Half the Sky–a book object

When Paper Dresses incubating, I began folding origami paper dresses. I used the pattern designed by Alison Reisel (Who coincidently happened to be in North Adams for the Paper Dresses opening! Isn’t that amazing! We were so delighted to thank her for her brilliant design!)

I kept folding them and folding them. Using all kinds of colored paste papers that I have made over the years. I knew I wanted to do something with them that made them into a “book”.

The book object is a box of origami dresses with different quotes ranging from text from the 19^th Amendment and Title IX to statements and tweets from current events related to violence against women and children and how the NFL has handled it. This piece was directly inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book Half the Sky and upcoming visit to MCLA as well as email conversations with Kristen Leslie, one of my former professors from when I was at Yale University.

As I folded each of the dresses and hand wrote the text on the back of them, I meditated on how far we have come as women and how far it is to go. That violence happens to women young and old, here and abroad.  I am continually reminded that my bubble that includes strong leadership by women is not the norm in most of the world. For change to happen, we need to look beyond our own bubbles and strive to make a difference. This piece is as a much a reminder to myself as it is a call to you, the viewer, to find a way to foster a better global world for women.

Want to do more? The following four steps are from Kristof and WuDunn’s book, Half the Sky:

1. Go to www.globalgiving.org or www.kiva.org and open an account. Both sites are people-to-people (P2P), meaning that they link you directly to a person in need.
2. Sponsor a girl or a woman through Plan International, Women for Women International, World Vision, or American Jewish World Service.
3. Sign up for email updates on www.womensenews.org or www.worldpulse.com
4. Join the CARE Action Network at www.can.are.org