1,000 Flowers

This is the second in a series of site specific installations on the subject of violence against women. Wall Flowers spoke to what women lose to conformity and resistance in abuse-laden cultures. 1,000 Flowers enshrines those encircling walls. Transforming the traditional thousand paper cranes to red-edged white ceramic flowers addresses the breadth, trauma and circumstances of abuse while offering memorial, healing and support.

Each flower is unique, comprised of a ring of “petal” that visually relates to  female genitalia. Stories known and unknown are pushed into clay, in-forming it.  After modeling, the blossom “cup" is sliced off, negating traditional views of women as mere vessel. The flowers emphasize instead the amazing ability of women to conform to situations both tangible and intangible: from childbirth, where the body expands to release its large procreative load, to the myriad subtle and overt ways women negotiate societal expectations and pressures.

The dripped, red flower edges represent blood, expressing both nature and injury while rhyming with the background fields of red that embed and support the blossoms. The small constructed room relates to womb and cave spaces associated with women while physicalizing the constraints and containment many women face for cultural or other reasons. Domestic spaces are the primary site for violence against women. The enclosure also intimates the isolation of suppression and silence surrounding individual trauma.

The creation and display of this art work is an extended meditation on the collection and healing of gender-based abuse. Gifts of flowers are associated with memorial and the forgiveness of transgression, marking emotional transition in a transformed environment. Approach this space in contemplation of sacred, sacrificed lives, with awareness and gratitude for the ongoing contribution those lives make to our individual and collective emotional and spiritual evolution.

Wall Flowers: Navigating the Gap was a mini installation for a proposed larger work. It dealt with what the prevalence and experience of violence against women means for all women. How do women navigate in a social world soaked in undercurrents of violence that can potentially turn against us at any time?  Whether or not we’ve experienced physical violence, we have undoubtedly adapted to this environment. These concepts are presented as red-bordered white flowers against a flat red background. Each flower represents a unique individual woman, molded by hand and their own set of experiences. The whiteness of the flowers represents the purity and wholeness of the untouched spiritual self, the red border is of unknown origin. Is it used to camouflage oneself in an effort to avoid violence or is it the experience of the violence physicalized  or internalized? 

What are the effects of adapting to a potentially or actually violent external world? Each woman/flower presents differently than they are. They are visible only in part and partial. They have lost their edge. They create an optical illusion of who they are, hoping the buried part will not attract attention. The viewing field shifts with perspective, fragments, and realigns. Is there some order or is it then again broken by chaos? 

The Wall Flower of the title intimates making oneself invisible against a background to avoid scrutiny that might invite unwanted attention. The flowers exist as a group, connected by general form and social experience. They are made of half-baked clay- sturdy, but fragile. When first working with clay I remembered Genesis- Adam being formed from clay. But what about Eve? She was formed from Adam’s rib, her creation literally of man. This story has been used to justify uncountable acts of violence against women. It, too, was a creation of man.  This is woman’s story.