Dear Ambassador Ann Dismorr,
I
trust you are well. Your attention is drawn to the now very public issue/act that
took place at the Moderna Museet in celebration of World Art Day. This is a letter of
protest based on the following:
The depiction of a woman’s body as a consumable
item
·
Enough said.
As art, it crossed several red lines
While
the motive of the installation (provocation) may have been noble, the execution
was wanting in several respects:
·
The ‘eating’ of a woman’s body is problematic for
those of us who are against the commoditization and resultant cheapening of
women’s bodies and lives.
·
The use of time-worn racist caricatures (a
golliwog, disfigured African body, and cannibalism) was hardly imaginative of
the artists. The endorsement of this by the Minister for Culture is, again,
problematic.
·
Was the installation meant to also depict a
cannibalistic sexual rite (after all the audience ate the female figures ‘genitalia’
with glee)?
Cheapening of the horrors of FGM
·
The carving of the cake figure, much as it was
intended to draw attention to the issue of female genital mutilation, ended up
as an insult, humiliation and deep disrespect towards the bodies of women. That
the action of slicing and eating was headed by a woman depicted absolutely no sympathy
or fellow feeling for millions of black women who undergo real pain and real
cutting in the process of female genital mutilation.
The obvious potential for the installation to be
perceived as racist
·
While I am in no position to judge the Minister’s
motives as racist, she should have known better; she should have known this
awful picture would be perceived and received through the lenses of race. This
is a case of inexcusably bad judgment on the part of a government official.
Depiction of Swedish people
·
That the lead person in this act was the Minister
for Culture represented the people of Sweden in questionable light. I find
solace in knowing there are many Swedish people who are angry about being represented
this way.
I
trust that your government will take appropriate action not only towards Minister
Liljeroth, but most importantly, towards women throughout
the world, whose bodies have been disrespected and desecrated once again in a very
public manner by an individual who should have known better. An unqualified
apology to from the Minister to all women, particularly black women, would be a
helpful place to start.
In
solidarity with woman,
Phyllis
Muthoni
Woven alongside Dr. Wambui Mwangi's Black and White and Red All Over
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