Sensation199947 x 48"Aluminum-wrapped condoms with embroidery threadGift of the artist2018.18.101567536952Drunell LevinsonTextilesCopyright for this work is under review.New YorkNew YorkUnited StatesNew YorkTextilesAdam ReichNew YorkObject information is a work in progress and
may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the
American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgIn 1998 Drunell Levinson, an African American quilt artist in New York City, donated Baby Blanket, one of her first quilt constructions fashioned from wrapped condoms. Drunell taught herself to quilt in a traditional manner but soon used the quilt idiom in a more conceptual manner. “I began using condoms in my quilts because they are seen as feminine objects, and I was seeking a method whereby I might degender quilts. I selected the Gold Coin brand of condoms because of the shape and color,” says the artist Drunell Levinson about her series of “quilts” constructed from aluminum-wrapped condoms tied together with embroidery thread. Interested in updating the art of quiltmaking, Levinson uses such idiosyncratic materials for her artworks. She has other motives as well: In this case she wanted to honor the technique in quiltmaking of using three layers (a packaged condom). The artist also wanted to explore unusual materials in response to the then-current dialogue about materiality in contemporary art, made especially urgent with the exhibition “Sensation” presented by the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which included a work using elephant dung by the British artist Chris Ofili. At the time Drunell started the series condoms were becoming a necessity in contemporary sexual practices, not only as a birth control device, but for protection due to the rise of AIDS19991999 2018 18 1 Object information is a work in progress and
may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the
American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgIn 1998 Drunell Levinson, an African American quilt artist in New York City, donated Baby Blanket, one of her first quilt constructions fashioned from wrapped condoms. Drunell taught herself to quilt in a traditional manner but soon used the quilt idiom in a more conceptual manner. “I began using condoms in my quilts because they are seen as feminine objects, and I was seeking a method whereby I might degender quilts. I selected the Gold Coin brand of condoms because of the shape and color,” says the artist Drunell Levinson about her series of “quilts” constructed from aluminum-wrapped condoms tied together with embroidery thread. Interested in updating the art of quiltmaking, Levinson uses such idiosyncratic materials for her artworks. She has other motives as well: In this case she wanted to honor the technique in quiltmaking of using three layers (a packaged condom). The artist also wanted to explore unusual materials in response to the then-current dialogue about materiality in contemporary art, made especially urgent with the exhibition “Sensation” presented by the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which included a work using elephant dung by the British artist Chris Ofili. At the time Drunell started the series condoms were becoming a necessity in contemporary sexual practices, not only as a birth control device, but for protection due to the rise of AIDS