2021
Embroidered cotton monograms, sewing thread, zinc sheets
h: 115 cm, w: 150 cm, d: 40 cm
Photography: Meidad Suchowolski
Pietà first came to mind after the abduction of 276 high-school girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram. The mostly Christian girls were forced into immediate conversion to Islam and marriage to fighters, so their rape and abuse could be sanctioned. Most were never found; some managed to escape; a few returned with a child.
The work invokes the Christian iconic image of compassion – both as a tribute to the victims’ own background, and as an intimate image of a mother grieving her lost child.
It is composed of embroidered monograms, gathered through online searches, once used as dowry pieces or as decorative elements on women’s garments. They were hand-sewn into a delicate white wedding veil, like the one that the youngsters may have dreamed of wearing at their future wedding. The veil is held aloft by harsh sheet-metal supports that pierce the fragile fabric.
Pietà is a call for compassion in everyday life – compassion as a basic scaffolding of society, where every person has a name, a story, and a claim to matter.
