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It’s Time to Let Go
October 2, 2014
Happy Birthday Corita Kent!
November 20, 2014

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”.

IMG_3599 IMG_3598 IMG_3597

The book object is a box of origami dresses with different quotes ranging from text from the 19th 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

 

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2 Comments

  1. Yuki says:
    October 5, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    Love this, Melanie! Thanks for allo with me to be a part of this beautiful project.

    Reply
  2. Paper Dresses, Part Four | PRESS says:
    November 14, 2014 at 8:27 am

    […] Melanie’s box of origami dresses is currently on tour at Pyramid Atlantic‘s “Outside the Margin” exhibit. The book object is a box of origami dresses with different quotes ranging from text from the 19th 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  as well as email conversations with Kristen Leslie, one of her former professors from when she was at Yale University. […]

    Reply

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