This post is my effort to chronicle my recent show, Voices of Resistance, which was featured at Perspective Gallery during February 2019. The show featured work from my Voices of Resistance and #MeToo series and my residency at the Francis Willard Museum. During the show apart from my artist statements the walls were void of titles and descriptions, this information was compiled in a booklet for visitors to read at their leisure. I have been asked by a number of people if they might be able to revisit the content of the booklet, compiled here is much of that content. To begin is a brief personal and project background from my artist talk, and following are descriptions of some of the pieces. For information on the work made during my residency at the Frances Willard House please see the following post and for information on the abortion pieces which were the first images made for this show, please see my post of February 2017.
On February 21, 2019 Perspective Gallery hosted a conversation with the artist where I presented this project. After the talk, where many of the audience members shared their interpretations and responses, it felt as if this was the beginning of a conversation, one that revealed the deep pain we carry in our bones with the weight of the past, one where healing might occur as we wrestle and reckon with who we are collectively. It is an emotional journey to make work from a place deep within and have so many people relate to it on a meaningful level. One of the questions asked repeatedly throughout the run of the show was where will this be shown next? And I would love to share this show far and wide, but I’m not quite sure how to make such a thing a reality. So for those who weren’t able to come to the show in person, I hope this gives you a glimpse into the experience.
Personal and Project Background
Like so many I went to bed on the night of Nov 8, 2016 in disbelief, allowing myself to sleep only because I still had hope that the outcome of our presidential election would be different than it seemed to be. And until the electoral college confirmed our collective fears, I continued to hold on to the possibility of a different outcome. When reality was confirmed, as it has been so many mornings since November 9th, 2016 I continued to hope that it was only a matter of time until something shifted faster than the course of a presidential term. There was a collective sadness, a collective outrage, a collective disbelief and there still is. My coping mechanism in the face of challenge and turmoil is to make or do something tangible, physical, from what we can not touch or hold or immediately control.
As a college student my reaction to learning about the injustice of the world was to become actively involved in the causes that moved me most. I remember learning about the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners and the movement for Puerto Rican independence, a resistance movement against colonialism that began in the days of Spanish imperialism in Puerto Rico in 1898 and later about the case of Mumia Abu Jamal and writing letters and marching and holding rallies. I quickly found myself on the frontlines of the battle for human rights working to address the intersecting issues of poverty, race, education, healthcare and incarceration in the United States. I spent a summer working with Angela Davis, formerly of the Black Panther Party, on the Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex conference, and during my later college years working with Civil Rights attorneys Staughton and Alice Lynd on conditions of confinement cases in Supermaximum security prisons in Youngstown, OH. Later I worked for the Southern Center for Human Rights on class action lawsuits addressing human rights violations in prisons and jails in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. Having spent my formative years working with people who lived the best example of a passionate life, fully devoting themselves to using the skills and education they were privileged to have to doing their best to change the world for the better, when the shock of the 2016 election settled I felt a necessity to address the blatant disruption and undermining of the nation we hold dear through the medium that I hold dear. There were letters and phone calls to members of congress and marches of resistance in solidarity with my fellow progressives, but it all felt intangible. And so, Voices of Resistance was born to grapple with and make, in some way, tangible the effort to salvage and reconstruct our social fabric of decency and democracy as many of us envision it.
I have looked to the past for inspiration in this project because history has such a wealth of knowledge to share, because there there is hope for transformation, because there there is insight to the long game of dogged commitment and slow change. I have looked to history to understand the struggles, gallant efforts and endurance of the unsung women who came before us, to find inspiration in the work they did to lay the cornerstones of who we are today; to build a bridge of conversation between then and now in order to connect more deeply to those who were ignored and devalued in the past, so that we might imagine a more inclusive future for generations to come.
Although we are confronted daily with what seems impossible, with the nepotism of an unstable tyrant, with lies and contradictions and inconsistencies, there is hope in the steady convictions and sentencing of those close to the President through the Mueller Investigation, there is hope in the growing pool of democrats running for President in 2020 and hope in the new class of democratic congress women who were recently sworn in. Just as there is a tremendous amount of work to be done now to ensure transformation, we are hopeful as were those engaged in the long-game of socio-political transformation in the past.
This show consists of a number of interlinked projects each reflecting fears and inspiration of the past two years. Immediately after the elections I found myself thinking about upcoming supreme court appointments and the conservative justices who were sure to be sworn in and the impending potential for Roe v. Wade to be overturned, then there was the women’s march and reflecting back on women’s organizing through out history, and an incredible never before seen image of Harriet Tubman and mass shootings and the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo campaigns, outgrowths of so many prior movements for social change, but with possibly greater platforms. Each of these moments and movements captured my imagination and compelled the making of images. Through slow steady stitching of costumes and props, painting of backdrops and researching my family tree for a personal history of immigration to visiting prop houses and the Lyric Opera to borrow costumes, this has been a journey of making and gathering. But most importantly it has been a journey of connection and community. In a time when people feel increasingly isolated and disillusioned, I felt the need to connect in person and make something in the spirit of togetherness that might reflect the weight of history and the possibility of change.
