Bree Rosberg

Pink Tool Kit: Tool Set for Women Ladies, Home Tool Kit Set, DIY & Tools, Tool Kits for Home, Hand Tool Kits for Women

This set of pink tools made from felt is a commentary on the perceptions of textile and craft within professional art spaces.

“Textile craft has historically had ties to women’s labour within the confines of the home environment. This contrasts from the association of manual labour-related crafts – woodwork, metalwork - with men. "Pink Tool Kit: Tool Set for Women Ladies, Home Tool Kit Set, DIY & Tools, Tool Kits for Home, Hand Tool Kits for Women" is a sculptural work created to combine the concepts that textile-based crafts are women’s work and manual labour is a male-only field. I take these ideas and parody them by fabricating a tool kit ‘for women’ that is made entirely from pink felt. Women working in male-dominated trade fields are often still treated as lesser than and seen as not belonging in the space because of their gender. The choice of textiles and the visual of a tool set was made to satirically examine the idea that women don’t need tools that function because they are ‘not supposed’ to be doing manual labour as that is men’s work. The colour of the felt perpetuates the standard of ‘women’s tools’ exclusively being pink. The appearance and functionality of ‘women’s’ commercially sold tools are not different from the men’s version yet are still considered ‘for women’ just because of their colour. The title of the sculpture is taken from an Amazon listing of a tool kit ‘for women’. This set of tools is the exact same as others listed on the website from the same brand, but the listing changes to become ‘for women’ because of its colour, which is always pink. ”