CripTech
Hairy Undies
Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi
2018
Fabric, thread, and donated hairs
19"x9"
Chromogenic prints
Through Hairy Undies, Yi explores issues of intimacy, trauma, Crip healing, cripping art therapy, and the sustainability of Crip family. The work emerged from a "call for help" art project where Yi mailed her artist book detailing her account of domestic violence to a select group of people she considers her Crip family. She solicited responses to her experience in text and/or donated hair. Using these offered materials, Yi created "Project Hairy Undies," which includes two sets of undies stitched with these hairs. This method of reaching out to her Crip siblings was a way to articulate how disabled people build community and interdependency. It initiates a forum for healing the systematic violence enacted against disabled people—from everyday microaggressions to emotional abuse or physical harm—by both the non-disabled and disabled.
A diptych of Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi's "Hairy Undies." Above two framed pairs of underwear with massive amounts of hair sewn onto its pubic area, two mounted photographs of the same woman's lower torso, wearing and cradling them. Tactile samples and wall text flank each side of the diptych. Image credit: Richard Lomibao.
Close-up of "Hairy Undies." In a white frame, two light peach colored undies made with stretchy mesh fabric rest flat. The pubic area is stitched with balls made with white, fine silk organza, which look like a cluster of grapes. Photo credit: Richard Lomibao