A Song For A Woman Who More Than Mattered (Above photo & letterpress piece)
This is an homage to all the black women throughout history cut down before their time, silenced and subjugated. This image speaks to the courage and solemnity of movements for Black freedom in the United States. Throughout U.S. history from Abolition to the Anti-Lynching Movement to the Civil Rights Era to the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter campaign people have banded together to stand and fight for the rights of Black people because we continue to live in nation and a world where all people are not treated equally. Women have been the backbone of these movements.
Letterpress prints made in collaboration with Ben Blount, http://benblount.com/
Above are thumbnail images of my work from the Francis Willard house and the polyglot petition made for the Francis E Willard and Ida B Wells image. The scroll is hand stenciled and sewn and is about 35 feet in length.
In the Willard and Wells image, thumbnail second from the right, I imagine a conversation between Willard and Wells, although they are not known to have met in private in real life, only in limited public engagements. Wells is explaining her perspective to Willard, describing her observations of lynching in the American South, the grave impact on the moral and social fabric of our nation. Willard has listened deeply and felt the necessity of Wells anti-lynching movement. She is reflecting on her past comments and doing penance for her prior public words. By writing Black Lives Matter over and over and over again she is both absorbing the impact of her own previous slanderous actions and aligning herself with the movement. She is in a new found position of humility and advocacy for racial parity and justice. The scroll that Willard is composing is inspired by the Polyglot petitions that the WCTU is known for utilizing to gather signatures on a specific issue and then present before congress to demonstrate the number of supporters for a specific political issue they hope to change. In this image, Wells is both in a position of power, standing over Willard, but also one of offering advice and information. It is imagined that they are able to peel back the weight and emotion of the history of their interaction and allow themselves to be vulnerable and honest to work together toward change. By utilizing Black Lives Matter, a photo from the frontlines of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington and the Wells-Willard exchange we see the bridge of history of how deeply racism is institutionalized in the fabric of our nation and how much work we still have to do.
12th Generation Immigrant Image
A colonial settler child gives voice to her descendants support for immigration in a sampler. This image is inspired by the long history of immigration to the United States. The first person in my family to immigrate to the "new world" arrived as an indentured servant on the Mayflower in 1620. He came seeking a better life, new opportunity. Of course the resulting actions of many early colonialist are incredibly problematic, but here I’m hoping to address the imagined potential a new beginning in a new place offers, obviously in the case of the formation of the United States it came at great expense, on the backs of slaughtered Native Americans and enslaved African peoples. But still, the United States has served as a beacon of hope for many people around the world, a place where perhaps a new life is possible. Although it is questionable whether the “American Dream” is actually attainable for all people, it is an enduring concept. The current president has sought to severely curtail the number of migrants entering the country from Muslim nations to anybody crossing our southern border, these actions have brought our nation to a stand still, but those opposing him holdfast to the idea that this land should be a place of refuge and a beacon of hope and opportunity for those who have been persecuted and seek a new beginning. This image imagines a child descendent from immigrants reflecting back on her family history, embracing the path her family has trod and believing it should remain a path for others seeking similar new beginnings.
Image: Harriet’s Commitment.
This image takes inspiration from the determination of U.S. abolitionist Harriet Tubman and her heroic commitment to leading enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad. For 10 years, as a fugitive slave with a bounty on her head, she returned to the South and lead enslaved people to freedom. Her laser focused commitment, her persistence despite the danger, inspires so many today to work for what they believe in. In February of 2017 an image of a young Tubman surfaced that was not previously publicly known. This newly uncovered image of her moved me deeply as we are used to seeing her in her old age, worn by the years, but this image shows her in the prime of her life during the period she was living in Auburn, NY caring for fugitive slaves in their old age.
The photograph is overlaid on prints of famous Tubman quotes that have been adapted due to space constraints. Prints were made by Ben Blount, http://benblount.com
Image: In Preparation for Revolution.
This image imagines a woman in preparation for revolution; she is engaged in handiwork, a craft historically seen as the realm of women, but is using this skill as a source of power, to create a hat to symbolize her resistance, similar to the hats worn during the Women’s Marches of 2017 and 2018. Instead of Betsy Ross creating a flag for a new nation, a contemporary Latina woman revisits her ancestral grand-mother, finding inspiration and drawing strength from her roots. Behind her the canton of the flag is extracted and expanded, with infinite stars/states, and painted red to depict the blood spilled in the creation of our nation. She is conjuring a time for change.
Image: #Never Again, #Enough is Enough.
This image reflects on the distress our nation endures each time a mass shooting occurs due to our inability to implement better gun control laws. We do not have to accept mass shootings as an inevitability that may one day take our children from this earth, but rather we have the capacity to legislate against such an eventuality. I was compelled to make this image, not out of a need for shock value, but from a deep space of dread and fear of what is to come if we fail to implement better background checks, ban high capacity magazines and prohibit assault-style weapons. In the words of Senator Cory Booker, “To not act is to be complicit in the continued violence.”
Cross-stitched placards worn by the women and girls featured in these photographs.
