Back to the Exhibition Schedule

City	Location	Dates/Times
BOSTON	Emmanuel College Cardinal Cushing Library, Main Reading Room 400 The Fenway,Boston, MA 02115 617-735-9992, www.emmanuel.edu "House", a large scale paper house made of restraining orders "Golden Handcuffs", a work that investigates domestic violence in middle class and wealthy communities.	Oct. 7 - Nov. 2 M-Th 9am-9pm Fri-Sat 9am-5pm Sun 1-8pm (Oct. 13th 10:30-1:30pm only) Pubic reception: Tues. Oct. 7th, 5-7;30pm Artist talks: Tues. Oct.7th 6:30pm Mon.Oct.13th 10:30am-1:30pm Meet the Artist
	Artwork Description Emmanuel College /Cardinal Cushing Library will host, "House". It consists of a large scale white paper house made out of restraining orders that has sculptural elements placed inside of it. There is an open doorway for viewers to enter the structure. The white paper walls are eight feet high with the pitched open roof adding another two feet. The house is square (16'x16') and has a white picket fence around it (20'x20'). The house wall structure is constructed out of paper (restraining orders images), medical/surgical mesh, and suture materials (the paper panels will be sewn together with strips of the medical/surgical mesh and suture materials). The highly symbolic medical materials helps to literally convey both the physical/internal abuse and the emotional abuse those in battering relationships face on a daily basis. Viewers are able to enter the structure. Also on display in Cardinal Cushing Library @ Emmanuel College: "Golden Handcuffs" Originally Bitetti created "Golden Handcuffs" for the site at Phillips Academy. This piece came out of her meetings with several Andover residents who were victims of domestic violence. Some had been victimized for over 13 years. They had been meeting as a group to support each other. The women did not feel comfortable, for a variety of reasons, to use the private and/or public services that were available to them. The women, who were from middle to upper class homes, described their situation as the "Golden Handcuffs." After they were battered they would receive expensive gifts from their batterer "to make up for the beatings." Their batterers also had the means to cover up the abuse via private doctors and from their "good standing" in the community. Bitetti, through her extensive research, is well aware that there is an underreporting of domestic abuse in middle class and wealthy communities and that many of victims from those communities are under served or not served by domestic violence providers. The system has yet to create comprehensive outreach and services for these victims. The handcuffs were donated to Bitetti by Sergeant Detective Mary Bartlett of the Lawrence Police Department. Sergeant Bartlett is the head of the domestic violence unit in Lawrence. These were her first pair of handcuffs. Ironically, these handcuffs have helped to save many lives.
	University of Massachusetts, Boston Harbor Art Gallery, 1st Floor of McCormack Building 100 Morrissey Blvd.Boston, MA 02125 617-287-7888 www.umb.edu The Harbor Art Gallery will host a solo show of Bitetti's work that addresses domestic violence and gender issues. The exhibit will feature sculpture and installations. The majority of the work has not been exhibited in the Boston area.	Oct. 8 - Nov. 5 M-F 11am-5pm & Sat 12-5pm Closed Monday Oct. 13th Public reception: Thurs. Oct.16th 5-7:30pm Artist talks: Wed. Oct. 8th 1-2pm Cosponsored by University Health Services & Art on the Point Mon. Oct. 16th 6:30pm
	Artwork Description Some of the works to be on display in the solo exhibition: One work to be on display is the installation entitled, "Bedroom". The piece depicts the fragility of family dynamics. There are two bed sculptures, as well as other sculptural components. "To Have" is a white double "sled" bed that has loose pins and needles as a mattress with barbed wire on each side of the bed. There are two white pillows on the bed. The text on one of the standard pillows: To Have and to Hold. The text on the other pillow: To Have and to Harm. On the head board of the bed the text is: Loneliness; and on the foot board is: Denial. All the text is stenciled. ³Hostage² is a white 1950¹s baby crib in which the metal grid that would hold the mattress is rusty. The white baby pillow has the stenciled text: Hostage. "His and Hers" are two life size bed sculptures. "Hers" is a white single bed frame with a mattress comprised of nails. Two sections of a white picket fence serve as railings- thus making it a crib like structure. The white pillow that rests on the mattress of nails has stenciled on it in graphite "Some Day My Prince Will Come." "His" is a black single bed frame with a mattress comprised of coal. Two sections of a black picket fence serve as railings- thus making it also a crib like structure. The black pillow that rests on the mattress of coal has stenciled on it in white graphite "Boys Will Boys." Although completed in 1998, this is the first time this piece will be shown in Boston. And this is the second time they have been shown together. The two works comment on the childhood gender based socialization that stays with us for better or for worse into adulthood. "Highchair" is a work that specifically addresses the impact of domestic violence on children. It incorporates, a broken white high chair, egg shells, white picket fencing, plaster figurines, and "family album". Bitetti is keenly aware that behavior patterns, and in particular domestic violence tendencies, are passed from one generation to the next, and she chose the highchair and statistics to represent the intergenerational links associated with domestic violence. "Mirror Mirror on the Wall- Who's the Fairest of Them All?" Bitetti will be creating a new piece from some aspects of a site specific work she made for the public women's bathroom at Heritage State Park in Lawrence in 2002. For the women's room, she drew upon her earlier collaboration with WAC (Women's Action Coalition). She will recreate and modify, "Bathroom" a piece on how to cover up bruises and injuries caused by domestic violence with make-up and accessories, into a new format for the Harbor Art Gallery. "Suitcases" is a diptych of two pink suitcases. It is comprised of one large pink suitcase, entitled "He was Prince Charming at first...name withheld" that is the identity of a woman and her young daughter in a battered women's shelter. This piece was a component of the 1992 piece entitled "Shelter." The other pink suitcase, entitled "Not all princesses are waiting to be saved.....portable royal biography" has objects on loan from Princess Sophia Solar Michalski, Bitetti¹s muse for her ThePrincessProject.com. The princess¹s favorite empowerment books for girls and women are as some of the objects in the suitcase. These works were completed in Spring 2002. These were shown in the in the Fuller Museum in Spring of 2002 and in the Lillian Immig Gallery in Summer of 2002. "Shelter III" is an installation that will draw from some of her earlier works and she will also create new elements for this installation. Some of the earlier works to be incorporated into Shelter III: "Shelter" depicted a bedroom in a battered women's shelter that is occupied by a mother and her young daughter. Also included in Shelter III will be "Porter Crib". Completed in 1992 it is a white wooden porter crib with tracing paper as the mattress that has stenciled on it in graphite the prayer, "now I lay me down to sleep..." Bitetti is also premiering two new works for her solo show that address issues specific to men and domestic violence.