15 Take(s) on Trafficking

1. 15 Take(s) on Trafficking Artists Books as Agents of Social Change Works by The Students of Art 428: Book Art Lead by Professor Beth Grabowski

2. 15 Takes- Project Statement In this project the students take on the idea of art as an agent of social change. Political works of art can be considered from a variety of perspectives such as advocacy, as a vehicle to raise consciousness of problems and promote change, and as a personal response. Indeed, works may have elements of all of these functions. In this project we have discussed the idea of making art with an overt political motivation and how that is different from work that is made from other motivating practices such as personal aesthetic or observational traditions. In specific we have tackled the topic of Human Trafficking. The students learned about trafficking through an overview from Donna Bickford Director of the Carolina Women's Center and then visits from experts in the field, including social services and legal aid workers (Rachel Braver, LANC), law enforcement (FBI agent John Price) and student activists (OtiliaEnica from Carolina Against Sex Trafficking-CAST.) They also read several documents laying our the statistics and, perhaps most importantly, also read accounts of survivor stories. 15 Takes- art as an agent of social change

3. The particular format of artistic response is the Artists' Book. As an artistic vehicle, the book form provides to explore the intersections of visual information, structure language and time. Some books may be read in a conventional manner, others function sculpturally or even performatively. Many of the books include all of these qualities. The book works that are being made for this project apply the concepts of the book form and address the issue of trafficking from a variety of perspectives, including individual emotional reactions to the ideas that have been presented. Some have focused on a particular survivor’s narrative by considering various moments of a story, others have started with the perspective of others involved: law enforcement, family, community, health care worker, consumer or the trafficker. The roles of gender in the victim/perpetrator relationship and the less tangible aspects of the problem such as desperation, invisibility, trust, dependence, demand and movement across borders or the simple act of betrayal have entered in to some of the solutions. 15 Takes- art as an agent of social change

4. Alexander Bowman An Analogous Gesture 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

5. Alexander Bowman An Analogous Gesture This sculptural and performative book form addresses the sense of futility often fostered by a condition of environmental Inhibition. It was intended as an exploration of contextual limitation simultaneously within the gallery environment, legal environment, and socio-economic environment. It functions as a microcosmic analogy to these spaces and the ways in which a kernel of potentiality within them—be it a politically oriented artistic gesture, the prosecution of those engaged in international labor trafficking, or the hope for a better life—can be rendered fruitless under a set of specific environmental conditions. This inert state is often rooted in inappropriate or negligible engagement with the kernel’s larger context, as is the case with this piece. Though the potential within any given apple seed for producing a fruit-bearing tree is relatively small, confinement to an enclosed gallery space—absent of the continual environmental inputs needed for its development—increasingly diminishes this potential until it is all but non-existent. This also applies to the three aforementioned potentialities: in the limited effect of a political work beyond the confined gallery space, the lack of evidentiary resources needed for trafficking prosecution within the legal system, and the restrictive immigrant work policies which often promote the objectification and mistreatment of individuals. Thus, through the utilization of a decontextualized and disengaged seed, a relatively simple form may function as an analogy for the complex mechanisms which impede progress and potentiality.

6. Laura Charlton The Gaze 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

7. Laura Charlton The Gaze “Vision is forever incomplete and uncontrollable because it is used to shape our sense of what we are. Objects molt and alter in accord with what we need them to be, and we change ourselves by the mere act of seeing.” - James Elkins As I researched the issue of the sexual trafficking of women and children, I was struck by the lack of discussion and information available regarding the causes of the problem. Who is the customer, the invisible “John” who demands the bodies of these women and children, and why? Is there a particular way of looking, a way that men look at women and women look at themselves (a way of looking built up in layers over time until it has become dogma), that lies at the heart of this problem? I think that there is. My book is a visualization of this way of looking, one of the ways that this “male gaze” might appear in book form. The result is an absurd object, a book with the center cut out of each page and thrown in a pile off to the side. The “blind spots” created by this cutting, the places where the content of the book should be, form a tunnel through the entire book and dictate what is seen and what is not.

8. Hui-Jung Hsieh No Longer Wanted 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

9. Hui-Jung Hsieh No Longer Wanted No Longer Wanted is a book that engages the topic of Human Trafficking. After reading stories of the victims of Human Trafficking, I felt compelled to create a book with their voices. My book is a collection of quotes from survivors: the events they experienced, their internal thoughts, their hopes and accounts of how they became the victims. Even when the victimization was long past, many still continued to struggle with the memory of their trauma. The experience had left an un-eraseable shadow. As I read their stories I learned about how, when and why human trafficking exists; their compelling voices left its own indelible imprint in my mind. In my response, I was motivated to put myself in the victims’ perspective by using myself as the image source. With their stories in mind, I photographed myself while imagining the plight of the trafficked women. Because I was literally incorporated with the book, it became much more personal than just a retelling of victims stories. Combining their voices and my image became an act of solidarity and witness.

