Photography, Truth and Constructed Narrative

My last post focused on the works of Rebecca Belmore, while one of my first posts was on Lily Yeh Both artists recognize the the power of art to create the foundations toward social change. Social change can begin merely by the simple awareness of oppression, prejudices, barriers and hierarchies. Raising our consciouness is the beginning and the hope is that once we are more cognizant of the need for change, we will be moved to action. Taryn Simon, provides another example in the ways in which women are acting as activists advocating for social change of many kinds. She brings into question if what we see, what we are told is real and, if it isn't real, if it is constructed or a fabrication, then what do we do?

An American photographer, she has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, at the Venice Biennale and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to name a few. Through her images and narratives, she awakens our curiosity about what is real in photography and narrative; what is fact and what is constructed fiction. In the following TED talk she shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.

Community Healing and the Arts: A case study

In 2004, ten years after the Rwandan Genocide, Lily Yeh visited  Giseyena, Rwanda by way of an invitation of a local Red Cross representative. There, she was shown two sites: a mass grave covered by a crumbling structure and a nearby village where genocide survivors lived.

From 2005 to 2007 Lily Yeh and the Barefoot Artists worked with nearly 100 women, all survivors of the genocide, and several hundred children, volunteers from neighbouring cities and the US. Together, they created a memorial garden that honoured those who died in the genocide, and painted murals on the houses of the villagers - transforming a desolate area, into one that was welcoming and uplifting. The project illustrates the benefits of using the arts as a vehicle for community healing and the transformation that care is given in creating personal environments.

This short clip from a documentary by Chris Landy reflects the power bringing the arts into a community has had on restoring a sense of peace.