“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when all we want to do is breathe….or die trying”
Puff the Magic Dragon and Joe Camel have a new friend, Bronchi the Boa Constrictor, a crafty little serpent that suffocates its prey to death. Smoking related illnesses are a number one killer. It took my mom. This garment uses 696 linear feet of air tubing accumulated over time as my Mom was tethered to it for many years before she finally passed from complications of emphysema 6 months ago. She had smoked since age 14.
My greatest obstacle was how to work with this material as it is very stiff. A hospital lab coat is used for the base garment upon which I added appliques of “lungs” beginning to fill with smoke. The waistband contains the title. The arms are embroidered with the original surgeon general’s warning that was printed on cigarette packs for the first time in 1969. The other arm says “Tethered to O2 was a lifeline 4U”. The lower portion of the piece is my fourth solution to working with the tubing. The lengths, varying from 4’ to 14’ were softened in the sun, then twisted together in groups of two. These pieces were then woven through deer fencing. Only pieces with attached cannulas were used here. The neckpiece is Bronchi the Boa-Constrictor made from 5 lengths of 50 foot tubing (250 feet in all), twisted upon itself multiple times. I made his head fun and crafty, a cute critter that softens the evil of reality just like Puff and Joe. The cigarettes in his mouth are the same brand my mom used to smoke. All remaining tubing is allowed to fall and twist at will, like a den of snakes. The lowest hem is embroidered with: Bronchi says “I kill 480,000 Americans each year and cost the U.S. $600 Billion dollars doing it!”
My greatest obstacle was how to work with this material as it is very stiff. A hospital lab coat is used for the base garment upon which I added appliques of “lungs” beginning to fill with smoke. The waistband contains the title. The arms are embroidered with the original surgeon general’s warning that was printed on cigarette packs for the first time in 1969. The other arm says “Tethered to O2 was a lifeline 4U”. The lower portion of the piece is my fourth solution to working with the tubing. The lengths, varying from 4’ to 14’ were softened in the sun, then twisted together in groups of two. These pieces were then woven through deer fencing. Only pieces with attached cannulas were used here. The neckpiece is Bronchi the Boa-Constrictor made from 5 lengths of 50 foot tubing (250 feet in all), twisted upon itself multiple times. I made his head fun and crafty, a cute critter that softens the evil of reality just like Puff and Joe. The cigarettes in his mouth are the same brand my mom used to smoke. All remaining tubing is allowed to fall and twist at will, like a den of snakes. The lowest hem is embroidered with: Bronchi says “I kill 480,000 Americans each year and cost the U.S. $600 Billion dollars doing it!”