Lisa Thom in Collaboration with Marinka Bozzec
âMarinkaâs painting results in a potent fabric of candy and lipstick colors, sexism and vitriol. It looks innocuous enough at first glance, shiny and soft, a print of largely pink-based variations. Small, even rectangles sit parallel in rows, in perfectly spaced isolation. They are emblazoned with myriad tiny, acerbic labels which men - and women - apply to women, inscribed in the slanted, dainty, swirly script I remember from the engraved invitations of my early life to parties, graduations, debutante balls and weddings. It is the script of female-dominated occasions and milestones. The rectangles look like pieces of hard candy to suck on. They remind me of neon bright, brick-shaped, translucent Jolly Ranchers, at the same time sugary and tart enough to make oneâs mouth water and tighten in discomfort at the same time, hard and sticky enough to give the impression of menacing oneâs teeth with cracks and fillings with extraction, if one bites down too hard. Beholding this fabric in my memory, I see sweet, sticky white bricks of nougat with bright, translucent candy bits inside.â Lisa Thom on Marinka Bozzec
âBeing American, I bring my own set of references to the collaboration. This said, they are common to the Anglo-Saxon world through the sharing of ideas. The well-documented backlash against militant feminism has resulted in a cultural tenet whereby all discussion of sexism is derided as uncool, uptight, man-hating - take your pick of dismissive terms - in sum, unacceptable, a social stance which has permitted open disdain for women to creep back into the popular culture. Alongside the discounting of feminist ideology, a nostalgia for the reassuring aspects of 1950s suburbia has arisen. The trend appears innocuous: indeed, tea and cupcakes are very tasty snacks. Self-styled advocates of family values abound; in the United States, this has been a polarizing, politicized term for decades.Â
Original drawing by Marinka Bozzec -Â Â "it's all hand drawn, took me about 4-5 days work, several hours a day..."Â
Although I could not find it on the fabric, the term "young lady" would not have been out of place: when did it cease to be a term parents used to put pubescent daughters in their place and become a subtly belittling term often used to address women who are not only adults, but also perfect strangers? The English language certainly offers a wealth of tools for devaluing women. Censorship is a slippery slope, but awareness of the implications of one's speech is a a crucial exercise and a matter of personal responsibility.
On an emotional level, I experience this fabric as a brightly organized affirmation that we need to be take care not to fall into a state of marginalization and disempowerment, deprived of the choices we have won. Simply put, we need to love and appreciate women, standing up for ourselves and for each other as first-class people." More of Lisa Thom on Marinka Bozzec
"When cutting this, I found the silk so slippery and fiddly, so hard to keep in place, that the little pink rectangle saying "bitch" suddenly struck me as a warning label. This fabric is a bitch to fold, pin, mark and cut! As I tried to get it under control, it occurred to me that Marinka left out the term "high maintenance", or maybe it's there but I didn't see it. This fabric certainly is that, in every regard: lovely, fragile, rare, high-end, fussy, peevish, unreasonable, difficult to work, requires special care with and is resistant to necessary tasks! To deal with it requires manipulation and mastery and elicits exasperation. All of this said, it looks lovely, sweet, feminine, candy-like, and moves seductively, so one puts up with it. It a perfectly manifest, three-dimensional metaphor for a nasty and common perception of women, perfect for Marinka's deceptively seductive, well-ordered Lipstick Lexicon!" Lisa Thom
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