurid, or maybe even offensive, the company offered a clarification in an interview with The New York Times. “I’m lucky I’m not a man. I would have to be very, very careful [about inviting people to sink into the provocative seating]. But because I’m a woman, I can celebrate my own body. It’s the difference between objectifying something and celebrating something.”

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Artist Jeanne Simmons reminds us of this simple truth with her stunning works of art rooted in nature. Based in Port Townsend, a picturesque town full of Victorian architecture on the northeast tip of Washington state’s wild Olympic Peninsula, Simmons takes inspiration from her locale and makes the most of the raw materials she’s able to find there. She (sometimes literally) weaves her human subjects together with their natural settings and composes photographs that capture this relationship in all its startling beauty.

“My goal is to express, as beautifully and as compellingly as I can, the contents of my inner world and imagination, as well as my preoccupation with the relationship between humans and nature,” Simmons explains. “With my work, I attempt to describe a connectedness between us and our environment that seems to have been all but forsaken. I hope to nurture this dynamic relationship, which is our birthright and obligation, and to perhaps even rekindle and reawaken a yearning for it in others. Simultaneously, I hope to satisfy my own need to embed myself in nature.”

“Women, for me, express the feeling of connectedness to nature in a way that I find poetic. And, since my models are, in a sense, my surrogates (as I wish that I could braid myself to the ground and document myself in that state, but cannot), it only makes sense that they should be women.”

The piece Simmons refers to here is entitled “Grass Cocoon,” in which her model, naturalist and bakes-maker Nicole Larson, is seen tucked into a french-braided cocoon of long grasses, her own braided hair weaving its way into the surrounding field. Another, “Lace Skirt,” shows the artist herself adorned in a skirt made of Queen Anne’s lace flowers.

“Womanscape” depicts a model laying at the base of a tree covered in English Ivy, wearing nothing more than a little moss and lichen. The piece came about when Simmons wondered “what would happen if I planted a seed in my belly button.”

Set on a famous hillside in Port Townsend, “Womanfall” reinterprets the natural phenomenon of the waterfall by cascading ribbons of a pale blue garment over 20 feet to the rocky shore below. “Katrina” sees a model of the same name dressed in a gown of kelp, which billows out all around her in the waters of the Puget Sound.

You can keep up with Simmons’ work on Instagram @jeanneksimmons, where she posts her latest projects. High-quality limited edition prints are available on her website.

The post Beautiful Land Art by Jeanne Simmons Celebrates our Connection to Nature first appeared on Dornob.

Visual Artists Supporting Abortion Access

Some of these artists have been campaigning for women’s rights for decades. Barbara Kruger, Nan Goldin, Laurie Simmons, and Nancy Buchanan are among those whose work has touched on abortion rights since the law was first passed. Kruger’s black and white collage Your Body is a Battleground, an image originally produced for a women’s march in Washington in 1989, feels more culturally relevant than ever. “The striking down of Roe should come as a surprise to no one,” Kruger told ARTnews. “And if it does, they haven’t been paying attention.”

Feminist activist Marilyn Minter is among the contemporary artists responding to the impending Supreme Court ruling with both fury and creativity. Minter’s works supporting reproductive justice include a 2020 series called CUNTROL. That same year, Minter also teamed up with Laurie Simmons, Sandy Tait, Rebecca Jampol, Jasmine Wohi, and Gina Nanni to create an exhibition called Abortion is Normal with the Cultural Super PAC Downtown for Democracy. Simmons presented her 1976 photographic work featuring dolls and dollhouses in domestic scenes that explored gender and sexuality.

Artist and activist Dread Scott unveiled images and videos addressing the ruling on Instagram, writing “The impending Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade is a violent assault on women’s rights. Women will be forced to become mothers and others will die. This cannot be allowed to happen. Fight like hell to make sure this ruling never becomes law.” One work in progress, titled “Obliterated Power,” depicts the Supreme Court building blacked out against a bright blue sky.

In early 2022, Alicia Eggert’s neon installation OURs embarked on a tour across states where abortion rights are most at risk in collaboration with Planned Parenthood. The pink neon sign flashes the phrases “OUR BODIES,” “OUR FUTURES,” and “OUR ABORTIONS.” It landed in front of the Supreme Court on January 22nd, the 49th anniversary of the original Roe v. Wade ruling. “Constant rhythmic flashing serves both to beckon people and also to warn them,” Eggert explains in a statement. “Light is a universal symbol of hope, and when it comes to abortion access, this particular moment in time seems pretty dark and uncertain.

