CJ Club: Clothesline Project
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The Clothesline Project honors survivors as well as victims of intimate violence.
Any person who has experienced such violence, at any time in their life, is encouraged to come forward and design a shirt. Victims’ families and friends are also invited to participate.
It is the very process of designing a shirt that gives each person a new voice with which to expose an often horrific and unspeakable experience that has dramatically altered the course of their life. Participating in this project provides a powerful step towards helping a survivor break through the shroud of silence that has surrounded their experience.
The History of El Tendedero
Monica Mayer, a feminist artist from Mexico, started her project in 1978 in Mexico City when the city’s Museo de Arte Moderno asked young artists to create pieces with the theme, “The City”. She used her art as the means for women to share their experiences by first prompting them to answer what they disliked about Mexico City, writing their answers on pink cards. The statement that followed was then more direct: Did they experience harassment and violence? Eight hundred of their answers were hung on a clothesline as an installation piece.