But It Does Happen…
168 laser cut watercolor paintings on paper, 11 x 8.5 inches each, 8 x 20 feet entire installation ©2025
But It Does Happen… is an installation dealing with the devastating aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. As new laws have taken effect, children and adults are being raped, involuntarily getting pregnancy, and forced to carry to term. FBI statistics from 2022, the year of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, estimate that 167 females and one 'unknown' person were raped every day in America.
To give weight to this data, I painted 168 portraits of girls, women, and people with uteruses in a mugshot format to convey how rape victims are being criminalized for seeking to terminate a forced pregnancy. Each victim looks straight ahead, confronting the viewer while also seeking understanding. Their ages correspond with the FBI statistics, approximately half of which are fertile children. I laser cut the Dobbs ruling directly into their faces. By burning away the negative space between the letters, the paper has become a lattice of text that people can read while simultaneously being forced to acknowledge the victims of this decision.
The portraits hang from the ceiling, allowing the viewer to walk around the work. The burnt-out detritus from the cut portraits are scattered on the floor beneath the work. The back of the portraits are pure white and look like lace, representing the purity standard held over females. Due to the cut out spaces in the paintings, whatever position a viewer is standing in they can always see the person on the “Other” side. As light hits the surface of the paintings a cast shadow of the words fall on the viewer, making them one with the work and demonstrating that we cannot separate ourselves from these laws.
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