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BOXES beyond borders

Mother’s Cushion

Artist from Japan

My mother, 82 years old, has lived in Japan, doing housework for her family for 60 years.

No retirement, no weekend. That’s very common for Japanese women of that generation. Her family feels at ease thanks to her contribution. She is like a comfortable sofa for her family but she doesn’t have her own chair.

I would like to offer her a comfortable cushion, hoping she can take a rest sometimes.

I decorated it in pink because she loves to go out dressing herself up.

A Piggy’s Dream

Deep and sound asleep in the dark night.

Covered with the colours of black, red, and gold of security.

Mother said, “It’s a guarantee. Sleep. Sleep. adorable little baby.”

Sailing, sweet sleep little piggy
Even inside the dark box

Safe and sound asleep in the dream with guarantee of smiling

Sweet sleep
With beauty and good health guarantee.

MY Life AND MY Lesson

Artist from Canada

This is La Benida Hui’s box, broken into pieces representing her “Life’s Lesson” by a hanging mobile. The Center is her art table and art tools, hanging from this space is the root of all things; Love.

On one end is the Ocean, made into a cross-like form; standing for the sacrifice of our home planet and our health at our own hands through climate change and pollution.

On the opposite end is The Green where nature items are bound together intertwined with Indigenous patterns. Symbols of whales and butterflies represent Life, Beauty and Rebirth.

Garden of Courage…

Where the
Seeds breakthrough
From breakdown.

Seasons are the reasons…

Nothing, nothing was an accident, everything was meant to
Happen.

Garden of Courage, seeds planted, tribes gathered, beautiful friendships blooming…

The “Formosa Tales” box project has allowed me to see the courage within, I am inspired by many with the sharing circles, and the boxes created… women of different backgrounds coming together having a much-needed conversation, the power of connection creates the possibility for transformation …It is my hope that with each box, every place we go, the seeds of courage would be planted, our collective vibration for the greater good, to be the courage; strength continues to blossom…

This little wooden box
What brings is unlimited possibilities…
In sharing and listening, the bravery of the exhibitors touched me… let me see the beauty of my bravery and vitality again. How to open the chat box in my heart, and what is worth cherishing… That is really an art. This garden bloomed in the third version. It is my expectation. What the treasure island chatterbox can plant on this beautiful island is full of hope, full of long-term prospects, abundant flowers and good fruits everywhere.

The Love Seat

Artist from USA

A cozy and happy place, this Love Seat. Challenging the traditional appearance of your typical living room chair, fireworks and “power red” fabric make for a bold, yet celebratory, place to sit.

The inconsistent pattern mimics the reality of our own inconsistent lives – as women and people – but appearing upon a strong piece of furniture reminds us we are still safe and stable. Individual black and white buttons remind us that everyone, regardless of color, is invited and welcome, while a single ruffle-edged pillow adds a touch of “feminine”.

Thank You!

Mother’s Love

A Mother’s Everlasting Love

From that very first breath we take
That first moment when we awake
We feel the warmth of her embrace
See the wondrous smile on her face

Through the years of joy and sadness too
She’s always there to comfort you
When time then comes to leave the nest
She’ll miss us knowing it’s for the best.

When her turn comes, her job now done
She’s cared for you and everyone
Within that treasured family
Her love continues for you and me.

Kate’s World

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Kate McIsaac ,1ST LIEUTENANT, U.S. ARMY and Laura Klein, ARTIST

Kate McIsaac just celebrated her 30th birthday in Baqubah, Iraq. She is a 1st Lieutenant in the Army, serving in OIF IV – V at FOB Warhorse as a postal officer. Her unit is from Long Beach, California.

She is also a first-year law student at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa and will either go into criminal law or First Amendment Libel law. Libel law is near and dear to her heart.

Kate also has a degree in Journalism and worked as a journalist for several years.

The Dance of Life

Artist from India

The box represents the oceans and earth, embellished with the symbol Om; this is the sound of our breath or Pranava. Inside, gold dust is the precious earth we must cherish, upon which Natraj, the Lord of Dance, dances the dance of life. On the lid, is Hukam हुकम.

I seek the blessings of the Tibetan prayer flags, the vibrational frequency of Om, and the sheer liberation of Hukum (surrender) to continue this dance with intention and purpose. The Tibetan flags carry our prayers via the wind to get them answered. The flags represent the five elements. White flags symbolize clouds, red for fire, green for water, yellow for earth, and blue for the sky. The mantras spread positive energy wherever they are.

Om- The sacred syllable
Mani- Jewel
Padme- Lotus
Hum- Spirit of enlightenment

Transitive / Transform

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Joan Ling, INNOVATOR AND ADVOCATE FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA and Ann Lindbeck, ARTIST

Contents of Trunk:

A letter ordering lumber by Pablo Neruda

Accordian landscape

Key to a China trunk

Map of California

Map of China

Architectural drawing

 

 

Sor Juana

Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz was a 16th century Mexican nun. Not only was she one of the greatest poets and playwrights of her time, she was also the first person on this continent to argue in writing for the rights of women to be educated.

In Sor Juana’s time, a girl had only two real choices: she could marry or she could join a convent. Juana was illegitimate and had no father to pay her dowry, so marriage to a wealthy man who might foster her deep love for knowledge was out of the question. Marriage to a poor man would end her education, so reluctantly she joined a convent. In her convent she had extensive free time which allowed her to continue her studies.

Although she was not allowed to leave the convent, she was allowed visitors and many important people came regularly to visit this brilliant woman. She became quite famous and her books were bestsellers in Spain.

Defying the Inquisition and the profoundly patriarchal world she lived in, she filled her room with over 4000 books and wrote voluminously, particularly poetry. Later in life, she was threatened into silence by the male Church hierarchy and forced to sign a statement of repentance.

Her final days were spent caring for the poor, and she died after she gave up writing while caring for her sisters during a plague.

In her room was a sign that she had not completely surrendered; an unfinished poem, carefully hidden.

The Little Engine That Could

When I received the box I thought, “Why me? I’m not an artist”, but the box itself intrigued me.  I loved its fragrance, its smooth lines and the fact that it could hold my secrets or be open with the story I wanted to tell.  Almost immediately, the box became a train for me.

Growing up in Denmark I was very familiar with fairy tales, and I thought the train would become part of my own fairy tale. But as I worked on the train, it took on the intensity of the American children’s book, The Little Engine That Could.

I came to the United States when I was twenty-one years old with the dream in my heart that I could start my life over again. And I could. And I did. I am a wife to a wonderful husband, I have two beautiful grown children who love me. After years as a psychotherapist and consultant, I decided to become a toffee maker. It gives me great joy to create something sweet that brings joy to so many people.

After the train was finished I was on board as The Queen of Toffee, waving to the crowd. I was right back in my Danish fairy tale where I had started out, and I think I’ll stay there.
 

Emily’s Ideas

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Emily Harrison, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER, CITY OF PALO ALTO and Renee Winick, ARTIST.

A government building is the architecture that delineates space and frames conversations.

In the confines of that structure, Emily Harrison devotes her time and boundless energy to developing new ideas and innovations.

For her, this process becomes an explosion of joy and excitement as if sparks were shooting out in an array of twists and turns, spiraling outward, and beyond.

