Houston artist casts iconic collars in bronze, demonstrates strength of strong girls in history
The lace collar, cast in bronze, is quickly recognizable as one particular of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legendary neck items.
The late associate justice of the Supreme Court docket gained notoriety for sporting collars encoded with which means more than her black judicial robes. She applied the vogue accent to dissent, to protest, to champion, and to celebrate, and in accomplishing so, influenced girls, girls and marginalized persons in all places to stand up for what they believe.
The bronzed collar is a single of 23 on display screen at Holocaust Museum Houston right up until April. They type the Lady, the Spirit of the Universe exhibit, a showcase of collars, every single a single hand-woven in biodegradable cotton and forged in bronze, by artist Carolyn Marks Johnson, herself a retired judge from Houston.
Marks Johnson picked collars worn by mighty gals from all backgrounds, races, and religions, states Alex Hampton, HMH’s supervisor of changing exhibitions. “She wished to make sure this was an exhibit that confirmed it usually takes all forms of men and women to winner human legal rights, though also exhibiting the power of ladies as a result of the collar as a style merchandise,” he describes.
On display are the collars of perfectly-recognized American girls all through history—First Girl Eleanor Roosevelt, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and Chief Wilma Mankiller, initially woman main of the Cherokee Country. There are also two regional trailblazers represented in the Houston show, Mayor Annise Parker, the city’s 1st openly homosexual mayor, and Julia Edson, the region’s initial female librarian.
Marks Johnson studied images and historic paperwork to recreate specific collars worn by all those showcased. Information and facts panels accompany the parts, telling the woman’s tale of toughness, stamina and resilience. Resting on black fabric, the collars gleam, standing out just as the gals donning them did in their day.

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As element of our Fueling Futures determination to assist lively communities, Enbridge contributed a $10,000 grant to assistance HMH establish the exhibit. The collars will prompt visitors to replicate on concerns of equity, range and inclusion, values we are committed to upholding at Enbridge and in the communities exactly where we function.
Guests having in the Lady, Spirit of the Universe exhibit will also be in a position to delight in HMH’s other collections, such as the Bearing Witness Holocaust Gallery.
Some Holocaust museums are heavy, Hampton claims, but HMH focuses on survival and power the lasting selection showcases 20 nearby Holocaust survivors who started the museum in 1996. Their tales are of hope and therapeutic, of the journey to peace in their adopted household.
Just like the museum’s founders, the women of all ages showcased in Marks Johnson’s exhibit went by means of trials and tribulations and arrived out on major, Hampton claims.
“The collars display that your possibilities subject,” he provides. “The gals were normal individuals who turned extraordinary. You can be a human being who would make transform.”
(Prime Picture: Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s legendary lace collar, solid in bronze, is section of the Girl, the Spirit of the Universe exhibit established by artist Carolyn Marks Johnson, and on display at Holocaust Museum Houston. Picture by Sonya Cuellar.)
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