Memory is
An ongoing series examining the complexities of memory, and it’s connection to the intergenerational trauma of being a woman.
McDougall, Maddie. A memory, 125. Installation: Acrylic, charcoal, and dust on reclaimed blanket (2021) 75” x 30”
A memory, 125 has come from a stanza by poet, educator, and survivors’ advocate Olivia Gatwood. Her book, Life of the Party (2019) is both terrifying, honest, and comforting. Her brave and unflinching writing gives words to some of the most complicated and uncomfortable experiences connected to being a survivor of sexual violence, healing, and understanding our bodies.
A memory is a story
told so well, it becomes
part of the body
McDougall, Maddie. Feminism is Memory. Akua monotype and charcoal on masa paper, 3 prints each (2021) 25” x 18” Gloria Steinem is considered an icon of second-wave feminism, but what has often been overlooked in her story is the influence of black and indigenous womxn in her early education as a feminist organizer. My Feminism is Memory is prints come from the ideas of Native American poet, Paula Gunn Allen, which Steinem shared in her book My Life of the Road. Allen’s words “The root of oppression is the loss of memory” pinpoints the cause of frustration and lost time each generation of activists suffer due to what is forgotten or unprioritized as society progresses. Allen and Steinem both urge us to remember that original and indigenous cultures had built societies where womxn were respected equally to men. I am relentlessly hopeful we can one day restore this sense of equilibrium.
McDougall, Maddie. Stil & Silent (study) Acrylic on Paper. 2021.