Evaluation of work

Putting up the exhibition :

I am happy with the positioning of my exhibition , the room is set out so that you curatre the room . I have 4 separate pieces and they are in different parts of the room, my work has a trend so you can tell which pieces are mine. i wanted it this way so that the different taboos were aproched separately rather than a oile of taboos that you have to handle at once. after looking at the exhibition up I am happier with my work as it is is in situe and I believe that it looks alot better presented .

Evaluation of all work :

 My aim at the start was to create a textile based installation aimed around taboos, after research and idea generating I decided to enlarge the taboos and create them cartoon looking in order for them to look inviting. the reason i used fabric because its not a harsh material and people will feel more comfotable around them with them being 'soft and cuddely'  I believe my work has the desired look i was aiming for. my work is aimed to make people accept the taboos. the artists i looked into most were oriana fox and sarah maples, they use the subject menstruation as thier theme.

Flowers Surrounding death Photoshop image

I created this 1using photoshop, all of the flowers represent death or things surrounding death, such as soorrow and grif. i though it would be good to usee flowers as it shows that things that are pretty should be remembered and flowers die all the time , i sused research from ' orphelia' because in this the atrstist uses the flowers to symbolise different things.

After i had created the image i went back and added shading but didnt think this looked as good as the bold one. I didnt want the image to look realistic in anyway.

letting this wether in a handmade plastic protector made from a plastic wallet is my intention for one of final pieces

Should you be allowed to put roadside memorials there ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17151846

 this is a link to a news video on roadside memorials and should they be allowed after a 30 day period ?

 

It is becoming increasingly common to drive past roadside memorials dedicated to those who have died.

For many leaving flowers and cards at the scene has become part of the grieving process.

But now some councils are deciding to impose time limits on these impromptu tributes.

Against roadside memorials:

1. A memorial can create a hazard, distracting passing motorists.
2. The placement and maintenance of memorials can in itself involve a road safety risk.
3. A religious memorial is best placed in a religious setting, e.g. a churchyard or cemetery.
4. Memorials, plaques or signs (eg Remember Me - RoadPeace) placed on the highway, on a wall or existing street furniture may add to clutter.
5. There are insurance and liability issues in the event of an accident occurring as a result of a driver being distracted.
6. A memorial may interfere with routine maintenance such as grass-cutting.

For Roadside Memorials:

1. The laying down of flowers can be an important part of the grieving process and people should be allowed to express their grief in this way.
2. A memorial can act as a warning to road users of the possible dangers of the location

Other Relevant Factors

1. The Highways Act 1980 has no express provision to license or permit memorials on the highway.
2. There are legal traffic signs specifically to warn of potential hazards.
3. Roadside memorials are a relatively recent development in the UK, there is no tradition or deep cultural reason supporting this practice.
4. There is a difference between laying down flowers and creating a permanent memorial and the judgement as to what is a reasonable time for floral tributes can only be subjective.
5. A bench or tree with a small dedication may be an acceptable permanent memorial as long as there are no road safety implications.
6. The visual impact of memorials will be different in rural and urban locations
7. There is a view that placing memorials on the highway is maudlin and unhealthy.Could distract road users.

could be seen as unessacery clutter to the environment !!

Road Saftly

Could distract other road users

Maintinance:

Continuing cost, plus safety risk to maintenance operative.

No impact on Congestion and Accesability



Roadside Memorials

looking at theses, this is another way that people cope with death, putting flowers against the roadside of where people died. most of the time when you see them at the side of the road the images, itams and flowers seem to have weathered and rotted . only for the first couple of days is the memorial healthy looking .

Ophelia by John Everett Millais

In this painting the artist uses flowers to symbolise different things. when looking at it you wouldn't know that the painting had deeper meaning but i really like how he has done this and added something else to it . within my work i aim to use flowers to symbolise death. death is seen as something horrible and i want to change this by using flowers as they are seen to be pretty and colourful..

Various folk cultures and traditions assign symbolic meanings to plants. Although these are no longer commonly understood by populations that are increasingly divorced from their old rural traditions, some survive. In addition, these meanings are alluded to in older pictures, songs and writings. New symbols have also arisen: one of the most known in the United Kingdom is the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance of the fallen in war and some display white poppies, also for remembrance and to show opposition to warfare.

