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| Protest for Cristina, a women murdered by her ex-boyfriend. |
Feminicide is one of the most extreme expression of violence against women, it is defined to be a sex-based hate crime against females just because they are females. My semester project will be based on impactful feminicide victims in the Dominican Republic, where I was born and raised for fifteen years. The project will consist on a series of illustrations that will depict the victims in a positive way, alongside with short writings about their case and their persona. As a Latina woman, I have always been drawn to bringing awareness into issues that affect other women, specially issues that have surged from a patriarchal and chauvinist culture and have such a big impact in the Dominican Republic as a society.
Since I was very young, I became very aware of the high levels of homicide that took place around my location, particularly those which affected woman due to how it ended up affecting myself. The way in which they affected myself was by altering how I approached and viewed life. I was not able to do the same things that men could, and I became aware of that at a very young age; I was also encouraged to be very meticulous when I started dating because who knows, you might get killed by a man sedated by power. All of this, and other instructions were inculcated by family members for as long as I came remember, and it is very likely that it happened in other Dominican households that were consumed by the fear of losing their girls to a man without remorse. Due to my experiences of living those tragedies from a close proximity, I have decided to embark in this project. I want to make this project because it is a topic I am extremely passionate about, and it needs to be shed more light into.
After a controversial case in 2017, the concept of making this series came to me but since it was such a sensitive subject to touch I decided to put it aside until this moment. The case consisted of an underage pregnant girl being murdered by her boyfriend and her mother-in-law after not wanting to perform an abortion. Subsequently to killing her by performing an illegal abortion, they put her body in a suitcase and dumped her in a remote location. The case included many vile factors to say the least, but the perpetrators were not correctly punished for the crime. My aim with this project is to bring awareness to this phenomenon and promote people to advocate for these victims and for the judicial system to sentence the criminals accordingly. The audience targeted is thought to be Dominicans residing outside of the Dominican Republic, but I also plan on the inclusion of Latin American countries that are being affected as well.
The methods that will be utilized to reach my audience will include an exhibition of the art in a gallery to reach a local audience, spreading the illustrative posters around locations vastly populated by Dominicans and other Latino communities, and an Instagram page where images of the creative process could be found as well as additional information about the cause and the victims. The Instagram page can be also used for interaction amongst the community and the artist, as well as a platform where other artists advocating for the same issue can be featured. By choosing Instagram as a collateral publisher, I will be able to reach larger masses beyond my initial target, and also enable the audience to create a deeper connection with the work since they are seeing behind the scenes.
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| "No estamos todas"- magdombatattoo |
A project that has inspired me to create my own is “No estamos todas” which means we aren’t all here. This project was created by an anonymous artist. Her aim with this project was to put a face on feminicide, and spark conversations in regards to how machismo violence has taken the lives of many women. Her and other artists illustrate the victims of feminicide from Mexico after researching about their cases. The illustrations are often inspired by the life of the victims, and they are portrayed in a positive manner that way their life can be celebrated.
My semester project is also looking to celebrate the more than fifty lives that were taken away in 2018, and the one hundred and seventy in 2017; and the hundreds more that were taken away in the previous years and that keep being lost as the years pass in the Dominican Republic. I am seeking to reach the eyes of the people whom are causing this issue to continue, and reach those who have the passion to make this change. This project goes beyond having a good portfolio piece and it goes beyond artistic exposure. I want to contribute to a cause that has affected my country for decades, and the security of women overall.
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| Karla Almonte, Female Caribbean artist that are unrecognized. |
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