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BOXES beyond borders

Category: Hope

faith • hope • love

Artist from USA

I am an ABC, an American Born Chinese; one woman with two cultures and three words that hold my life together: Faith, Hope and Love. The secret that holds my life together is in the box… and that is the radiance of Christ.

Faith – in Christ
Hope – in His future for me and my family
Love – in my heart for my family
my friends
my two countries
and my life in Him

Under His love, I have “new life.” The butterfly represents my life in Him. I’ve chosen this fabric, not just because it was left over from my dining room chairs (up-cycling) but also, because fabrics and interiors have been a big part of my life and career here in Taiwan for over 36 years.

My deepest truth is: Faith, hope and love in the Lord has guided and blessed my life in ways I could never have imagined or dreamt of.

Narcissism, Me, Me, Me, etc.

My box is titled ‘Narcissism, Me, Me, Me, etc.’ because I live in the dream capital of the world where appearance is paramount, and hope springs eternal.

According to the myth of Pandora, when the winged souls, the 10,000 woes, the spites that plagued mankind, were released by Pandora from the jar, only HOPE was left behind in the jar, and it was delusive HOPE that discouraged the mortals, through her lies, from committing a general suicide.

Because I live in Los Angeles, California, surrounded by vain, foolish, mischievous, idle and beautiful women, such as Pandora, I felt compelled to turn my box into an anti-feminist statement, that Pandora would have appreciated.

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.

Untitled

The scrolls contain the following of my poems in free letter distribution:

Enfold                                          
the planet earth
world-encompassing
make it resound
with the small
and stammering voice
with the stammering
and gathering call
with the word
that was in the beginning
and worked with the breath
of regeneration
within you and me
enfold the planet earth
And do not forget the animals
our wordless siblings
do not betray them
for they crave justice
just as we do
return their dignity
return their rights of life
to them only thus may
the secret of human being
be rediscovered
as a light in the darkness
in the name of all
that lives and breathes
do not forget the animals
our wordless siblings
do not betray and market them
take not their dignity
away from them

The Dream Boat

Once, I saw a fishing boat speeding through the waves of the sea. The foam beat against the sides of the boat and splashed up into the air. I watched the scene attentively and believed that the fisherman going to the sea in that boat must have brought with him a dream, a hope for a good haul of fish that day.

Remembering the scene, I have crafted a white model boat made from thin threads of white glue, which also create an illusion of foam floating in the air.  I name it The Dream Boat. I hope that in the near future there is no war, no famine, and that no one will suffer from poverty, children will enjoy more care and attention, women will receive  equal status and more recognition and that the deadly disease AIDS will be wiped out so that it would no longer destroy lives.

Those are my dreams and my boat is the vessel carrying those dreams along  for an everlasting world peace.

Re:Mapping

When I was asked to create a box for this project, I wanted to use ideas and images representing the spirit behind Women Beyond Borders. I found a 1957 atlas with a world map and an accompanying text, which are very anachronistic relics of the Cold War era. More than 40 years later we have seen a myriad of changes in borders resulting from our late 20th century, capitalist, post-colonial, multi-national, global politics. More importantly, we know only too well the tragedies that have ensued when multitudes of human beings are displaced and dislocated from their homes and homelands.

On this box I attempt to re-map the world to show the arbitrary and contrived nature of geo-political borders. While many countries appear as they are today, some nations no longer exist and others have yet to be established. I have tried to de-contextualize the borders to remind us how they are always in flux. Inside the box is an idealistic and paternalistic text fragment from the atlas, a bittersweet reminder of a 1950’s American dream that has all but collapsed as we approach the year 2000. The text on the lid is my own bit of wishful thinking: Even though boundaries will undoubtedly persist to exist, hopefully they will not continue to prevent us from moving freely across borders.

 

Map-Labyrinth

I opened the box’s door, I took off its top and I glued it to the bottom part to be a pedestal.  Then I painted the whole box in white and sealed it, following its shape with pieces of Plexiglas, on which appear (through the method of décollage that I have been using since 1974) fragmented images which constitute my labyrinths.  By this symbolic gesture of encasement and transparency, I hide away forever and protect the most precious feeling that remains buried at the bottom of this box since the time of Pandora;  Hope.

