Naugahyde, canvas, brass, vintage wig; 16" x 15" x 9" 
 
As a textile artist, my work reclaims the domestic handicrafts known as "women's work" and celebrates the unrestrained feminine impulse, using humor and buoyant optimism to explore themes of community, utopia, and the female experience. A lighthearted send-up of consumer culture, status symbols, and their dubious links to female sexuality, The Merkin Bag is a hand-stitched parody of the iconic luxury Birkin Bag handbag by Hermes. The reclaimed materials and obviously handcrafted nature of The Merkin Bag instantly reveal a different set of priorities than the Birkin's pursuit of acquisitive status, however it is the thick, curly merkin that delivers the absurdist pun, and asks the question:  what is gained when we laugh off our labels?