By Savannah Schroll
January 14 - 25
The Radium Girls, ill-fated young women who applied a luminous, green radium paint to watch dials in the late 19-teens and 1920's are memorialized in this window instillation. The girls, who repeatedly sharpened the tips of their paint brushes between their lips (and often painted their teeth, nails, and eyelids for fun), each fell ill from radium poisoning. A few surviving women later sued the U.S. Radium Corporation and won, although many of these survivors did not escape early death. This installation, an extension of the artist's in-progress graphic novel The Color of Silence in Radium Green, celebrates the Radium Girls' lives and explores this little known segment of American history.
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Gallery Crawl, January 24 | 5:30-9PM
Although German Dada artist Hannah Höch was active half a world away as the Radium Girls were painting watch dials, Höch was creating rebellious collages that pointed out the stark difference between reality and the media’s project images of women. To celebrate her work and to provide an idea of the spirit of the era during which the Radium Girls worked, visitors are invited to “Make Your Own Radium Girl” using Hannah Höch’s collage method and materials provided. You can even take your Radium Girl home!
Future Tenant is also pleased to welcome DJ and Producer Jakeisrain and the C Street Brass for what is sure to be a memorable evening of music inspired by artist Savannah Schroll's Radium Girls Installation. Their melding of electronic and bras band sounds will help bring the eerie tale of these ill-fated women to life, capturing the sounds of the dawn of the jazz age in inventive and unexpected ways. For more information about the artists, visit www.jakeisrain.com and www.cstreetbrass.com.