Artists Maureen Connor, Landon Newton, and Kadambari Baxi formed the art collective How to Perform an Abortion as both a learning and art project demystifying the historical, biological, and ethical controversies around fertility management. Their recent piece, entitled Trigger Planting, is a 45-foot herb garden visualizing the states where abortion is threatened. All of the plants in the display have traditionally been used for natural contraception and abortion.

Musical Artists, Comedians, Writers, and Actors Speak Up

Also teaming up with Planned Parenthood are 160 female, male, and nonbinary musical artists, actors, and other public figures, who listed their names in a full-page ad as part of the organization’s #BansOffOurBodies campaign. They include Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez, Shawn Mendes, Halsey, Kendall Jenner, and Haley Kiyoko. “We are Artists. Creators. Storytellers,” the ad reads. “We are the new generation stepping into our power. Now we are being robbed of our power. WE WILL NOT GO BACK — AND WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.”

Playwright Will Brumley has offered his play The Clinic royalty free for anyone who wants to stage a benefit reading, drawing dozens of responses across the country. The Clinic is an ensemble production about abortion providers in Wichita, examining how their lives change when they’re faced with providing service under impossible circumstances.

Comedian Lizz Winstead, co-creator of The Daily Show, founded a non-profit called Abortion Access Front in 2015. The team of comedians, writers, and producers use humor to destigmatize abortion and expose extremist anti-force choices working to destroy access to reproductive rights in all 50 states. Their work includes traveling around the country in support of clinics, mobilizing groups to attend mass protests, and using video and social media to amplify news.

The post Artists Respond to the Potential Overturn of Roe v. Wade with Creative Furor first appeared on Dornob.

Designer and collector Lisa Perry takes up that mantle with her restoration of the iconic Scull House in the Hamptons. Originally designed by architect and urban planner Paul Lester Wiener, the Scull House was designed in the early 1960s for Pop Art collectors Ethel and Robert Scull. It’s a modernist’s dream dominated by sharp lines, stark aesthetics, and plenty of glass — a Wiener signature seen in many of his glass pavilions of the era (many of which were also built in the Hamptons).

Wiener himself had a strong connection to the Hamptons, summering there often before his death in 1967. It’s this history that inspired Perry to take the plunge after seeing the home on Instagram, along with with the fact that “it made me feel like I was home,” as she explained in a recent interview with New York Magazine.

The home was in need of serious restoration, but Perry was definitely up for the challenge. “The qualities of the design, the provenance, and [the house’s] history” made it a worthy endeavor for the creative designer, who ultimately decided to keep much of the original structure intact while still incorporating her own updates for a hybrid of past and present that honors the original while creating a livable space for the future.

This is especially true of the home’s former laundry area and storage room, which Perry has converted into a gallery and artist-in-residency space for women creatives. Dubbed Onna House, the space is yet another way to connect the house to its past as a midcentury haven for Hamptons artists and creatives. Though the Hamptons art scene was a boys-only club in the 1950s and 1960s, Perry’s space is devoted exclusively to celebrating the work of women — women whose voices would not have been heard in the Scull House and Hamptons of the past.

With her creative reimagining of the former Scull House in the Hamptons, designer and collector Lisa Perry has found a way to revitalize an important cultural space almost lost to the pages of history. By forging a connection to the past, she’s also found a way to build a better future by providing a space for women artists to flourish within a former modernist masterpiece that’s been given new life.

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Angelou is also the first to be featured in the U.S. Mint’s new series called the “American Women Quarters Program.” 20 influential women will have their faces emblazoned on the 25-cent piece over the next four years, with the honorees being chosen among those who have made contributions in fields like suffrage, civil rights, science, the arts, and government. The Mint has stated that “the women honored will be from ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse backgrounds.”

“Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic coin program. Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the series, used words to inspire and uplift,” Mint Deputy Director Ventris C. Gibson said in a statement.

Designed by artist Emily Damstra and sculptor Craig Campbell, the image of Angelou on the “tails” side of the quarter depicts her with arms outstretched toward the sky. “Behind her are a bird in flight and a rising sun, images inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived,” the Mint explains on its website.

Angelou isn’t just famous for her poetry – she also worked as a journalist, actress, dancer, teacher, social activist, and author. After dropping out of school to become San Francisco’s first Black trolley driver, she spent several years acting in plays on and off-Broadway, including Cabaret for Freedom.

Her interests next took her into the world of writing, joining the Harlem Writers Guild and editing newspapers in Egypt and Ghana. She gained international recognition in 1969 with her autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a groundbreaking memoir about life in the Jim Crow South. Over the course of her life, Angelou wrote more than 30 best-selling volumes of verse, fiction, and non-fiction.