Conjugation Between Earth and Sky

It is commonly known that in order to survive, blossom and continue the course of nature, it is necessary to intervene with our surrounding habitats. This lid symbolizes the ever lasting sky and its thousands and thousands of living species that are endangered by daily air pollution. The bottom represents our earth, life and death, the moments of glory, agonies of defeat, and on going war and peace.

Between this conjugation, we define sacred love for human beings and nature, our dreams and desires to fulfill a glorious and promising future.

In the end, conjugations of any type: earth and sky, man and nature or man and its kind must be cared for and preserved. The lack of attention to this contributes to the heavy consequences that we face today: the holes in our ozone, the wars and its death toll, last but not least the AIDS epidemic.

The Mummified Stone Heart

The central focus is a very special stone heart found on the Pacific coast at the equator. It has an uncommon green color. a heart with many scars. Once it was split, but love was able to hold it together and unify what had been separated.

Sorrow leaves wounds; joy brings peace.
This heart has found its peace.
Its wounds have healed.
The purpose of life was fulfilled; the eternal cycle of birth to life and death to a new life.
This heart has been embalmed; first if has been cleaned from all perishables.
The nucleus remained, one with the nature.
For women all over the world and over all times it might be a symbol for love;
isn’t the woman love’s keeper?
Love is immortal.
Faith and hope in the victory of love might be the symbol of humankind in the next millennium.

NOTE: This embalmed heart has been wrapped with golden ribbons, placed on a plate of slate from the Andes, and bedded in a stone sarcophagus.  The feather of a white swan symbolizes the purity of the heart.  As grave goods, there are two sealed papyrus rolls perpetuating the heart’s qualities. This project contains symbols from four different continents (America, Asia, Europe, Africa).

A Moroccan Bath

I have always been fascinated with texture. On my travels I photograph details in architecture and local objects which I then bring back to the studio and recreate on canvas. The paintings I show in my exhibitions revolve around the theme of texture, color and architecture. When I received the box, I was challenged with the sculptural object which turned into a base that used tile in various shades and was inspired by them for this particular project. To add a little humor, I added the bather relaxing with her arms in the air taking in the moment.
 

Heroines

I am personally concerned with spiritual and creative identity through the abstract form. I find that creating many layers in my paintings builds a foundation or history of the statement I am trying to make. I want to obliterate as much traditional form as I can, yet still evoke images through layers of paint, glazed, and stains.

Painting, for me, can be a very lonely and difficult process. It is also exhilarating. In my personal experience I find that painting is the most powerful expression of my life and a most satisfying way to express my own humanity.

Break Water

Borders are changing lines on our world’s map that demarcate culture, land, time, history, ethnicity.  These are intellectual separations, but the older physical lines of division are also lines of connection- the oceans that separate us, join us.  Water is the vehicle for life- our food, our bodies, our planet.  Women share the experience of our body’s potential to transmit new life.  Our female bodies are both the source of our common oppression and transcendence. Break Water recalls the moment that proceeds birth.  The image is simultaneously bound and released, evoking change, possibility, destruction, hope.  I have included materials from previous works; a Xerox transfer image of a rope sculpture I made across a rotten East River pier in New York City, and two eggs which I collected in Brazil during a women’s collaborative show.  These are symbolic “births” of new ideas and images that women artists are collectively making to Break Water and change the marks that divide us.

Following Examples: An Exhibition

Because I am a curator and not an artist, I decided to organize a miniature show for Women Beyond Borders. The 10 featured artists were given a dimension of 1-1/4 x 2-3/4 inches and told to make something flat. The visual artists I invited are people whose work, lives and friendships have inspired and informed my life in a meaningful way.  This is an extremely personal project and I wish I could have included something by all the others whose creative lives have proven to be exceptional examples to follow.

Barbara Berk
Angie Bray
Karen Brown
Jacqueline Cooper
Eileen Cowin
Kim Cridler
Kathy Haddad
Danielle Imperiale
Sari Roden
Liza Ryan

Women’s History/Prehistory

Black Box- Hidden Wisdom, what we know and have forgotten

Black Stone- For the Great Black Magma Mother

Opening Book- History of Women’s Mysteries, linked one to another, through our Blood, through Time.

Images are not designed to explain, but to expand awareness.

Letting It All Hang Out

This box is sort of a self-portrait.  It is about me, anyway.  It represents some of the things inside of me that I like, get pleasure from, are positive and good, and that I am grateful for in my life.  It’s a celebration.

 

Song From the Earth

My work celebrates the Native American philosophy of centering one’s life in the natural world.  This is both a conscious and instinctual commitment.  Rather than illustrate this idea, I use materials to suggest our relationship to the earth.

On the brink of the new millennium, let us all be mindful of celebrating and preserving the earth’s gifts. This should be a universal concern.

Pandora’s Box

With color I transform the construction into a different structure.  It is a practice which I apply in my work. The colors are those of springtime when the green has a radiance of the new-born. That’s why I could say that this box is the beginning of life, but it could be also the end. For me this is a profound meaning of Pandora’s box.

Come on Breathe!

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Dolores Huerta, SOCIAL ACTIVIST, LABOR LEADER AND CO-FOUNDER OF UNITED FARM WORKERS

Grace Elizabeth Davis, WRITER, MOTHER AND MARATHON RUNNER

These trophies are awards to the plights that we face as women.

Dolores Huerta wanted to help her students who came to class barefoot and hungry. Through her community work she co-founded the United Farm Workers Union. At 76 years old she continues to lecture and lobby for the UFW, a model used by global labor unions as a testimony to the rights of workers.

Grace Davis, writer/runner/mother, known for “Katrina Relief” brought aid to the hurricane victims of New Orleans, the first to use blogging as a medium in disaster relief.

In our endeavors, our lives can be in danger, our pasts can haunt us, our vulnerabilities can be exposed.

Unselfishly, women strive to be all things to everyone; we endure the odds guided by our passion to care for our world families.

Dolores Huerta: Social Activist, Labor Leader, and Founder of United Farm Workers

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Dolores Huerta, SOCIAL ACTIVIST, LABOR LEADER AND CO-FOUNDER OF UNITED FARM WORKERS and Terry Acebo Davis, ARTIST

These trophies are awards to the plights that we face as women.

Dolores Huerta wanted to help her students who came to class barefoot and hungry. Through her community work she co-founded the United Farm Workers Union. At 76 years old she continues to lecture and lobby for the UFW, a model used by global labor unions as a testimony to the rights of workers.

In our endeavors, our lives can be in danger, our pasts can haunt us, our vulnerabilities can be exposed.

Unselfishly, women strive to be all things to everyone; we endure the odds guided by our passion to care for our world families.

Ambient Light

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Amy Reisenbach, DIRECTOR OF CURRENT PROGRAMMING FOR CBS PARAMOUNT TELEVISION and Sukey Bryan, ARTIST

When Amy and I talked on the phone, I was very moved by her embrace of the people around her, her enjoyment of her work, and pleasure she gets from being in nature. A significant experience that we hold in common is that we have both lived through the death of members of our immediate families. Several times she said, “Don’t take things for granted”.

I covered the entire box with an image of water, an ever-changing and unpredictable source of life — as a metaphor of awareness and appreciation of the life and lives that surrounds us. The inside of the box and the inside of the lid are gold like the constant inner self that reflects light.

 

Memory

This box is about memory. The interior, the little empty scarlet sarcophagus, symbolizes that which is memorized, which can never be recaptured exactly; the red on the outside is only an echo, and is overlaid, confused, obscured, and changed by later colors. I mourn the loss of that intimate vermilion promise.

