A hole in the floor leads to a dank basement. (Photos by C-M.)
I finally made it over to see Swoon and Tennessee Jane Watson’s installation at Honey Space in NYC. The piece is a tribute to one of the hundreds of poor women that have been brutally murdered in the Mexican border town of Juárez—killings that have gone largely uninvestigated and unsolved. It’s the kind of piece that could have easily descended into the treacly, but it doesn’t. The main room is a simple, open space, with a small table shrine and a hole in the floor that leads to a small, dark basement, which viewers can reach by means of a wooden ladder.
The basement is dank, some corners are downright muddy. Construction detritus is strewn about. The only light is supplied by flickering candles, illuminating a stylized portrait of victim Silvia Elena Rivera by Swoon. As beautiful as the portrait is, the real power of the installation is the oppressive atmosphere of the basement. It’s not difficult to imagine that this is the sort of dark, filthy space in which countless young women have met their violent ends. Sit here for a moment, and it’s difficult not to feel suffocated.
The best time to see the installation is on weekdays (the space is open Tues-Sat), when it is possible to admire it in some degree of solitude. The exhibit is up through July 5th.
Click on images to supersize. More after the jump.
The basement is dark, lit only by a few candles. I took a couple of pics with flash, but the bright light obliterates the installation’s moody feel. However, if you want to examine some of the details that run along the edge of Swoon’s paste-up, you can view a well-lit image here.
Shrine candles. Some visitors have left money and other objects.
A photograph of Rivera in her quinceañera gown.
More information about the murders of women in Juárez:
- Juárez Mothers Fight Femicide.
- National Organization for Women: Stop the Killing of Women in Juárez.
- Mujeres de Juárez.
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
- Señorita Extraviada, a powerful documentary on the murders.
Posted by C-Monster.
i think its fantastic that artist such as swoon are taking interest in “las muertas de juarez”. i would only hope our politicians did the same.
Stopped by yesterday. No words.