This piece was created as a way for me to process what has happened to me, with the hopes that physically constructing and visualizing my trauma would allow me to move on. I’ve come to realize that some things never go away, and that’s not okay, but it’s survivable. This piece is not about my pain, it is about my anger. This installation is simultaneously about me, and everyone. Through the construction of this piece, and through displaying it publicly, I am not seeking pity. Pity doesn’t change anything. I don’t want your apologies. I don’t want your concerned glances. I want your anger. I want your energy. I want you to force change. I am not special, this experience isn’t only my own. I challenge you to find just one woman or AFAB (assigned female at birth) person who doesn’t have their own stories to tell. This installation is a story, a gravesite, a memorial, to every person who has experienced gender-based oppression, sexual violence, and abuse.

Although this installation is meant to highlight the systemic crisis of misogyny, homophobia, and sexual harassment and assault, it is told through the lens of my personal story. The personal is political, and this piece is both personal and political. As an artist who centers activism in my work, I work to deconstruct the barriers between the artist, the art, and the viewer. As such, I want you, as the viewer, to interact with my work. This is both my prison cell, but it is also the scene of a crime. You have full permission to be a detective, but I ask that viewers please place items back in their initial location.

Dedicated to the Black Family and all the other rapists and abusers who fund and attend institutions of higher education.