My Body My Business

Permission to gush?

I got to meet my favorite contemporary artist Michele Pred in her Oakland studio this week! I adore what she’s doing with her Pred-à-Porter line, combining iconic, vintage accessories with birth control pills and electroluminescent (EL) wire to address gender and racial equity issues. Oh, so fabulous and conceptually spot on! Unlike most political art, these pieces are not confined to a gallery space or some public installation but are portable, fashionable bill boards that you can take with you out on the town and engage with personally.

I think the purse, the shoes the hats, they’re all perfect anthropomorphic objects, something we can really identify with. They are metaphors for where our heads our at, where out feet lead us, and the purse is a vessel, a symbol of our wealth and personal power.

Detail of vintage pill box hat with birth control veil.

Vintage hat box travel case with birth control target.

This wall of vintage skin toned purses laced with EL wire is quite profound, offering gender and race based earnings when compared to that of an average white male.

Matching up my skin tone…

The Pred-à-Poter purses come in array of empowering limited additions messages, such as, MY BODY MY BUSINESS, PRO CHOICE, #ACCESS, FEMINIST and EQUALITY. Of course each is one of a kind as they are made up from carefully selected vintage bags with their own unique shapes, colors and handles.

Some of the Pred-à-Porter purses can be seen here, unlit and reflecting the light from the windows, with Refelections. I was so happy to see these pieces in person, but for much better photography, check out Michele Pred’s website, michelepred.com While you’re there you can check out what Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, Rachel Maddow and others had to say about her work or check it out at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York or Johansson Projects in Oakland.