MARCH FOR OUR LIVES | PHILADELPHIA, PA
September 9, 2020
In the birthplace of American liberty, March for Our Lives (MFOL) and artist Melissa Maddonni Haims displayed a flag unraveling, because gun violence, police brutality, and consistent attacks on the most marginalized are unraveling our democracy before our very eyes.
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This activation is part of Our Power in the States, a program by MFOL that activates young people across the nation through art and issues they care about. Each activation features voter registration efforts, a digital event with partner organizations, and of course, an art installation.
STATEMENT
Like many Americans, I began paying attention to gun violence after the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Since then I have incorporated into my practice the tragic loss of children’s lives as a result of gun violence across our country. As a sculptor, I work with textiles to make a visual statement about laws, the lack thereof, and the loss. The beginning of the end to gun violence is voting. Voting for candidates who believe in and will advocate for sensible gun ownership. Candidates who, when elected, will enact and implement sensible gun laws. Sensible: practical, realistic, responsible, rational, reasonable, logical gun laws.
According to research by the Gun Violence Archive 3,760 children [ages 0-17] were injured or killed by guns in the United States in 2019. As of September 1st, 2020, that number is 3,235. Which means that - without change – there will be more. As gun violence becomes more pervasive across our nation, we must pause to think about these numbers and how devastating they are.
These are not my children. This is not my tragedy. But, collectively, as Americans, we are all accountable for their deaths. Until we can enact sensible gun laws, we are all responsible, as if these children were our own.
As an artist, I am charged with challenging my audience with a range of views: splendor, dread, truth, heartbreak, delight. I can only hope that this piece of work will challenge our nationwide community, of all humans, to change the way that we own guns to make it safer for our children. Safer for them at home, safer for them at school. Safer for them on the playground. We cannot solve all of the reasons that people use guns in dangerous ways. We cannot "solve" mental illness. We cannot "solve" domestic terrorism. We cannot "solve" suicidal and homicidal tendencies. We cannot “solve” hate. But we can legislate practical laws while protecting our 2nd Amendment rights. We can elect officials who believe that background checks, waiting periods and Child Access Prevention Laws will work towards a safer America for our children. And for keeping our children alive.
And finally, it is with this piece of work, created for March of Our Lives, that I knit together the memory of these children lost to gun violence with the intent that no thread of experience – good or bad – is to be wasted. I knit this catastrophic loss into the collected fabric of our lives, joining the strands by telling their stories.