Her, 2018, MDF with acrylic with Duco paint on the edges - 8" tall x 5" wide

Visualising sound! While designing an award H.E.R., we decided to capture the sound of the phrase “we the women” and visually represent it. Sound waves have a clear visual representation as sonograms. This transformation from a vibration that’s initiated by utterance of a phrase and the visual tremor captured as a wave pattern is a paradox where seemingly the utterance of the phrase liberates while the wave pattern seizes. This exercise questions what frees us and what can be (mis)construed as restricting. The final product is an award but it is also a question; a question that each individual will challenge to raise and to answer. She could be the ‘shakti’ (power) and she could be ‘abla’ (helpless) but it is up to her to take charge of her present and her future. Awards are meant to be about recognition. What better way than to recognise the sense of realisation and recognition of the self?

There is technicality in the wave pattern formation which is captured as a sonogram. The award is a tactile object that is given to a deserving hand. The hand is of a woman who as she wraps the award with her hand, embraces the visual capture of the phrase that speaks of the collective and the individual, and the power of the women. Without being a person (male) who mansplains, the award is the sound of a woman, captured by a recorder and transformed into a wave by a machine, represented on acrylic sheets and assembled by unnamed artisans and workers on the guidelines by an artist. The voice, indisputably captured and embedded forever.