DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/TWWX-7645

Defense Date

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Interior Design

First Advisor

Marco Bruno

Second Advisor

Basma Hamdy

Third Advisor

Astrid Kensinger

Fourth Advisor

Simone Muscolino

Fifth Advisor

Maysaa Almumin

Abstract

Six centuries ago in Kosova, my home country, unmarried women known as sworn virgins, were forced to adopt a male persona and carry a gun to protect themselves. But today, guns have become tools of oppression and violence against women. And while the legal system carries penalties for domestic violence, marital rape is excluded. To shine a light on, and expose the topic of hidden violence, my thesis uses artivism to address a sensitive but provocative issue, exhibiting a large-scale sculpture of a gun, designed to provoke raw emotions; to challenge visitors to consider the terror felt by women threatened at gunpoint. The sculpture incarnates trauma, and manifests gendered-violence concepts, asking how these weapons shifted from tools of liberation to tools of oppression.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-13-2022

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