I caught this episode of Global National last Monday which featured Vancouver artist Pamela Masik. This generous artist has devoted over four years of her work and over $100 000 to her project 'The Forgotten.'
Just as there are 69 women missing (many of which are Aboriginal) from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, there are also 69 8 X 10 paintings to honour and remember them. There are 26 of them which take a darker tone, to reflect the women that were found in connection with the Pickton farm.
The one that stuck out most for me was the painting of Mona Wilson (pictured above). Her image will always be permanently etched into my conscious and will also hold much emotional distress.
I grew up in Abbotsford BC (an hour east of Vancouver) in an environment that was surrounded by destruction and people of ill will. I distinctly remember being warned at high school that it was 'pimp season' and to be weary of any unknown men that may be trying to talk to me or my friends. Such an occurrence happened while at Wendy's after school. Some guys pulled up in a nice car and tried to get me and my friends to join them 'to party.'
This was not the only time my life has been brushed with such harsh realities. This is also what reminds me that it is very easy for young woman to be taken advantage of and that the missing women whose faces are reflected in newspapers or televisions could very easily have included me. Most people label them and distance themselves from them allowing an emotional disconnect that doesn't allow them to engage. I have no choice but to emotionally engage. It was difficult during the Pickton trials when it was in the news, I even broke down while trying to write an Op-Ed at Excalibur.
The point of 'The Forgotten' portraits "are to provoke a personal emotional reaction - something that is becoming harder and harder to accomplish," as written by Mia Johnson on 'The Forgotten' website. "This is the moral distance that Masik goes, to make us see their faces and hear their voices, to force us to face the passion, anger and despair in lives and deaths like these. She brings the missing women to us and wraps us in the violence."
It is due to go in a Vancouver public institution on display. I don't know if I would be able to attend, I know I would break down in a way that is not for public display. I do hope that other people will attend and try to break down their barrier for emotional detachment to remember that these women do matter.
Masik hopes to sell the painting to a public institution and use all of the proceeds to support a Social Arts Initiative and Rehabilitation Program for disadvantaged groups.
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