Gallery exhibition, UCA Epsom, 10 February - 22 March 2009

Desconocida : Unknown, Lise Bjorne Linnert

Desconocida : Unknown Exhibition, UCA Epsom

Exhibition runs from 10 February to 22 March 2009 at the gallery, UCA Epsom
Open Monday to Friday 10.00am - 4.00pm

This important exhibition shows the work of Norwegian artist Lise Bjorne Linnert, who has undertaken an embroidery project to highlight the plight of women in Juarez, a city on the border of USA and Mexico.  Here, 530 women are known to have been murdered, and hundreds have disappeared, suspected kidnapped to trafficking.

Special opening - Monday 10 February.  Includes seminar at UCA Epsom on how we should communicate about world issues, chaired by Claire Armistead, literary editor of the Guardian.  This will be followed by the gallery opening at 6:00pm, by the Minister Counsellor from the Norwegian Embassy in London.

The central element of Desconocida : Unknown is the hand embroidered name tags pinned onto a wall 10m x 3.5m. These name tags have been embroidered by participants in workshops in 22 different countries. Each name tag is 2cm x 8 cm, some are in coloured thread, some white. Those in coloured thread are the names of the murdered women in Juarez, those in white contain the word Unknown, written in the language of the embroiderer, representing all the unknown women worldwide who experience similar abuse. At the time of writing the number of name tags on the wall is 1,537, but this figure changes as events unfold, unfortunately is always increasing.

Lise Bjørne Linnert lived and worked in Texas for many years and was increasingly concerned by the situation in Juarez. Since 2006 she has been working directly with women in Juarez, both in the city itself and, since she has returned to Norway, at a distance through the exchange of embroidery. In particular she has collaborated with Marisela Ortiz Rivera, the Founder of the organisation Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May Our Daughters Return Home)

Lise Bjørne Linnert is also a performance artist and the exhibition will contain body sized Rayographs created specially for this installation. The Rayographs, made directly in the darkroom, without using a camera, are of her breath as she gives voice to the sense of anger and loss. She will also create a special voice recording in the Gallery at Epsom to be played at intervals during the day.

Also included in the exhibition will be two videos:

'Trading Voices', directed byLise Bjørne Linnert and Professor Jose Ferreira (Chicago Art Institute), 2008

'Senorita Extraviada – Missing Young woman', directed by Lourdes Portillo, 2003

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication with an introductory essay by Professor Kathleen Staudt, Professor of Political Science, University of Texas, in which she will outline the context of the project and an in depth interview between Lise Bjørne Linnert and Professor Lesley Millar, Professor of Textile Culture, University for the Creative Arts.

Further information on this project can be found at www.transitionandinfluence.com.