continued thought pattern

The associated memory of this space and its correlation to women's unwilling imprisonment is where we propose our collaborative installation. The sites and smells that linger in the institution almost 100 years after it was closed are still palpable. We will literally open up the space to re-examine old wounds, respond with our own voices, and re-assert a positive reclamation of female history. The public will be encouraged to become participants in the work, washing, "airing dirty laundry", etc.  

The actions and noises of hundreds if not thousands of women washing (away their sins?) are actions we want to respond to. Even today, although this particular facility is closed, women's voices are being silenced all over the world. Erased. Our work addresses the urgent need for continued advocacy.


The inherited shame of women doing the dirty work of laundry combined with the male-dominated hierarchy of care, "curing" women inmates of their purported ailments, are themes that we feel the continued need to respond to.

address

bring to light

bring to the fore

articulate

respond to

Association

Invocation of memory as a space for catharsis

Invocation of memory as a space for catharsis

Red library – theme of reclaiming identity – empowering women to tell their own stories in positive feminist way

Reclamation of history spoken through the works/experiences of women

Reclamation of history – intervention on domestic objects to reveal un-spoken histories

To reveal the unspoken other side of history, shadow side

?transformation of space?

Space for catharsis as a response to, as a way to reclaim as opposed to space for imposed institutionalization or forced cleaning.

Conversations as spaces for catharsis

Initiation of conversations through the artwork as a way to mediate past trauma with contemporary identitiy.

Art works are tools of instigation/ for conversations

By creating these works, space of exchange is created

Feminine experience of sharing while working

Story telling as shared exchange

Not hidden! Stories are experienced and revealed in real time.

Space to run through

X is the site of a former mental institution/industrial laundry facility for women inmates (?) TS and ARV propose a monetary –free intervention as a space for collective catharsis. Site-specific intervention as a response to the silenced history of women. Using the concept of the Red Library (description here) as the center around which the work revolves, and responding to the location’s torrid past, the artists will open up a space to re-examine old wounds, respond with one’s own voice, and re-establish women’s history in the context of the location.

Commodity-free exchange. Viewers will become participants. Chance operations.

Intervention on domestic objects as a way to intervene on notions of “everyday”. Invoking the untold memories of women to create a space for catharsis. Viewers become participants.

Gender inequality and the silencing of women’s voices from within institutional walls, is unfortunately an ongoing issue. Our work address the urgent need for advocacy, and asserts a positive reclamation of Feminist-based history.

From antiquity, women have been considered second-rate, and women’s bodies have been considered shameful. The inherited identity of this shame is pervasive. We address this history front and center in a location that systematically reinforced the silencing of women’s voices.