10. Morgan MuhsBind 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

11. Morgan MuhsBind Bind facilitates contemplation in the role of textiles in the lives of women. In one sense, garments are empowering, giving women agency over their bodies and how they are perceived. On the other hand, female victims of human trafficking are promised employment as a seamstress or given new clothing before being subjected to slavery and forced prostitution. The women in Bind are being progressively obscured by threads, and each woman is paired with a synonym for the word “bind,” suggesting that their enclosure is not voluntary.

12. Payce Madden Woman from Buenos Aries 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

13. Payce Madden Woman from Buenos Aries Fear, misunderstanding, distrust: these emotions stood out to me most upon hearing human trafficking survivor stories. The problems of victims and law enforcement do not end when trafficking is found by authorities. Victims often do not speak English, necessitating a translator. Their stories can seem confusing and conflicted due to traumatic experiences. They may not trust interviewers and may be reluctant to speak at all. And even if they can offer a straightforward testimony, it can be difficult to use in a legal case, since crucial details may be missing. Furthermore, traffickers might have used false paperwork to transport victims, making it difficult to track them, and usually threaten or lie to victims, making them fearful and occasionally uncooperative. All of these issues can make communication with trafficking victims extremely difficult. There is an immediate contrast between the book, whose main function is to communicate, and the problem authorities face when attempting to communicate with trafficking victims. The garbled words and twisted pages of the book represent the failure of communication. Although the words are initially not difficult to read and understand, they grow more and more confusing as the book continues, as if the speaker were growing upset and the listener overwhelmed. But even when the words seem nonsensical or cannot be understood, the metal pages lend a weight to them, just as the problem of trafficking is permanent and substantial.

14. Crystal Lowndes Want 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

15. Crystal Lowndes Want Hiding within our towns Walking amongst our people Driven by Greed Fed by desire Is a great and tragic injustice Which can by defeated by just one voice This book explores the different kinds of “want” that perpetuate the tragedy of human trafficking. The simple desire to seek a better life is exploited by the wants fueled by greed, power, sexual appetite and status. The difficulty of interrupting this cycle of exploitation is manifest in law enforcement’s need to have prosecutable evidence. As artists and activists standing outside, our want is to be able reveal the systems of demand that perpetuate the problem, to ask people not to avert their eyes, and to make difference -however small- by raising awareness of this human tragedy.

16. Amanda Newton I’ll Take Care of You 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

17. Amanda Newton I’ll Take Care of You My goal with this book was to represent the struggle trafficking victims experience once they have escaped or been rescued from their entrapment. As I read through the survivor stories in preparation for this project, I was struck by how often people promise victims escape or offer to help them start a better life, but then instead of doing what they promised, they would simply traffic the victims to another equally abusive situation. Any sense of trust in the victims is brutally exploited. They are told that they will be cared for and their trust is asked of them, but then entirely disregarded. For a victim to regain trust and seek help either while being trafficked, or once rescued is an intense struggle. I made my book out of a bed sheet, and use imagery that references the experiences of victims and why it is so difficult for them to heal from their past. The text is meant to be words that are spoken by traffickers to deceive victims, as well as by those who actually wish to help rescue victims out of their trafficking situation, and because of this, trafficking victims often cannot know who to believe.

18. Peter Pendergrass Cross Paths 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

19. Peter Pendergrass Cross Paths Human trafficking is one of the top 3 criminal industries in the world, and the fastest growing. There are 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world. 600,000 to 800,000 individuals are trafficked across international borders each year. 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year. Domestic trafficking is not included in these figures. Trafficking victims can be victims of sex or labor trafficking. They can be foreign nationals, US citizens or legal residents; men, women, or children. On any given day, you could cross paths with a victim of trafficking. How will you react? What can you do to help? How will you know in the first place? In America we tend to distance our selves and our “personal” lives from serious issues such as slavery and human trafficking. This work broaches the idea that this global problem can be hidden in front of you, and the people affected by trafficking can be anyone and are everywhere.

20. Leah Nelson Biology 317 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

21. Leah Nelson Biology 317 The Art 428 Book Art Human Trafficking Project has inspired my research into the area of the biological effects that female victims of sex trafficking experience. The title Biology 317 references the scripture in 1 Corinthians 3:17. This book speaks plainly and truthfully about this delicate subject. I choose the medium of glass and glass etching to create the idea of fragility and delicacy suitable for the topic. My hope is to convey at least part of the true tragedy that befalls the bodies of these women in order to encourage empathy and action on their behalf.