Plant	Meaning	Region or culture
Bamboo	longevity, strength, and grace	China
Green willow	false love	Britain
Jasmine	love	Hinduism
Lily	purity, chastity, and innocence	Western Europe
Mistletoe	used to signify a meeting place where no violence could take place	Druids

Period: The End of Menstruation,

A sjort film about women who take the pill to stop their periods, they have strong opinions on the fact we were made to menstruate and people are happy to divert the course of nature .

http://www.periodthemovie.com - PERIOD: THE END OF ...

www.periodthemovie.com

If Men Could Menstruate

A white minority of the world has spent centuries conning us into thinking that a white skin makes people superior - even though the only thing it really does is make the more subject to ultraviolet rays and to wrinkles. Male human beings have built whole cultures around the idea that penis envy is "natural" to women - though having such an unprotected organ might be said to make men vulnerable, and the power to give birth makes womb envy at least as logical.

In short, the characteristics of the powerful, whatever they may be, are thought to be better than the characteristics of the powerless - and logic has nothing to do with it.

What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?

The answer is clear - menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event:

Men would brag about how long and how much.

Boys would mark the onset of menses, that longed-for proof of manhood, with religious ritual and stag parties.

Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea to help stamp out monthly discomforts.

Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. (Of course, some men would still pay for the prestige of commercial brands such as John Wayne Tampons, Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-dope Pads, Joe Namath Jock Shields - "For Those Light Bachelor Days," and Robert "Baretta" Blake Maxi-Pads.)

Military men, right-wing politicians, and religious fundamentalists would cite menstruation ("men-struation") as proof that only men could serve in the Army ("you have to give blood to take blood"), occupy political office ("can women be aggressive without that steadfast cycle governed by the planet Mars?"), be priest and ministers ("how could a woman give her blood for our sins?") or rabbis ("without the monthly loss of impurities, women remain unclean").

Male radicals, left-wing politicians, mystics, however, would insist that women are equal, just different, and that any woman could enter their ranks if she were willing to self-inflict a major wound every month ("you MUST give blood for the revolution"), recognize the preeminence of menstrual issues, or subordinate her selfness to all men in their Cycle of Enlightenment. Street guys would brag ("I'm a three pad man") or answer praise from a buddy ("Man, you lookin' good!") by giving fives and saying, "Yeah, man, I'm on the rag!" TV shows would treat the subject at length. ("Happy Days": Richie and Potsie try to convince Fonzie that he is still "The Fonz," though he has missed two periods in a row.) So would newspapers. (SHARK SCARE THREATENS MENSTRUATING MEN. JUDGE CITES MONTHLY STRESS IN PARDONING RAPIST.) And movies. (Newman and Redford in "Blood Brothers"!)

Men would convince women that intercourse was more pleasurable at "that time of the month." Lesbians would be said to fear blood and therefore life itself - though probably only because they needed a good menstruating man.

Of course, male intellectuals would offer the most moral and logical arguments. How could a woman master any discipline that demanded a sense of time, space, mathematics, or measurement, for instance, without that in-built gift for measuring the cycles of the moon and planets - and thus for measuring anything at all? In the rarefied fields of philosophy and religion, could women compensate for missing the rhythm of the universe? Or for their lack of symbolic death-and-resurrection every month?

Liberal males in every field would try to be kind: the fact that "these people" have no gift for measuring life or connecting to the universe, the liberals would explain, should be punishment enough.

And how would women be trained to react? One can imagine traditional women agreeing to all arguments with a staunch and smiling masochism. ("The ERA would force housewives to wound themselves every month": Phyllis Schlafly. "Your husband's blood is as sacred as that of Jesus - and so sexy, too!": Marabel Morgan.) Reformers and Queen Bees would try to imitate men, and pretend to have a monthly cycle. All feminists would explain endlessly that men, too, needed to be liberated from the false idea of Martian aggressiveness, just as women needed to escape the bonds of menses envy. Radical feminist would add that the oppression of the nonmenstrual was the pattern for all other oppressions ("Vampires were our first freedom fighters!") Cultural feminists would develop a bloodless imagery in art and literature. Socialist feminists would insist that only under capitalism would men be able to monopolize menstrual blood . . . .

