This necklace was handmade by Michelle Hartney in her studio in Chicago. Each necklace was created by carefully folding a small sheet of sterling silver into nine folds, creating a layered triangle, and mimicking the nine folds each hospital gown is folded into during the MOTHER'S RIGHT performance, which is explained in further detail below.

The pendant is 1.75 inches by .75 inches.  The necklace hangs from a 20" sterling silver chain.  Each necklace comes with a gift box and a card that explains the project.

*each pendant is handmade, so your item may vary slightly from the one photographed

MOTHER'S RIGHT is a conceptual installation and performance piece that addresses the United States' high rates of maternal mortality, postpartum PTSD, and obstetric abuse. Artist Michelle Hartney is sewing 1,200 hospital gowns—one for every mother who died in childbirth in America in 2013. The fabric will be hand silk-screened to look like hospital-gown fabric, but the designs are composed of tiny drawings she created of the plant derivatives of the drugs that have been used on laboring women for the past 150 years—many to the detriment of women and children.

PERFORMANCE

For the performance, several pairs of women will stand facing each other, folding the handmade gowns into triangles—similar to the way the American flag is folded at the funeral of a solider. The traditional flag-folding ceremony includes twelve symbolic folds, with the ninth fold symbolizing womanhood. These custom-made hospital gowns have been cut to a length where the fabric stops on the ninth fold. The folded gowns represent not only the 1,200 women who died during childbirth in the U.S. in 2013, but also the women who have suffered verbal and physical abuse at the hands of obstetricians and nurses—and for the increasing number of women who are being diagnosed with postpartum PTSD after giving birth. The first performance is scheduled for Labor Day of this year, in collaboration with the annual “Rally to Improve Birth” campaign—held on September 7th in over 100 cities across America. The Chicago performance will happen on the grounds of Chicago’s civic heart, the Richard J. Daley Center, from 12-2pm on September 7th.