Nancy’s Hope

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

NANCY SODERBERG, FORMER SENIOR FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR TO CLINTON, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS

My impression of Nancy is a study in contrasts: powerful authority figure/pretty, blonde hair, soft features. Woman, wife, stepmother/facing the horror of war on a daily basis.

But a singular vision: the world can change, war can be contained.

So, we have a soft, hand-stitched pillow – symbol of domesticity, a womanly art. In the colors of the UN flag, the ultimate multilateral institution, and round, like the diplomatic Round Table. A locked, but fragile glass box, its contents a weapon of powerful but intimate destruction: an M67 Fragmentation hand grenade. And the key tucked safely away in a pocket of the UN pillow.

Gaia

I put earth into Pandora’s box, enclosing meaninglessness within. The box, decorated with various symbols and colors signify the contents. The edges and corners are softened.

The enclosure of earth becomes an oxymoron. A small portion inside stands for the universal. The box is a prayer to the larger form from which it was taken.

The pins refer to the sensitivity of a living body that will feel pain by being injured, but will also start to blossom. The GROUND/ SOIL/ EARTH as READY MADE, an allegory of GAIA (earth), the UNIVERSAL MOTHER AND LAST HOPE.

Energy of Thought, Word and Deed

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

Rita Ryder, PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, YWCA

Our sculpture represents the day-to-day work of the YWCA, providing hope and opportunity to women and families. Our ceramic hands represent our entire, diverse community joining together to help women and families overcome critical issues that undermine their lives: homelessness, poverty, domestic violence and unemployment.

Working together, we move women and families forward—breaking the cycle of poverty and hopelessness, and improving the quality of their lives.

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?

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.

Balkan Dance

This traditional Balkan folk dance slipper carries a box holding the grief and terror of deportation and internment as well as hope for endurance and the end of all exiles- physical, political, cultural and spiritual.

Peace Offering

Peace Offering is about seeing the angelic possibilities in our existence on the Earth, despite all adversity. It is so easy to forget that goodness is as real as horror when we are in the midst of difficulties. I hope that my offering to the Women Beyond Borders project will serve as a beacon to remind us of the beauty and light that is always within our reach.

 

Revelation

“To laugh often
and much, to win
the respect of
intelligent people
and the affection
of children, to earn
the appreciation
of honest critics
and endure the
betrayal of false
friends, to
appreciate beauty,
to find the best
in others,

to leave the world
a bit better, whether
by a healthy child,
a garden patch…
to know even one
life has breathed
easier because
you have lived.
This is to have
succeeded!”

-Emerson

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.

 

Singapore Sling

My box sculpture represents my past and my hopes and dreams for the future.  Now I am caught in the middle as I work in Singapore as a domestic help.

It is the thought of my children back home in the Philippines (that’s why their picture is here) and my dream of having my own restaurant in Manila that keeps me going.

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.

Tran-Sisters

This is a continuation of my Hole Project which started, and the beginning presented, in 1999. The holes drilled on the foundation parts of the box represents the idea that life is full of little openings.  The transistors (primary device for amplifying electronic signals) represents the idea of enhancing the message of openings we find in life. The interconnection of the 3 (number 3 is one of the lucky numbers for me) parts of the box represents interconnections that we beings can engage in among ourselves, to promote the attitude that there is hope because we find openings.

Restoration

In Christian vocabulary, the term restoration means bringing oneself back to God who created the earth; saved from darkness; beings in the light; and bringing blessing to this world. This work, by a small community is an offering to the Almighty Highest in the first year of the twenty-first Century. Participants of this community came together to pray for needs that they observed from the mass media. This community and the artist share one faith and believe in the same God. The Box thus represents their prayers which are burdened with the sorrows of history and which brings hope to the future. It is likened to a funeral of sacred history and a birthday party of the new history makers.

 

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.

Pearls of Hope

Let’s hope

There will be no more wars and differences among countries… and instead, peace…

The world will be free of the evils of human nature–greed, fame and vanity…

The word cancer will be erased from our world with advancement in medicine…

The pearls of hope will illuminate our world, and help us realize our dreams…

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.

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.

Arrivederci Roma

In a world of many and endless wars, this music box of memories represents moments of happiness from the past that offer us hope for a better future.

Invitation reverberates within the box’s walls. Notes hang from the ceiling, filling the shallow emptiness, filling us with the joy of a new moment, a new life, a sharing, a memory.