In fact, if men could menstruate, the power justifications could probably go on forever.

If we let them.

i don't know if i agree with this because surely if men were to menstruate maybe they would be just as secretive as we are. who knows .... maybe we get our nature because we menstruate. but the theory sounds correct working on the males of today

Art Student’s “Machine” Simulates Menstruation

Every twenty-eight days, I curse Eve from the bottom of my soul. “I hope that freaking apple was delicious, you selfish jerk!” is about the nicest thing that comes out of my mouth. While menstruation has become everything from an art medium to a convenient excuse for men to write off the “misbehavior” of women, it’s still a subject that tends to skeeve people out.

And I’m one of them. It’s bad enough to have horrible cramps (abdomen, back, and legs), stained underwear, violent diarrhea at the onset, bloating, a headache that lasts throughout, the inconvenience of sanitary napkins and tampons (I am seriously looking into the diva cup), the impact on your sex life (I had a memorable and utterly humiliating experience once where my period was done … but then somehow restarted again while in a compromising position—I don’t think I’ve ever been more embarrassed in my life), being aware of the smell, food cravings, and I could go on but I’m sure you get the point.

Periods suck … and men just can’t get it. To be fair to our male counterparts, how could they know what it feels like? There’s just no equivalent.

Well, until now, thanks to the ingenuity of Japenese-British artist Hiromi Ozaki.

From CNet:

The Menstruation Machine is an art project by Hiromi Ozaki (aka Sputniko!), a Japanese-British artist who seems very intrigued by her own monthly cycle.

Featured in the Royal College of Art’s Design Interactions show, the device is intended to let men feel the pain of a woman’s period, though Ozaki says it’s also designed for women, as menstruation “might become something obsolete” in the future due to advances in contraceptive technology.

The silvery device, which may or may not be merely conceptual, is worn around the waist like a belt. According to Ozaki’s YouTube site, the machine drips about 80 milliliters (2.7 ounces) of blood from a tank to simulate the average flow of a five-day period. Prepare your iPads, or whatever else will stanch that flow.

I don’t really want to know where the blood comes from, but no doubt Ozaki is a hard-core performance artist. Meanwhile, for the pain of cramps, the device has “lower abdomen-stimulating electrodes” that might have you running for Midol.

Ozaki’s video actually made me laugh pretty hard. I’m not really a wimp about pain (I have chronic pancreatitis, which is a condition that makes childbirth feel like a hangnail), but there have been times that menstrual cramps have undoubtedly led me to choose curling up in a recliner over hiking a mountain … and I’ve had men say to me, “Listen, you have a stomachache. Get over it.”

Watching the menstrual-machine wearing dude brought to his knees by “just a stomachache” made me realize that there are quite a few men I’d like to attach this puppy to (not for a long time—I’m not cruel—but just so they can have a glimpse of understanding).

CNet also explains the video a bit, which honestly I found a bit helpful since I was a little confused (I’m kind of obtuse about odd things sometimes).

The vid by Ozaki is a story of a nerd boy called Takashi who wants to discover what it’s really like to be a girl. He isn’t satisfied with just dressing up like a typical gyaru floating around Shibuya Station, so he builds a menstruation simulation machine. Now that’s dedication for you.

Decked out in a matching jacket and kawaii orange wig and heels, he straps on the machine, grabs his blinged-out keitai, and heads out for a night on the town in Tokyo.

After a bit of purikura photo booth fun with a girlfriend, poor Takashi is overcome by cramps. He retreats to a restroom, writing in pain. Presumably, he pushes the Sound Princess button to mask his grunts. But his girlfriend seems to like his femininity, and they arrange for another outing the next day.

Glorious.

At first its not all apparent what the video is about and doesn't at first look like it makes much sense. but reading the information below it al comes into place and sort of makes sense...

