Detail from "More to Life," pillow dress by Jenniffer Andrews and Birgit Gehrt completed in 2003. Made from various fabric swatches sewn into small pillows--some with embroidery--the dress now belongs to Jennifer and was her winter formal dress in high school. (Photo by Sibila Savage, 2003)

Project Title: Alterations
Recipient Organization: The Body Positive
Fiscal Sponsor: The Tides Center
Lead Artist: Birgit Gehrt
Genre and Date Awarded: Visual Arts, June 2002
To be Premiered/Completed: November 10, 2005

Body hatred, lack of self-esteem and the rise of eating disorders in the nation’s youth are alarming national problems. According to a recent USDA report, adolescent girls, ages 12-15 have the worst diets across all categories of Americans. Working in collaboration with artist Birgit Gehrt , participants in The Body Positive’s programs for women and girls who are combating eating disorders, body distortion, and low self-esteem, will invite participants to work with the artist, telling their stories and guiding her in creating a series of unconventional garment sculptures and accessories. Some will be wearable and others sculptural. All will comment on clothing’s role as a second skin or shield, and the ways fashion expresses social messages.

The artist will spend three years collaborating with constituents of The Body Positive—both in one-on-one sessions and small groups. She will interview them, lead group discussions, and gather notes about their shared dreams, fears, experiences, and desires related to body esteem, and the social meanings of clothing and fashion. Their process will include excursions to gather materials for the sculptures as well as observations and field notes.

According to Gehrt, “People, especially youth, are highly susceptible to, and easily tormented by, the whims of fashion, especially in relation to body size and cultural definitions of beauty. These garments will act as visual manifestations of the constituents’ stories about their bodies in a larger body—society.” While the ambition for this intense level of collaboration marks a new direction for the artist, the medium is familiar: “In order to fathom my surroundings, I turn to hands-on techniques such as sewing, crocheting, embroidering, as well as drawing, taking snapshots, making postcards, books, or altering objects.”

 “Alterations” will culminate with a public exhibition at a site to be arranged. Gehrt writes, “Our goal is to exhibit the garment pieces in the form of an installation so that a diverse audience can be confronted with and experience these important, cultural issues of body image.”

Director Connie Sobczak founded The Body Positive, a grass-roots, community-based organization, in 1996 with the mission of empowering people of all ages, especially youth, to celebrate their natural sizes and shapes. The Body Positive makes presentations to schools, parent groups, and health organizations. The Agency has created the award-winning “BodyTalk” video series on body image issues, and published BodyAloud! Helping Children and Teens Find Their Own Solutions to Eating and Body Image Problems, a guidebook to help schools and individuals create youth-led eating disorders prevention programs in their communities. “Alterations” also will depict The Body Positive’s history and mission about how to educate people on healthy body esteem, therefore drawing attention to its important work in a new medium.

Raised in Germany and moving to the United States in 1990, Birgit Gehrt’s work has explored themes of home and domesticity, and definitions of place and community. While living in Los Angeles, she became fascinated with maps, the layout of urban spaces, and the meaning of cities. In writing about “Alterations,” she notes, “I chose the garment form because it links my earlier work about interiors and domesticity with my recent exterior explorations of the city. Clothes are worn inside and outside. They can be read as a bridge between the two. They are ‘taken care of’ inside: washed, mended, folded, etc. In the public they are shown off, presented, judged, hidden, ridiculed, compared….”

"More to Life," pillow dress by Jenniffer Andrews and Birgit Gehrt.

RESUME HIGHLIGHTS

Selected Exhibitions

• “30 Feet, 15 Stitches,” One day interactive installation for a special event for the David Ireland Retrospective, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California (2003)
• “Teem,” Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “Genus Loci,” Curators Lize Mogul and Chris Kahle, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc Gallery, Los Angeles, California (2002)
• “Address,” Curator Ted Purves, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “Visual Alchemy,” Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, California (2002)
• East Bay Open Studios, Pro Arts, Oakland, California (2001)
• “Synesthesia,” Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California (2001)
• “Fuzzy Logic: Annual Juried Exhibition,” Juror Tom Finkelpearl, Southern Exposure, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, California (2000)
• “Domain,” Pacific Bridge Gallery, Oakland, California (2000)
• “Ex-Patriot,” Curator Amanda Resh, Highways, Los Angeles, California (1999)
• “Trip,” Curator Andrea Bowers, Rosamund Felsen Project Room, Santa Monica, California (1999)

• “Domain,” Artist talk about everyday gestures concerning mapping, seeing, and experience the world around oneself, Pacific Bridge Gallery, Oakland (2000)
• “Don’t Cul-de-Sac Me…,” presentation for a Visual Culture seminar concerning the contemporary landscape in Southern California, University of California, Irvine, California (1999)
• “What is Installation Art,” lecture on contemporary installation projects in Southern California, Irvine, California (1999)

• “Siblings_Sisterhood,” Ongoing letter writing project with Kristina Gehrt, exploring family, sisterhood, social constructs of gender, Germany’s past and current politics.
• “Potsdamer Platz,” three year exploration of urban developments in Berlin and Northeast Germany, manifest in sewn maps and hand-made postcards.

• Artist instructor, Meridian Internship Program, Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, California (2001-present)
• California Arts Council guest instructor for Lisa Kokin’s arts class at the Oakland Homeless Project, Oakland and Harrison House, Berkeley, California (2002)
• Teacher Assistant, University of California, Irvine, California (1997-99)

• 2000-2001, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
• 1996, Schneider Werkstatt Ottensen Tailoring Workshop Ottensen, Hamburg, Germany
• 1995, Hamburger Staatsoper (Opera house), Stage Design Department, Hamburg, Germany