Chicago, IL (November 17, 2006) -- Dress Up Against AIDS, which opened Thursday evening November 16 at Columbia’s Glass Curtain Gallery, presents fourteen couture dresses constructed out of thousands of dyed and stitched latex condoms. The crowd at the opening night reception with the artist admired both the artistry and the meaning of the art.
Brazilian artist Adriana Bertini, a former fashion designer, goes beyond the obvious in her use of condoms as an artistic medium. While the artistic medium is admittedly tounge-in-cheek, the sculptural objects are deeply conceptualized and finely crafted. Bertini’s dedication to AIDS awareness and how critical it is for people to stop avoiding the topic of sex charges the work with gravity and social importance.
Bertini worked with children with AIDS for a number of years; this was the catalyst that got her thinking about how she could use her creative skills to make people aware of the growing problem of HIV & AIDS around the world. She spent nearly a decade researching and developing the processes that allow her to craft these remarkable garments. The project was launched in 1997.
Exhibited in Europe, Asia, and Canada, the condom dresses garner a great deal of interest from the media due to her controversial and activist approach to her art, but the work is not compromised. Dress Up Against AIDS is an impressive and politically charged exhibition.
Dress Up Against AIDS runs through January 5, 2007 at the Glass Curtain Gallery, 1104 S. Wabash, Chicago. The exhibition will also be mounted later this year at the Fowler Museum at UCLA and subsequently at the United Nations. For Glass Curtain Gallery hours and further information call 312-344-6650.
Dress Up Against AIDS is one of a number of exhibitions and programs that Columbia College Chicago is presenting as part of Critical Encounters, an ongoing series of yearlong college wide examinations of important social issues, specifically HIV & AIDS, that focus and challenge the thinking of all members of the college community. Visit www.colum.edu/criticalencounters for more information.
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