A Matter of Heart
Artists for Human Rights in Latin America

"Ripped and Reconstructed"

"This work is shredded, frayed and tattered - representing different sorts of tearing:  physical, social and emotional.  The layers are about the structure of skin - its ability to heal, but not without scarring.  There is a theme of regeneration, reconnecting what is fragile and tender.  Home is another important theme in "Ripped and Reconstructed."  The idea of home evokes shelter and well-being, but contains also the pain of being invaded and violated.

"The mixed-media process includes surfaces that are resist-dyed; printed with linoleum blocks and real fish; painted with watercolor and lined with markers.  It employs newsprint.  This material can be likened to how torturers considers human beings - cheap, ubiquitous and disposable.  But newsprint is also often a source of power, communication and rebellion among the tortured.  Fabric is the other primary surface, a simple construction of crossed and locked threads that creates something warm and comforting; a material both strong and yielding, as survivors must be."

Jane Black, along with MB Hopkins, curated Matter of Heart.