She also worked for social change with Martin Luther King Jr., being appointed the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Her talents were later honored by two U.S. presidents. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” during the inauguration of Bill Clinton, becoming the first woman poet to perform at a presidential induction ceremony. Then in 2011, Barack Obama awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, applauding her as “one of the brightest lights of our time — a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman.”

Before her death in 2014 at age 86, Angelou also received more than 30 honorary degrees from universities across the country.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, the first woman to be appointed to that position, got to help select this year’s coin honorees. “Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country — what we value, and how we’ve progressed as a society,” Yellen said in a statement. “I’m very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of America’s most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou.”

California Representative Barbara Lee, who helped introduce the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 that opened the door to the American Women Quarter Program, also praised the new quarter design. “The phenomenal women who shaped American history have gone unrecognized for too long — especially women of color,” Lee said in a tweet. “Proud to have led this bill to honor their legacies.”

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Muriu captures this feeling with an ongoing fine art photography series called “Camo,” in which African women adorned in vivid, eye-popping patterns stand against backdrops of the same pattern. They might be blending in a little bit, but they certainly don’t disappear. Their personalities, architectural hairstyles, and fun accessories demand attention even in the busiest of compositions.

Highlighting the Unique Beauty of Modern Kenya

The Camo series bucks assumptions about modern Kenyan culture while celebrating its history, vibrancy, and uniqueness. It also puts dark-skinned black women front and center, defying a preference for lighter skin that has taken root even in Muriu’s own country. The portraits examine how we can lose our individual identities to the expectations our cultures place on us, yet each of us has own own beautiful qualities that make us stand out.

Camo first began in 2015 when Muriu became fascinated with complex, hypnotic textile patterns, each one chosen for its uniqueness and visual magnetism. The prints themselves almost seem alive. Muriu spends hours sifting through fabric shops in Nairobi looking for the most confusing, loud, and bold fabrics she can find. She realized that placing “camouflaged” models in front of these backdrops drew the eye right to each woman’s face, hair, and hands.

Tradition and Experimentation Come Together

Muriu researches traditional Kenyan hairstyles (the bigger and wilder the better) and finds ways to amplify and exaggerate them. Deliberately pushing back on Western beauty standards that call for sleeker, more “professional” hairstyles, the artist lovingly focuses upon cultural standards of beauty that she worries are being lost.

Upcycled accessories made of “junk” like bottle caps and discarded wire highlight Kenyans’ enterprising nature. Every small detail of each portrait reflects the way young Africans reimagine and reinvent cultural traditions for the modern world.

The full Camo series went on display at the 193 Gallery in Paris in 2021. Muriu sees it as a milestone achievement in her artistic career, and says she’ll continue adding to it forever if she can. “I will always do more,” she says. “A lifetime challenge would be to try and catalogue all of them and become the first modern archive of our hair and our fabric. Why not?”

About Artist Thandiwe Muriu

Muriu first became interested in photography as a 14-year-old growing up in a family full of creatives. One sister was a fashion designer, another a virtuoso pianist. After graduating from business school, she returned to her love of art, and signed her first contract for an international adverting campaign at the age of 23. While her day job keeps her traveling around the world on assignments, her personal work focuses on issues of identity, self-perception, and her African heritage.

Muriu lives and works in Nairobi, Kenya where she teaches photography workshops. She received the 2020 People’s Choice Award for Emerging Photographer of the Year at Photo London.

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Enter the 2021 Index Award, a biennial accolade with a focus on design and its potential for creating solutions that tackle (and perhaps solve) critical global issues. There’s even a category that focuses exclusively on the body, creating an opportunity for entrants to address gendered issues within the world of medicine — especially those that may often be considered taboo. Index Project CEO Liz Chong spoke about the importance of these new and innovative designs, explaining that: “there is still so much shame around female, trans, and non-binary bodies that impose harmful barriers to healthcare…[which serves] to sideline vital conversations and deny people access to helpful and even life-saving resources.”

But the finalists in the body category are hoping to change that through their design projects, all of which seek to create a more equitable future in medicine for all genders.

Below are some standout projects among this year’s Index Award finalists:

Creating Change Through Strategic Redesign

Some of the finalists’ work focuses on finding new, more innovative takes on already existing tools, devices, and technologies For example, the Hegenberger Speculum is a silicone device designed to be more comfortable for patients who require perineum stitching after childbirth. The current model is made of metal and has not been updated in over 100 years. The updated version’s creator, Malene Hegenberger, feels that the “taboo subject” of this common (9 out of 10 women experience perineum tears post-childbirth) health concern has contributed to the tool not being updated, or even discussed, in past decades.

