OCTOBER 3, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Sabrina Smith
A new addition to a 41-year-old statue appeared outside of Olin Hall on Sept. 16th. Crocheted flowers, vines, braids, and a baby carrier were arranged on the bronze statue, The Lovers, originally created by Lindsay Daen in 1964, and donated to Colorado College in 1977 by Rosemarie and Franc Ricciardi.
The new yarn artwork on top of it is an example of “yarn-bombing,” a textile form of graffiti that is unsanctioned, unexpected, and often the conduit of social commentary.
One of the artwork’s creators Ellis Stevens, and the seven other students who created this artwork purposely didn’t leave behind an explanation with the piece, so that every viewer had the chance to interpret it on their own. However, Stevens said that she and her classmates are now ready to share their original intentions and messaging behind the work.
The piece was a collaborative final project created by the eight students who took Global Health and Gender during Block 1 this year. The artwork itself is rich with symbolism and commentary related to gender, health, and more specifically, maternal mortality.
These classmates selected The Lovers statue to be the subject of their yarn-bombing because of the gender dichotomy presented by the statue itself.
Stevens pointed out how the male figure is pulling the female figure in the direction of his choosing, symbolizing the cultural domination of women by men. She also noted that the man’s torso is covered by his poncho, while the woman’s breasts are exposed, reflecting how women are often objectified as reproductive vessels.
Stevens went on to explain how the male figure was adorned with flowers and covered with the baby carrier, while the female figure was scarcely draped with a funeral veil and dead vines. At the core of the artwork’s message is this symbol of maternal mortality: the birth-giver and the vines that cover her have died, and her male partner, alive like the multicolored blooms that surround him, has to care for their child alone.
In addition to the dead vines, the braids made from brown and black yarns were intended by Stevens and her classmates to allude to the disproportionate effects of the maternal mortality epidemic on African-American women. This artwork, conveniently stationed immediately outside the two science buildings, is intended to compel pre-med students to consider the ways that their field of interest has systematically failed women, and more specifically, women of color.
According to the Commonwealth Fund, the United States has the highest rate of maternal deaths when compared to other developed countries, 80% of which are predicted to have been preventable. Additionally, the Center for Disease Controlreports that Black women experience maternal mortality in America at more than three times the rate of white women.
Despite the tragic subject of this artwork, Stevens and her classmates left room for hope in the collaborative nature of the artwork’s production and its hope for a collaborative end to global health inequities and preventable maternal mortality.
Each of the eight creators crocheted a pink patch that they then sewed together to form the baby’s carrier. Just as Stevens and her classmates collaborated on the baby’s carrier, the viewers are called to collaborate toward a world in which women are healthier and more empowered. In the words of Ellis Stevens, the artwork and the message it carries “Is much more powerful as a collective statement.”