Prototype for Silenced: Domestic Report (02.2019) artist’s book.

 

In 2019, I returned to the headlines to dissect and interrogate how news media and government agencies tell the stories of gun-related domestic violence incidents. Silenced: Domestic Report (this is an isolated incident with no threat to the public) is a new series that pairs the data of domestic gun violence incidents with a critical eye toward the images and language used in such reports. Much of the language is either clinical, naïve and/or irresponsible, and reinforces social, racial, and economic inequalities even though domestic violence crosses all demographics. I am interested in how these reports help or hinder our understanding of the statistics and the issues, such as: more than two-thirds of intimate partner and family murder victims are committed with guns, domestic violence assaults involving a gun are twelve times more likely to result in death, and nearly one million women alive today have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner.

 

The Silenced series is evolving as I consider digital formats along with traditional print formats in the spirit of a “cultural jamming” artistic practice to critique and subvert the dominant media messages. I am currently experimenting with interventions utilizing mass marketing forms (posters, cards, brochures, etc) that would be situated in public spaces— bathrooms, lounges, dining areas— and would encourage social media interaction through hashtags and QR codes. I am also developing ideas to expand the performative rituals into collaborative projects with the community, reaching out to victim’s families and survivors.

 

The Silenced series intends to start conversations, show how intimately we are impacted by gun violence, and generate momentum for action.