This project is a protest against oppressive structures and their enforced silencing and shame placed upon survivors of sexual assault. Many survivors not only experience a loss of agency over their bodies but also over their identities in the absence of societal support. In this work, I unveil my body in its exposed and expressive state to disrupt the hierarchies that regulate who is allowed to be seen and whose pain is permitted to be heard.
Immersed in water, I reconcile with a body that had been repeatedly repressed, controlled, and marked by trauma and its aftermath. Water becomes a safe place where I can embrace my vulnerability by being visible and allowed to exist without being erased. Although, confronting both childhood and adult trauma, is followed by a mental pain that burns me and leaves scars on my soul, yet these scars burnish me, making me stronger and resilient. By merging the power of water with the fragility of glass, I embody a process of transformation toward self- acceptance, one that exist in a liminal space, neither entirely unrest nor entirely settled.
Upon this ritual that speaks both as and for, I call my viewers to go beyond passive observation and engage with these difficult but necessary truths that are often hidden: trauma, memory, and survival. To witness, in this context, is to take a position: to confront discomfort, to acknowledge presence, and to engage in a shared act of seeing. It is through this reciprocal gaze that transformation becomes possible, not only toward a greater self but also a collective awakening.