Multi-media Postcards, gold thread, chain, wood, 
dried flowers - about 7'H x 2'W x 20' Long

CHAIN MAIL is a piece which is the result of an invitation from faculty at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY (Susan B. Anthony's hometown), to create an installation there celebrating the "Year of the Woman" in 1998.  I asked the women on the committee I was working with to each give me a list of names and addresses of other women they thought would be interested in participating in this project. 

 Each of these women were then sent a postcard (plus five additional cards and cover letters to send to five more women ...remember "chain letters"?) asking them to address and/or respond to the word CHAIN on the postcard they were sent.

They could use anything from a single word to a humorous or deep thought to a fictional or factual anecdote and/or a visual representation (drawing, photo, collage, small objects, etc.) They could approach the project as a literal interpretation (i.e. "chain saw", "ball and chain") or a metaphorical one (i.e. "chain smoker") and address the term CHAIN as a linkage or a restriction... anything that would fit on the surface of the postcard.

Once the cards were returned to me I created a female version of chain mail armor...

a tunic in which all the cards have been stitched together with gold thread, and which when installed, hangs about seven feet off the ground, suspended from the ceiling, flowing out over twenty feet in two directions along the floor.  It currently consists of cards from over three hundred women and will be added to as it continues to be exhibited.

The responses from these women have come from all over the U.S. and several foreign countries, and cover a whole range of ideas from actual forged chains to chains made from clay, paper and daisies. The cards offer themes such as Life Chains (including DNA, marriage and family) and Chains of Bondage (everything from slavery to sexual to being chained to one's kitchen appliances). There's Chain Smoking, Chain Stores, and Food Chains ...Chains of Thought and Chains of Events ...Geographical Chains and Chain Stitches ...Chains to the Past and Chains that Need Breaking ...Chains expressed by Aretha Franklin and by the Righteous Brothers.

The responses have come from women of many racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds; from ages that include teens to nursing home residents. There are mothers and daughters, physicians, nurses, educators, artists and musicians, lawyers, ministers, administrators, housewives, retirees and a State Supreme Court judge. They are angry, philosophical, nostalgic, factual, creative, euphoric, and puzzled. They have written, they have sculpted, they have stitched, they have painted, they have pasted, they have cut. And in the end, they've come together in a spiritual linking of thought, emotion and creativity ...a truly unique chain.

In addition, the CHAIN MAIL tunic has been accompanied by a Response Chain (in lieu of a guest book) at each venue in which it's been shown. This continually expanding chain of cards joined by metal fasteners, snakes around the gallery reflecting the reactions of viewers, both male and female, to the piece. Furthermore, printed wall posters list all tunic participants with their hometowns and offer descriptive texts which relate the history of the project.