Our Bodies, Whose Choice?

This installation was a collaboration between myself and Debra Vodhanel who created the chair.  The breast portion of the installation was created by me and has been presented both with and without the chair. 

Our Bodies, Whose Choice?

By Anne Bedrick and Debra Vodhanel

Who truly has the right to decide for themselves when autonomy over our bodies is being stripped away? Our homes may no longer be our sanctuaries as the decisions we make are no longer private.

We face objectification, and our safety is increasingly precarious. Laws are being made to regulate us that force us to make unsafe or unwanted decisions. 

In this installation, the framed breasts signify the objectification of women and the deprivation of their agency.  The coat hanger and leaking breasts represent the sometimes perilous and unwanted choices we are being forced to make.

The chair falling apart at its seams and held aloft - suspended by safety pins - represents our precarious new reality: the erosion of historic precedents and rule of law that protected us in the past. Trying to retreat to domestic comfort is a denial of our new reality, it is a “suspension of disbelief”.