It's in the blood

Menstruation is often seen as embarrassing or disgusting and is rarely discussed. But some feminists are determined to break this taboo

  

One of Ingrid berthon-Moine's portraits of women wearing their menstrual blood as lipstick. Photograph: Ingrid Berthon-Moine

One morning in 2005, Chella Quint was lying in bed wondering if her period was due. That day she was entering a contest to create a magazine in 24 hours. She needed an idea, and the two thoughts collided. Why not create a 10-year chart for her menstrual cycle? She need never lie in bed wondering again. She could include interviews, a diagram of female reproductive organs, an ode to alternative sanitary products . . .

So began Quint's life as a menstrual activist. Since that hastily written debut, she has created four issues of her 'zine, Adventures in Menstruating, ( Research into the zine below !!!)complete with leakage horror stories and tampon craft projects. She has taken her "menstrual comedy" show from her home in Sheffield to feminist festivals in Berlin, Cork and Malmö. And she has started a project to photograph her "biggest bugbear": the sanitary disposal units (SDUs) in British toilets.

"My partner Sarah calls them 'the elephant in the smallest room'," she says of the SDUs. "Nobody talks about them. They're huge, grey and hulking, and if your bottom is bigger than your head then you've come into bodily contact with them. I'm just trying to chronicle the number of clues a woman might see each day that say 'You are a bio-hazard'." Quint's mission is to take the shame out of periods, to "help alter the visibility of menstruation, so that it's at least normal to talk about it. Because, right now, it's not".

Quint isn't the only one breaking taboos. It seems that menstrual activism (otherwise known as radical menstruation, menstrual anarchy, or menarchy) is having a moment. The term is used to describe a whole range of actions, not all considered political by the person involved: simple efforts to speak openly about periods, radical affronts to negative attitudes and campaigns for more environmentally friendly sanitary products. (It is estimated that a woman will dispose of 11,400 tampons in her lifetime – an ecological disaster.)

Earlier this year, 18-year-old Rachel Kauder Nalebuff published My Little Red Book, a collection of first period stories by women including Erica Jong, which became a US bestseller. In June, the British-based artist Ingrid Berthon- Moine exhibited a video at the Venice Biennale of her twanging her tampon string to the song Slave to the Rhythm. She is currently completing a series of photographs featuring women wearing their menstrual blood as lipstick.

Jezebel, the popular women's website, has posted a story, describing in lingering detail, the much-feared-but-never-spoken-of experience of forgetting to remove a tampon (after 10 days it smelled of "rotting fish meets sewage meets Black Death"). Filmmaker and academic Giovanna Chesler has toured her documentary, Period: The End of Menstruation, a response to the growing number of hormone treatments that promise to end the monthly bleed altogether. And, when I wrote an article for G2 this summer about a Tampax advertising campaign that used viral marketing techniques, the online comments were dominated by glowing reviews of an alternative sanitary product, the Moon Cup. Apparently Moon Cup enthusiasts were staging a viral campaign of their own.

Next spring, Chris Bobel, associate professor of women's studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, publishes New Blood: Third WaveFeminism and the Politics of Menstruation. Most menstrual activists, says Bobel, "begin by thinking, wait a minute! Do we have to regard our period as something dirty? Do we have to greet a girl's first period with silence? And then they get interested in challenging that."

So, for instance, Kauder Nalebuff's book stemmed from her own first experience of menstruation - waterskiing in a yellow swimsuit with her grandfather. She thought this was a truly "terrible story", but when it was shared with her family, it was brought into stark perspective. Her great aunt Nina revealed that her first period arrived as she was about to be strip searched while fleeing Nazi-occupied Poland, and "the most powerful part," says Kauder Nalebuff, "was that she had never told anyone about this before. I started asking other women in my family about their first periods, and I found it was an electric topic." She sees her project "as a segue for women to talk openly about their family history, their bodies. Really important issues."

Menstrual activism certainly isn't new. In 1970, in The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer memorably wrote that "if you think you are emancipated, you might consider the idea of tasting your own menstrual blood – if it makes you sick, you've a long way to go, baby". Bobel has charted the movement's history, writing about the first "bleed-in" in 1973, when 13 women gathered in the US and "shared stories of their first periods". Around the same time the artist Judy Chicago created Red Flag, a lithograph of a bloody tampon being pulled from between a woman's legs. (Berthon-Moine's work reflects Chicago's, and is, she says, similarly a way of breaking taboos and "showing what you usually don't see – tampons, blood, all that".)

