Materials:    MDO, Vintage Motorola TV, Mixed Media, Photo Transfer

Framed Dimensions:    26 ¾” x 39” x 4”

2023

Early in the 20th century, American women were catching on to the European habit of smoking and society wasn’t ready for it. In 1908 the Sullivan Ordinance was adopted, barring women from smoking within a business. In New York City, women were getting arrested for smoking, sometimes in their own homes. In 1929 Lucky Strike launched a sinister PR campaign using the concept of women’s emancipation to persuade more women to take up the deadly habit. While they were successful, society found something new to focus on; women didn’t know how to smoke in a “feminine manner” and needed further instruction so that they would appeal to men. 

Tobacco smoke clouds inside a room tend to hang in mid-air rather than disperse. The smoke rises to the ceiling and spreads outward, displacing cooler air and pushing it toward the floor. Smoke will spread horizontally along the ceiling until it finds an opening that allows it to reach a higher level.