Clothesline Project

For the second year in a row, this year’s event will include elements of Monica Mayer’s El Tendedero (1978) which preceded and serves as an inspiration for the later Clothesline Projects that emerged in the 1990’s in the US.

Sponsored by the Criminal Justice Program, Criminal Justice Club, Artivism Initiative, Artivism Club, and The Center for Student and Community Engagement.

Adelphi’s Take on the Clothesline Project

Adelphi’s Clothesline Project began with a focus on interpersonal violence directed at cisgender women and girls. Over the past 15 years, the project has evolved to recognize the wide range of sex and gender-based violence, including violence aimed at transgender, gender non-binary, and intersex people.

• A survivor is defined as a person who has survived intimate personal violence such as rape, battering, incest, or child sexual abuse.
• A victim is defined as a person who has died at the hands of their abuser.

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.

The project has since been staged around the world, elevating the issue of violence against women, sparking discussion, and inspiring change.

For more information about this event, please contact Stephanie Lake, director of the criminal justice program at lake@adelphi.edu or Kaylee Fong, president of the criminal justice club at kayleefong@mail.adelphi.edu.