Image: Future Leaders.
These images are a love letter to all the women through out history who stood up for what they believed in and worked tirelessly despite the odds. They were once school aged girls who defied the naysayers to embrace a path of possibility so that greater opportunity might be afforded to future generations. Here’s to inspiring the future leaders and the potential they boldly embody. The seeds have been planted and they are flourishing.
With an eye to the past: it was in 1917 the first woman was elected to Congress. In 1964 the first woman of color was elected to Congress. In 1968 the first black woman was elected to Congress. In 1992 the first black woman was elected to the Senate. In 1872 the first woman ran for U.S. President. In 2016 the first woman nominated by a major political party ran for U.S. President. Today, thus far, four Democratic women are running for President.
In the 243 years that the United States has existed as a country we have been slow to include the great diversity of voices that constitute "We the People", power being held and maintained by a narrow set of privileged white men, but the hands of time are ticking around an expanding clock and the dominate paradigm is shifting. The 116th Congress includes 131 women, including the first Native American and Muslim Women. And we are amidst a painful power struggle of divisiveness and factionalism, but there is a bright glimmer of possibility on the horizon.
Images from the Keep Abortion Legal series.
Making these images became essential for me shortly after the inauguration. They are about preserving a woman's right to choose. The intention was to depict a woman driven to give herself an abortion at home, the results are unknown, is she hemorrhaging, in excruciating pain, resting after the exertion of performing surgery on herself, deceased? In this, she is alone, pushed into the darkness and at that moment of rest she is discovered by her daughter, or maybe visited by the ghost of another daughter. She is in a fetal position, perhaps a rebirth of herself. The hanger images are entitled Not A Surgical Instrument, in reference to the history of women who have performed their own abortions using wire hangers. And the close up on the placenta and gynecological tools is entitled Never Again, never again shall we be forced back in time to a moment when we might be put in a position where we would consider performing our own abortions. The placenta and the majority of the blood used in these images are real. They are mine.
For more information please refer to my article: Let’s Talk About Abortion contained in a blog post from February 2017.
Image: Installation shot of complete #MeToo series.
#MeToo Statement
The Women’s March of January 2017 marked a new wave of resistance bringing millions of people together with a sense of common cause. This mobilization shepherded ignored voices to the fore; provoked by the trauma of a man being elected who flaunts his ability to objectify and molest women. From the greek myth of Cassandra and Apollo to Anita Hill women have not been believed when they speak out against their transgressors. The #MeToo movement of today feels like one of the ways our culture is shifting to acknowledge the experiences of many women. Each woman has a distinct personal and ancestral experience of sexual assault from the brutality of slavery, the rape and massacre of Native women, the violence and aggression that comes with colonization to stories of isolated individual incidents of rape, assault and molestation. By banding together and supporting the diverse voices of women who have been violated and abused, the abuse becomes a visible part of our culture, one we must confront. It is my hope that together we are stronger. That we as 21st century individuals are galvanized by both singular and collective histories of violence against women; that we desire to know deeply the experiences of others, to hold them up to the light in order to speak truth to a power that for centuries has gone unchallenged. Today we stand for change, for our foremothers, the struggles they endured and the work they did to lay the cornerstones of who we are today, to the bright future we imagine for our daughter’s and our daughter’s daughters.
#MeToo is a fine art photography series depicting women young and old giving voice to stories of sexual assault and abuse past and present. It includes twenty women from a diversity of backgrounds all clad in victorian style mourning dresses, a dress worn by European women during the period to connote the loss of a loved one. In this instance it is not the loss of a physical being, but the negation of the voice of women throughout history across the globe whom have been subjected to sexual violence that is referenced by the European style dress, the dress of one of the greatest colonizers in history. The seed of inspiration for this series was planted on the night of the Golden Globes when Hollywood women wore black as a collective voice of protest against the culture of sexual harassment. The #MeToo placard is a sort of reverse scarlet letter, in the case of Hester Pryne, she was made to wear the letter A and stand before a crowd, shamed for the act of adultery, here the collective impact of so many women who have a #MeToo experience is meant to bring awareness, it is a shameful history of unrepentant perpetration that we should no longer be willing to quietly endure. By depicting women of today in a dress code of the past it is my intention to demonstrate the sense of time that women have been subject to sexual abuse in hopes that we can create a cultural shift so that the experience is not perpetuated in future generations.
Installation image from ArtPrize in September of 2018. Hopefully this gives a Perspective of what the installation looks like in a larger space. Each image is 20”x30”.
As an outgrowth of this project I hosted an in gallery photoshoot asking people to show up as their version of a Resistor, however they might interpret this concept. Over a four hour period we made images of eight separate groups and individuals. From the embodiment of Gabriel Silang, the Filipina revolutionary leader who lead the fight for independence from Spain in the 1760’s to a family of four who are active protestors and brought their beautiful signs, this was an incredible way to expand the project from the past to the present.
Thank you for taking the time to explore this project a bit more deeply! Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have further questions about the work. It is my hope that if this project is able to travel, with each installation I would create more contemporary resistor images from self-selecting audience members who imagine themselves as such.