Diana Washington Valdez blog: The Ranger: Artist displays Juarez femicides project in Texas

Diana Washington Valdez blog: The Ranger: Artist displays Juarez femicides project in Texas
Excerpt:  [For you, Matilda.]
In the book, Valdez quotes Marisela Ortiz, activist and founder of Mothers of Juarez, as saying, “They are poor, young, mainly migrants to the city looking to improve their lives in the factories. And when they are found, they have been tortured, mutilated, bruised, fractured or strangled and, in every case, violated — gang-raped.”
National Public Radio, echoing other news organizations, reported in 2003 that, “Mexican authorities, unable to catch the killers, are roundly accused of being inept, corrupt and even complicit in the killings.”
These accusations continue, along with the crimes...
...Landgrebe’s reaction was the creation of “Beaten with a Hammer.”
“It’s as if you’re holding, in a way, you’re holding the heart of that person in your hand,” she said. “I had to deal with it in a very bureaucratic manner.”
Landgrebe presented on her piece and its origin to 33 attendees in the visual arts center March 8.
She said she used eight medical models of a human heart and sculptor mold, a plaster-like substance, to make the hearts over three years.
She said the mold allowed for each heart to have irregularities, representing the diversity of the “femicide” victims.
She said the handwritten portion of the project was the hardest part, and she found she could only write about 30 to 40 names in a given work session.
“It made me feel furious and helpless all at once over and over again,” she said.
Education sophomore Felisha Eiluk said she thought the irregularities and handwriting on the hearts added meaning to the piece.
”I think it takes a lot for someone to go in … and touch so many people,” she said.
Landgrebe said she hung the hearts from the ceiling with red fishing wire to complement the red ink on the hearts....
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   When I see a 'heart' I see the sculpted heart, fired, broken and shattered with a hammer, stitched back together with black clay, and then again fired in the kiln.  Now it is displayed in the 'unit' shiny from its final gloss paint. Each time I see it I still wonder how the stitches 'feel' as the heart beats.