Hannan Abu-Hussein: Body Fragments

Hannan Abu-Hussein's installation consists of used brassieres fixed in cast concrete. This technique is characteristic of her works, which often use unconventional raw materials. The artist employs these materials in order to express her personal-feminist voice on the issues of religion, capitalism, sexual exploitation, love, and personal freedom.

Hannan received the bras from the Israeli fashion company Comme il faut. The bras were donated by women who chose to take part in the project "Not Burning Bras," initiated by the company in 2009. For each donated bra, a sum of money was transferred to an organization assisting women and girls exploited by the sex industry, to fund tests for early detection of breast cancer.

As part of the campaign, Hannan's installation was displayed inside Comme il faut's Tel Aviv store. The show's curator, Dalia Markowitz, explained at the time the importance of presenting the installation, consisting of intimate items, in the public sphere. According to her, "the bras […] that, for months or years, covered a private physical site are presented in Hannan's installation in a public space. This exposure carries a double meaning that simultaneously conveys liberation and oppression […] the material nature of the concrete Hannan used fixes the collection of bras together in an inseparable mixture. In this way, the unique personal item becomes inseparable from a silent, impersonal mass."

The idea of "bra burning" originates in a feminist demonstration held in the United States in November 1968, in protest of a beauty contest. The high point of the event, held outside the contest hall, centered on a garbage dumpster, into which protesters flung objects symbolizing oppression, including bras. The act of putting fire to the bras was meant to protest the stringent codes of modesty and propriety, becoming a symbol of the feminist struggle. Today, "bra burning" is a common trope in fashion campaigns, which constantly repeat that their customers are "strong women who know what they want." This motto has itself become a brand, thereby emptying it of its meaning. This is a typical example of a trend in which brands seek to present their commodities not as objects intended for sale, but as cultural proposals that take part in a sophisticated game of identifications.

The bra constricts the female body every day, despite the pseudo-feminist slogans of corporate propaganda – and in response to them. In Hannan's installation, the process of transforming this highly meaningful consumer item into a strange artistic object seeks to expose, by implication, the total merge between consumerism and art in our time. The renewed display of this work at the Haifa Museum of Art aims to highlight the aggression inherent in the commercial ownership of visual art, and the growing cooperation between corporations and art institutions. We may ask whether the process of transforming art into a mere ad for the act of shopping has now finally been completed.