Another finalist, Cirqle Biomedical, is looking to test a new form of birth control that is both non-hormonal and far less invasive than many current birth control methods. The product, a gel capsule called Oui, could provide more flexibility and comfort for women seeking to avoid the discomfort of implants like IUDs, and the unpleasant side effects of hormonal birth control treatments. Here too, a lack of innovation has left women with few options, many of which have side effects that can be anything from uncomfortable to life-threatening.

“Women’s health has been under-prioritized and neglected for decades,” said Cirqle’s CEO in a statement. With developments like these, the Index Project’s finalists hope to change that.

Creating Change to Tackle Systemic Issues

Another incredibly important redesign featured among this year’s Index Award finalists is improved rape kit for DNA collection. Complete with color coding, easier instructions for health care providers, and an accompanying instructional app, this kit, designed by Antya Waegemann, is just the first step in reimagining the whole system and creating a completely different culture around how rape kits are tested, making it easier for law enforcement officials everywhere to process them. Her company Margo also wants to work on other products and services, including increasing the widespread availability of kits, improving the tracking of processed kits, and providing much-needed support for victims.

DNA collection kits are incredibly important tools in sexual assault cases, and they often remain untested. In the U.S. alone, there’s an alarming number of backlogs for testing DNA in these cases, and the whole process, from collection to testing, tracking, and storing, is riddled with issues that are less localized and more widespread and systemic in nature. But at a time when nearly one in three women over the age of 15 and one in two transgender people have experienced sexual violence, the process needs to be reexamined and, in some cases, overhauled. Waegemann knows the importance of her task and remains hopeful, stating that she “really believe[s] that a product itself can change a system in a way that policy sometimes cannot.”

She’s not entirely wrong, either. New and reimagined technologies, products, and innovations in health care have the capacity to change and improve people’s lives, especially those who are historically under and misrepresented in these arenas. Through the efforts of these Index Project finalists, issues previously thought of as “taboo” enter the forefront of design strategy, spurring important, necessary action that has the capacity to make a real difference.

The post 2021 Index Award Finalists Provide Innovative Solutions to Pressing Women’s Health Issues first appeared on Dornob.

Having watched her mother go through breast cancer and knowing it to be the most common cancer type among women, Benet was inspired to do something to change those testing statistics. After more research, she discovered that almost half of those avoiding routine scans did so because of the physical pain it causes. She also found that while a single dose of the mammogram radiation wasn’t harmful, overall breast cancer risk actually increased with annual x-ray exposure.

Additionally, the Catalan Department of Health reported that of those who do get their yearly tests, 93.55 percent of the cancers detected are “false alarms,” resulting in frustrating, scary experiences.

To solve these issues, Benet knew there needed to be a totally different type of test, one that was pain-free, non-irradiating, and accurate. In order to be widely accessible, she also wanted it to be low-cost with the ability to be performed at home.

In October 2017, Benet began work on the first prototype of The Blue Box (currently white, but eventually to be painted blue in final stages) as part of her biomedical engineering bachelor thesis. She acted on the knowledge that cancer causes metabolic changes, even altering the smell and taste of a body. Using an Arduino microprocessor, Benet and a computer science friend at the University of California Irvine programmed it to mimic sensory neurons and their ability to pick up on specific cancer-altered scents and tastes.

The screening process with The Blue Box is simple. After creating a profile on The Blue App, a user collects a urine sample in the provided plastic container and places it in the device. Once the “start” button is pressed, it takes just 30 seconds for the six internal chemical sensors to detect and react with any targeted breast cancer biomarkers. The data is sent to the cloud, where it is analyzed by unique artificial intelligence algorithms. The resulting diagnosis then pops up in the user’s phone app.

“The Blue Box is a change in the way society fights breast cancer,” says Benet. “As opposed to the current painful and inconvenient routine procedure that oftentimes leads to anxiety, The Blue Box enables women to get self-tested at home.”

And one Blue Box allows all the women in a single household to test themselves as often as they like. The results have been tested to be at least 95-percent accurate.

For her work, Benet won the James Dyson 2020 Award, a scientific and engineering contest. “The day that James Dyson told me that I had won the International prize was a real turning point as the prize money will allow me to patent more extensively and expedite research and software development I am doing at the University of California Irvine,” she says. “But, most of all, hearing that he believes in my idea has given me the confidence I need at this vital point.”

