Durban - “We want to remember them just the way they were.”
Those are the words of artist Andrea Walters at the unveiling of her new exhibition #OverMyDeadBody at the Durban Art Gallery this week,
It comprises 50 soap sculptures of the mouths of the silenced women resting on transparent shelves and a suspended death shroud.
The exhibition also includes an audiovisual performance and domestic items which reflect intimacy, sexuality and violence.
Walters, who is a GBV survivor, said: “Each sculpture tells a horrific story; all of these women were victims of femicide.”
Each piece is a 3D sculpture with the victim’s name on the back, which were also put onto the shroud “until it was full and even then the names kept on coming”.
“My strategies that honour femicide victims are influenced by my experience of intimate partner violence (IPV), since memories are activated by domestic objects. The exhibition attempts to counter the ongoing perception that it is acceptable for a man to punish a woman through violence or death.
“I believe that when women survivors see artwork on IPV, it provokes an instinctive response ‒ they remember because they cannot forget,” she said.
For the exhibition, Walters gathered data and images from SA femicide victims from across the country, finding materials that would best represent women across all socio-economic boundaries because femicide affected all cultural and racial groups.
“I decided to sculpt their mouths on Sunlight soap bars which is found in most households and used in some cultures to prepare bodies for burial.
“My mother’s passing inspired a death shroud embroidered with the victims’ names.
“I hope to engage the viewer in a participatory role by supplying additional soaps and carving tools. I hope that ’something’ happens between the viewer and the artwork, evoking individual emotional responses such as grief, empathy or pain,” she said.
Walters will conduct interactive walkabouts for the public, as well as with school groups.
The Durban Art Gallery is on the 2nd Floor of City Hall, Anton Lembede Street and is open from 9am to 3.30pm and 9am to midday on Saturdays.
For more information, contact the gallery at 031 311 2264.
The Independent on Saturday