The coat hanger is the medial instrument used by women for self-induced abortions, and adopted by My Belly is Mine as the symbol of its pro-choice campaign and its protests against the Spanish anti-abortion draft bill, Gallardón’s Law (la ley de Gallardón). For this exhibition, the group have asked various artists, art students and craftivists to rethink the coat hanger and its symbolism, giving them carte blanche to transform it in any way they think appropriate. Thus the hangers may simply be decorative or conceptual or may allude, either explicitly or implicitly, to its gruesome medical function or to abortion.
My Belly is Mine is a grassroots pro-choice activist collective, established in January 2014 by British feminists specifically to oppose and raise awareness of the Spanish anti-abortion draft bill. Some of the collective’s members have personal links with Spain, but most are born and bred in London. In previous protests, the group asked members of the public to participate by decorating or adding messages to hangers that were then tied onto Hungerford Bridge in London.
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