DURBAN - Influenced by her intimate partner violence (IPV) experience, Artist Andrea Walters launched a multimedia exhibition honouring women who were murdered by their partners.
The exhibition, entitled #OverMyDeadBody, first opened its doors on Thursday at the Durban Art Gallery. It will run until May 15.
#OverMyDeadBody aims to counter the ongoing cross-cultural perception in the country that it is acceptable for a man to punish a woman through violence.
The exhibit showcases 50 Sunlight soap sculptures of the mouths of silenced women resting on transparent shelves and a suspended death shroud. It includes an audiovisual performance and domestic items that refer to intimacy, sexuality and violence. She said she sought materials that would best represent women across socio-economic boundaries, since femicide affected all cultural and racial groups.
“My creative process began by gathering data and images of South African femicide victims through the media. I sought materials that would best represent women across socio-economic boundaries, since femicide affects all cultural and racial groups. I decided to sculpt their mouths on Sunlight soap bars found in most households, and used in some cultures to prepare bodies for burial,” said Walters.
She said that if women survivors saw artwork on IPV it would provoke an instinctive response, and that they would remember because they could not forget.
“My strategies that honour femicide victims are influenced by my experience of intimate partner violence, since memories are activated by domestic objects,” she said.
She added that her mother’s death had inspired the death shroud embroidered with the victims’ names.
“Practical experimentation led to other works in this exhibition. I hope to engage the viewer in a participatory role by supplying additional soaps and carving tools. I hope that ‘something’ happens between the viewer and the artwork, evoking individual emotional responses such as grief, empathy or pain,” she said.
Walters is also expected to conduct walkabouts for the public, as well as with school pupils during the exhibition period.
Daily News