The longtime Lincoln Park resident was the “community caretaker of Chicago’s arts and party scene,” Workman said. “First and foremost, she was a music fan, and her fandom created this brilliant experimental art project.”Īlbritton’s art put her in the spotlight, and even though members of KISS wouldn’t take part in her art, they did pay tribute to her with 1977’s “Plaster Caster.”Īlbritton continued her work for decades, her molds shown in traveling exhibitions, despite battles in the ’80s and ’90s over who should control her collection. “She made it clear her work was really about the music she loved and respected,” Langford said. On Wednesday, Langford went over to Albritton’s home to play her favorite songs. The two forged a friendship that lasted 37 years. “It was a bit of a laugh, just kind of seeing if it would work.” “It wasn’t what you would call an erotic experience in any way,” Langford said. It took him “a good three or four years to process the offer,” Langford said.Īlbritton was “unassuming and took it seriously,” Langford saidĮventually, the musician found himself in a room with Albritton and a mountain of dental mold. Langford said Albritton asked to cast his penis just a couple days after she met him. There’s a richer background than, ‘She liked rock star d-s.'” Credit: Cynthia Albritton (Plaster Caster) / Facebook Plaster Caster’s most prized capture: A mold of Jimi Hendrix’s penis. “And her art was her practice, the way she lived her life going to shows. “There was a deep love of music encoded in her art, the sexual revolution that was part of rock ‘n’ roll,” Workman said. Workman said the Hendrix art piece made Albritton a Chicago cult icon known as “the chick who casted Jimi Hendrix’s d-.”īut Albritton’s work wasn’t about shock value - it was about her love of music. She got her big break when Hendrix became the first celebrity to agree to let Albritton make a cast of his penis from there, she connected with more musicians, living in Los Angeles for a time and getting support from musician Frank Zappa. “She was a constant figure, always at The Hideout looking for her next victims.”Īlbritton, who was born in Chicago and graduated from South Shore High School, started her work when she was given an art assignment in college to make a cast of something, according to Pitchfork. “If she was interested in you as a caster, it meant you had rock star potential. For artists, it was “an honor” when she would ask to make a mold of your private parts, he said. Credit: Cynthia Albritton (Plaster Caster) / Facebook Albritton poses with some of the penis plasters she collected.Īlbritton’s friends said they’re remembering her for her charming personality and for fostering Chicago’s art and party scene.Īlbritton turned groupie culture into a public persona, said her friend, Michael Workman.
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