“I just looked out the window one day and it was there,” the village resident said. “It kind of popped up over the winter.”
"There are a lot of creative feminists in Yellow Springs."
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Spaugy said she assumed it was the work of yarn bombers who have decorated downtown trees and poles in the village for years.
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“There are a lot of creative feminists in Yellow Springs,” she added.
The vagina tree is the work of Viva La Vulve and The Craftivism Sisterhood of Yellow Springs. It was spearheaded by artists Kate Hamilton, Corrine Bayraktaroglu and Karen Jane Russell.
The trio said it was a spontaneous project and took an afternoon to finish.
“Me and Mrs. B sew like the wind,” Hamilton said.
Fifty or so vaginas ( vulvas, really) were fashioned from felt, pearls, rhinestones and other odd bits and pieces in Hamilton’s studio.
“It was funny hanging them after dark and a police cruiser drove past real slow and stopped a few yards up ahead. ‘Nope nothing to see here, move along now,’” Russell said. “‘Just a load of women hanging vulvas in a tree.’”
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Credit: Photo: courtesy of Corrine Bayraktaroglu
Credit: Photo: courtesy of Corrine Bayraktaroglu
The project was installed around the Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. The women could not attend the Women’s March in Washington.
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“We were chatting on Facebook and felt like we wanted to do our protest and something unique to Yellow Springs, and I think it was Kate that said let’s do something like this,” Bayraktaroglu said. “For me, it was about women coming together and women power, and not wanting to be silenced.”
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Spaugy is a fan of the tree and similar artwork.
The Vandalia native recalled the day a few months ago when she spotted a Barbie doll yarned into a tree.
"This town is so weird and I love it,” Spaugy said. “I moved out here because of things like yarn bombing.”
Customers also seem to appreciate the vagina tree and its pearls.
The only comments Spaugy says she hears about it is that it is hilarious and beloved.
The other day, Spaugy says she looked out the window to see a group of women posing with the vagina tree and picture frames.
Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson
Credit: Photo: Amelia Robinson
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