DARkly FURgotten
Months ago I heard a radio interview in which a doctor in Darfur described his makeshift hospital and many of the horrible wounds he was treating. He spoke, somewhat matter-of-factly, of a woman who came to him with her wrists cut nearly to the bone. She had been hung from a tree limb and gang raped by the Janjaweed militia for three days. Her story is woven into my art.......... I have sewn her amidst a sea of trees representing Darfur’s countless victims. She holds a replica of Earth based on a EUMETSAT satellite image of our planet and asks “will our story remain darkly forgotten?”
The atrocities in Dafur are many..........men and children are killed (estimates range from 80,000 to 400,000) and maimed, women are raped by the thousands by the Arab Janjaweed ("evil men on horseback") army and then branded with fire and knives. An estimated 90% of black villages have been destroyed and 2.5 million are refugees living in fear.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,702074,00.html?iid=chix-sphere
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/20/60II/main650457.shtml
What will WE do about Darfur?
To Gwen Magee..... my heartfelt respect for your blog and your willingness to have a conversation about censorship and about art in response to social issues, all presented with meaningful quotes and wonderful information about textile resources.........thank you!
http://creativityjourney.blogspot.com/
Postscript:
I have had so many questions about the woman's eyes and why they are seemingly green, I would like to copy an answer I wrote in expanation:
To answer your excellent question about her eyes........they really are brown! I started with dark brown eyes and changed them to light brown because I wanted the black irises to show up better. Surprisingly to me, when I finished the work and added the green silk charmeuse scarf at the very end, those lighter brown eyes caught the green in the scarf so well they appear to be green. But if you look closely you will see they are brown.
The face itself is based on a famous Benin mask of the Bibi tribe that is housed in a London museum.
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=5&viewMode=0&item=1978.412.323
I chose the copper colored dupioni for her face because the mask itself is a beautiful copper color. I wanted to copy the mask because it was beautiful and regal and, except for her eyes (in which I tried with the pupils to convey a hidden hysteria) my intent was to evoke a proud woman, not necessarily a helpless victim.
I have since learned that women in Darfur who are raped by the Janjaweed must "mask their shame" from their community so my basing the face on a mask gained new meaing for me.
The atrocities in Dafur are many..........men and children are killed (estimates range from 80,000 to 400,000) and maimed, women are raped by the thousands by the Arab Janjaweed ("evil men on horseback") army and then branded with fire and knives. An estimated 90% of black villages have been destroyed and 2.5 million are refugees living in fear.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,702074,00.html?iid=chix-sphere
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/20/60II/main650457.shtml
What will WE do about Darfur?
To Gwen Magee..... my heartfelt respect for your blog and your willingness to have a conversation about censorship and about art in response to social issues, all presented with meaningful quotes and wonderful information about textile resources.........thank you!
http://creativityjourney.blogspot.com/
Postscript:
I have had so many questions about the woman's eyes and why they are seemingly green, I would like to copy an answer I wrote in expanation:
To answer your excellent question about her eyes........they really are brown! I started with dark brown eyes and changed them to light brown because I wanted the black irises to show up better. Surprisingly to me, when I finished the work and added the green silk charmeuse scarf at the very end, those lighter brown eyes caught the green in the scarf so well they appear to be green. But if you look closely you will see they are brown.
The face itself is based on a famous Benin mask of the Bibi tribe that is housed in a London museum.
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=5&viewMode=0&item=1978.412.323
I chose the copper colored dupioni for her face because the mask itself is a beautiful copper color. I wanted to copy the mask because it was beautiful and regal and, except for her eyes (in which I tried with the pupils to convey a hidden hysteria) my intent was to evoke a proud woman, not necessarily a helpless victim.
I have since learned that women in Darfur who are raped by the Janjaweed must "mask their shame" from their community so my basing the face on a mask gained new meaing for me.
posted by patricia at 12:26 PM
6 Comments:
Patricia, I want to be the first to congratulate you on this thoughtful and meaningful piece. Thank you for sharing it with the world.
Patricia, it's gripping. Thanks so much for sharing it!
what a great quilt, and how wonderful that you can bring attention to the horrible things that are happening in the world.
I support some of these women thru a group called Women For Women and they write letters that sometimes that sometimes speak of how dangerous life is there. It breaks my heart.
You work is important and touches many of us.
Patricia, DARkly FURgotten is POWERFUL. You've been able to capture unspeakable terror in her haunting eyes. The feelings that I just experienced have only surfaced before when I'm viewing Penny Sisto's work. Thank you for caring!
It is a wonderful piece Patricia, and good on you! My husband has had reason to spend time in Darfur and it is a hard and terrible place - especially for women.
I have only one query.
Why green eyes in a country where almost everyone has dark brown eyes? It almost implies that she is a foreigner. It evokes the girl from Afghanistan photographed many years ago on the cover of National geographic. It is stunning as an image to match her eyes, but raises, in my mind, a query about her race.
Hi Jenny, and thanks for your interest and you comments. I would imagine your husband, with first hand knowledge of Darfur, is heartbroken about what is happening.
To answer your excellent question about her eyes........they really are brown! I started with dark brown eyes and changed them to light brown because I wanted the black irises to show up better. Surprisingly to me, when I finished the work and added the green silk charmeuase scarf at the very end, those lighter brown eyes caught the green in the scarf so well they appear to be green. But if you look closely you will see they are brown.
The face itself is based on a famous Benin mask of the Bibi tribe that is housed in a London museum.
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=5&viewMode=0&item=1978.412.323
I chose the copper colored dupioni for her face because the mask itself is a beautiful copper color. I chose to copy the mask because it was beautiful and regal and, except for her eyes (in which I tried with the puplis to convey a hidden hysteria)I wanted to evoke a proud woman, not necessarily a helpless vistim.
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