violence against women + art

Our upcoming dossier on CitizenShift is on FEMICIDE. Femicide, the systematic killing of women has and is happening all over the world. The cases that will be highlighted through film on the site are in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Canada (Native women) and in Guatemala where thousands of women have been killed over the past few years.

What do these cases have in common. In all cases, it is marginalized women who go missing because the killers are able to get away with it. This is the sad truth.

In doing research, I found it extremely difficult to digest alot of the stories, and statistics. Again, it is only with hope and optimism that I think we must take action. Some of the things that I found inspiring out in the cyberworld were acts of artistic and creative reactions.

The image above is from the Creative Commons site, is from an installation that a woman named Irene Simmons helped to create - I believe she travels to different schools and gives workshops on making dresses as a tribute to the women who have gone missing in Mexico.

Another art installation that I found to be quite lovely was instigated by a Norweigian artist, Lise Bjorne


the artist asked women from around the world to embroider the names of missing women and to send them back to her - these are on display at the Station Museum along with other artists in the exhibition called Frontera 450. Here is a description: "This exhibition consists of works by l3 artists and filmmakers who have been deeply concerned about this horrendous cycle of of unsolved murders. Each of the artists has created work that addresses various aspects ofthis tragic situation: misogyny, las maquilas, globalization, the mother’s movement for justice, los desaparecidos, and the role of the Mexican government and media as well as the involvement of United States. This issue has become an world-wide concern of artists and activists and is a microcosm of the serious events taking place all along the U.S. - Mexico border."

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