Aug. 10th to Sept. 4th 2021

SUTURED RESILIENCE

Artworks Trenton Visual Art Center, New Jersey.

The group art exhibition, “Sutured Resilience,” brought together three female artists, Jennifer Cabral, Kat Cope, and Chanika Svetvilas, who explore trauma, memory, and empowerment. Together the artists hold space for the community to witness transformation, healing and the search for resolution.

Each artist’s unique narrative traces their lived experience of trauma to re-envision a healing journey. This multifaceted and multi-media exhibition gave the viewers the opportunity to explore narratives of trauma with empathy and a vehicle to share space with those who identify with the challenges and healing power of resilience.

In additions to An artist talk, a community workshop was offered by the artists. At the “Quilting Stories” workshop led by artist Chanika Svetvilas, she invited those impacted by mental health difference and/or trauma whether personally or by friends and family, to create art that exploreD the lived experience, stigma and methods of support. The participants had the opportunity to share their creations in a collective installation in the Trenton Artworks Community Gallery.

For the last day of the exhibition Sutured Resilience the artists wanted to create a spontaneous, interactive, and renewing gallery experience - an offering left behind to the community that visited Artworks Gallery in Trenton, New Jersey.

The soundscape available in the gallery was made possible by the collaboration with visual artist and musician Doreen Kirchner. Kirchner mixed spoken words by Chanika Svetvilas, the Irish Bohram drums of Kat Cope and the chanting and drumming sounds by Jennifer Cabral. Permeated by bird songs the recording produced by Kirchner became simultaneously stimulating and soothing to those who were present.

The artists wanted to give the impression they had just been present in the gallery and a healing ceremony was taking place, welcoming visitors into an enveloping healing space. Individual bags with flower petals, including an egg shaker, was made available to visitors, so they could join the rhythm of the audio and scatter flower petals where they would like to leave an offering to a work of art that resonates with them as a way to ground their experience.