I am a painter and a writer, and for the past four years I have been writing a large biography, of a couple whose lives overlapped with mine, though I never met them. I have spent these years sifting other people’s memories, both written and spoken, in pursuit of the exact, impossible hue of my subjects’ lives. This, too, is represented here.

I have only one chance. My box sails out across the waters of the world. Bon voyage, box. I’ll remember you.

Rewind and Understand

The theme I am using for this box is the notion of self-exploration. Society has become chaotic and volatile. One must look within and access their own position. It is only then can one figure out their meaning in the scheme of things.

The theme depicted by the box represents a journey. This incorporates the spiritual, the physical, and psychological dimensions. The function of the box serves as a medium for self-realization.

The blurred box cover represents how people are finding an inner-spirit and harmony. It is unclear and difficult to define. Once we search in between the lines– the torn lining, clarity may be achieved.

Once the box is opened, all becomes clear. Lucidity is found in the “blurred words”. The engraved message is re-written in clear legible writing. This represents the move from inner confusion to understanding.

Human beings constitute a fragmented whole. This implies an elusiveness about human nature and its expression. Without questions, where is individuality? The liberation of the “self” allows change, progress. With rigorous self examination, pieces of the “puzzle of life” penetrate the surface. The box is an example of this.

Women have access to their feelings. They are allowed to “own” them. Possession of thoughts, ideas, dreams are what this box characterizes. If we look back (rewind) we can understand why we are the way we are. The journey continues…..

 

Justica

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Julie Su, Esq., LITIGATION DIRECTOR, ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN LEGAL CENTER, RECIPIENT OF THE MACARTHUR GENIUS GRANT and Nancy White, ARTIST

Too often, we fail to think about where the clothes we wear actually come from. Clothes, like this necklace, are worn, but they are also made—made of fabric sewn together by human beings. Women workers are the faces behind the garments we wear, hidden as in this locket, invisible, yet upon closer examination, resilient, strong, able to rise up against exploitation and sweatshop conditions to raise one voice, in many languages, for justice.

 

 

Art Box

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Yvonne Banks, Owner of Art Consulting Services and Marie Hassett, artist.

Yvonne Banks is passionate about art! She has been instrumental in bridging the art world with the rest of our community for over 20 years as an art consultant and former gallery owner. Art Box is a tribute to her contributions. Her own vision and tireless energy strengthens her advice to young women, “You can do anything if you’re willing to work to get there.”

It was my pleasure to spend time with Yvonne sharing stories from our lives, finding commonality in our experiences as mothers, gardeners and lovers of art.

Framing Life, Memories, and Wisdom

Tajima. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Susannah Malarkey, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE OF WASHINGTON and MalPina Chan, ARTIST.

The form of the square frame suggests strength and solidity making it an appropriate metaphor for Susannah. From the first few moments of our initial conversation, we felt a connection as we shared memories about our mothers and daughters. Susannah’s feelings on “wise women who came before passing on and sharing their life’s lessons” and the notion of “tribal memories” serves as the inspiration for this piece.

Floating in My Void

I look at the space around and expand to the infinite
All my senses curve in delight as I grow in the vacuum of non-event
Non-happening, non-existence.
I occupy the blue vastness of my dreams and become
Fatherless, motherless, a virtual Non-Being.
A hole in the lining of man’s memory.
A mere flight of particles liberated from density.
A definite escape.
And in the pulsating silence, I finally lift Isis’ veil…

Tomiko Fraser Revealed

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

TOMIKO FRASER, MAYBELLINE SPOKESPERSON/ACTRESS

Tomiko Fraser has benefitted greatly in her life from mentoring and, in return, wishes to nurture and empower other women. An exuberant, playful woman, she has been able to find her way and break free of the confines of others’ expectations.

In appreciation of Faith Ringgold and her painted story quilt “Sunflower Quilting Bee of Arles” (1991) and the women depicted within.

 

A Falcon or a Great Song

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

LEASA MAYERS, PRESIDENT, CRG EVENTS

In talking to Leasa Mayers about her life – her family, and her work promoting others in their ventures, the powerful Rainer Maria Rilke poem, “Growing Orbits” came to mind. It inspired me to transform the plain wooden box into a cradle holding a bird’s nest with eggs to honor Leasa’s endeavors; her creative spirit, her effective nurturing which helps others to take flight.

 

Threading Water

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

JANET LEAHY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF “BOSTON LEGAL” TELEVISION SHOW

1 small wooden box

5 Peruvian worry dolls

1 drill

800 holes

1 can black spray paint

countless threads

1 very small crochet hook

one artist

one executive television producer

one collaboration

one phone call

many many emails

one new friendship

Threading Water honors women, mothers, daughters, friends, workers, wives who feel pulled in all directions while trying to stay afloat.

 

Yoriko

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

YORIKO KISHIMOTO, VICE MAYOR, CITY OF PALO ALTO and Jen Schachter, ARTIST.

A photo of Yoriko as a small child with her parents and older brother in Shizuoka, Japan flies from the branch of one of her favorite trees, the maple, signifying her love of gardens. The trail reflects her journey from Japan and her love of travel while the mountain symbolizes her love of hiking and mountains, and her desire to “climb to a high place and see as far as I can”— hence the binoculars.

The central image is her interest in the 4 elements — earth, air, fire and water. Earth is symbolized by a clay container I made (I am a potter) and the water by blue glass that was melted in the clay container.

There are so many aspects of Yoriko’s life that are not included, but through some mysterious mental process, I have focused on these ideas and presented them in this way.
 

Heartease

This box is about joy and renewal. Everything begins and ends, lives and dies in circles. There is such power in each little thought, small gestures and tiny boxes. The heart is a sure image of love, feeling and strength. It has infinite capacity for both great joy and great sorrow, even after the ache and grief of loss:

The core remains intact.

Pink budded, protected

with swathes of leaf,

and occasional thorn.

Crafty Contemporaries

This box symbolizes the entrapment of the domestic sphere. The witness of the box symbolizes the innocence and naiveté of women in the past. The sewing kit placed in the box makes reference to contemporary women artists of today who have used old skills from the domestic sphere and given them new life.

 

Keeping On Course

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Barbara Boxer, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA and Barbara Leventhal-Stern

The first words I associate with Senator Barbara Boxer are passion and courage. In my mind, I saw an image of a boat that “keeps on course”.

Because the exhibition serves to inspire young women who could be faced with adversity or hard decisions, I inserted excerpts from our email dialogue so they could read about the sources of her commitment themselves.

Thanks to Senator Boxer, and Michael and Adrienne, her talented staff.

Pandora a Broken Myth

In doing this box I decided to see what the original myth of Pandora was. I was struck with the beauty and the imagery of Hesiod. I laughed at the obvious fear and envy that men have had at the creative female. I felt we could look at this myth and break it open and show women in all her creative force without fear or envy.

“as a favor to Zeus the father,
On this had been done much intricate work,
a wonder to look at:
wild animals, such as the mainland
and the sea also produce
in numbers, and he put many on,
the imitations of living
things that have voices, wonderful,
and it flashed in its beauty.
But when, to replace good,
he made this beautiful evil
thing, he led her out
where the rest of the gods and mortals
were, in the pride and glory
that the gray-eyed daughter of a great
father had given; wonder seized both immortals and mortals
as they gazed on this sheer deception.”

