REDress Project

Exhibition review:  'REDress Project'

By Cendrine MarrouatAs of March 2010, more than 580 Aboriginal women have either disappeared or been murdered in Canada. To raise awareness about this racialized and gender-based issue, local Métis artist Jaime Black partnered with the University of Winnipeg’s Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies (IWGS) to present her REDress Project at the University of Winnipeg.

Black chose eight locations on the University of Winnipeg campus to display about 120 red dresses donated by people from many different cultures. The effect is simply stunning: Despite a very busy and noisy background of 9,000 students, they are so well positioned that they cannot be missed. The dresses just hang there, clothing with no bodies, creating an intense discomfort in the viewers. Visitors are left silent, unable to keep their eyes off the dresses, almost scared that moving around them could wake up some angry spirit.Comment:  For more on the subject, see 500 Red Dresses for Victimized Women and Art Show for Missing Aboriginal Women.