The Cradle Project (2006-2008) is a social practice work that was designed to draw attention to orphaned and vulnerable children around the world. The vision of the project was to use empty cradles as symbols made out of scrap, found or discarded materials to represent the lost potential of children whose basic needs are threatened.
Over 555 cradles were created, representing a wide variety of art forms and sources- from homeless shelters, to artists in New Orleans working with refuse from Hurricane Katrina, to youth in schools and clubs, to museum exhibited artists. In June of 2008 all 555 cradles were installed in a solo exhibit in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
above: Natale, 2006; photographic work and design of the call to artist card which was used to promote the project. 2006
subsequent slides: images of artist cradles made for this project.
Artist: Chelsea Briganti
18 x 31 x 27 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Anna Westfall and Megan Jacobs
18 x 28 x 18 in.
oxidized metal, wire, fabric, wax
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Jerry W. Miller
28 x 14 x 36 in.
steel, found flywheel
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Ana Maria Hernando
36 x 24 x 40 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Vincent Leandro
36 x 31.5 x 25.5 in.
wood
Statement: This piece was made from a drop-leaf pedestal table and the backs of two chairs found outside homes where, we might imagine, they had once been used for activities such as sharing meals, writing notes and playing cards. These familiar domestic elements are symbols of our everyday lives, of normalcy, stability, family and home. They represent the people and conditions we cannot imagine losing. They represent the people and conditions millions of orphans have already lost. May this cradle serve to comfort and console, provide and protect the children who now struggle to survive, on their own, every day.
photo: Addison Doty
Artists: Kathy Wysocki and Wayne Hopkins
40 x 96 x 96 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Shirley Klinghoffer
18 x 8 x 10 in.
mixed media
Statement: Approximately 72 delicate white “vulval” imprints (similar in appearance to crocus blossoms) emerge from a thin mattress and nestle inside my carefully restored antique doll cradle. These soft, silky rubber castings are like sisters banding together to support and protect each other in a show of pride and strength. When the cradle rocks, these sisters, like close-knit sisters and friends in real life, quiver “ensemble”.
photo: Addison Doty
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Ames Hawkins
96 x 72 in.
vinyl, plastic grocery bags
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Laura Dunn
47 x 30 x 13 in.
plastic grocery bags, plastic tubing and linen
Statement: The cradle is an object for holding, comforting and protecting the innocent; the empty cradle is a mystery. It is this emptiness and mystery that my work attempts to question.
Having recently begun a series of works woven on a simple four-harness loom, it naturally followed that my piece would be woven.
The ordinary and ubiquitous plastic grocery bag is my medium of choice. I am very much interested in reuse of materials readily available and in abundance not only for the ecological implications but also as an investigation into transformation and what happens when we look at something in a new way.
The utter incomprehension at the fact of the plight of these orphans and might be assuaged through art. To look at it through a different lens might create the bridge for understanding and healing. Through my chosen medium I hope to explicate my belief that there is worth to be found in even the most mundane of materials if given the structure and framework in which to grow.
The form is roughly cradle-like yet it remains disconcertingly amorphous. It’s fluid, indistinct quality enhances a sense of anonymity. Additionally, the piece carries a visual weight despite its meager mass. All of these aspects come together to symbolize the nameless multitude facing an uncertain future
Finally the work is suspended to signify Ascent: a levitation up out of the dust of the landfill – a rebirth and renewal.
photo: Addison Doty
photo: Addison Doty
Artists: The Children's School Chicago
33 x 43 x 24 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Sarah Hewitt
23.5 x 13 x 9.5 in.
raffia, seagrass, waxes, tar
Statement: How we hold our loved one’s bodies as they come into and leave our lives is the focus of my explorations in Cradleboards to Coffins.
Nestings, wrappings and bindings encase the spirit and body in birth and death. Mothers swaddle their newborns to provide a womb outside the womb; use casings for transportation of their young, and to create a structured environment in which the parents may choose the their child’s first views of society. In death we send our loved ones away in coffins and caskets. The funerary bindings protect the living from disease, decay and the insurmountable fear of our own death.
Our customs for the newly born and recently departed are vibrantly similar though grossly separated. Through the methods of textile techniques I am exploring the forms of packaging society uses to contain our bodies and our spirits throughout our lives.
Raffia, seagrass, tar and waxes compose these new works. Aromatic, and textural I aspire to transport the viewer into a quiet, meditative space. The forms are created using random weave basket techniques, intuitively winding individual strands of fiber throughout a mass of loose fiber to create a solid form. Then using random stitching I contort the vessel’s shape sewing the sides together and begin to create the feel of a human form pushing on the sides of the wrappings. As the casings develop I feel the conversation I hold with each one end and my respect for their existence blossoms.
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Josh Atlas
46 x 36 x 46 in.
light bulbs, steel poultry netting, wire
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Derrick Bitsie
13.5 x 12 x 32 in.
wood boards and wire paper
photo: Addison Doty
Artists: Kathy Hughes and Karen Abboud
36 x 19 x 31 in.
refuse from Hurricane Katrina flooded houses
Statement: As artists we have always found beauty in decay and detritus. Katrina provided us with resources and an opportunity for reflection on the theme of destruction and renewal. Using discarded trash to construct the cradle, we were able to work through the emotions that were so prevalent in our community, creating a piece as metaphor for healing and rebirth. We hope that this resonates with the same spirit of hope for the African Aids orphans, symbolized by the heart-shaped, swaddled river stone that lays inside the cradle.
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Audrey Bell
20 x 20 x 27 in.
plastic bottles
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Anthony Guntren
16 x 20 x 24 in.
car parts, oil can
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Joann E. Schilling
24 x 18 x 24 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Alfons Poblocki
12 x 31 x 16 in.
bicycle rim, cedar
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Autumn Riddle
15 x 15 x 32 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Melanie Yanke
32 x 32 x 60 in.
willow sapplings, sheeting
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Steve Bromberg
48 x 32 x 18 in.
steel
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: K. M. White
15 x 22 x 15 in.
bone, mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Margaret H. Fitzgerald
29 x 15 x 119 in.
cedar, rebar
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: P.D Rearick
70 x 40 x 24 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty
Artists: Lindy Hirst, Debra Montoya, Vanessa Alvarado
39 x 30 x 58 in.
mixed media
Statement: Teaching is learning. I work collaboratively to teach and at the same time learn from my students. This cradle is a collaborative project by two students and myself: Vanessa Alvarado and Debra Montoya.
The three of us contributed both conceptual and material ideas. Vanessa, for example, came up with the idea to paint the interior puzzle pieces blood red for HIV/AIDS.
On one intense glue day Vanessa said, “Hey, this piece feels like an altar.” The Catholic Guardian Angel, familiar from childhood to both Deb and Vanessa, fit right in above the altar that all three of us instantly recognized developing inside the foot of the cradle.
At the headboard is the face of the Virgen de Guadalupe who replaces the missing stork’s head and who is predominate in Debra’s work. We three have adopted her as the guiding symbol of this piece: the comforter and protector of the poor and conquered children.
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Michael Cavallini
20 x 20 20 in.
used clothing
photo: Addison Doty
Artist: Elke Edith Duerr
18 x 18 x 32 in.
mixed media
photo: Addison Doty