The next step for Benet and her team is to seek grants and other funding sources to fully patent the device and also start larger human trials, with the goal of gaining FDA approval further down the road.

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Sponsored by the National Women’s History Museum and Chief, a female networking organization, the 6′ X 6′ display was commissioned to symbolize the proverbial glass ceiling finally being shattered with Harris’ election.

“This will just be a wonderful visual emblem of this moment in time and hopefully people will reflect a little bit on all the barriers that have been broken by her election,” said Holly Hotchner, president and CEO of the National Women’s History Museum, adding that “Representation matters, especially at the ballot box. And the inauguration of Kamala Harris as the first woman, and first woman of color, to serve as Vice President of the United States is a landmark moment in American history.”

Harris, a daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, has been the “first” many times in her career as a lawyer and politician. She was the first woman and person of color to be the San Francisco District Attorney, and the first woman and Black person to become California’s Attorney General. She followed that position as the first Black U.S. senator from her home state. With her inauguration as Vice President, she has broken three more barriers: first woman, first Black person, and first Asian American to hold that office. Harris is also the first Vice President to attend a historically Black college, Howard University.

Entitled “Glass Ceiling Breaker,” the installation was created by Swiss artist Simon Berger, known for his amazing fractured designs, in partnership with creative agency BBH New York and production company M ss ng P eces.

Berger first experimented with his distinctive technique in 2016, explaining that “I hit the glass directly with the hammer, so that cracks and impacts occur. Hard hits create abstraction and I ‘paint’ with targeted fine hits.”

“I like creating beautiful things through destruction,” he told Artnet News. “I am pleased and proud to be able to make a contribution in this matter.”

Berger used a photo of Harris taken by New York photographer Celeste Sloman as a model while he tapped tiny fissures into a piece of 350-pound safety glass to create her larger-than-life face.

The exhibition also featured a QR code linking visitors to an Instagram Spark AR that featured an augmented reality experience of Harris’ “glass-breaking moments.” A video with overlapping images of Bergen at work and the achievements of women’s rights pioneers also accompanied the likeness.

“Today’s progress is built on the legacy of the women who came before — the trailblazers, like Kamala, who raised their voices, marched for their rights, and ran for elected office; the women who cracked glass ceilings so that other women could shatter them,” Hotchner says. “It is a true honor to join BBH and Chief as partners in this remarkable installation honoring this critical turning point in the fight for representation, Vice President Harris, and the numerous women throughout history who demanded a seat at the table.”

“This artwork not only celebrates Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman who embodies this mission, but it recognizes the women who came before her and those who’ll come after,” says Lindsay Kaplan, co-founder of Chief. “Today, only 23 percent of executive roles are held by women. We hope this exhibit will show women of all backgrounds that they can change that percentage, assert their voices, and open doors as they shatter barriers.”

In her own acceptance speech of the Vice Presidency, Harris made similar remarks when she thanked “the generations of women…who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight…I stand on their shoulders.”

The art was on display from February 4th to the 6th against the backdrop of the Washington Memorial and has since been moved to the New York headquarters of Chief.

The post Kamala Harris Portrait in DC Honors Shattered Glass Ceiling first appeared on Dornob.

Hyuro made her mark in the form of massive murals that covered the facades of entire buildings, which appeared in places like Brazil, Italy, Belgium, England, and The Netherlands. She began her career in a more traditional medium, painting on canvas, but began to experiment with street art in 2010, when she first moved to Spain. Taking inspiration from artists she met there as well as the activist muralism movement in her native South America, Hyuro quickly developed an emotionally resonant style featuring feminine imagery not often seen large-scale in public places.

The mostly faceless women you see in each of her murals are sometimes variations of herself, and other times representative of issues facing women and girls in a broader sense. Whatever the meanings of her individual pieces may be, there’s definitely always more to her work than meets the eye. An empty dress on a hanger, painted ten stories high for the CURO festival in Brazil, speaks out against the criminalization of abortion there, which has led to the death of many women. In Spain, the frilly cuffs on a traditional judge’s robe make reference to a controversial court case in which five men were acquitted of gang-raping a teenager.

Others are more mysterious. One Werchter, Belgium mural called The Dance as an Act of Resistance features blindfolded girls in pale nightgowns. Older women wearing aprons and holding spoons stand silently in Italian alleyways or support the entire community on a floating tea towel. We often see feminine hands performing domestic but essential tasks, like repairing broken vases, preparing food, or nursing babies. The women here are both hidden and revealed, overlooked and over-exposed. The colors are soft, the gestures graceful. The clothing could place the subjects in either the present or the distant past.

