Nineteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Reclaiming Spaces of Trauma is a response to my upbringing as a pastor’s daughter in the southern United States. This work navigates the complexities of being raised within Christian purity culture, healing from sexual trauma, and responding to spiritual and physical abuse within the church. Through frameworks provided by trauma theorists and feminist artists, I am working towards reclaiming my own power through artistic creation. Through displaying my artwork publicly in various forms, I have been able to connect to other survivors of various forms of trauma. I believe that art has the power to create change through conversation and provide an outlet for healing. In my current research, I am exploring how not only our bodies and minds hold trauma, but how physical spaces hold residual traumas. I explore various sites of religious traumas - camps, churches, sanctuaries - and question how one can reclaim these spaces. I research these spaces and then create artwork based on my research. I am currently in-progress of creating a workshop format for survivors and share the beautiful therapeutic elements of art-making to aid the healing process. With that being said, this project can exist in many ways - a creative showcase where I exhibit artwork myself and others have created surrounding this theme - and/or an interactive workshop with conference attendees. I consider myself incredibly privileged to have found art as a mode for healing, and have a huge desire to share this gift with others.