Thorn Shoe

Nancy Youdelman was a costume design student at Fresno State University in 1970 when she joined Judy Chicago’s groundbreaking Feminist Art Program; Youdelman followed Chicago to California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles (1971–73), contributing to the epic collaborative installation project Womanhouse (1972) and the influential Woman’s Building (1973–91). In Thorn Shoe, a child’s shoe stuffed with hair and adorned in prickly thorns, Youdelman fuses her background in textiles and costumes with pointed critique, alluding to the potential pain and suffocating sacrifice of motherhood and the expectations for a stay-at-home mother in patriarchal culture.