Whispers rising in streams of white, expanding frontiers on wings of flight. Floating in thermals of children's laughter, Lining clouds silver with light, Diamonds seeded forever after.
GooseSpit in June - 16” x 16” - 2021
When Time Stands Still
Upon arrival in Canada, I was introduced to the concept, time is money. Weird. This I had never experienced. To keep the wolf from my door, I shifted gears into survival as I hurriedly stuffed force-fed plants into plastic containers satisfying the ever-increasing demand for urban artifice. As I fell into the immigrant production line, I wondered if I would ever have time to smell the ocean again.
Now I pluck plastic pots from the ocean as I see the world deteriorating further into the madness of consumerism as it is brought to its knees by a micro-organism. Dog eats Dog, while climbing up the corporate ladder of crumbling foundations of survival. To prevent the spread, here in Canada we’re asked to cover our faces when speaking moistly.
Ancient giants lie bleeding out biodiversity from their veins along with eternally eroding plastics into weeping oceans. Lives lie shattered in the Streets. While dogs roam concrete jungles. Lifting legs upon plasticity. Artificial genomes spliced into micro-biomes disrupting ecosystems while primates debate the merits of climate change in cyberspace. Ticking.
The continuous flow of hurry and save last chance emails that land in my inbox, as a daily reminder that time is money as they urge me to spend for their survival.
Eat. Sleep. Work. Like clockwork. Faster and Faster. More and More.
Recycle. Reuse. Regurgitate.
Footnote - Regurgitate, which entered the English vocabulary in the mid-17th century, is of Latin origin tracing back to the Latin word for gurges which means Whirlpool.
THE VICE THAT BINDS
Incrimination - Collage on Linen - 12” x 12”
For more years than I care to remember, I’ve been watching the strange cultural phenomena of rape with the subsequent effects on our society. Having a naturally curious disposition I wanted to understand how this phenomenon had crept into the fabric of our culture and like a forensic scientist I began sleuthing around. To my horror, I discovered untold social structures perpetuating and supporting this epidemic. Or should I say pandemic? I expressed a small portion of my findings through a body of work called: Social Construct. Dumbstruck, I found that the biggest structure perpetuating this culture is Victim Blaming.
In my quest to understand, I looked at the psychology behind Victim Blaming. Pouring over research papers, I found the term Just World Hypothesis (JWH) which is based on an individual’s belief that the world is a safe, just place where people get what they deserve. People want to believe that the social system that affects them is fair, legitimate, and justifiable thus creating a false sense of security. At its core, Victim Blaming stems from a knee-jerk, fear reaction triggered by the human drive for self-preservation. It is this idea that when something bad happens to a person, it could happen to them too and thus mistakenly believe that survivors must have done something to deserve their fate. Institutions are particularly prone to this dynamic as survivors threaten the group's status quo that must at all costs be preserved.
Victim Blaming devalues the prey, holding them responsible for the crime while releasing predators from all responsibility. It is multi-faceted and ironically surfaces in the form of negative responses from the social structures purportedly in place to support the wounded. In a cruel twist of the knife thrust into a survivor’s heart, family, friends, criminal justice personnel, the legal system and professionals alike too frequently pathologize female reactions to trauma. It is the vice that silences.
I have no solution to this vice other than to shed light on the matter and expose it for what it is. I can say, however, that when the focus is placed on the perpetrator who becomes the subject of the crime, incriminating the survivor is significantly reduced.
Caveat Added: Due to the increase in domestic abuse arising from CoVid quarantining, I’d like to emphasize the fact that those preyed upon by intimate partners are more frequently blamed than those raped by strangers. Survivors of domestic sexual abuse experience far greater distress due to victim blaming and thus prefer to remain silent to avoid secondary victimization.
April 3rd, 2021
WILD COAST
Morning dew calls me to Ride. While.
Touching you I reach out from the inside.
Of your Deep embrace within Rushing solitude.
Of salt laden kisses. My face dives with gratitude.
Into time spent as one in the rhythm of your Soul.
