Female Beauty

“It started when somebody gave me a box with 144 condoms. Just leaving Greenpeace, I was very aware of the environmental aspect of it’”what we do with this material, and if it’s biodegradable or not. I started researching the actual material. Then, I started having a partnership with manufacturers and importers of condoms, and I started getting larger amount of condoms. The first large amount I received was 2,120. Then, I got increasingly involved, and now I get 100,000 a month.” said Brazilian artist, Adriana Bertini, to Windy City Times. There really wasn’t one thing that led to, “I’m going to make clothes out of condoms,” she added. The largest amount of condoms Bertini used for one piece is 80,000 condoms.

The artist creations, evening gowns made entirely of condoms, is on display in the Fowler Museum Dec. 1, 2006-March 11, 2007, as part of an arts and AIDS awareness exhibition. The “Dress Up Against AIDS” Condom Couture by Adriana Bertini, features 14 magnificent garments designed and produced by Brazilian artist Adriana Bertini that were made entirely of men’s and women’s condoms rejected by industry quality tests. By appropriating an object of protection and using it to create works of vibrant and original style, color and texture, Bertini seeks to raise awareness of, and inspire the use of, condoms,  the critical method for preventing HIV transmission. These colorful, sensual clothes, including ornate evening dresses, vivid skirts and tops and elegant suits, demystify and de-stigmatize condoms and “refashion” them as objects associated with pleasure.

Adriana, who worked for Greenpeace for 10 years, and went to work for a volunteer program where, once a week, she taught theater to children living with HIV, said that she had a show in Africa within a conference with people seeing the show who worked with AIDS prevention and none of them knew they were condoms. It shows how distant people are from the only effective object that can be used for prevention for sexual transmission.

As for World AIDS Day, which was on Dec. 1, 2006, about 40 million people worldwide are living with AIDS, including more than 900,000 Americans, with the epidemic growing most rapidly among minorities, the experts can comment on the history of the epidemic and on research at the UCLA AIDS Institute into vaccines, gene therapy, mother-to-child transmission, prevention, and microbicides. The Institute’s think tanks and workshops bring together the best minds in the fight against the disease.

Info: www.usc.edu, www.happenings.ucla.edu/arts, Adriana Website

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Education, Sexual Life, Women Business, Health, Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.