About the project
I started this project in 2005 after an experience bra shopping. I walked around a bra shop admiring the beautiful colours and fabrics. I was lured by the the tags on the bras promising: enviable curves; ultimate cleavage; loveable; subtle shaping, and seamless beauty. I tried on bra after bra after bra. Nothing would fit. I was angry! Really, really angry! Without much thought I bought the prettiest bra I could find, took it home and stuck nails into it. It felt so good. Surprising good. I stuck the nails on the inside of the cups and then realised that they couldn’t be seen from the outside. The outside still looked perfect. It was only after I made several more that I understood what I was doing. I was exploring how the bra shapes womens' bodies and behaviour. I was challenging the pursuit of perfection. I wanted to acknowledge that there is no shame in being imperfect. I wanted to recognise and embrace my own imperfections.
About participating
Step 1: make, decorate or draw a bra to illustrate a story about your imperfection/s
Step 2: write about the story the bra is telling
Step 3: scan or photograph your bra
Step 4: send your story to us by emailing to: [email protected] or post to: Bracanvas PO Box 1377 St Kilda, 3182 Australia
Step 2: write about the story the bra is telling
Step 3: scan or photograph your bra
Step 4: send your story to us by emailing to: [email protected] or post to: Bracanvas PO Box 1377 St Kilda, 3182 Australia
Feel first - write later
The bracanvas approach starts by making, decorating or drawing a bra to explore feelings. The story emerges from the bra you make. I discovered this by accident. My story was stuck. It always started in the same place and finished in the same place. For 15 years. Stuck story. The act of sticking nails into a bra meant that I felt my story before I told it - doing this enabled me to make new emotional connections and tell my story in a new way. Then I was able to let go.
Why a bra?
The bra is associated with repression and emancipation. A bra is characteristically female, intimate, close to the heart and often hidden. It provides a powerful canvas for storytelling (a shoe would generate a very different story). As a story canvas the bra offers an inside and out, left side and right - adding depth to stories.