The Red Line
ARTINA 2024: A Point of View — Washington Sculptors Group & Sandy Spring Museum. Curator Nehemiah Dixon, III
Info: 67’ long x 5” wide
Steel baseboard. Spray paint. Ratchet straps
In 1815 Mary Bentley and her friend started supporting women’s rights in Sandy Spring in Maryland, in 2024 right now, women still struggle and fight for quality across America and worse across the world. In the past few years women’s derogation has become extreme. Masa Amani killed by the police in Iran for missed slip of hair, in Africa girls, being disfigured brutally for the possibility of marriage, women in sugar farms in India being forced into hysterectomies.
If we cannot sort out equality for women and girls, mothers and daughters in this country, what hope is there for countries that seem to aspire to America’s glory?
The Red Line run through a series of trees, the backdrop to the Mary Bentley sign.
This line is painted red to represent various aspects of woman’s struggle, the blood of the suffragettes who died to support the vote, the blood from illegal abortions happening right now, the blood of beating from the ‘morality’ police, and endless list of split blood.
This line is made of steel to show that women need to be more powerful and fight stronger than we have even back in 1815 for basic human rights.
I hope this installation raises questions and encourages positive actions for change.
This line asks the audience to question what they are looking at and why it is there Suspended in space encouraging the eye to move around the trees and perhaps settle and read the information about this installation. This way, perhaps we can change the perception of the women struggle in this country and globally
On the subject of art, I’d like to say that this project and many works that I have made would not have been possible without the support of friends and family and of course you the audience. For this particular installation I deeply thank Chris’s Nichols, Philip Caine, Pam Gregory and Donahue development company.