In the 80s, the focus shifted, with activists "working with industry and government to produce safer products", says Bobel. This was the era of the toxic shock syndrome epidemic; in 1980, 813 period-related toxic shock cases were reported in the US, and 38 women died. The panic and fear inspired some incredibly effective activism. In Britain, for instance, Bernadette Vallely and the Women's Environmental Network campaigned against the potential health risks of chlorine-bleached sanitary products; apparently, after just six weeks all major British producers had pledged to stop the bleaching process.

These days, says Bobel, activists often bypass engagement with corporations and concentrate on DIY approaches, setting up businesses that sell reusable sanitary products for instance. This reflects the punk and alternative roots of the current movement. Where the hippy/spiritual wing of 70s feminism might once have composed celebratory songs to the lunar cycle, recent activists are more likely to dress up as a bloody tampon and perform a cheer: "Smear it on your face and rub it on your body, it's time to start a menstrual party!"

It would be easy to lampoon those who are breaking the menstrual taboo, to accuse them not just of navel-gazing, but of setting their sights quite literally lower. Of all the feminist issues in the world, why this one? And might it not prove an invitation for men to talk about their bodily functions too? (Something surely to be avoided.)

But, as Kauder Nalebuff's book illustrates, this is a subject long mired in shame and confusion – there are girls who know nothing about periods until their first one arrives, and assume it is a sign of impending death. Many grown women still feel embarrassed about buying tampons. When touring her film, Chesler says that she met groups of women who had never heard the term "ovulation"; audiences would nonetheless have two-hour conversations about their experiences. And then there are the environmental issues, which are still far from being resolved.

Quint says that she will write her 'zine until she is finally ready for Adventures in Menopausing instead, "but, of course, it would be great if I didn't have to, if there was no shame whatsoever". For now, this seems a long way off. The bloody fight continues.

I like how she has created zones which inform people of the real ins and outs of periods and facts surrounding it . some of the information given to you as your growing up is correct but only the pleasant bits, so i think this is a really good idea !!!

 

Examples of the zines she creates which are ver informative. but at the same time funny and putting across in depth points about menstruation. 

advertising and products using tampons

I like how this is an add for a shoe company, stressing how 300 hundred tampons is a new pair of shoes in terms of money, but if we look at the importance of the items, the shoe company clearly have no argument as tampons are pretty important in a woman life once a month . so i don't think this advertisement works in favour of the company.

 

I was looking into tampon art and came across this . someone has designed a usb stick using tampons as inspiration.  i don't know what it is about it but i really like it .. maybe because the way you remove it is by using the string and also it is a product that you have to insert. so clever thinking id say

at forst glance you cannot see this is made of tampons. in fact after knowing you still cannot fully see that it is . this is a clever way of making a garment using items you wouldn't generally use.

the two items above look really pretty , when you look close they have used tampons but i don't think this draws the attention way from how alike to the subject they look.  you can see how much time has been put into making the chandelier . but it looks so elegant and fragile . 

God save the king and fuck hitler

This story is so close to my heart that it's taken me a month to figure out how to write about it. It's the story of Major Alexis Casdagli, a British soldier in WWII who began cross stitching secret subversive messages while in a Nazi prisoner of war camp. It's the story of his son, Tony Casdagli, also a cross stitcher, and how he put together a book of his father's work. And it's also about the amazing show currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum in which includes work from both father and son.

So many people sent me the article that appeared in The Guardian, knowing it would be right up my alley. I was so enchanted with the story that I immediately ordered the book and then, to my great surprise and delight, was able to get in touch with Major Casdagli's son via email and ask him a few questions. 

First, the story of Major Alexis Casdagli, who was imprisoned by the Nazis from 1941 to 1945. To pass the time, he began stitching on scraps of canvas and bits of thread. The most outstanding piece is a seemingly innocent sampler with a border design - but the dots and dashes are actually Morse code that spell out "God Save the King" and "Fuck Hitler".

The amazing thing about Major Casdagli's work is that it was displayed in four separate camps where he was imprisoned, but his captors never caught on to the secretly stitched messages. He also ran a needlework school for 40 officers inside the camp. His work illustrated his thoughts and feelings, and was undoubtedly a major source of strength in surviving his four years as a POW.

