Detail view at Goethe on Main, JHB. Mixed media installation consisting of 1380 origami lily's, gut and tape. (Dimensions variable). Exhibited at the group exhibition Domestic curated by Melissa Mboweni and Jacki McInnes at Goethe on Main, August 2009.

At the time I created One Thousand Three Hundred and Eighty, a recent study by INTERPOL revealed that approximately 1380 women were (reportedly) raped in South Africa daily. This means that on average a woman is raped every 17 seconds in South Africa, that we know of (Volgelman and Lewis, Centre for the study of violence and reconciliation, available online at www.csvr.org.za). One thousand three hundred and eighty was made in response to those shocking statistics. The work comprises of 1380 paper lilies which, when presented together, make this horrific number tangible. The act of making each lily can be understood as a poignant meditation on the women who are victims of the culture of violence in which we live.

The work was presented with strong lights that created beautiful, but haunting shadows on the gallery walls. The shadows represent the countless undocumented, and unreported instances of rape and intimate partner violence that South African women face daily. 

In addition to the installation, I created an interactive, origami lily making station in the gallery space. Instructions on how to make an origami lily like the ones I made were reproduced on a poster. Viewers were invited to make an origami lily and add it to my installation or take it home in remembrance of women who have suffered sexual and intimate partner violence.