Nipple Caps

How do we celebrate our resilient breasts – from puberty to pregnancy, motherhood, and menopause – without turning an art gallery into a risqué nudist colony? An unordinary craftivism exhibition in the fibre yarns of crochet and embroidery.

African traditions celebrate our breasts. Zulu maidens dance topless, just like their ancestors have for millennia. In contrast, westernised society muzzles our breasts. Despite #freethenipple protests, a female’s nipples are banned from social media. Yet, bare male chests are welcomed. The patriarchy continues to consider breastfeeding in public a provocative act to be hidden, despite its gift of life-giving nutrition.

As subversive craftivists, we resist these contentious perceptions. We reimagine nipple caps by removing them from our areolae, transforming them into artworks embodied with personal stories that inform the collective. Traditional domestic acts of making and knowing thread a revolution of survival and memory. African men have joined our collab by defying social norms of what a feminine art form should be, as they honour the beauty of the female form. Voluptuous, perky, droopy or jiggly, our breasts are diverse and our nipple caps echo their unique singularity.

Insight In Sight

Nipple caps boldly place our breasts in sight as an intimate lens insightfully transforms objectification into autonomous subject. Our breasts are seen for their diversity, vitality, and artistry.

Breast Cancer Awareness

A collab of 22 craftivists handmade nipple caps remotely at their homes in Joburg, Soweto, and Cape Town. After months of ideation, there were just three weeks from the open call to the exhibition opening. It was uninstalled one week later, completing the project in the month of the breast cancer awareness campaign. We never met in a craft circle, communicating via a text messaging group. This story is included in my collection Our yarns are tellers of us at this stitch in time.