Born Still
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This work was inspired
by German artist Kathe Kollwitz’s woodcut entitled Die Witwe I (The
Widow
I),1922-3. The juxtaposition of
pregnancy
with death evokes numerous thoughts of war - the anguished widow, the
mourning
mother's haunting memories of her child-turned soldier, and hope for a
future
family crushed. Kathe Kollwitz, whose
art documented the poor and anguished who filled her husband’s waiting
room for
medical services, lost her son Peter in his first days of combat during
the
First World War. In addition to mourning
the loss of loved ones, other concepts can be added in a country torn
asunder
by war. While more men are killed in
action, thousands of girls and women are scarred for life as victims of
gender-based violence such as rape, forced prostitution, and torture. "Their bodies, deliberately infected
with HIV/AIDS or carrying a child conceived in rape, have been used as
envelopes to send messages to the perceived 'enemy.'" UNICEF
estimated that at one point during the
Balkans war in the 1990s, more than 20,000 women and girls had been
raped, and
in Rwanda between 1994 and 1995,
almost 16,000.
The
concept of being Born Still in a world where
wars continue
to be waged provides hope that the next generation will end the
insanity before
the insanity silences all, both from within and those of us beyond the
womb.
1 Duddy,
Janice
"How does war impact the lives of women?" Association for
Women's Rights in Development. See
footnote: Rehn, Elisabeth and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
"Women, War and Peace: The
Independent Expert's Assessment on the
Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women's Role in Peace-building."
UNIFEM: New York.
2002
The Anne T. Kmieck Gallery
