Blog #5 Art that beats for a cause

Off the beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art is a traveling art exhibition by 29 international artist. It is currently on view at the Chicago Cultural Center. This exhibition is artwork telling the all too familiar stories of women’s lives around the globe. Some of the artist portrayals are not the tragedy violence you may expect but the powerless invisibility that these women suffer daily throughout the world.
The artist reveals s rape as a systematic weapon of ethnic cleansing. The horrible ways war targets women. Many people around the world block their sight to the serious conditions under which women live daily around the world. Girls forced to be circumcised and sewn shut to secure her virginity, women promised in marriage to men they have never met. These women are not only off in some distant land they are our friends and neighbors.
The International Rescue Committee’s Global Crescendo Project has provided cameras to women and they have recorded domestic abuse, child labor, teenage pregnancy long with many other issues that makes the life for these women incredibly difficult in their communities. This documentation viewed in an art exhibition is tremendously moving. The topic of violence against women is such a deep felt topic that the subject itself risks overseeing the art on exhibit. The art is from the heart of the problem and along with the exhibition community information is also available in the form of community allies and relevant pamphlets.
I think this exhibition is a new relevant way to present such a weighty topic as violence against women. It offers a global perspective approach to a topic that affects the population of the whole world. Women may make up only 40.09 percent of the population but we all have mothers. I love the creatively involved in presenting this horrible topic. I think it helps letting the women express themselves and who better to tell the story than these women themselves.
WWW.chicago tribune.com/entertainment/events/ct-ott-0204-galleries-review-20110204,0,1664770.story