“In the end, if you don’t show time or you don’t show faces, you give more space to the viewer to finish the piece in their own mind, within their own beliefs,” said Hyuro in a 2018 interview with Juxatpoz. “It doesn’t close off anything for the viewer, it doesn’t have to be this person. It keeps it open to interpretation. I just give my contribution to a place, and people can finish the meaning themselves.”

A tribute by her friend Evan Pricco in Juxtapoz Magazine sheds additional light on Hyuro’s life, work, and legacy. Here’s a brief excerpt:

“Many will speak of her legendary status in the street art and mural art communities, and indeed, she was. But this was a career not yet in full bloom. If you went to a festival over the past decade, Hyuro was often the only woman participating, and as representation started to evolve in recent years, that was probably because of her. She was an original, not only in the street art realm, but within the whole art community. A rebellious spirit, philosopher, social observer, mother, always bitingly funny, passionate, and curious, she was timeless as she looked to the future.”

Rest In Peace, Hyuro.

The post Remembering Hyuro, the Street Artist Who Imbued Her Massive Murals With Feminine Sensibilities first appeared on Dornob.

Entitled NETINA, the outlandish collection includes three pairs of knit shoes: one with electrical charging ports, another with docks for dozens of matchsticks, and a third that can carry and display various sizes of tampons.

Goldberg, a Tel Aviv native, chose to highlight these commonly-shared objects to facilitate more social interaction. “The human body contains various opportunities for carrying objects that can be useful for ourselves and to those around us,” she says. “Our feet contain such benefits and also obtain the true characteristic of movement: movement as in being dynamic and active, but also movement that symbolizes the transfer and giving of an object to another.”

This shoe line provides a way to “give on-the-go” with “as little effort as possible,” the artist says on her website. She believes the “ability to give is a source of comfort and happiness,” and that NETINA “examines the world of cooperatives in an unconventional way that answers the sincere desire to give and receive as a way to create a beneficial and open society.”

“I started researching what people like to give and to receive while they are on the go,” Goldberg continues. For example, a light for a passerby’s cigarette is contained in the spiky white matchstick shoes. They “represent the element of fire – an element we have been transferring to one another since the beginning of time.”

Similarly, the red NETINA shoes are ringed with 12 candlestick-like holders for tampons. Instead of being tucked out of sight in a tote, Goldberg makes the feminine hygiene product visible in an “extroverted manner.”

The final pair in the collection features six USB charging ports, all of which can provide power to nearby individuals via a portable charger hidden in the shoe sole. The back of the blue slipper can be plugged into an outlet for battery recharging, and a bright orange charging cable can even be threaded around for convenient transport.

Every shoe in the collection has a barcode stamped onto the back that will link to a social app when scanned, facilitating even more community interaction.

Goldberg, a recent graduate in industrial design from Israel’s Shenkar College, says she paid close attention to “the matter of weight and size” when configuring the footwear to ensure functionality. She attributes her core design values to her upbringing in a collective Israeli kibbutz, with the emphasis on daily cooperation with others shaping her artistic process above all else. She also feels that “we develop an emotional relationship with our daily usage objects,” and that “I have a desire to put an added value on each object in addition to … extraordinary functionality; this added value is the path to the emotional relationship.”

Other storage items in her creative past include the Rua Bag, a leather satchel that can be attached to a bicycle bar for comfortable travel, and the Pulpy Piggy Bank, a coin container that offers a “satisfying sensory experience” when unraveled by its red string.

The post Offbeat Shoes Allow Wearers to Share Tampons, Power on the Go first appeared on Dornob.

Any casual lover of architecture knows the names Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, and Robert Venturi, but far fewer have heard of Phyllis Lambert, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, or Denise Scott Brown. But that’s not because their work was any less important to the field.

City Dreamers, a documentary directed by Joseph Hillel, sheds light on the work of these four influential women in architecture and design. All now between the ages of 87 and 97, the women broke into the traditionally masculine industry just after the Second World War, when the work to rebuild was plentiful but prominent woman architects were not.

The film’s subjects were chosen because their careers “intersect, resemble, and complement each other,” says Hillel. For starters, their highly original work addressed major societal issues rising at the time, like traffic, population density, green spaces, ghettoization, urban sprawl, and heritage preservation. Sound familiar? We’re still dealing with all these issues today. By examining creative solutions from the past, maybe we’ll be inspired to improve upon them for the cities of the 21st century.

Shot on location in Philadelphia, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, City Dreamers features interviews with Lambert, van Ginkel, Oberlander, and Brown, shows off some of the greatest examples of their respective bodies of work, and includes archival materials illustrating how cities have changed since the mid-20th century.

