Drawn in Smoke, 2011
160 drawings of smoke and ink on paper
11 ⅞ x 8 inches each
Installation dimensions variable
Weisman Art Museum

Drawn in Smoke reflects on one of the worst industrial disasters in American history. As a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 in New York City, 146 garment workers (most of them young immigrant women and girls) died. To resist their losses being forgotten, Bart created what she has called a “smoke drawing” for each person who was killed by the fire.

After hanging masked pieces of paper from a scaffolded ceiling, she moved under the suspended papers while holding up a candle to expose each to smoke. The unmasked part of the paper was marked by soot in luminous amorphous forms. 

After removing the masking, she inscribed the name of a victim (from a list at Cornell University Archives) below each drawing with an ink dipping pen. Daughter of a skilled seamstress and granddaughter of a lingerie factory worker from Eastern Europe, Bart has often worked to honor the anonymous garment maker through her art.

Publications:

  • Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection, Laura Wertheim Joseph editor and curator, Weisman Art Museum, 2020

  • Between Echo and Silence, essay by Joanna Inglot, Law Warschaw Gallery  Macalester College, 2012

Exhibitions: