Breasts on display

Throughout world history, the female breast has been immortalized in odes, poems, paintings and sculptures. For some, the breast evokes a sense of beauty; for others, a sense of grief and loss. \nBloomington artist Karen Baldner said she associates the breast with the sorrow and pain a friend experienced while dealing with breast cancer. For the seven other women involved in the Bloomington Breast Project, the breast suggests diverse ideas. Some consider it a symbol for today's society and its quest for the perfect body. Others love the breast and want to share this love with everyone else. For others, the image is about embracing one's identity as a woman and rejecting the traditional subservient view of women. As part of the 50th Anniversary celebration of Alfred Kinsey's "Sexuality in the Human Female," the Bloomington Breast Project is currently on exhibit at the Stanley B. Mendelsohn Gallery, 213 S. Rogers St. The installation is available for viewing until Feb. 15. \nTHE PROCESS\nThe original idea of the Breast Project grew out of an installation Baldner worked on, which she calls "Dis-memberment and Re-membering." During the process, she learned of a friend's battle with breast cancer. In solidarity, she made a papier-mâché breast. As she looked deeper into the phenomenon of breast cancer and the women who dealt with the disease, she realized that other women in Bloomington would have similar stories. \nThe eight participants currently involved with the Bloomington Breast Project share a common trait -- the search for identity in modern society, a theme that reverberates through the installation.\n"We share a process that creates a new life among us," Baldner said. "Suddenly, we became a community and thought communally."\nAccording to the Bloomington Hospital Web site, one in nine American women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. \nFor Baldner this statistic hit close to home. \nShe began searching for other women who shared her interest in the breast and the distress she associates with it. \n"I began to realize that I must be sharing the story of trauma and healing particular to the breast with millions of women around me," Baldner said. "Most probably I would not have to go much farther than my neighborhood block and my hometown community to find others sharing this issue."\nBesides breast cancer stories, Baldner found other tales. While she started out with a negative outlook on the breast, the groups ended up with a project that instead casts a positive light.\n"I was limited -- looking at it only from the negative perspective," she said. "The project has the ability to be as big as the people who participate in it. Now (the project) has reached the outer limits of my dream."\nThe installation is made out of handmade paper. For the Breast Project, each of the eight women made a matrix -- a wax or plaster cast of her breasts, creating multiple copies from the matrix afterward. The handmade paper was made in part from local plants -- corn husks, sweetgrass, irises and lilies. Baldner cooked the collected plants in her kitchen until they were ready to be processed and mixed with refined plant powder to add a finer quality to the paper. \nThe first woman who joined Baldner in creating the installation lived across the street from her. While the group is mainly comprised of artists, the group is not limited to them -- a writer and a teacher also participate. \n"The female body has long been viewed as a source of beauty," said Wendy Bernstein, Bloomington resident and art teacher. "The composition is basically a tribute to the collective strength and beauty of women."\nBaldner met Bloomington artist and IU Bachelor of Fine Arts student Gail Hale at an exhibition of works based on a class with artist Judy Chicago. Hale first became interested in the project because it seemed problematic in its absoluteness of gender identity.\nIn addition to working on the Bloomington Breast Project, Hale also presents an exhibit of her work "Sacrifice for a Culture" dealing with the image of the ideal foot in modern society. Hale said she believes American women suffer in old age from wearing high heels or too small a size of shoe in order to fit the ideal of having small feet. Her installations are also on display at the Mendelsohn Gallery through Feb. 15.\n"I wanted to investigate and celebrate the process of aging," Hale said. "It's hard for women to not be self-conscious about getting older."\nTHE FINAL PRODUCT\nOver several years, the eight women have made 250 breasts, originally from only 16 matrices. Historically, the breast has been an inherently feminine symbol. Here, it is taken out of the normal context of the body and put into a detached space.\nThe installation has been housed at several different locations. It spilled down the main staircase of the John Waldron Arts Center (JWAC) for a few hours. It peeked out of an old City Hall vault in JWAC's Rosemary P. Miller Gallery. It climbed a column in the sterile environment of the Carmichael Center. It has also visited a private house in Bloomington. \n"Every time the project is installed in different places, it makes a different statement," Baldner said.\nWhile Baldner was the original instigator of the project, she now holds a coordinating position. In the course of the current exhibition, four women have expressed interest in participating. The project is growing to embrace the breast and its many identities. \nThe group hopes to also bring the installation onto IU's campus. \nTHE REACTIONS\nWalking into the exhibition space, one sees 250 breasts on a stark white background.\n"It's always surprising," Baldner said. "It's not something you can walk past and not notice."\nBaldner noticed that whenever people see the installation for the first time, the reactions differ depending on gender. Generally, women feel exhilarated to see and talk about breasts freely. \n"It's liberating for women to be that brave to actually participate in a project that exposes their body," Hale said. "It's liberating not to feel like they have to hide their bodies because they don't have the perfect shape or measures."\nOlder men simply don't know how to talk about their thoughts and feelings Baldner said. But younger men seem to feel that the installation is there for their entertainment.\n"They don't seem to be able to articulate their thoughts," Baldner said. "I'm still collecting reactions from men."\nFor more information about the Bloomington Breast Project, visit http://www.indiana.edu/~kinsey or http://www.kiva.net/~kambi/breastproject.html.