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Boob Tree, 1975

crochet; yarn, wood
109.2 x 55.9 x 50.8 cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Acquired with funds from the Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Naylor, funds administered by The Winnipeg Foundation, 2014-128

 

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Phyllis Green

 
 

b. 1950, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

 

As poster image for the 1975 exhibition Woman as Viewer, Phyllis Green’s Boob Tree was an instant hit.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery’s exhibition for International Women’s Year celebrated a “women’s view of herself and her world,”(1) but also challenged a concurrent exhibition which mainly featured images of women by men.(2) Whether it was Boob Tree’s humour, punchy colour, use of crochet (a stereotypical female craft), or archetypical resonance, it proved irresistible. As writer Doug Harvey later confessed, “The poster was popular and controversial and seemed to be everywhere in the city—until it became a thing to steal them; a criminal trend in which I confess I myself participated.”(3)

  1. Sharron Zenith Corne, “Women in Exhibition: The Politics of Pioneering Art Feminism on the Prairies,” Branching Out V, no. 2 (1978): 8.

  2. Marjorie Earl, “Boob Tree raises cult,” The Winnipeg Tribune, November 29, 1975, 44.

  3. Doug Harvey, “The Contrarian’s Engagement: Current Figurations in the Art of Phyllis Green,” Border Crossings 37, no. 4, iss. 148 (December 2018): 54–59.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1.
Phyllis Green, 1982-83. Source: Phyllis Green.

2.
Chipping away at remains of plaster cast, student Phyllis Green reveals her sculpture project at Vancouver Art School class. Source: Vancouver Sun, October 1973. Photo: Deni Eagland.