2022
Apology Bracelets (Harvey)
Cotton embroidery floss
The seemingly extraordinary, or in fact, commonplace imbalance of power between genders is explored in this textile work by Han. Sexual harassment in Hollywood came under scrutiny in 2017, with the publication of an exposé in the New York Times on Harvey Weinstein’s behavior and everyday exploitation of actors. It spawned a movement of women who no longer stood alone and silent. Woven across these 118 friendship bracelets are Weinstein’s words of apology, the artist alludes to the importance of conversations, or information sharing between women. Han believes, as do many psychologists—that gossip – often viewed as a “lesser’ form of communication can be “a powerful instrument and subverting strategy for disenfranchised voices within the asymmetric power dynamics of more “official” and established channels of communication and modes of representation.” It functions as collective memory, a warning to others, and a testament to what the exposed have suffered. The obsessive nature of the knotting in these bracelets functions as a testament to the event, but also places the trauma at a remove, through making them as a therapeutic act. For the artist, “the bracelets, with all their adolescent connotations, are literally pulling apart the words of an otherwise (formerly) omnipotent media mogul.”
№4/21
1/1
