Trans-Utero

installation, 6.7 X 3 m room   .   glass, fishing line, LEDs, acrylic, beads, pillows, wood, rug tiles, and other assorted items   .   (2012)

Lucked into the Operations Co-Chair for the tenth Artomatic, so I had my pick of spaces. Saw this room, and thought, cool, I'll try an installation!  Over the next three months, I collected bottles from recycling bins in our neighborhood. Six hundred wine and liquor bottles crowded our bedroom. Then I drilled six hundred holes in the bottom of the six hundred bottles. Then I painted the 600 bottles.

Virginia had just introduced House Bill 462, which required women to undergo a trans-vaginal ultrasound before receiving an abortion. The uproar surrounding the bill eventually goaded the  legislature to pass a substitute bill that allowed abdominal ultrasound instead, but just the fact that they were considering the other was enraging. So I created a room-sized uterus.

Scott, Tom, Barry, Mary, Robin, Arlene and my kids helped me over three weeks to get the room together, and Sarah sent me the ever-important heartbeat machine. The room transformed into a warm, dusky, comfortable space, into which I set a bright light violently disturbing the peace (the ultrasound). Very pleased with the end result.