In the book, A Stitch in Time: God Save the King? Fu*k Hitler!,Tony says of his father's work during this time: "It used to give him pleasure when the Germans were doing their rounds. He would say after the war that the Red Cross saved his life but his embroidery saved his sanity. If you sit down and stitch you can forget about other things, and it's very calming."
This is such a truly subversive use of cross stitch - I was blown away by the story, it brought tears to my eyes. I had to know more, so I ordered the book (by Anthony Casdagli). The front cover shows the title stitched piece and the back cover shows the back side details of the work. Inside is a detailed synopsis of Major Casdagli's time during the war, with accounts reprinted from his diary and several beautiful full-color photos of his work during these years.
Tony also enjoys cross stitching and even spent some time stitching together with his father while he was alive. Tony was born in 1932 and joined the Royal Navy as a cadet at the age of 13. He retired as a Captain in 1984.
Tony was a child when his father was captured by the Nazis and it was a month before he and his mother received the news, so they were left not knowing if he was dead or alive. After that, it took another year for Major Casdagli to be able to receive any letters or packages.
When Tony was 11, he received a stitched letter through the post. "It is 1,581 days since I saw you last but it will not be long now. Do you remember when I fell down the well? Look after Mummy till I get home again," Casdagli laboriously spelled out with finely stitched letters.
Tony is self-deprecating about his work, but not self-conscious. He used to enjoy stitching while waiting at airports, but cannot any longer because his needles are banned airside. "I'd sit and do my needlework after going through the gate, and people would gradually move away from me," he jokes. Now he tends to stitch in the evenings, when Sally is reading. Most of his works get sent to his five children, who live all around the world. Each grandchild receives a special piece; sons get the poem If by Rudyard Kipling. He is currently stitching one for his latest grandchild, Griffin, which depicts the mythical creature with the body of a lion and an eagle's head and wings.
I asked Tony a few questions about his work and the show at the V&A:
Julie: Tell us a bit more about your work in general and the pieces in the show.

Tony: The embroideries in the show are Pa's Fuck Hitler sampler and one of mine, The Tree of Life. The man who curated the exhibition Power Of Making, which runs until 2nd Jan 2012 in the Victoria and Albert Museum, was intrigued with my father's first sampler as a POW and my own needlework and selected one of my recent pieces alongside Pa's one as a 'father and son' object in this very exciting exhibition. In selecting objects his guiding principle was Why, HOW and what was the result of the objects (which range from an 8-foot gorilla made entirely from metal coat-hangers to an 48-cylinder motor bicycle, three-dimensional computers, etc. - 108 objects in total.)

Julie: How does your father's work influence your own?

Tony: I started doing embroideries in my mid-teens but did not stick to it with any great dedication since I was in the Royal Navy and as a midshipman during the Korean War was kept quite busy - I have recently unearthed a number of ambitious but unfinished works! However I suppose I restarted needlework in my 30's and since then have done it regularly - samplers to hang on the wall, cushion covers, book-marks, spectacle cases etc.
Julie: How do you see your work influencing the new craft movement?
Tony: I was introduced by the wife of one of my close naval friends to a sewing group of ladies who live in Chelsea - I am the only man! This is led by a magical lady called Joyce Conwy Evans, an interior designer who has taught at the Royal School of Needlework (who with amazing energy and skill has encouraged me to expand my efforts beyond sticking strictly to counted thread to a much more freehand style - which I find exciting but also much more demanding than before). Also, she has a natural gift for the use of colour.
Whether or not my work will in any way influence others I sincerely doubt, but I was asked to lead a workshop in the V&A on cross stitch as part of the current exhibition and we had a very encouraging turnout (I was told we had about 150 visitors). I am told there is a renewed interest by younger people in embroidery.
I am glad you enjoyed the book - my number 2 son (who works with computers) and I produced it a couple of years ago strictly for immediate family members. I laboriously made a few copies but was encouraged to get it published earlier this year with the help of a young graphic designer who modified the original, and hence we now have the book online. It has been great fun doing this and to our delight it seems to be proving popular.

