Ash Bolt
A Portarlington artist’s work to share victim-survivors stories of violence against women is on display at the Geelong Library.
Amanda Firenze starting collecting stories of abuse at the start of 2021 for her artwork Paper Women.
Each of the 52 stories she received – which all tell an individual’s experience with abuse, whether it be physical, emotional or mental – have been printed onto the dress of a paper woman and lined together to form a paper chain.
“When I got back into my art, I wanted to put something meaningful into it … I wanted to influence social change,” Firenze said.
“I’ve always been pro-equality and these stories of abuse of women worried me.
“I wanted to provide an opportunity for women to share their own stories anonymously and bring a light to them.
“It’s about educating people on what these women have gone through – it’s history told from the victim’s point of view.”
Firenze collected stories submitted anonymously online and said several participants had reached out to let her know the experience of writing their story had been “healing”.
“I’m a writer and so writing about my own experiences was a natural thing to do, but for many people that wasn’t the case,” she said.
“Most of these women had told people around them their stories, but they had never written them down before.
“It is quite confronting to write it down.”
The display, on the second floor of the library, officially opened on Tuesday and will run until April 21.
Firenze said she hoped to exhibit the piece in other public locations in the future.
“I hope to put it somewhere prominent in the public, like on a wall where the stories will be highly visible,” she said.
“It’s a living artwork that I’ll add to with new stories I receive, but it’s also a flexible artwork that can be moved and made to fit whatever space is available.”
Firenze said anyone interested in sharing their story could do so online at printchange.wordpress.com.