Hesiod translated by Richmond Lattimore

Love

Teen Box. Culver City Highschool. Grade 11.

My box was based on the book of I Corinthians 13 in the Bible. Love is not something that is jealous, boastful, and impatient. I used the last verse:

“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.” But the greatest of these is love. The box represents love itself, with in it are the mustard seeds which represent faith because God said “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you could move mountains.” The stars represent hope. The leaves in front of the box symbolize the growth of love, that it never stops getting better.

Representation of a Population

Culver City Highschool. Age 12.

My box is a representation of my population, African Americans. Throughout history, my people always had something to represent. From the motherland to this present day we have represented life, struggle, triumph, and perseverance. But as we begin a new generation, what do we have to represent now? What do we have to show our future, besides being a statistic?

Outside the Box

To know who I am is the quest.
To learn lessons is the school of life
To see emotion as the road least traveled.
To find the path past mind is the road to the soul.
To see life as a continuously unfolding process
To live life to the fullest is to live in the present.
To open to humaness is to see life’s treasures
To live in the present is going outside of the box.

From: If Life is a Game, these are the Rules
The Rules for Being Human
Dr. Chérie Carter-Scott

 

Welcome to La La Land

Culver City Highschool. Grade 11.

My box represents my life and being a high school student in a modern world, which is all crazy. I titled this piece Welcome To La La Land because my nickname is Lala and I wanted to show a glimpse of my life. Well, what I wanted to say about myself was that, I am a quiet person but inside I am crazy, confused and talkative, but I keep it locked inside most of the time. Inside, I put little things that represent me and keys, which is the thing that will open the box (myself). I see finding the keys is like finding you, the key that will open you to the world. I have little things that can’t remain in the box like my creativity, self-expression and friendship. I feel that most people are like me and until you find yourself, you can’t find the key that will help you open up and allow you to be more yourself.

The monarch trapped in their expectations, reducing the imperial ruler into a mere puppet controlled by golden strings.

Reverberation: Yuri Kochiyama

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Yuri Kochiyama, LEGENDARY CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST; CLOSE FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE OF MALCOM X and June Sekiguchi, ARTIST.

I want to represent the effect pivotal events had on Yuri Kochiyama and how her life and work had a ripple effect in turn. Something breaks the surface of awareness and affects a resounding change. The box is the foundation supporting barbed wire which acts not only as the internal framework of concentric ripples reverberating beyond the source, but references important aspects of Yuri’s life: internment and political prisoners.

The box holds a gathering of pebbles that signify the catalyst of change. The ripples are inscribed with quotes, influences, and documentation of her life. I’ve chosen to use text heavily in this piece because the written word has held a place of importance in Yuri’s connection to the world. Light and shadow reflect the intangible far reaching affect she has had.

The Women’s World

Mother Earth

Deep within her there is life.
She is encircled by the web of life.
It is no mistake that earth is a “she”
for all that grows does so because of her.
We are the children of this mother.
We are all connected to the earth and one another
through this mystical experience we call life.

Radical Profiling

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

Joan Takayama-Ogawa (artist) and Elaine Tajima (CEO, founder at Tajima Creative)

We live in times of war, where racial profiling threatens the freedom of Arab Americans. By transforming this wooden box into a shrine representing my family’s internment in Japanese American relocation camps, I hope that racial profiling will not happen again.

Symbols of the highest decorated American 442 Regimental Combat Unit, the luggage tags with family numbers for the Takayama and Ogawas, rotate around the box symbolically, tied with barbed wire. Along the perimeter of the black tray, a plant revered by Japanese Americans, connects with barbed wire symbolizing their incarceration. A gold crane perched on a post, represents the Hiroshima bomb.

Thirty-seven last names along the edge of the tray represent hundreds of my family members who were incarcerated during World War II, remembering freedom is fragile, and racial profiling is intolerable.

 

Dreams of Dancing

Idee Levitan, an artist and patron of the arts, world traveler, lifelong philosophy student, adventure seeker, mountain climber, wife, friend, and proud member of a most independent sisterhood of polio survivors, died before she had the opportunity to work on the Women Beyond Borders project.  The virgin box was among the mementos Idee’s husband sent to me.  My dearest soulmate, Elena Mary Siff, invited me to create a tribute to Idee’s spirit so that Idee might be a part of an intriguing and profound exhibition she would have heartily embraced.  The Wheel Chair could not contain her Dreams of Dancing…

 

Opportunity Gap

This box purports to show the great disparity of living standards in the United States and the enormous differences in the haves and the have-nots.

In the 1970’s I photographed migrant workers in central Florida. The situation there was not too different from the photographs taken by the Farm Security Administration in the Thirties and the situation is the same today. In one camp far from civilization the workers lived in converted buses with 1 toilet and shower facility for over 70 people. The children did not attend schools as they were too far away. When the government finally closed the camp, they simply moved further into the outback.

Whole families worked the groves, including young children, but that was the only way the families could earn enough for the day.

Contrast this with the luxurious life styles of some today. There is a widening gap between the rich and the poor. As technology dominates the employment field, those with little education are doomed to low paying or no jobs at all. Our society is becoming more stratified economically.

Red Box of Hope

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

CRISTINA CORLA, SURVIVOR CONTESTANT AND POLICE OFFICER and ANN GENZON, ARTIST
Red Box of Hope represents survival, endurance, determination, perseverance, and the promise of hope through one’s life.

Life is charged with challenging situations and wonderful moments as well. Life is a journey, life is a gift.

It is within every human being that travels to the roads of life, to develop the ability to close certain doors forever and to open the newfound doors of hope, faith and wisdom.

It is within every woman to find the courage necessary to overcome complex, dangerous and sometimes confusing messages unveiled in the act of opening these doors. It is within every woman to find the strength to lock forever these doors, and find the right door that leads to THE RED BOX OF HOPE.

Dragon Box

Using the box as a metaphor for prescribed limitations in one’s life, this box is not a place of confinement. The edges have softened and fallen open, allowing the light to radiate from a life force of an egg. From the light comes new freedom and love. The inside of the box reflects the light so that the power is magnified, thus illuminating the path towards release.

 

Seyburn Zorthian – Open Box

Shoes

“Walk a mile in my shoes”
and vice versa.
To understand someone else,
put yourself in their shoes.
Too often, women force their
feet into shoes
too small, too pointy, too high-heeled
and then stumble along
the unmarked roads ahead.
Life is a journey,
be prepared to wear
sensible shoes.

Pandora’s Box

Where do my thoughts and language come from?

Do they arise out of a chaotic flux of sensations and mental images? Are there some rules or a deep structure underlying this apparent chaos? Is the Right Brain, more intuitive part,  more closely related to the unconscious (if there is such a thing) than the Left, logical, verbal part of the brain? My painting suggests these questions to me. I wonder how the part of me that knows is related to the part of me that doesn’t know what it knows.

In making this box for Women Beyond Borders I am reminded of that wonderfully curious woman, Pandora, who for centuries has been, to my way of thinking, erroneously blamed for all evils on earth. I discovered there’s another version of the story, and it goes like this:

The box which she opened contained everything that was good, and when, (against her husband’s advice) she raised the lid, ALL THAT WAS GOOD escaped out into the world. I like this story and think it’s a fine metaphor for the creative, open-minded nature of womankind.

