Centre Arminda Aberastury
Jill AnnieMargaret

Jill AnnieMargaret carried out during her residency within the ‘acePIRAR Program, a work in collaboration with groups of women from Idaho, USA and from Buenos Aires, Argentina, victims of child abuse or aggression.

This was a project in which the ‘ace Foundation had the opportunity to exchange its artistic activity with a new community and space, in addition to being enriched by the participation of the Oral Narration group belonging to the CIM “Arminda Aberastury” of the Directorate of Women of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.

HAIRSTORY / HERSTORY (by Jill AnnieMargaret)

Throughout human history and across cultures, the hair of loved ones has been kept for memorial, ritual and spiritual purposes. Steeped in mythology and a verifiable biological parameter, hair is a physical trace of the individual that is its origin. Paradoxically, when it is attached to the head, the hair serves as a great signifier of identity, but when it comes off it becomes something vile, repulsive; a mere trace of someone’s presence or evidence of a crime. In my work, hair serves as a catalyst to break the silence that suffocates those who have suffered the trauma of sexual assault, child sexual abuse or domestic violence.

In considering trauma, one experiences a multi-layered emotional process with no clear center or end. The memory required to transmute the injury can be excruciating. The production of the work and materials involved in the facility reflects the after-effects that are experienced in the wake of trauma and on the road to recovery. In this context, dissociation, repetition, masking, and stratification play a transformative role. The work preserves a hope for humanity and the belief that each person deserves to be free in their own skin, able to speak their truth free from shame, guilt and stigma. Gather offers an ethereal and enriching space that encourages reflection.

The work brings together a collection of women’s voices from Argentina and the United States, establishing an anonymous cultural record of courageous and generous people who were willing to share their stories and their hair to help this project and work to end abuse and aggression. sexual child.