Walking Alongside Trauma
The Walking Alongside Trauma (WAT) initiative, led by the Craft Council of BC (CCBC), is a material-based arts exploration of the vicarious traumatization of sexualized violence. The purpose of our study is to examine the various impacts of the vicarious traumatization of sexualized violence (VTSV) on society, particularly for those who interact directly with survivors’ trauma (e.g., crisis support workers, family members, health care workers, educators, peers, etc.), who we refer to as “Witnesses”. Thirteen material-based artists have worked with these individuals to translate their experience into objects that will be the basis for a touring exhibition. Alongside the exhibition we are planning to engage the wider community through programming that will further explore the impact of VTSV.
The project is led by CCBC in collaboration with McGill University and Douglas College.
Artist Statement:
In my conversations with my witness collaborator, I was struck by the overwhelming number of emotions she felt in confronting a situation where a loved one experienced sexual violence. I observed she experienced these same emotions in her position as a professional support worker. I decided these emotions fell into two groups, and wanted to figure out a way to symbolise these in the work I would create.
One group of emotions was a combination of anger, frustration, sadness, resentment, and heartbreak. These were directed towards the person who perpetrated the violence, as well as the failings of a system that does not do enough to support or protect victims.
The second group of emotions were felt alongside her desire to provide a place of nurture, safety, shelter, protection, support, and healing for the victim(s) of violence.
I wanted to create two companion pieces in order to convey these feelings, and have the work be empowering and healing for the viewer. I knew the work I created for Walking Alongside Trauma needed to be figurative. My starting point for creating the work was to have my witness collaborator in the studio for a silhouette portrait photo shoot. These photos are the basis for the black silhouette figures cut from paper that are central to both works.
To present the feelings I selected common symbols used to represent the emotions I wanted to embody. Fire for anger, a tear drop for sadness, and so on. I used these common symbols as a way to figure out how to represent the feelings in my final compositions.
Emotional Labour: rage, sorrow, resentment, frustration, and heartbreak - 16" x 20", hand-cut paper & drawing
Emotional Labour: rage, sorrow, resentment, frustration, and heartbreak
16" x 20", hand-cut paper & metallic gel pen drawing
The work centres around the silhouetted figure of my witness collaborator in profile, with her head tilted upwards, her mouth open with teeth bared in a grimace, and her fists raised in the air in a gesture of anger and frustration. Her figure is surrounded by metallic flames depicting her rage. Above this tableau is a swirl of blue paper cut with tear drop shapes depicting her sorrow. There is a red love heart cracked into two pieces, positioned on her upper arm, depicting heartbreak.
Emotional Labour: nurture, shelter, protection and healing - 16" x 20", Hand-cut paper and drawing
Emotional Labour: nurture, shelter, protection and healing
16" x 20", Hand-cut paper and metallic gel drawing
The second artwork centres around a silhouetted figure of Tori with her back facing the viewer. Her fists are raised above her head in a posture of defiance, protection, and strength. Positioned within her chest there is a small curled up figure inset within her body. There is a red love heart with a crack down the centre depicting a partially mended broken heart. The figure of Tori has hand-drawn leaves in metallic gel pen flowing in and around her body symbolising healing, nurturing, and support.