Untitled

I treated the box as an objet trouve, a modest thing with some forgotten purpose in its past. Upon being discovered, it brings to mind associations, and memories which unfold and spread out when the box is opened. Part object, part landscape, the image within the box does not recall a specific locus; rather, it reminds us of things that we know are memories. But these are stored in such distant lands that they cannot be conjured, they can only be gazed over.

Surely Goodness…

This box has many references. One is biblical. “My cup runneth over” directly precedes my title from the 23rd Psalm, a thought that came to mind as I made it. It is also something like Pandora’s Box.

The surely goodness part is the outcome of both references that I mean and want for women. It is who we are and how we create and effect culture. This box stands over and beyond patriarchy.

It is also part of an ongoing project of mine to recycle into art all the many art materials I have been carrying with me for nearly 35 years with the fantasy: Someday I will make some crayon drawings again, or use this glitter in a piece! Now I am doing it as pure art materials, recycling as all things do back into life.

Did you want to Come In?

This piece explores the dialogic relationship in question and response.  The speaker of the question, did you want to come in? –which is computer printed text repeated- this speaker is absent in image but present because of the text.  The viewer is alone with the question and asked to respond but in a monologic way.  The dichotomy between one way communicating and communication, an interactive experience, is brought out in the piece through its own dichotomy – the answer is not provided for the viewer.

 

Outside In

Tajima Box Project. An artist and an extraordinary woman collaborate to create a box.

KATE MCISAAC ,1ST LIEUTENANT, U.S. ARMY and Laura Klein, ARTIST

Kate McIsaac just celebrated her 30th birthday in Baqubah, Iraq. She is a 1st Lieutenant in the Army, serving in OIF IV – V at FOB Warhorse as a postal officer. Her unit is from Long Beach, California.

She is also a first-year law student at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa and will either go into criminal law or First Amendment Libel law. Libel law is near and dear to her heart.

Kate also has a degree in Journalism and worked as a journalist for several years.

 

Sea Dream

When I set out to create something I try to draw in the season and the place I find myself.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter – I like things that evoke the seasons. I have packed a little box with memories – marine blue skies, turquoise seas, white corals, green jungles, so that the fragrance of summer can tickle your nostrils too!

Celebrate the Meeting of Life…

I am attracted to the fine color of the dawn, sunbeams flickering through the leaves, broad colorful sunsets,  stars shining in the sky…the mysterious harmony of all these things, so this is what I try to make.

I love both light and darkness, and wish to celebrate the splendid harmony of their meeting. I hope opening this ‘box’ will lead you to see the harmony of light and darkness… and the meeting of you and me, or anyone.

Skin Deep

Spilling out of a Pandora’s box, previously concealed truths reveal themselves. A hand, a living experience and the intuition it contains, is full of signification. This can be translated in a multiplicity of paradoxical ways.

Beauty is a socioeconomic and political construction. How we depict women in art opens up a dialogue and an opportunity to affect our inter-relationships. We are not alone in deriving pleasure from the spectacle.  Manet’s Olympia, and the official ideology she implies, returns our gaze.

 

Biological Baby Buggy

With my work I explore the theme of a woman’s fertility.  Fertility is a complex issue and fertility is not always a G-d given right.  Age and circumstances can exert enormous pressure on women to define themselves, to reach important decisions at what could be an inopportune time.

To embrace motherhood or to reject motherhood, or to gain motherhood through extreme and unusual means: are all fraught with their own assumptions and characterizations, either internally innate or imposed by external forces.

The tendency to define a woman by her ability to bear children is limiting and demeaning.  A woman must be defined by her ability to live a positive and meaningful life.

My quest is to honor all women who engage in creation whatever form it might take and encourage women to feel comfort and acceptance on many paths.

Voice Box

Voice Box is a reminder of the fertile, nurturing potential of women’s words and the pain that women endure in trying to speak those messages. It contains powdered milk and an egg licked by tongues of flame and so marked with soot.

materials: wood, powdered milk, soot, paint, paper.

Slick Chick – A Balancing Act

Age takes slick and chick
But eggs so perfect go on
And on
To feed the fragile Universe
And return and recharge and provide
Time and time anew
The best nests everywhere.
Beyond borders
Or difference we nurture
And yet strut our stuff.
No dumb clucks- we chicks!
You know…we have something worth crowing about…

 

Untitled

From its first moment, the shape of the small box permitted several associations and possibilities, but the point was not to alter the object per se but to have it remain in its artificiality, a box-like structure with a cover, closed with a rubber band, which was handed to me.  Intuitively, I decided to confront this object with pictorial presentations that I had selected.  In this process I begin by thinking of some imaginary associations.

This lead directly to a comparison of three objects, one after another. (Where does the wooden object “belong,” what can it be, or mean?)  The pictures I have chosen in the frames are to be understood as an “offer,” which relates the different levels of representation to one another.  Thus, a space is produced in which things can be observed in terms of conception and content or else in terms of space and form.

The inside of the “box” projects itself visually upon the pictures as they are seen.  The concrete object serves as a “medium” of the continual transformation between things and pictures.  Understood in this way, the wooden object can be regarded, abstractly, as a picture, just as a picture can be understood as an object. The positioning of the two picture frames with the wooden box creates as a whole a model of one’s own perception or of the possibilities of perception, and the relational positioning or the relational viewing of things.

Al Cuore del Cuor

My connection and admiration for my fellow women grow ever stronger as I grow older. This was to have been the theme of my box.

My father died in my arms a short while ago, calling “Mama.” How varied, how interchangeable, how understanding of the incomprehensible we must be. How I strive to trust my instinct that taps deep, deep, deep into the strength, the capacity, the tenacity of a woman.

My box is for my father, whom I miss with all my hearts. He was a painter, he taught me to see.

Welcome to the Forest of Dreams

I have built a place of healing and repose.
Though small enough to fit in your hand,
it is a place to soothe and comfort the weary sojourner.
May you enter and find your peace.

Enter the forest, its cool green breath,
its embracing boughs, its mystery.
Enter the shadows your spirit longs for,
follow the labyrinth.
Enter the heart of the ancient forest,
wander until the dusk surrounds you.
until you find you have come to a place of rest.
Dream until you have found contentment.
Dream until you have found your own way
home, into the light.

The Power of Life

The difference between death and life…the immortal still rise from the grave and represent a strong life which is seen everywhere.  The freshness of the flowers differs from the quietness of the gray burnt tombstone, the dry and stained pieces of iron and even the spike tunnel where death is always near by.

Flowers still live and rise above all.

Place Hotel

Awareness goes back and forth between the reception of the piece of fake chocolate and the reception of the model of a seemingly dislocated house.

Question:  Would you possibly, lost in thought, make little balls out of the wrapping paper of the chocolate that you have just eaten and/or ever tried to penetrate the deeper meaning of the many ways of reoccurring walls?

To Know People Outside

If I shut the lid tight, can anyone know for sure what it is in the box?  The outside of the box is decorated attractively as a person intentionally embellishes their appearance to conceal their inner life.  The ancient Vietnamese had a saying, “It is easy to know a man from his appearance, but difficult to recognize his thinking.”

Permanent Love

“Love’s over brimming mystery joins life and death.”              Tagore

In former times, Romeo and Juliet could not remain together, and were willing to die side by side. In recent days, the modern Romeo and Juliet ran from the Bosnian siege, also dying side by side. How many such unhappy love stories are there over the world?

