Portfolio > Exquisite Spectacle ; 2017 a tribute to the women suffrage movement of 1917

In 1917, 168 women were unlawfully imprisoned and denied basic privileges for demanding their right to vote. The suffragists weren’t afraid to make a spectacle. Sophisticated, well-educated, high-society women refused to pay a small fine for their release and instead chose sentences of incarceration of up to seven months. These women were tortured, beaten and forcefully fed, but endured inhumane treatment for equality.
The fabricated metal keys in this piece are replicas of those used in D.C. Prison to jail the suffragists. Each key represents one suffragette, while the wallpaper, imbued with metaphoric images, illustrates their invisible and unrecognized sacrifice.