We often view art as a way to express the beauty and joy in this world, in our cities, and in our relationships. While art can portray beauty, it can also show the most painful and ugly aspects of the world we live in. “‘What Were You Wearing?’ Survivor Art Installation,” an exhibit currently on display on the main floor of the Sadie Hartzler Library, is a showcase of survival and a mournful remembrance of the inevitable pain that results from sexual violence.
The exhibit consists of articles of clothing similar to those worn by the victims and survivors of sexual violence against women, although they are not the actual articles of clothing worn. The clothes are not causal of the violence experienced by the survivors, they are merely witnesses. As you walk into the exhibit, a sign warns of the violent and graphic content in the exhibit. Again, however, the clothes are not graphic, and they do not portray the violence of the experiences. The clothes on display are a reminder that the victims, who are survivors, were not inherently chosen by an inherently violent individual. The clothes are there to humanize the survivor and their experience. To humanize the survivor is not normalizing the experience, but to separate sexual violence against women from what is normal in our culture.
Next to each display of clothing is a short narrative from the survivor describing, not in detail, the events of their experience. Not only do the narratives give us a glimpse of the survivor’s story, they help us better understand the pain that sexual violence causes. The clothes are not worn nor do they show emotion, but the words are like knives. Each time you read the narrative, the words cut into the clothing, making visible the trauma that the clothes were witness to.
“‘What Were You Wearing?’ Survivor Art Installation” is part of the 22nd Annual Sexual Violence Art Exhibit organized by the Collins Center, a sexual assault crisis service in Harrisonburg. Exhibits are on display at Eastern Mennonite University, Bridgewater College, and James Madison University. This is the first year the Collins Center has collaborated with local universities on their annual exhibit, and this art installation is the first like it in the Shenandoah Valley. The exhibits at each location are open to the public, offering an opportunity to better understand the survivors of sexual violence against women as well as providing education on preventing similar violence.