I believe in destiny. I make this box as a coffin, with the wish that it is the house of girls and boys, women and men who love one another, yet are not able to become man and wife. This box is a love coffin for Permanent Love.

Men and women in love, whether old or young, may die, but their love still remains, it never dies.  They will lie in the same coffin, and pray to live together in many future lives.

Couple

When two do not recognize their internal forces they remain prisoners of their facade and they add this facade to the other.  Thus inevitably they will be attached to each other by an intricate chain, forgetting their own space, staying knotted and desperately isolated.

Garden of Life

Friends are the flowers in the garden of life. My flower gardens bring much pleasure to myself as well as many others. Through gardening and art, I have made many friends who enrich my life. Friends in far-reaching places oftentimes come to mind. I like to think of them as flowers given to me in my garden of life. True blessings.

It is my hope that my box will convey to others how important friends are. May my little traveling garden bring a smile to the viewer, along with a reminder of someone special—a flower placed in their garden of life.

Abject Expressionism

The workings of a patriarchal symbolic system have long associated culture and mind with the masculine (esteemed), and nature and body with the feminine (constantly devalued).  This work attempts to reevaluate that which is defined as inferior by deliberately using a body part that refused to fit into any particular definition. Hair– a symbol of sexual prowess (or lack of for the Western nudes)– also acts as a “momento mori”, marking lack. It is a significant abject material, highlighting the slippage between opposites, the living and the dead, the sensual and the repulsive. Because it stands at the borderline separating the inside and the outside of the body, it holds simultaneous powers of fascination and horror. The weaving and braiding of hair in this work act as a metaphor for the bonding and networking amongst women.

 

Nights and Days of Life

Some days are dark
We don’t get anywhere
We feel stuck in a dead end
Going round and round in a circle
Banging our head like a stone
On the walls of our own limitations

And some days are light
We feel free like a whistle
Our voice rings like a bell
We see light everywhere
We see clear through everything
And all makes sense
All shines and all is well

Such is life
After all
For every single one of us
Isn’t it just a mirror
Reflecting our own inner state

 

Hearth

Diverse meanings are attached to the shape of a box. This particular box represents the amalgam of two ideas. The first is the idea that all our judgments and ill-imagined, preconceived notions might go up in flames so that we might remember to view each other with fresh, clear perspective.

The other idea is that each of us would throw our boxes of hope and treasure onto the pyre for warmth of body and food on a cold night. This flame of necessity, real for some, but taken for granted by others, might illumine a way of looking at life – that we might value the bare essentials of life more than we do – and care for those who don’t have them.

The green flame represents the possibility for growth and a new way of life that would rise from the kindling of excess with unsurpassed brilliance.

 

Face

Soon after the birth of my first child, I became aware of a sense that on a grander scale, all children were my children. Universal.

I am now a grandmother for the first time. Mostly, I am happy. Sometimes I feel sad, maybe a bit jealous because I no longer carry the egg that becomes the baby. Look at my little grandson in utero. He is perfect, just like the one perfect living cell, the egg. What gift this is that we may, “…bring forth those who bring forth.”

Iamthereflectionofyoubutdoyouseetheconfusioninsideofme?

Culver City High School. Grade 11.

Inside of me there is a thin line between depression and happiness. Sometimes I dangle between the two, as if I am suspended on a wire and tied up by my own thoughts. Outside I am the reflection of everyone around me. You look at me and see yourself, see who and what you want to see. Although you look at me forever, you will forever see your own reflection and never penetrate to the inside where I am forever suspended between the two poles of my mind.

I Can See Beyond…

I Can See Beyond the Forest and Thru the Trees Now speaks for all modern women and will hopefully in the future. We no longer are tied to aprons, but represent a significant change in our roles, as mothers, policy makers and breadwinners. In the 60’s, we were underpaid as educators and had less chance to be  put into responsible position in life than our counterparts. We have come a long way in forming the framework for the future.

96 and 4 Extra

The negative space inside the box is able to contain 96 cubic centimeters of particles. If more particles are added, the pressure inside the box will increase. When the box is opened, the pressure will push the extra particles out. A similar reaction will happen to a human being who experiences physical and mental pressures. When the society, culture and family exert pressure on a woman, she faces physical and mental exhaustion, thus making her unhappy. But if she is able to release the stress, the force can be transformed into useful energy–just like the box, she can live a colorful and creative life.

Overflowing

As the world’s population increases at alarming rates, heavy human consumption is producing drastic amounts of waste and garbage. Landfills are overflowing and space for containing our trash is limited. This box represents Earth’s limited available space for containing our waste. By recycling, we can collectively help to prolong the Earth’s beautiful and natural elements.

The Bridal Chest

Sanduq Al-Saysum is a type of chest which used to be carved by craftsmen in the Holy City of Makkah (Mecca) from hard wood and decorated with pierced brass. Traditionally, these were one of the prized possessions of a bride which she brought with her to her new home. Being large and very heavy, they were used as safes.  Inside were kept valuables and family heirlooms. Even though few now live in the traditional homes, Saysum chests are still to be found in many modern homes.

Worship

I see the work as a process linked to the practices of a community. The reflection of self and interaction with community run parallel to the notion of time and rituals. The work explores the idea of a mystical journey of life and hope. Imbued with energy, the yellow box is evolved around acts of cleansing, purifying and healing. The choice of materials used in this work reflects this concept.

Altar for Eve’s Chromosomes

Eve represents the first woman. I am honoring her genetic material with this mixed media sculpture. All women have descended from Eve’s chromosomes, which are the most fundamental, significant and potentially eternal part of our experience as humans.

Artistically, this work is related to a series of white wood wall sculptures I made during the late 1980’s. The objects I have added to the original box materials are symbolically related to women’s genetic and cultural heritage.

 

Mom, Me, and the Pink Dancers

This work has to do with the cycle of life and where I am in that cycle now. It is a combination of fears–past and present, traumatic experiences—past and present, hopes, dreams, pain and frustration that continue, that I am more or less resigned to endure. It is to honor my mother and her teaching and love for me, my love for her and what each generation of women pass to one another.

The pink dancers were an image I formed from an interview I heard on public radio with young women activists who dress in pink and perform on the sidewalk of urban centers to attract people to engage them in discussions pertaining to social and political issues of the progressive left. I yearned and regretted for a moment that I was not there, was not a pink dancer. But soon saw that they were the next phase, and was glad just that they were there. Yes! to them.

War is still bad, starving children are still bad, and women still have to keep working to stop these things from happening. There is a lot of pain we must carry with us.

My own children (17yrs old & 21yrs old) saw this piece being made. The red stuffing, I told my questioning son, represented blood and tissue. However, it was not bad. Blood is everywhere when you are born. It is a good thing. Blood is life.

Such a small piece, so much to say. Very personal.

Untitled

Green, yellow and blue are the colors of our flag. Rwanda, a nation recovering from the blood shed of man. The red doom is the symbol of Genocide and the white cross with the bleeding heart of Jesus, who sacrificed that Rwanda be made clean, symbolized by the white cross.

Yellow is sunshine, hope for Rwanda. Green is life and growth and blue is reconciliation, possible only though the blood of Jesus.

Sparkle of Life

Coca-Cola Box Project.