You may not be familiar with these women, but you’ve almost certainly seen their buildings before. And if it weren’t for the patriarchal glass ceiling they continually had to fight back against throughout their careers, they’d probably be celebrated alongside their most famous mentors and colleagues.

The doc’s official website explains: “Phyllis Lambert, for example, was responsible for the construction of the Seagram Building in New York, in addition to being the founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Heritage Montreal. Blanche Lemco van Ginkel is credited, along with her husband, with saving Old Montreal from being destroyed to make way for an expressway and with helping develop the master plan for Expo 67. Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, for her part, reinvented how we develop urban green spaces and introduced the concept of green roofs in several major cities. And Denise Scott Brown revolutionized the way we think about contemporary architectural and urban heritage, along with her husband Robert Venturi.”

“These women, who are for the most part still active, hold the titles of architect, urban planner, landscape architect, curator, educator and/or activist, and have amassed a long list of illustrious accomplishments, publications, honorary degrees, and other distinctions over their respective careers. But while the credentials and achievements of these great women deserve to be more widely known and celebrated, they are not the only focus of this feature documentary. City Dreamers is above all inspired by what has united these four women throughout their careers: the ‘dream’ of a fundamentally human and inclusive city.”

Nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in the Best Cinematograpy in a Documentary category, the film was released widely in 2019. In Canada, you can watch it on the Documentary Channel. In the U.S., it’s available to stream on Amazon Prime.

The post “City Dreamers” Documentary Highlights 4 Influential Women in Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

Located on the second floor, with access via a private elevator on the tower’s south pillar, the restaurant named for the famous author and playwright will offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner prepared by three-Michelin-starred chef Frédéric Anton of the esteemed Paris restaurant Le Pré Catelan.

Architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman wanted to infuse the space with a modern Parisian sensibility while also creating connections to the tower’s 19th-century beginnings and the literary universe created by Jules Verne. After its six-month transformation, the result is just as chic as you’d expect.

Set 125 meters (about 410 feet) in the air, Le Jules Verne grants guests a 360-degree view of the River Seine, the Sacré Coeur, the Tour Montparnasse, and other beloved Parisian landmarks. The decor blends soft velvet textiles in bone and cloud-gray with dark wood and metallic accents.

Strategically located mirrors help reflect the glow of the sky outside and the surrounding views to all parts of the restaurant, no matter where you’re seated. A photo of the Eiffel Tower taken by Karl Lagerfeld, who was a close friend of d’Amman’s, hangs in the alcove.

As part of the new creative team, many of whom are women, d’Amman wanted to “showcase the best in feminine creativity,” as she told WWD.

“It’s not always easy to be a woman in this field. But I feel perseverance is a very feminine trait: once the machine starts, you can’t get it to stop. I hope this project triggers something within women architects, decorators, and artists, and encourages them to never give up.”

Among the elements in the new restaurant created by women are mirrored wall panels by Ingrid Donat, metal table centerpieces by Marie Khouri, and gold leaf panels in the entrance hall made by several female artisans.

A piece in Architectural Digest offers a deeper look into d’Amman’s creative process, explaining: “While working on the restaurant, Jules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires was always close at hand, as were books by Jean Cocteau and about Jeanne Lanvin. D’Amman also kept things light, referring to a children’s book titled A Comme Eiffel, or ‘Like Eiffel,’ throughout her process. These books were needed, as d’Amman puts it, ‘to keep the ongoing dose of [levity], passion, and imagination during the most complex moments of the project.’ Just like her designs, it seems that books really are magic.”

D’Amman founded her firm Culture in Architecture in 2011 in her native Beirut, Lebanon.

As for the food, Chef Anton has pledged to use only the freshest products from specific regions of France, showcasing the country’s finest culinary delights. The menu includes a lobster and truffle ravioli with parmesan, crab with an apple mousse for dessert, and seaweed and fresh cod with fennel alongside some of France’s greatest wines.

Hoping to experience this unparalleled dining experience yourself? You can check out examples of the seasonal four or five-course tasting menus at the Jules Verne Restaurant website.

The post Le Jules Verne: Redesigned Eiffel Tower Restaurant Opens to the Public first appeared on Dornob.