22. Megan Shank Presumptuous Impositions 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

23. Megan Shank Presumptuous Impositions Historically, human trafficking has been exoticized through idealized depictions of harems and prostitutes. Through this lens, I have drawn figures from classical, typically Orientalist works of art, in which they are dehumanized by the replacement of their head with that of an endangered species of animal. On the opposite side of these pages are clinical, impersonal line drawings of various body parts that doctors or traffickers would examine upon rescuing or selling the victims, respectively. The book lends itself to the sexualization, dehumanization, and impersonalization trafficking victims go through during their time as both victims and survivors.

24. Ariel Rudolph Made in China 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

25. Ariel Rudolph Made in China All excerpts in this book are taken from the book To Plead Our Own Cause: Personal Stories by Today’s Slaves. They are true accounts from five former slave laborers who worked at Chinese laogai (reform-through-labor) camps. I was struck by the bizarre juxtaposition of the mundane and seemingly innocent goods that they made (sweaters, chopsticks, cushions, doilies, slippers, and stuffed animals, to name a few) with the startling inhumanity of their treatment at the camps. I was also struck­­ by the fact that the goods, produced mainly for export to Western Europe and the United States, come to us carrying their makers’ silent and invisible stories, and we remain oblivious to them. There was something absurd and awful about the relationship of such frivolous products to the torture that their makers endured in creating them. This relationship spurred the metaphor that drives this book. Instead of featuring imagery of the afflicted bodies of trafficked people (which is unfortunately easily dismissed in our media-burdened culture), I used the body of a teddy bear made in China (perhaps in a prison camp). Reversing the order in which the bear was stitched together, I ripped him apart. Seeing a teddy bear ripped apart is somehow more heart-rending than the imagery of the literal abused body. This allows us to access our empathy for trafficked people and to question our own hearts, which break for teddy bears and perhaps not for those who suffered to make them.

26. Michael Rader Many Faces 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

27. Michael Rader Many Faces Placing Traffickers in the vicinity of their victims only heightens awareness and brings the underlying issues to the forefront. Incorporating a Boltanski-like idea of face grids allows the viewer to place both trafficker and victim on the same level plane of consideration while assessing this piece. There is a very close and immediate danger for each victim; their fate surrounds them as they are tightly bound and stitched to the enemies surrounding them. The life of each victim is essentially lost as some faces may take on a graphic non-realist representation of the life that once existed. Each grid takes on a sense of fragility to attest to the delicate situation that human trafficking has become in recent years. As the viewer is reluctant to handle the brittle and frail pages, likely, our society has often been reluctant to acknowledge human trafficking as an important and urgent issue in the past.

28. Abby Timberlake Numbers 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

29. Abby Timberlake Numbers When you hear about any politically important issue, it focuses on the “numbers”: the statistics. For human trafficking, these numbers are astounding, but they are just the best estimates that can be given without proper research. Of an estimated 800,000 individuals trafficked across international borders yearly, 80% are women and girls. This number means nothing-it has no basis if you do not understand that each “number” is actually a person’s story, life, and experience. The handmade paper is constructed from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report on the characteristics of human trafficking incidents. Throughout the report, “incidents” of trafficking are mentioned, but there is a distinct lack of personification. In reading the report, it is easy to get lost in the numbers: endless columns of percentages and statistics. The text that runs along this paper doll chain is adapted from a quote of a survivor. Her name is Dina, and she is a Khmer woman from Cambodia. She told her story in hopes that policy makers and the government would begin to see that the people affected by trafficking are just that-people. By using the dichotomy of statistics and personal narrative, I hope to draw awareness to the fact that human trafficking is such a individual experience. However, the expanse of the problem does not allow for individual attention. There are thousands of women and girls, men and boys that are victims of human trafficking, and one must realize that they are human first, trafficking victims second.

30. Brittany VandegriftScrapbooking 15 Take(s) on Trafficking- Art as an agent of social change

31. Brittany VandegriftScrapbooking Memories. You hear the word and instantly you have images form in your mind. It may be a first kiss, a birthday, a moment with your mother and father, the holidays, or glory days. For some, however, every memory is filled with fear and pain. Imagine looking into your past and finding few instances of happiness or freedom. This book responds to the idea that those that are trafficked throughout the world lose precious moments of life and memories that we sometimes take for granted. Playing on the idea of a scrapbook, I wanted to create a book that represents the types of memories that a victim of trafficking may have. What I had not intended, however, was the difficulty that I would have trying to put myself in the place of a victim. I am fortunate in that most of my childhood memories are happy, therefore I needed to continue to do extensive research in order to understand the type of memories that a victim may have. For the images, I created white, child-like line drawings to mimic the memories of a victimized child from their point of view. Overall, I want my book to emphasize the parts of life that are stolen from a victim of trafficking and the memories that they will never be able to recollect.