Their Paths/Our Path: Highlighting Survivors of Domestic Abuse
Spring 2023 | Exhibit Design
When challenged to design an exhibit about domestic abuse, it felt as though a crucial part of the story was being overlooked: the survivors themselves. It seemed as though the people who survived such a traumatic experience were constantly boiled down to that trauma. But they are so much more than that. They are parents and students and athletes and activists and professionals and so much more. They are success stories that deserve to be celebrated and related to. This exhibit seeks to celebrate survivors for all that they are able to be when they are safe from abuse, while still urging further action to provide resources so that there can be more stories like theirs to share.
"Let's not just point people in the right direction, let's walk with them." --Angela, survivor of domestic abuse
With this quote from an actual survivor in mind, the idea of a path emerged. They can be clear and easy to navigate, other times they can be twisted, tangled, and confusing. This felt like an apt metaphor for recovering from surviving domestic abuse and thus sparked an investigation into how paths could inform the form language of the exhibit.
While inherently celebratory, the exhibit could not overlook the massive number of people who are still abused every day. This issue is addressed via a light installation that courses through the entire exhibit space. Orbs of light are used as a metric to illustrate difficult statistics. Every orb in the installation represents one hundred people who will experience domestic abuse this year in the United States alone and every 10 seconds, a different portion of the lights dim to illustrate the frequency of domestic abuse in the US.