Angela McKay of Ohkii Studio

Originating from both Thailand and Australia, surface pattern designer and illustrator Angela McKay has made quite a name for herself in the online art world. You’re almost never more than a few clicks away from her designs on Pinterest, and she’s amassed an impressive following of 98.6 thousand on Instagram. Her vibrant paintings are usually created with watercolors and often depict exotic people and natural landscapes: women lounging around pools in their swimsuits, beaches and lagoons, overseas travel destinations, jungle animals and environments, tropical gardens — the list goes on.
All of McKay’s work is handmade, hand-drawn, and hand-painted before being screen printed for Ohkii Studio’s online store, where all of her prints are available for purchase. Just make sure to check out her fairy tale and mystery novel-inspired silk scarf collections while you’re there!

Roeqiya Fris

Rotterdam-based illustrator Roeqiya Fris is a pattern mixer who creates bustling paintings full of diverse cultural prints and vibrant watercolors. Her work is sure to make you want to pack a suitcase and zip off to an unknown tropical location, most commonly featuring impeccably dressed women surrounded by lots of wildflowers, exotic animals, and iconic architecture.

Sasha Ignatiadou

Born in Russia but working in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Sasha Ignatiadou produces high-quality limited edition digital art. With 14.3 thousand Instagram followers and a successful online store set up on Tictail, it’s no wonder this colorful artist is counting her blessings. Her work is very graphic, using block colors to craft portraits of well-dressed women in front of very busy culturally-inspired backdrops. A lot of her work is inspired by Asia and the fashions, patterns, and shapes favored in Japanese and Korean cultures.

Isabelle Feliu

Isabelle Feliu is a Canadian artist who currently lives in Oslo, Norway. She studied fashion design in school, working as an assistant designer before beginning her own illustration business in Norway. Her works are mainly created mainly using gouache and watercolors, reflecting images from her own imagination and worldly travels.
You can find Feliu’s beautiful prints on Society6, or you can check out her collections on her own awesome website.

Chloe Joyce

Illustrator and graphic designer Chloe Joyce is a Sydney-based freelance artist with an Instagram following of 11.7 thousand, a highly successful Etsy store, and a reputation for working with top-notch brands and magazines on design projects. Her work generally features cartoon-like women posing nude or topless around an abundance of colorful plants and foliage. Her most recent pieces have all been inspired by her Australian lifestyle, though you can pick up a few Asian influences in some of them as well.
You can peruse Joyce’s digital art directly through her website or her adorable Etsy store.

The post 5 Colorful Female Artists That’ll Brighten Up Your Decor first appeared on Dornob.

Online British retail giant ASOS is most commonly known for it’s affordable designer garms, vibrant ad campaigns, and free delivery around the world — all of which have helped the brand successfully storm the world of e-commerce fashion. With easy-to-navigate features that bring a scarily immersive experience to the digital arena, it’s hard to imagine that a company like this would also be striving to make the world at large a better place.

Nonetheless, ASOS is now using its name and reputation to advocate a more responsible approach to consumerism. After announcing a collaboration with GLAAD and the launch of a sustainable fashion training program, the ASOS Foundation and SOKO Community Trust are introducing The Kujuwa Initiative.

Translating to “The Knowledge Initiative,” this project has been created to support the young women of Kenya’s Kasigua region, providing health education to those who are often forced to miss school during their menstrual cycles due to a lack of accessible feminine hygiene products. SOKO is a Kenyan clothing manufacturer that has been working alongside ASOS to develop reusable sanitary pads for these women, all of which can be easily washed and have been handmade by local seamstresses. Made from the waste leftovers from ASOS’ “Made In Kenya” collections, these pads come in kits that also contain two pairs of cotton briefs, a bar of soap for cleanliness, an instructional pamphlet, and a waterproof wash bag. Each pad boasts a removable liner and is capable of lasting for an impressive three years.

The kits are currently being distributed to the young women of Kasigua in the hope that they will improve their overall quality of life and allow them to continue their education uninterrupted going forward. The companies also hope that the pads will continue to garner local interest, eventually generating a steady source of income for the members of SOKO’s Stitching Academy in an eco-friendly, humanitarian fashion. On top of all this, the initiative hopes to grant other schools in the region access to the WASH Project, through which toilet facilities and water tanks are set up in the areas most in need of them. These new facilities will come as a big relief to the young women in these schools, many of whom are currently forced to attend to their menstrual care in public due to a lack of restrooms with functioning doors.

900 girls from six schools across Kenya will receive the “Keep It Together (KIT)” bags, which will hopefully help ensure that they are no longer placed at a disadvantage simply for being women. With any luck, the sanitary pads will help these women realize their true potentials and inspire them to create similar products to help out their fellow human beings.

The post ASOS is Turning Textile Waste into Sanitary Pads for Young Women in Africa first appeared on Dornob.