Claes Oldenburg

I like how some of Oldenburg's work looks unbelievable , i like how he does big things and uses plastic (PVC ) as it puts this jokey look onto it. i also like hoe the spoon and the cherry look like this balance is not possible, 

In this postcard collage Oldenburg raised an everyday cosmetic item to a monumental scale. Made during his stay in London at the height of the ‘swinging sixties’, it embodies the popular, expendable, sexy imagery of Pop art. Oldenberg remarked: ‘For me, London inspired phallic imagery which went up and down with the tide - like mini-skirts and knees ... like the up-and-down motion of a lipstick’. To replace the Victorian statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus with lipsticks lifted from an advertisement was, therefore, to update one vision of sexuality with another.

April 2009

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks, 1969-74

Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929; B.A. 1950)

Location: Morse College Courtyard

Swedish-born conceptual artist Claes Oldenburg began proposing large-scale sculptures of everyday objects in the 1960s in the spirit of Andy Warhol’s tongue-in-cheek pop art tributes to American consumer culture. Amidst nationwide free speech and antiwar protests, a group of Yale School of Architecture students and faculty, dubbing themselves the Colossal Keepsake Corporation of Connecticut, envisioned the creation of one of these monuments on campus as a revolutionary aesthetic and political statement. A rally celebrated the Lipstick’s first installation on Beinecke Plaza in 1969, where its aggressive presence disrupted the public space. Intended as a platform for public speakers, the sculpture was made of inexpensive materials: plywood tracks and a red vinyl balloon tip, meant to be inflated for visibility. Vandalism and deterioration led to the work’s removal; it was ultimately refurbished in cor-ten steel, aluminum, and fiberglass and installed at Morse College in 1974. Gift of the Colossal Keepsake Corporation, 1974

Craig Fisher

I love craig fishers work . i like how he takes saomething bad or discusting and makes it pretty and inviting .

i really like his small illustrated work . i think they are a little less effective than his sculptural pieces but they do work in the same way .

Why is breastfeeding STILL such a taboo?

The letters arrived in their hundreds. 'I was breastfeeding my daughter on the bus - she was covered in a blanket,' wrote Hayley Johnson from Luton.

'The conductor got on and told me I'd either have to stop, get off the bus, or move to the back.' 

Helen Orr, of Northern Ireland, told me: 'I've sat on toilet seats in cubicles and taken 20 items of clothing to "try on" into changing rooms, just so I can feed, because there's nowhere else.' 

Natural bond: Two thirds of mothers maintain that feeding their baby in public had been a stressful experience

Then there was Elle Hanson, recalling the time she discreetly tried to feed her son in a 'family-friendly' pub until 'a woman told me I shouldn't do that in front of other people's husbands because it's obscene'. 

Anyone who thought breastfeeding in public is no longer a contentious and provocative issue should think again.

Those are just some of the personal experiences that poured into me at Mother & Baby magazine when we lauched a nationwide breastfeeding survey.

We were seeking an answer to the question: Is Britain breastfeeding friendly? And the answer was a resounding, regretful 'no'.

Of the 1,200 women who took part in our online poll, 60 per cent felt that the UK frowned on breastfeeding mothers. Two thirds maintained that feeding their baby in public had been a stressful experience, and more than half of these had been asked to move out of a restaurant, cafe or coffee shop when they were feeding.

These figures might go a long way to explain the official statistics on how many women actually breastfeed in Britain. 

According to the 2005 UK Infant Feeding Survey, just 78 per cent of new mothers ever attempt breastfeeding, compared with 99 per cent in Norway, 91 per cent in Italy and 84 per cent in Spain.

 'A staggering 65per cent said they simply 'felt too self-conscious about people staring'

By six months, only 22 per cent of UK mothers are still doing it. Of course for some people, a woman with a newborn at her breast is seen as the quintessential image of new motherhood, the natural way to bond.

Moreover, thanks to high-profile government campaigns, we are more aware than ever of the health benefits for both baby and mother. These include protection against childhood infections, obesity and allergies, as well as lowering the risk of cancer and diabetes for the baby. And for the mother, there is protection against breast and ovarian cancers, osteoporosis, heart disease and stroke. And yet for many other people, it remains something that is unpleasant or even physically repugnant that should be hidden away. 

