Days 9-10
In this section Students will be presented with documentation of the installation “Shroud Mother’s Voices; a memorial for victims of gun violence in New Haven CT”. They will be asked to compare this work to street graffiti memorials for victims of gun violence. The Shroud Memorial includes a group of silk banners which have the image of the victims’ mothers printed on them along with a text, giving her name, her child’s name, child’s age and date of death. These silk shrouds accompany a two hour video document edited into short ten minute vignettes, in which each mother shares memories of her child, describes who they hold responsible for the death of their child, and what it means to them to be a mother. This work is built from the voice and shared experience of twenty-seven mothers who have lost a child to gun violence in New Haven, CT. This work attempts to create a space for remembrance and acknowledgment for both the victims and their families as well as a document that addresses the complex issues associated with urban violence. I created the Shroud Memorial as my graduate sculpture thesis exhibition at the Yale Art and Architecture Gallery. After this initial installation the work has been shown in the Maloney Correctional Institution, the entrance corridor of New Haven’s City Hall, and in the Connecticut College Harkins Chapel, New London, CT. Included in this unit is a set of sides documenting each installation and a copy or the video. Students should question how this work changes when it moves from one location to another. (see slide list # 2)
Day 11
Invite a representative from The Names Project; AIDS Quilt to make a presentation to the class. Their presentation should include photographic documentation of the AIDS Quilt and a short description of The Names Project as well as a detailed description of the guidelines which need to be followed in making panels for the quilt (contact: The Names Project, P.O Box 14114, San Francisco, CA 94114).
Days 12-15
Design and assemble two panels for infants who have died of AIDS as a collaborative class project, and then present the panels to the local chapter of The Names Project