Work by Molly Jae Vaughan

Since 2012, Molly Jae Vaughan has utilized her interdisciplinary approach to art making to honor the lives of murdered transgender and gender non-conforming Americans. Through the creation of unique garments and diverse collaborative memorial actions, Vaughan raises awareness of the violence that transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, particularly trans women of color, face in contemporary American society.

The works that are created for Vaughan’s Project 42 bridge textile, printmaking, and painting processes into visually captivating patterns, each developed for a specific person. These patterns are then digitally printed onto fabrics and sewn into garments created for a specific collaborator to wear. Hand printed, stitched, and embellished elements further personalize each work.

Memorializing the dead is a sacred act, upon which entire belief systems are structured. Vaughan’s work, begun before most of the online data bases and websites dedicated to Transgender Day of Remembrance were established, raises visibility of the epidemic of violence the trans and gender non-conforming community faces by emphasizing each individual from her chronologically selected list of 42, with complex actions and labor heavy processes. For Vaughan, each individual’s life is worth equal time, whether they were a leader, a star, or simply someone trying to survive on the streets.

The process of creating each garment begins with a location where a life was lost. Using google earth, Vaughan captures visual documentation of the murder location from multiple distances and angles.

In addition to satellite images, Vaughan will often include captures from Google street view if available. From these captures colours and shapes pulled directly from the location are abstracted and incorporated into a pattern.

By using these specifically sourced visual elements, Vaughan is able to symbolically represent each individual without speculating who they were, what they liked, or who they wished to be. Like walking in a city where every inch holds untold amounts of memories from millions of moments, terrible and happy, the abstracted patterns can be easily consumed and overlooked. Like each life lived and lost. Perhaps by only asking why an artist would create this pattern and object, can a viewer, be pulled in for a larger discussion. Vaughan believes that in order for this violence to end, allies as well as those who oppose human rights, must be challenged to engage the issue with their own labor and research. From many interactions and conversations with the public, Vaughan recognizes that in order for things to change, society must take responsibility for all of the forms of oppression that the intersectional identities of the victims were subjected to.

OPENING DURING OCTOBER ARTWALK

October 13 @ 6 PM

Generous funding for this exhibition and related programming is provided by: