untitled
1600 crayons
16 crayon molds
child abuse letter
condoms

the innocense of childhood adulterated

This piece stemmed from readings I was involved in through my women’s studies course at SU. I was engaging in statistics, victims, and writings about children that experienced sexual abuse/molestation and rape. At the end of the semester we were to hold a gallery in order to express, discuss, and acknowledge information we had gained throughout the study.

For this gallery piece, I decided I wanted to push the envelope of awareness and ultimately place the art critic into a stronger position of understanding through experience. I used pieces of writings from abuse victims as the picture for the coloring book and by enlarging the size of the coloring book to roughly 24”x36” newsprint I enabled critics to interact with the words and try to decipher cryptic messages. For the crayons, I melted 1600 Crayola Crayons from 100 boxes of 16 Crayola Crayon boxed sets and molded them by hand with condoms. By shaping the condom with my hands I allowed for the forms to become organic and ambiguous yet hint at the characteristics of the male genitalia.

Upon installation, I mounted 5 sheets from the coloring book at eye height along a wall and rested 16 crayon cast pieces below. Directly next to the installation I placed a small placard detailing what the piece was acting upon and how it was created. These materials were chosen to speak the language of children: every person, whether you are poor or rich, has some relation to a 16 piece box of Crayola Crayons when they were a child. Something so innocent and pure becomes adulterated in the quickest of moments.

Throughout the gallery, the coloring book and crayons installation continued to be overrun by critics. Everyone wanted to color again like they had experienced as an innocent and creative child. However, when the critics then read the placard detailing the installation they quickly became aware of what they were engaging in, experiencing, and energetically began to discuss the topic of child abuse with the fellow critics around them.