Freedom - Acrylic on Canvas - 2012 - 36x60 inches
On Feminism
I never considered myself a feminist. In fact as a young girl in the 1960s I would watch the public bra burning demonstrations quite perplexed. Never considered doing that myself. Nor was I misogynistic. That was not who I was nor how I would proclaim my independence as a woman. I mean, whats the big deal about bras anyway? Hated them. Didn’t need one. Never wore one and always considered them to be the most unnatural constraining device invented. Uncomfortable. Useless. Unless of course, it was to deter all the fricking perverts out there. Perhaps there is wisdom in dressing modestly. But I digress.
Even though I never considered myself to be a bra burning feminist of the 60s, I have been pigeon holed as one during this millennium. A feminist artist no less. Stereotyped. Really? One of those? Curious, I had to investigate and reconsider this notion as I championed the right of a women to be human. Not commodified. A person. Treated with dignity, not objectified. Loved, not scorned. Encouraged, not denigrated. Through my work, I have articulated the effects of sexual exploitation and investigated and exposed the underlying institutional structures that have enabled the current deteriorating state of our global culture of rape. Yes, it is deteriorating despite the current wave of feminism that purports to empower women. Due to this I have been labelled a feminist but yet feel so far removed from your stereotypical activists of the 60s. Perhaps I should be grateful for the courageous bra burning forerunners that allowed me the freedom to speak out about this concerning human rights issue today. Perhaps without them the collective feminist voice would not have reached the critical mass of the #metoo movement thus asserting a voice for feminist work to continue. Does anybody care? Not sure. Yet.
Ululo →
Wilderness wailing echoes through time, Deep caves holding silence, reverberating sublime, Stretched to capacity, wrought in pain, Twisted into nothingness, everything to gain...
The nature of transgressions violating one’s essence are often stored in places deep within the body. A survival mechanism locked in place. Unspoken vigilance waiting. Silenced by fear. Shocked into submission but tenaciously building through cords of time.
Ululation strikes a chord so deep no words can express. A primeval cry wrought in stirring depths beyond reasoning, touching parts that ride upon the crest of every breathe released. Silently waiting.
Statistics
My voice feels like a drop in the ocean being swept away in the torrent when I see the latest statistics released by WHO surrounding exploitation of women. Sexual exploitation is historical however it appears that it is spreading at an unprecedented rate. It has become so woven into the global landscape that it has become normalized. So ingrained that we have now given this monster the title of "Rape Culture".
WHO Stats:
Violence against women - particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence - are major public health problems and violations of women's human rights.
Recent global prevalence figures indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/
In my quest to understand this culture, I began investigating the underlying structures that enable this exploitation to flourish. I released a series of small collages showing my discovery which you may see under so·cial con·struct - noun: A social phenomenon cultivated by society http://trish-smith.squarespace.com/work/#/nacht/
To say the affects of rape are damaging is an understatement. The questions I raise are;
how are women surviving this global assault?
How do they remain resilient in this rising tide?
What is being done to assist the 1 in 3 women financially, physically and emotionally?
I welcome feedback as I investigate the resilience of survivors.
Structures
In my quest to understand the social constructs embedded in our global culture of rape, the following two excerpts have been reverberating throughout 2016 for me. Shocked is an understatement.
The Women's Crusade by Kristof and Wudunn (New York Times magazine)
"The global statistics on the abuse of girls are numbing. It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century. The number of victims of this routine “gendercide” far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html?_r=0
Dismantling Rape Culture around the world: A Social Justice imperative by Pamela R. Fletcher, Associate Professor of Women Studies, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota.
"Based on our research and analysis of the high incidence of sexual violence perpetrated around the world, we contend that the term rape culture encompasses widespread anti-female attitudes and values, and the resultant oppressive conditions women and children encounter in the global institution of patriarchy. Misogyny and sexism are the cornerstones of patriarchy that enable a rape culture to flourish"
http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/Vol2010.no4/archive.vol2010.no4/fletcher.pdf
It has further been determined that this exploitation is not unique to developing countries rather in developed nations it is concealed or trivially dismissed as individual misfortune rather than a cultural phenomenon.
How have women survived …?
Resilience
"They tried to bury me, but didn't know that I'm a seed”
