"Femmebomb," a site-specific installation by Janet Morton and UW-Madison students, was planned for the School of Human Ecology Building, on campus at 1300 Linden Drive from April 24 - May 24 2004. The installation debuted April 24, but unfortunately was irretrievably damaged by high winds and had to be dismantled on April 29. Documentation of the work will be included in Morton's exhibition May 12–22 in the Gallery of Design in the building, where a reception is planned from 1 to 4pm on May 16.

See image of original installation.

Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence Janet Morton will present the Madison installation "Femmebomb", a site specific piece for the facade of School of Human Ecology Building, on campus at 1300 Linden Drive from April 24 - May 24 2004. Morton is in residence Spring semester in the School of Human Ecology, her residency sponsored by the Department of Environment, Textiles and Design and the Department of Art, where she is teaching a multidisciplinary course "Transition and Transformation in Sculpture." Morton's residency is part of the yearlong celebration of the centennial of the School of Human Ecology.

Trained as a sculptor and painter, Toronto-based artist Janet Morton explores the interaction of fabric and apparel in relation to inanimate objects, frequently creating work that transforms something commonplace into something unique and original. Using the domestic arts in unexpected places and scale, Morton surprises with the unexpected and draws viewers to deeper meaning. Her work examines the sliding boundaries between private and public and how our private lives are politicized by our consuming habits. Morton has received the Canada Council Paris Studio Award, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries Best Exhibition Award, and the Toronto Art Award for Best Multidisciplinary Exhibition in 2003. This summer Morton will be planting 1,000 televisions and computer monitors on Michigan Ave. in Chicago as part of  "Art in The Garden," and will create a site-specific work for the Metro Toronto Zoo. 

Her installation, "Femmebomb" at the Human Ecology Building is a described as a delicious counterpoint to the (still) all too common condescension toward the domestic 'feminine' arts of sewing, knitting, and crocheting. Morton and her students are enlarging the tools and products of these domestic arts to heroic scale, turning the façade of the building into an overwhelming pink wonder.

Akin to a chocolate bomb dessert, that favorite guilty indulgence, "Femmebomb" acknowledges traditional stereotypical notions while blowing them up - both enlarging and exploding them through architectural scale, color saturation, visual overload, and wry humor. The installation is at once a guilty visual pleasure and a witty, but mordant, comment on cultural ideas about stereotypes and female power.

Proclaiming "Pay attention, this may not be what you think you see," "Femmebomb" celebrates the enduring power of the 'feminine' art forms as personal domestic expressions and their equal power to communicate larger social-political concerns.