Many years ago after a long and hot morning of doing house chores, my exhausted and thirsty mother would unexpectedly rush through the door. Intrigued, I would rapidly tie my worn out shoes and head to the kitchen. There holding a bottle, as if it were the last one left in the world, was my mom. As she drank it, a smile would slowly illuminate her face. Noticing my curiosity, she pointed at the bottle and said, “This is the sparkle of life.”

In a convulsive world of dispute over territory, religion and culture, men and women face a daily struggle searching for solutions to make this planet a better one for everybody. What has for many years been missing however, is the perspective of the real sparkle of life: The Woman. Just as Coca-Cola illuminated my mother’s eyes, this world would benefit greatly by considering more seriously the ideas and propositions of the woman. So, the purpose of this project was simply to portray and honor the woman not only as the sparkle of life but as the queen of the universe.

 

Family Bed

I’m three years old. I made a five-decker bed because I want my family to be together. My papa works in Jakarta four days a week and I miss him. I also love double-decker beds but papa said it is too dangerous for children my age. A five-decker bed will be nice–everybody can sleep together and Babybathtub (my doll) can have her own bed. I wanted to have a five-decker bed and mama helped me saw the box. Papa is very old, his bed has many beads–my hands get tired and Nadene che che helped me with the sticking. My bed has three beads because I am three years old and Babybathtub is only two.

Pat Chen, Regina Law’s mother

Women’s Unlimited Potential

This little box reminds me of a woman in the olden day, which a woman can only do things within this little space. What is a woman identity today?  Woman is no more constrained within this space. Woman is full of wisdom and Unlimited Potential.

She can transform herself in various forms.

She can express herself just like the color in the palette.
She can express her creativity just like a tree…so full of energy.
She can transcend all her cells to enliven this society.

I’m that Woman with Unlimited Potential!

The Model and the Box

I pay homage to the naked form. In this piece the artist is absent, but her palette remains. The model is not naked but nude. To be naked is to be deprived of clothes, to be nude carries no uncomfortable overtones. She has no vulnerability. She has energy and vitality. She offers this artist stimulation and creative thought.

 

I thank the model, the nude…and the box.

Coca-Cola Wind Chime

Coca-Cola Box Project.

As a child actor, Kelsey was in an ad for Coca-Cola when she was ten years old. The set was designed to look like a tree house. Kelsey was dressed as a tomboy and just wanted to hang out with the boys who were sitting around a table in the tree house drinking glass bottles of Coca-Cola. With longing, Kelsey was pictured peeking at the boys as they enjoyed Coca-Cola.

Granfaloon of 3

I adored my maternal grandmother and gave my daughter her name. Isabella. One day when my daughter was a tiny girl, she said to me, out of the blue, “Remember when I was the big lady and you were the little girl? Wasn’t  that fun?” It was fun.

My Grandmother

Coca-Cola Box Project.

As long as I can remember my grandmother in Mexico always bought seven bottles of Coca-Cola a week. She has one bottle a day: a few ounces in the morning mixed with two raw eggs; a few ounces with lunch; and the rest with her dinner. She never drinks water at all, just the Coke. She is ninety-two years old.

 

Dreams Fly

Inside this box, within a bird, a dream is sealed.

Please PICK-UP and hold this wise, matriarchal creature. Shake her gently and listen. Hear her dream stir? What is within her; within you? Permit your vision to awaken emboldened, released with wings spread and soar beyond every limitation that you impress upon yourself.

Goethe said, “Whatever you do, or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Truly, all women have dreams and passions pleading to be set free on the wings of imaginary flight.

Untitled

Survivors of Genocide.

I have drawn a volcano in eruption and fruits on a tray. I have also drawn a person in a boat. An active volcano is very destructive. Fruits are nutritious. If you take a ride in a boat you take a rest and feel happy when you look at the water.

My World

My box is a small square world, and part of my world is in the box. On opening My World and looking closer one sees part of my individual history. A mirrored reflection of my wedding day. It represents love, culture, and intimacy. The bottom of the box is a coffin.

 

An American Girl

Is there no greater suffering than “An American Girl, Shopping For A Husband”? In her single days, she would cry and cry over lost loves, covet the sacred purchases of keepsakes in hope for love, and dream endlessly for the one– a final purchase of the dream guy and live happily ever after.

Medium: The box, Ukranian egg dyes, silver and gold spray paint, floral wire, embroidery thread, wood ball, buttons and dominos, netting, yarn, plastic shopping bags, things girls buy, one groomsman cut in half, newspaper clipping, wire, crotchet needle, Modge Podge and Tacky glue.

The Poppy Field

My nickname is “Poppy”. I go to school at Tanglin. I was born in Singapore.  My friends come from different places.  I have two brothers but no sisters. I go to England every summer holiday. Whenever I go to England to see my Granny and Opa, I see poppy fields. I love them and so I decided to make a sculpture of a poppy field. It reminds me of my holidays. I put airplane wings on my sculpture because we fly to England to see the poppies. I love living in Singapore but I miss seeing the poppy fields. Every year they sell fake poppies at Tanglin.  It is on the day the great war finished.  Opa was born when the war finished.

Shades of Africa

Everywhere you go In Africa a woman is always present. Through my presentation I portray three major roles that make African women so precious in our society.

A woman does not only bear a child in her arms, wood on her head or a clay pot in her hands, she bears the daily burden of African experiences.

She is the strength of Africa and I hope that we can learn to appreciate what a woman does and the one who created her, God.

Untitled

I am wary…
I am cautious…
I am conditioned…
I have hardened…
I am protective…
because I am vulnerable.
I am sensitive…
I am emotional…
I am afraid…
Take time to understand me.
Within is my core,
my soul,
and my heart.
I will unfold…
and reveal to you…
me.

Open Box

The box I have created (recreated) is an “open box.” Here the box signifies self-imposed limitations within which we live. Whether in the marriage box, the mother box, the artist box, we notice ourselves playing certain preconceived roles. This becomes inhibiting and sometimes agonizing if we are not aware and perhaps unable to change the rules and roles of the boxes as we grow and change.

I particularly admire people who constantly recreate themselves; who seem unrestricted by society’s boxes. Louise Bourgeois, one of the great sculptors of this century, is one of these people. She looks at things, relationships, her life and her art always with a fresh eye.

One can see Louise Bourgeois in the ceiling of the open box by looking in the mirror. The picture shows her holding a large bronze phallus that she made. The photograph is by Robert Mapplethorpe. Above her is the shell which signifies the soul.

Grief Repair

All is metaphor, even that which we may take as fact. Human logic is fragile. The box may represent a construct of human logic. Boxes do not occur in nature. It contains wax with the translucency of human skin, threads, a needle and blood. The needle under the “skin” is a metaphor for the grief of women all over the world in their efforts to keep love and the grace of human relationships and community whole, despite a world which seems eternally based on war and conflict. The needle is used for healing. The box is a prayer for continued courage and creativity.

Constraints Faced by Contemporary Women

This work seeks to explore and express the constraints faced by contemporary women who live in public housing apartments–also known as Housing Development Board (HDB) flats–in Singapore. About 86% of Singaporeans are housed in these HDB flats. Like the vast majority, I too live in a HDB flat and one of the personal constraints that I face is the lack of physical space. This inspires me to conceptualize the given wooden box as a block of HDB flats with many dwellers within. Each of the niches in the box represents a female dweller. The different constraints faced, ranging from physical, emotional, mental, and social to religious realms, are reflected in the interior decoration of the units and the contents of the ampoules. Women from different phases in life–teenagers, singles, married with and without children, and retirees–are invited to participate in a survey, and their views are expressed collaboratively in this box.

