Since the beginning of December, a pink tire swing has hung from the tree between Old Science Hall and the Women’s Resource Center. On Monday, Feb. 11, that tire was removed over a student complaint that due to its “obscene imagery,” it should not be publicly displayed. Artist and BU student Brianna Fuller installed the piece as her final project for Professor Ron Lambert’s Figure Sculpture class in the fall of 2018.
There have been mixed reactions to the tire swing. Fuller recalls that a friend of hers said he “overheard two guys making jokes about it and saying art students should just off themselves.” This comment brings another perspective to this piece, which is sexual assault. As the piece hung throughout the winter, it became weathered and physically looked abused.
“I don’t think it’s offensive, it’s just a vagina. I’m sorry you’re offended by a female body part,” Fuller says.
Fuller explained that her recent work is based on jokes between friends but develops into interpretive and interactive pieces, and the tire swing isn’t her first installation on Bloomsburg’s campus. In the beginning of November, she made plaster molds of her female friends’ breasts, then bolted them to the rock wall in the Rec Center. Her “Boob Rock Wall” remained in the Rec Center for over a month before she removed them on her own terms.
A representative from the Women’s Resource Center said that they “thoroughly enjoyed seeing Brianna’s piece hanging outside their door because it made people more aware.” They went on to comment that no one is complaining about the nude female on the quad, but the moment a vagina is used as imagery, people don’t know how to react.
The Women’s Resource Center supports Brianna Fuller and her future art installations and hopes she continues to create powerful and important work.
Art Professor Chad Andrews observed that while placing the tire swing outside of the Women’s Resource Center is complimentary to the piece, there is no context marking that it is a piece of art and should be interpreted that way.
Andrews additionally feels that the student who complained was justified and that this is a learning experience.
Fuller has begun working on a piece for her Studio Art Capstone class titled “Morning Gory,” which will be a garden of painted and dyed tampons to look like flowers and is excited to install the piece as spring approaches.
The “What Would You Do?” host also encourages students, faculty, and staff to take on any opportunity that they receive. He explains that many will applaud others for their achievements, but once they find out about the journey it took them to reach success, they take a step back and judge them for not taking the approach they pictured. “We marvel at a butterfly for it’s colors but seldom at all the changes they go through,” he says.
The Emmy Award winner also quoted one of his favorite statements from Martin Luther King Jr.: “in times of adversity, you got to have faith. Faith is the first step,” meaning that Americans need to keep hoping and working together in order to get rid our country’s hatred and division.
At the end of Quiñones speech, he showed the audience a video from his show “What Would You Do?” featuring a scenario where a hair dresser insulted an interracial couple. In the scenario, a black hair dresser started criticizing a black man for dating a white woman. One customer’s reaction sent a huge message. The customer pulled the actress over and told her that people all need to defend each other regardless of color, sexuality, gender, etc. Hate leads to more hate, she explained, and what we need is less hate and more love.
