Labels are coming back to me
The labels are starting to come back to me, which I am very happy for. They all look so indivual and bear traces of the person having embroidered it, both through choise of color, stiches and the handwriting. I am looking forward to make the installation in the Museum. The installation will be done as neutral as possible, in order for each label and each name to be seen the best. The essence of this project is located with each participant's time spent to embroider the label while hearing the story of the women.
I got images yesterday along with the labels from a group working in the Philippines. The participants were women survivors of sexual abuse.
I have also posted some images from a group working almost at the other end of the world, up north in Norway, where two communities met to embroider and discuss the situation in Juárez a few weeks back.
I will continue the embroidering during the exhibtion, the additional embroidered labels of each name will be kept and used when, and if, the exhibtion travels. In the end all the labels will be brought back into society again, continuing to raise awareness of Juárez and hopefully also raise some money for the mothers in Juárez. More information about this part of the project to be posted a little later.
posted by Lise Bjorne Linnert at 10:48 PM
2 Comments:
I haven't participated in anything like this since my university years some six or seven years ago when I was more active in women's issues among other social injustices. Therefore, when I received an e-mail about the project I was very excited to join in regardless of how small my contribution was going to be.
I currently live in Madrid, Spain with my husband of two years and various factors make living here both a blessing and a curse. Making friends with the locals has proved to be a bit more challenging than at first thought. Yet, while I was embroidering the names of the missing Juarez women I really had to look at my life more closely and look at life with a broader view.
Everyone is connected somehow and the world really is smaller than it seems. Thus, what has happened and what, unfortunately, continues to happen in the city of Juarez affects me almost as much as it affects the families and friends of these women. These atrocities happen anywhere, anytime in the world. When I used to work as a rape counselor in San Diego, CA and Las Vegas, NV, I would sometimes think that these survivors could be one of my sisters, a close female friend, my mother, an aunt, or any other woman I might know closely or not. I could only imagine how I would feel or react if it was someone I knew, so I can only imagine how the friends and families of the Juarez women feel and react especially when their loved ones end up missing. This not knowing was one main reason why I decided to become a rape counselor, so that others would know and would be educated and spread the word maybe through art like what is being done with this one.
Silence can only aid these sad events to continue, so I hope my voice, as small as it is, will add to the greater voice that speaks for the missing and surviving Juarez women and all women the world over who have been through similar experiences or who know someone who has.
Dear Glenda!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. For me, the essence of this project is located in the embroidering of the labels, the crossing of women's traces that are happening and the connection it creates. For the mothers and friends of the victims it also shows that their untireing fight for justice and worthiness are seen, heard, respected and spread out. They are not silenced.
Lise
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