Collateral Beauty: No More Silence
My entire life I was told “Don’t Tell.” This exhibition is for all the other women who have lived through intimate terrorism and held these secrets for 12,000 generations. This work is a closed subject matter to many people, but it is time to tell the truth about emotional and verbal abuse. It is time to open the conversation.
Collateral Beauty: Part 1, No More Silence is a beginning and a small part of my story. I want to tell my history and experience so that it opens a space for others to tell theirs. No More Silence speaks out about being shamed, controlled, criticized, smothered, and defamed. In public, I wore the masks and pretended to live the homogenized version of happiness. But, behind closed doors, it was wretched and sickening. Dismissed by loved ones, friends, even family. Art saved my life and provided me a place of safety.
No one listened to me until, for a few minutes, I literally died. For a time, I asked myself why I lived through such a catastrophe. Now, I know why I am still here. I lived so I can tell my story. No more silence.
“We have art so that we shall not die of reality.” Friedrich Nietzsche
