The memorial I have created is about the end of the patriarchy. In relation to the me-too movement. I have created a piece about the rise of women and the end of female suppression. I created a series based off of sexual assault survivors and women who have stood up to the patriarchy, In order to create equality for future generations. While researching these women I found a letter to Dr. Ford that was beautifully worded then I began to research other women looking for open letters and I found that because of women like Dr. Ford and Anita Hill survivors were inspired and able to heal because of these women.

 https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/361-letter-to-dr-ford/6af4cdcd77f44beae49d/optimized/full.pdf#page=1

(Clearer version of the letters)

I would have the public write letters to women who have inspired them to heal after instances of sexual assault. I would then use these letters to continue this series.

This is the model I had in mind when I first started. The resin would be a large rectangular shape cast inside the resin would be flowers and the letter printed on both sides of the paper. That would then sit on top of a stand that had a slit cut underneath it so that the lights inside of the stand could illuminate from underneath the resin. In the model, the stand would be made of wood and then painted white but the real thing would be made of white marble. 

 

This memorial would be placed at Jefferson Market Garden. The garden is surrounded by flowers, a pond, and greenhouse. I believe that due to the seriousness and traumatic memories this memorial can bring up that it was better to place it in an area that feels safe and peaceful as opposed to somewhere like Central Park where the memorial would get more exposure. The site was also used to house a women’s prison that was shut down due to the terrible conditions there and I’d like to transform that area of women’s suffrage to one that can inspire women. Also because the site is a community garden it will bring in the public and because of this, the monument would bring awareness to the gravity of sexual assault.

   

For this project, I started by cutting fresh flowers from their stems and then I experimented with how they would each look pressed. 

I had never cast anything inside of resin before so before I made the large plaques in smaller soap molds as testers I put the fresh and pressed flowers and poured resin in. I learned that flowers would float to the top so if I wanted the flowers to be completely covered I would have to pour the resin onto the flowers then wait until it hardened with the flowers risen at the top and pour another layer of resin on top of that. Then I did the same with a larger cake mold that would be used for the actual piece.

     

(testers made in the soap molds)  

Because of how difficult the resin was to work with I decided to make two thinner pieces of resin and cast flowers inside each of them. Then I did my best to cover the letters with many layers of the clear packing tape and placed it on top of the hardened resin.

I had quite a few mess-ups along the way…

I next made the stand by painting pieces of wood white I next sawed the wood into a smaller size and screwed them together. Then I cut another piece of wood to serve as the top and screwed it on. Lastly, I sawed holes to the top of the stand so that light could come out from underneath it and places a cloth to cover the holes. 

 

final int sem 1-1qbdxmu

Here is the link to my full essay on this piece