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Dressing up for HIV/AIDS: Condom art

Written by Mariana Pote
Thursday, 20 November 2008 00:00

That condoms have one definite function is sure. But that they could be used in art and by a condom designer is hardly believable. We have all heard of art being created from drink cans and packaging, but imagine a studio with condoms lying around everywhere.

Adriana Bertini first became interested in condoms as a protective safe sex measure when she began volunteering at Grupo de Apoio á Prevençáo á AIDS (GAPA), a Brazilian HIV support and prevention group. When a box of 144 condoms ended up at her doorstep, she began to add them to her work, on t-shirts, as part of her necklaces, bit by bit bringing the condom into prominence. From here an interest in social projects developed and she decided to research the primary material, looking into how she could transform and manipulate the unbreakable latex.

Meanwhile, she attended public health lectures at university and gained knowledge of various HIV projects throughout Brazil, travelling around the country to visit them. She explicitly mixed social work with artistic production and, in 2000, the “Divas” exhibition was on show. Here, Bertini displayed Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Audrey Hepburn’s iconic dresses. Classic female beauty was depicted through the dazzling twist of condom fabrics.

Today, Bertini stretches the limits of what she can do with condoms. Her focus continues to be fashion, but she has also worked on murals, sculptures, carpets and all sorts of different accessories, including bags. She believes fashion emphasises more powerfully the literal sense in which condoms are and should be worn. The models are activists and symbolic in the sense that they echo a voice that says, “I wear this cause”.

Passing on the message of HIV/AIDS through colour

Bertini approaches her art as an awareness campaign for HIV/AIDS prevention. But she does not limit art’s function in society to this and considers that art can articulate various ideas for different artists, from the beautiful and imagined to the political. Adriana Bertini believes in the strength of art to transform views and lives. Through their quirkiness, she believes her pieces can break taboos. “Art has the capacity to transform and create dialogue between the objects and different groups which view it,” she said.

She does not believe art that generates fear is as effective. She said: “I want to show that it is possible to speak of sexual health and safety through playful and colourful work, without appealing to images of blood and syringes.”

With a strong sensibility towards social behaviour, the artist considers art is crucial to constructing society. She defines art as pivoting change, influencing and being influenced by the social, political and economic issues of its time. Bertini sees art as a means of communication through action and reaction.

Her aim is to unite art with sexual education. Indeed, the humorous kitsch of some of her pieces calls us to play and engage with images of condoms and all that they signify. Generally, the instant reaction when audiences approach the dresses is surprise. “At first, shame, followed by laughter,” said Bertini.

Across the globe, reactions have been quite varied. In the United States, Bertini describes people’s positive amazement. Condoms are sanctioned in the western context and are associated with positive images of fun, which condom advertising also contributes to.

In other contexts where Bertini worked, the condoms were seen quite differently. When her work took her to Senegal, the artist found that people could not recognize the material used as condoms. This reminds us of the unfamiliarity of many localities with condoms and safe sex and the difficulties in talking about these issues in some cultural settings.

There was one exhibition in Brazil where Bertini used photos showing explicit sex shots that raised controversy. A nun visited the exhibition in state of shock, but later, she confided in Bertini and said: “Yes, you are right. You need to use a new language to speak to young people about AIDS”.

Bertini said adolescents and elders in Brazil have been the strongest evidence of the strength of her work to break taboos on sexual behaviour and allow for talk about HIV/AIDS.

How many condoms make one dress? The material

Twenty thousand condoms come into the studio every month to be coloured, stretched and cut. They are not an easy material to work with as they were made to last. Bertini has developed 40 types of cutting techniques and special natural dyeing processes. She has also managed to elaborate 60 types of collage methods. She sometimes even melts (fuses) condoms.

 

Bertini has recently also made carpets using condom strips in tricot and crochet. Her material is recycled or more accurately, re-appropriated. The common destiny of defective condoms is incineration or mainstream disposal.

Control over quality standards is tight and so Bertini holds partnerships with all the major condom producers who pass them on to her. Essentially, the condoms used are those that do not pass quality control and are donated by the producing companies. Many are also defective from national production, confiscated from contraband or past their expiry date.

To make one dress can take up about 2,800 condoms. To make a wedding dress, Bertini once used 80,000 condoms. The theme of re-using an essentially non re-usable object is crucial to Bertini’s work; even the seemingly un-useful becomes useful in a message on the need to use condoms.

Work in progress: clothes as protection

It may seem obvious that condoms and HIV/AIDS prevention come hand in hand. Bertini’s work makes this explicit, but the idea has not yet reached everyone. With the advent of antiretroviral drugs, HIV/AIDS has been in the news less, though it continues to take lives. So Bertini’s work goes on helping to communicate about the need to prevent rather than regret HIV/AIDS.

Besides fashion, Bertini has been involved in various other projects. Her organic sculptures expose the material to its full extent, making the condoms more explicitly visible than in her dresses. Using colours and forms associated with the body, these pieces render a seemingly ugly material into something which attracts the viewer to almost want to touch.

In her series, “Carne” and “Pele” (translated as “Meat” and “Skin”), Bertini sought to raise issues of decomposition where the material is manipulated to such an extent that it becomes visibly fragile, weak and skin-like. These pieces and the sculptures are reminiscent of Eva Hesse’s work that, interestingly, also used latex.

Recently, Bertini has been working on a new fashion collection, where she will, for the first time, include male clothing. She is seeking inspiration particularly from medieval art. The theme runs around the idea of clothes as a form of protection, so we can expect knights in shining latex armour. There will also be wigs, fans, gloves and even backdrop elements, creating scenery of humorous extravagance.

If anyone was wondering whether art could be used as a campaign to improve awareness and debate prejudices, the joyful ways of Bertini’s work are your answer.