Michele Pred‘s feminist purses combine fashion, art and activism, and are popular among celebrities and intellectuals. Isabel Allende was the last to exhibit one of the creations by the American-Swedish artist. On March 14, Equal Pay Day in the US, the author posted on social media a photo with a vibrant red purse. On it the writing “Equal Pay”. However, Michele Pred’s speaking purses fight for civil rights in general, not just women’s.
Michele Pred is a conceptual artist using sculpture, assemblage and performance to dialogue with modernity and its problems, to throw down challenges and suggest solutions. She uses art to unveil political and cultural implications hidden behind everyday objects. An example is Power of the Purse, her line of feminist purses, which also mirrors her autobiographical experience. Michele grew up in California in the Seventies, where she discovered and embraced the feminist movement. She also decided to dedicate the project to her father, who – she declared – inspired the feminist in her at an early age.
Michele Pred’s feminist purses are the result of the recovery and reuse of real vintage purses. Every piece is unique and hand-embroidered with electroluminescent wires. Inside, batteries allow to light them on: a metaphor of the fight ripping the darkness of ignorance and abuse. Thus, the purse becomes a symbol of the economical power the modern woman should aspire to and which she should translate in political, social and cultural power. But also a reference to the Twentieth century style, an era when women began to claim their rights. Anyway, the purses deal also with other issues, such as the urge to vote at the elections.
