As I move through this life I have…
Change has always been inevitable in these short years since I was born. I have re-invented, moved, transformed. Each time I fly high up in the sky, I look down imagining what will come. When I arrive at these new places, I resole my soul and begin walking.
jumbled, preserved
leaving, changing, growing
blown away, chaotic, frightened, shattered
exhilarated, hopeful, remembering, loved
shaping, moving, forming
fragile, strong
nest
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.
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.
My grandmother’s sewing box, a gift from her mother, handed down to me by my mother, is my inspiration for Women beyond borders. I have made a tiny sarcophagus of pins, cotton and frayed red velvet – to symbolize thousands of droplets of blood from pin-pricked fingers – all embedded in the wax of candles burned into the night, lighting women’s often unappreciated work of skill, toil and pleasure.
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?
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.
As I contemplated my involvement in this project I was immediately drawn to the reverent simplicity of the tiny redwood box. As I held the box and pondered its humble strength and quiet stability I was instantly reminded of the strength, perseverance and poise-under-pressure that often signifies women in general. This strength of endurance caused me to then think of the many burdens we all carry around with us, and how much lighter the burden can be when we know someone is helping to carry the load. The Bible reminds us to share in each other’s trials. By helping to bear the load brought on by death, illness, heartbreak, loneliness or other oppressions, we offer comfort and hope.
In creating this visual testimony I attached the lid to the box and produced a stable and strong vessel. The vessel houses the strength, perseverance and love that together can lift, carry and support the great weight of the burden that is placed upon it. The burden, a complex aggregate rock, is both rugged and smooth in its makeup. Beneath the rock is a cushion, a sheet of gold, intended to soften the burden. The rock is bound to the box with a tightly wrapped and intertwined cord. The cord is the weakest element. It can be cut, and at any time the burden can be lifted. The cord reminds us of our obligation.
It is my intent that this box stand as a reminder to all of us to humbly bear one another’s burdens, to encourage and strengthen one another, to love, honor and pray for one another. By helping to bear the burdens, we find joy in knowing that we have contributed to the needs of others. By bearing one another’s burdens there are blessings to be found in the midst of tribulation; there are victories to be found in hidden places.
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.
My pictures express to me the love you’ve shown us, the courage and zeal.
I have appreciated the training, especially the relaxation therapy, it helped me a lot. I thank God who put us together in his own way. It was not by our own will.
I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair weary
and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done for the children.
-Anonymous Tewa Source
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.
Women have always been teachers of those who are in the dark.
As a woman artist, activist and feminist, I try to challenge all kinds of social stereotypes (conventions, boundaries) about women, art, politics, etc. that are causing the painful TENSION of my body and my mind.
I know that I share this feeling with many women artists from the past and the present.
I also want to express the women’s strength, courage and creativity which are the means to EXTEND those limits, labels, categories…..It’s hard work and it’s never done!
We clean our house every day and throw the useless things away. But often our minds for years get filled with foolish thoughts and fears.
The Women's Voices: Jennifer Barton from WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS on Vimeo.
