In.visible
Title: In.visible
Materials: Photography, Film & Performance
Description: In.visible is a project made in collaboration with five women on their experiences with sexual assault, abuse and rape. This project led me to be in conversation, over the course of a year, with them while I lived in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. I interviewed them, spoke with them in their homes, had meals with them and saw firsthand how they lived their lives in the light of sexual abuse and rape. Some had just been through the experience, while others have had systematic abuse throughout their childhood. This work explores the concept of how social justice means walking humbly alongside the vulnerable and reweaving oneself into the needs and the lives of others.
I used the mediums of photography, film and performance to depict the conversations and interactions that we had. Through working on this project: In.visible, the Lord helped me to understand that emotions like shame, hurt, guilt and sorrow are experiences that we all go through and there is no shame too great, no hurt too painful, no guilt too heavy and no sorrow too deep that the cross cannot shine a light upon, and that the death of Jesus Christ cannot heal. While I was helping these women express themselves, the Lord was helping me too. He used this project to help translate my head knowledge of the power and saving grace of the gospel to an experiential reality that will reside in my heart forever. It has changed me and healed me in ways I had not expected and I hope it will do the same for you.
View other images here.
“For the longest time I couldn’t even see the point of this . The thought of telling anyone gave me the cold pricklies. Made my stomach churn, so I minimized it to nothing. I thought it would feel like razorblades coming up my throat and I would never be able to tell anyone anything else again, and so I never did, not till I was 19. I never expected myself to have come to far. I never expected myself to life this long. Now… I am hell-bent on living. I heard this quote in a movie once and I always loved it. It said “Living is the best revenge.” — Rose Johnson
*Chesedh: the hebrew word for God’s unconditional grace and compassion
*Mishpat: the hebrew word for justice
“That moment. That moment in life that changes everything. You replay it in your mind over and over, but no matter how many times you play through the events, it does not make any more sense then it did before. It does not make it better. It does not make it clean. It does not make the pain go away. It just is, and forever will be a moment in time that has now changed everything, and more importantly has changed you; you as a person.”
— BJ
“Healing is extricating, excavating, pulling myself from my bones as the moon rests her divine face against the bruised sky. Healing is reaching into the teeth of my trauma and pulling out ringing love.
I wrap my world in a fierce love that transcends bodies, boundaries and borders. I demand a love so wide the sky would be envious. I crave a love so gentle and so pure that the world stops for a moment to revel in its beauty. I yearn for a love full enough to bring my sister back to me. I long for a love that will rise in every one of us – a tide crested with forgiveness and divinity, a love that will bring the world to a standstill – one that will curve every one of our lips into a sacred, healing whisper of prayer.” — Kelly Banker
Artist Feature | Abigail Han
I am an artist presently living, practicing and working in Los Angeles, USA. I currently work in the Education Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum where I generate digital content for the Museum to use on various platforms including social media and help manage artist programs and public lectures.
Though I don’t think I do anything ‘unique’ in my artistic practice, I’d say that I love holding dinner parties at my house where I invite other artists to come into my home, enjoy a meal and talk about art. Some artists consider this form of getting together and eating together as a form of social practice in art. I don’t necessarily see this practice as an art form, but rather a platform for me to work out what it means to be an artist within a unique community that God has called me to and at the same time a Christian (with neither identity in any particular order, but in tandem with/alongside each other).
I do what I do because I believe that this is God’s call on my life.
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