COVE

The Image attached was taken from the University of Toronto in 2017. Winnipeg-based Métis artist Jaime Black initiated the REDress Project to increase awareness of the disproportionate discriminaton Indigenous women face. The REDress Project, a public art installation dedicated to the missing and murdered Indigenous women, includes red dresses which are hung or laid flat in public spaces to symbolize a specific Indigenous woman who has gone missing or has been murdered. The color red is used because red is the only color spirits can see; thus, hanging or laying a red dress to honor a missing or murdered indigenous woman is a way to call the spirit of the women back home.

Black states that she hopes to “draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.” Having the project move to Toronto and college campuses also means that one of Canada’s busiest and most public areas is giving the time and space for this issue to be made well-known. With this representation of a long-marginalized group, Canada can begin making safer spaces for Indigenous women. Representation is so key in the fight of Indigenous Women’s justice because issues Indigenous women face are historically dismissed and treated with less urgency due to the long-standing and internalized racism and sexism in legal practices and law enforcement. Black says that the art installation informs “people who are affected and create space for people who are affected to have their voices heard.” For a strong and long-lasting impact, the REDress project utilizes places where the social, cultural, political, and personal intersect to provide viewers with the opportunity to “access a pressing and difficult social issue on an emotional and visceral level.” The eeriness of the art and photographs that follow are utilized to intrigue viewers rather than put up their defenses to deflect emotionally hurtful information because the image of the red dress is “both subtle and compelling” as well as “simple and accessible.”

Sources:

“About.” Jaime Black, 2020, www.jaimeblackartist.com/about/.  

Beeston, Laura. “Red Dresses a Visual Reminder of Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women.” Thestar.com, 21 Mar. 2017, www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/03/21/red-dresses-a-visual-reminder-of-mis...(Image and Information)

Black, Jamie. “The REDress Project.” Jaime Black, 2020, www.jaimeblackartist.com/exhibitions/.