Artists in bra war
Nicolino: Hopes to take his bra ball on a world tour
Two American artists are embroiled in a bitter
legal row over two giant sculptures made out
of thousands of bras.
Emily Duffy and Ron Nicolino are fighting over who came up with the idea of a giant bra ball.
Nicolino had 14,000 second-hand bras left over from an abandoned plan to hook them across the Grand Canyon, and teamed up with Duffy to use them for an art project.
But the pair soon went their separate ways and they have now hired lawyers to determine whose idea the giant ball was.
They have both gone ahead and made their own bra balls.
Duffy's weighs 293kg while Nicolino's weighs 585kg, and he is looking for a sponsor so he can take it on a world tour.
Nicolino says Duffy contacted him after he offered to donate his bras from the Bras Across Grand Canyon project.
They came up with the idea of a giant ball, he says - but he backed out when Duffy suggested using silicone and only some of the bras.
Claims
It was a "radical departure" from the original idea and "an insult to the project," he said.
Duffy claims Nicolino stole the idea from her.
When Nicolino decided to go ahead with the project alone, Duffy enlisted copyright lawyers to establish who owns the idea.
Duffy has pointed out that she has been using bras as a creative medium for several years.
She says her supporters have been "incensed by the thought of a man appropriating a creative idea from a woman, especially one about female body image".
'Solid'
She said the ball is a monument to the average American woman.
"She is solid in a very dense way, the way the ball is. Women hold this world together."
Nicolino accuses Duffy of inciting "gender anger" with her bra ball.
He says his project is a satire about serious body image issues in western cultures.
His ball is currently on a tour of California,
being towed behind a behind a 1963 pink
Cadillac, which he has dubbed the BraMobile.
-- Anonymous, May 28, 2001