Artist finds inspiration working on CCMA Frida Kahlo exhibition

Many know Chicago-based artist Betsy Odom for her humorous sculptures that tackle serious issues relating to gender, sexuality, and stereotypes, as well as her exhibitions around Chicago at venues such as the Hyde Park Art Center, Corbett vs. Dempsey, and the DePaul Art Museum. In Odom’s most recent project for the Cleve Carney Museum of Art at the College of DuPage, she has used her work to make a very personal connection to one legendary artist.

When Odom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the end of 2018, this life-changing event brought about many new considerations for Odom, not least of which was how this disability could impact her artistic practice, both physically and conceptually. However, just a few short months after learning of her diagnosis, Odom was approached by Cleve Carney Museum of Art (CCMA) curator Justin Witte with an incredibly unique and serendipitous opportunity: to recreate the orthotic leather back braces worn by the late artist and cultural icon Frida Kahlo. Per Witte, “I have known Betsy and followed her work for many years. When I saw the leatherwork in the orthotic corsets Frida wore, I immediately thought of Betsy as she had created numerous leatherwork pieces.” Odom immediately accepted the offer, noting that she felt it was “a really important process to go through, of trying to understand [Kahlo’s] disability and how her body became a part of what she did.”

Odom is no stranger to creating art that relates directly to the human body and how it is expected to function. Her own sculptures largely consist of handmade versions of everyday items – with a special affinity for sports equipment – which are fabricated using odd materials like leather, cork and wood so that they are completely removed from their usual functionality. In her subversion of the societal expectations linked with these objects, as well as of the historical act of crafting itself, Odom’s sculptures work to challenge notions of gender, sexuality, queer identity, and stereotypes – a process the artist humorously refers to as butchcraft.

After being involved in a near-fatal bus crash at age 18, Frida Kahlo was left with debilitating injuries that required her to be bed ridden for months, during which she began to paint her now iconic work. For the rest of her life Kahlo suffered from chronic pain and other ailments which forced her to wear the back braces now being reimagined by Odom. “The making of these corsets was really educational and cathartic for me,” says Odom. “There is a certain tension between the beauty of these objects and the suffering that they imply.” Odom has also said that in the blending of her artistic hand with that of Kahlo and the craftsmen who designed the original braces, she has formed an intimate connection and new understanding of the late artist.

Kahlo’s determined spirit and her constant reckoning with disability that is evident throughout her body of work have been hugely inspiring for Odom. “It makes me hopeful for my own future,” says the artist.

Betsy Odom’s recreations can be seen as part of the CCMA’s upcoming exhibition Frida Kahlo: Timeless, which opens in June 2021. The museum is located at the McAninch Arts Center on the campus of the College of DuPage, and more information about the exhibition is available on their site Frida2021.com.