If you were at San Jose State last week, it was nearly impossible to walk through campus without seeing a red dress. The first dress I saw was by the Dudley Moorhead hall. I looked out the window of my classroom and thought it was a little strange seeing a dress hang from a tree. I thought to myself, we are located in downtown San Jose, I’ve seen weirder things. It wasn’t until I walked passed Tower Lawn that my attention was directed to the rows of red dresses hung from the trees. There were about 100 dresses hung up as part of the REDress project.
The REDress Project was created by Jamie Black, a Canadian artist, who aims to raise awareness of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women throughout Canada. Crimes against indigenous women does not stop in Canada. These violent crimes also occur in Mexico and the United States. A workshop at San Jose State was lead by Soma de Bourbon, a lecturer at SJSU. As reported by the Spartan Daily, the goal of this workshop was to not only raise awareness on this issue, but also to “…create a space where Native Americans feel they want to come to San Jose State,” de Bourbon said. “Where they feel welcome here.”
The REDress Project helped shine a light on crimes against Native women across the country. Black uses red dresses to symbolize the positive and negative aspects of life that Aboriginal women face everyday. According to Camerson Canadian, Black was quoted saying, “Red is a color of passion, life-blood, femininity, the fact that women have the ability to give life and women’s sexuality as well. On the flip side of that, it can be the color of bloodshed, of violence, and women are facing that because of their sexuality, because of the fact they are Aboriginal.” As stated in the official website of The REDress Project, “…[Black] hopes to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.” The aesthetic response to a national issue is a visual reminder of the women who are either still missing or no longer with us. While this art project certainly evoke a particular emotion in women, this project also received some criticism. One of the flaws with this project is the fact that it does not feel inclusive to men. It would be misfortunate for this project to consequently cast people out from this conversation. It is important for this project to make those connections in order to result in greater change.