Untitled

Before 1994, our country was good. After April ’94, blood was shed. Many people died and the majority of genocide survivors are struggling with life.

So, the telephone you see is calling for help. We believe that God is the first to come.
Inside the box, there is my heart. I will never forget my relatives, my friends, children’s blood…

The blue color means that I hope to live happily. Jesus will take me with him.

Hidden Beauty

Real beauty is hidden and then found like a box of treasures. These textiles represent women from different regions of my country. A heritage that should be preserved for our children.

The words on the box are prayers: to make good choices; be a better person – humble, patient and thankful.

Posibilidades

What is this piece about? For me, it’s about the danger of sensuality. How we are beckoned by the flesh. How our desire can become our anguish. How a wrong decision can mean death, be it of the spirit or the body. How the need for self-destruction can be initiated in a seemingly healthy person from the hurt and pain of a relationship. Thus — the presence of the sword. Although I also see this sword as positive, perhaps a form of protection or an attribute, like that of Saint Agnes. *

The question of violence enters in here, too. This woman — in all her sensuality — is in a coffin. Why? Was she a victim of violence, of rape? Can our sensual self die under certain circumstances? Is our nudity kept hidden away in a dark, quiet place?

The veil also invokes the mysteriousness of Muslim women, their eyes being their only available sensual feature.

* (Saint Agnes was very beautiful, but she rejected all of her suitors, one of whom became angry and had her condemned to death. Since it was forbidden to execute virgins, she was first sent to a burdel. Nevertheless, no man was able to touch her. After being tortured, she was finally decapitated. She is often portrayed with a sword piercing her breast. She is the patron saint of virginal innocence.)

My Culture My Pride

The Maasai are a pastoral people who live in Kenya and Tanzania in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa. The Maasai believe all the cattle on earth were given to them by God. The Maasai way of life is spent in moving from one place to another in search of grass and water for their herds.

Today, the unique customs and traditions of the Maasai still exist and are treasured by them. Great effort must be made by all to see that this treasured culture is preserved for the future.

By revealing this beauty of the Maasai people, I hope my contribution in some way helps in the preservation of this priceless culture.

The small portrait is of a Maasai woman painted on a fragment of a special and very useful “Oleleishwa” tree. The tree is used by the Maasai to clean calabashes for milk, as perfume, for making clubs and thatching beds.

Mimo

Now, we humankind encounter a life crisis that we have never met before. This crisis may have been brought upon by the competition for “superiority” and “profit” for such things which each person belongs to, as the nation, peoples and sex…etc. I wonder how we can surmount this serious condition? Can we evade the collapse and find out the light of hope in the twenty-first century?

A primitive man held awe and respect to the universe and nature. We should bring them to life intensely and lower our head and pray sincerely to them. The ancients prayed for the approach to the sacred thing through praying. We should also learn a lesson from their wisdom.

Now each of us must be in immediate need of breaking our little shell of ego and appearing as our universal or spiritual soul which sleeps undeveloped in deep layers.

Painting, building, singing and dancing…these acts are also a prayer itself, I believe.

Make a Rhythm Called Silence Next to Transfiguration

Soundless loud voice
Silent move
If no sound is the loudest noise which someone gives,
Silence is an allegory only for some.

Organisms bring silence, rhythm and perfection. The shape of the organism and the balance of energy is given out by the organism through me, naturally.

Why is the shape made by nature so fluent in spite of taciturnity? It may be a wrong thing to deform a complete thing by making over it as a work. But I think that meeting the “thing” is going to be much wider by adding my power and moving the space.

A space has energy, resonates with energy from objects, makes a noise and rhythm, hops, bumps, and bursts open. The organisms soundlessly cross between their energy and ours.

To embody “the voice” is my hope, and it is pleasant to have a relationship with it through my work.

A Letter to My Mother

The box contains notes with words which were never said to her mother.

Dear Mother,

When I was eighteen, I bought you, with my first salary, a wooden jewelry box. You still keep it, treasuring it. Now, twenty-five years later, I’m giving you this box which treasures words. These are all the words I could have told you during our lives together, but wasn’t able to. These are words I should have told you, dear mother.

Here are all the missing words, just for you. It’s a wonderful opportunity to write them down, to feel their sound within my heart. To prepare a special gift for a special woman: my mother.

Your loving daughter,
Shuli Nachshon

The Women's Voices: Shuli Nachshon, Israel from WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS on Vimeo.

Fire

Fire is an important symbol in the Jewish culture. There are many passages in the Bible condemning pagan ritual sacrifices at altars in the forest, and extolling proper burnt sacrifices to the One God:

“…then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering…” (Psalm LI: 21)

There are many holidays in which fire plays an important part: Lag BaOmer, when bonfires are made as an echo of the signal fires lit against the Romans during the Bar Kochba rebellion; Hannuka, when the miracle of a lamp containing oil enough for a day burned for eight; the tradition of “soul candles,” which burn for 24 hours on the anniversary of the death of a close family member.

But perhaps the most constant and important fire in Judaism is the Sabbath candles, to be lit on Friday eve by every daughter of Israel. I see the Sabbath candles as a symbol of home and the woman’s duty and privilege to protect and care for her family, physically and spiritually.

My piece contains an unlit Sabbath candle to remind myself that no matter how much women expand our potential as human beings, the role of homemaker is a very profound commitment. It provides the foundation of faith upon which miracles can grow.

Parir Me Quiero

My work is completely visceral. Each work or piece that I create is born from an experience or event that has marked my life. For me it holds the meaning of a ritual of celebration, offering, thankfulness or prayer. In this sense I believe that it is profoundly religious. It is my way of struggling with the world, of transforming myself into a “Cleansed One.*”

*Shamanic rite to remove the physical or spiritual evil from one’s person.

Limitation

Each restriction, each limitation is just like a coffin.

Don’t dance, don’t see, don’t speak, don’t do anything and
don’t be what you want to be. . .

Each restriction, each limitation which annihilates natural desires and wishes is like a coffin overwhelming the spirit.

Although all through history and in many educational and governmental systems these coffins have been made for men and women, women have always been more victims of these restrictions and limitations or confined to these coffins.

 

The Facade of Glamour

The glamour we see in women is not always representative of her inner self. It is just a facade. This box has all that goes with glamour on its outside, but on the inside it has all the turmoil and agony resulting from her daily chores.

Until Death Do Us Part

In my home country, Japan, there is a legend for girls that says that their prospective husbands have their little toes tied up to them with an invisible red thread. I used to believe in this legend as well. In my opinion it is wonderful to be able to believe in such a thing.

Since we’re infants, we are educated to play a role either as a woman or as man. I still remember when I used to play house-dolls with my friends and how much we enjoyed playing the mother’s role, like all the mothers of every mother. It is a simple but very pleasing memory that all women have inside. However, nowadays I often feel a victim of the male order and often wonder what can I do about it.

I was thinking of this as I was making my box and I felt like I was playing with dolls again because I was doing typical housework tasks such as sewing, washing, and ironing.

I hope you will tender my piece during the traveling exhibition as if it were our collective memory, which men will never be able to understand. And please, wash it and iron it when needed.

P.S. Do you know what? In Japanese, when we say “to get married” we use the word “to be tied up.” In the end, every princess will be tied up to their blue prince.