Duffy believes Nicolino stole the idea for a ball of bras from her. Listen to her share her feelings about the bra ball battle.

Battle over the ball

When the column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, more than 20,000 bras stuffed in bags and wrapped on a spool sat in Nicolino's house in Vallejo, Ca.

For the last year, Nicolino had tried to give away his growing collection of bras— both on the spool and in bags.

"I was trying to get some group to say what they were going to do with it and do something consistent with the politics and history of my project and do it with some style. Maybe like that spool," he says.

According to Nicolino, "An individual got involved and made a proposal for taking it [the collection]. During our initial phone conversation, this individual suggested bra ball. I kind of led her there by the hand.

"I showed her a picture of the spool. And she knew about the Grand Canyon project. I asked her to make a written proposal and form a group," he explains.

Duffy has a different story. She says that Nicolino didn’t want to part with just a fraction of his bras; he wanted Duffy to take the entire collection of twenty thousand off of his hands.

"I asked myself ‘What would I do with that many bras?’ An image of the BraBall formed in my mind," says Duffy.

Duffy says she "immediately followed up the phone call with a formal proposal letter in which I suggested we might collaborate. I had thought it would be novel and refreshing for a female artist and a male artist to collaborate on an art project involving gender issues."

Two months later, in December 2000, Duffy received a call from Nicolino. According to Duffy, he had decided not to give her his collection of bras. Instead, he was going to construct a ball of bras on his own.

photo courtesy of Emily Duffy Duffy originally wanted a few hundred of Nicolino’s bras to make a "car bra" for the VAINVAN, a van she has decorated with words and images about femininity and vanity.

Nicolino describes Duffy's letter this way: "The proposal was a failure. It describes something kind of angry, and so I withdrew the offer for that reason and because a group had not been formed. There’s too much ego involved with individuals. I wanted a group to take this thing because I can’t afford to do it."

Duffy says she immediately copyrighted her sketches, notes and a photo of a scale model of the bra ball.

The Letter

Read the first letter Emily sent to Nicolino, detailing the project.

"I also got a lawyer. My lawyer sent the other artist a cease-and-desist letter. The other artist then got himself a lawyer, who claimed that I cannot hold a copyright on the concept or sketch of a sculpture. The only way I could keep the other artist from appropriating my design, it seemed, was to make a full-sized, permanent BraBall immediately."

The two artists commenced dueling bra balls. A little over one year later, the lawyers have retired to their corners. Nicolino is taking his Big Giant Bra Ball on tour. Duffy continues to build her BraBall in her El Cerrito studio. And the world seems large enough for two bra balls.

 

 

Related links

The Chronicle column by Leah Garchik that started it all.