About
“The FET!SH Project is an artistic intervention that gives voice to women’s concerns and perspectives about the media’s role in how womanhood is defined,” according to the curator Laura Earle.
“I was thinking about the gender wage gap and the glass ceiling,” she said. “It struck me how in order to sustain a culture that supports such inequality, marketing and media messages about women play a significant role. In my research, I came across the book Brandsplaining, by Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts. I loved the accessibility and practicality of the book’s core ideas. It unveils how marketing is still sexist and how to fix it.”
For FET!SH, Earle reached out to local artists directly and through organizations like the Women’s Caucus for Art and the Birmingham Society of Women Painters to assemble a group of 15 artists. Each responded to these core concepts by creating a total of 18 original art-to-wear pieces. The work will be presented in a series of pop-up and flashmob-style fashion show performances throughout September as part of the Detroit Month of Design.
“This year’s theme is United by Design, focusing on the products, services and systems that can help unite our community,” said Kiana Wenzell co-executive director of Design Core Detroit. “The FET!SH Project’s pop-up performance is a perfect example of that theme, women from all walks of life creating something beautiful together. That is the power in unity and what this year’s theme is all about.”
“We want to bring awareness to the persistent inequality in the media’s portrayal of women and women’s issues,” said Earle. “And we challenge the tropes that continue to undermine and objectify women.”
The Book
Brandsplaining: Why Marketing is (Still) Sexist and How to Fix It
Good girl. Girlboss. Flawless model. Perfect mother. Organiser. Wonder Woman. Family rock. Feminist go-getter. Brands profit by telling women who they are and how to be. Now they've discovered feminism and are hell bent on selling "fempowerment" back to us. But behind the go-girl slogans and the viral hash-tags has anything really changed? In Brandsplaining, Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts expose the monumental gap that exists between the women we really are and the women that appear in the media around us. Their research reveals how our experiences, wants, and needs—in all forms—are ignored and misrepresented by an industry that fails to understand us. They propose a radical solution to resolve this once and for all: an innovative framework for marketing that is fresh, exciting, and—at last—sexism-free.
The Music
The original sound score for the project was created collaboratively by Laura Earle, Sara Kilany and Rich Earle. The sound of a clock striking a new hour gives way to music comprised entirely of the sounds of the artists’ shoes walking or dropping on various floor surfaces, and the voices of the artists themselves speaking about their artworks. Laura cast the vision for the audio elements and the energy of how it should sound, guided by the current ethos among women of “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” She and Sara sampled all the sounds and gave the collection to Rich to work his magic! Rich laid down the percussive tracks, and wove the voices into the rhythms. We love the energy! It really captures the essence of our collaboration and the drive of our artistic intervention performances!