The feeling from our survey is that most women actually want to breastfeed. Everyone we asked (whether breast or bottle feeding) said they understood the health benefits. But the saddest thing was the reason so many women said they didn't even intend to try. A staggering 65per cent said they simply 'felt too self-conscious about people staring'. 

 

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So why is Britain still stuck in the dark ages in our attitudes to this basic part of motherhood? Rosie Dodds, senior public policy officer of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), who supported our research, says: 'The results of this survey are unsurprising. There are many reasons why we're lagging behind much of Europe.

'First, the Mediterranean countries and Scandinavia have much more of a family culture. Parents and children are seen out together far more at restaurants in the evening; in the UK, there's still a residual "children should be seen and not heard" approach. 

'Then there's the prudish British attitude that breasts are for sex, not for babies, coupled with the fact that many women just aren't as confident in their bodies as women are in other areas of Europe.

'And finally, breastfeeding is a generational thing - if you've never seen your mum, parents or aunts breastfeed, it's hard to start doing so yourself. Many young women have never seen another woman breastfeed.' 

Many women are still finding themselves on the wrong end of hostility if they breastfeed in public

A generational thing, perhaps, but it's also a class thing. According to a 2004 study by University College, London, women in routine jobs are four times less likely to breastfeed than universityeducated women - those with professional jobs and those aged over 30 when they gave birth. 

This new survey also revealed a regional split. Breastfeeding mothers in London found themselves less likely to be challenged by other people in the same restaurant, for example, whereas the North-West (65 per cent) and West Midlands (63 per cent) were considered the most stressful areas to be a breastfeeding mother in terms of being abused or made to feel unwelcome. 

Wherever they live, and whatever their chosen careers, many women are still finding themselves on the wrong end of hostility if they breastfeed in public. 

Annabelle Turner, 31, is a sales manager for a national catering chain and mother to Jemima, who's ten months. 'It was always my intention to breastfeed,' she says.

'My mum breastfed me, and my NHS antenatal class convinced me of the overwhelming health benefits. Luckily, my daughter took to breastfeeding straight away. 

'Until the British public decides to embrace breastfeeding, it's down to mothers to stand our ground'

'When she was a month old, my husband and I decided to take Jemima out for lunch for the first time, to a local pizza restaurant in South London. 

'I started to feed her, very discreetly. Suddenly, I got the feeling everyone was staring at me, as if I were doing something inappropriate. One couple were even whispering behind their hands.

'I started to feel incredibly stressed, and Jemima could sense my tension and slowed down her feed. My husband encouraged me to continue, but I felt like bursting into tears.' 

And in the end, Annabelle and her husband gobbled up what was left of their meal and went home. 

'Since then, I've changed the way I organise my day,' she says. 'I avoid going out a feeding times, and only go to specific "baby friendly" cafes. 

'The public's attitude has affected my friends, too - several of them now feed their baby with formula milk during the day, and only breastfeed at home at night, precisely because they hate that kind of reaction.' Many groups - including the NCT - are working hard to make public breastfeeding more acceptable. 

'We know most mums start out breastfeeding their babies, but one of the reasons they stop is that they feel uncomfortable doing it when they are in public,' says Anne Fox, head of campaigns at the NCT. 

'I agree that the biggest change in attitude has to come from the public. In our survey, two-thirds of our readers wanted 'more positive images of breastfeeding women'.

For this reason, for the August issue of Mother & Baby, we've taken the groundbreaking step of putting an image of a breastfeeding model and baby on the cover - the first time a UK magazine has used such an image.

Until the British public decides to embrace breastfeeding, it's down to mothers to stand our ground. 

Mothers such as Tamsin Hazelwood, who contacted us this week to share her memories of breastfeeding her firstborn in a pub toilet cubicle. 

'Outside, women were swearing and laughing, and there I was, baby in my arms, crying because I was alone and feeling stupid that I was in a loo trying to feed my child,' she wrote. 

'My fiancé and I are planning for another baby in a few months and I've promised myself I will breastfeed wherever I want to. I'm just going to get on with it, and simply smile back at anyone who stares until they stop looking at me.'