THINGS YOU ONCE TOLD ME
Created in an effort to articulate the way in which abusers use language to coerce their victims. The presence of both positive affirmations and verbal attacks and retaliations demonstrate that the objective of an abuser is not to connect, but to control.
The hand-embroidery pieces were completed by Ellen on fabrics collected over the span of her relationship with her abuser, each donning a statement he made to her. The collection was created in an attempt to reestablish an ownership over her experiences, to take back the power from the abuser's coercive language, and to examine how, when the fabric of a relationship is founded on abuse, it is always tenuous.
-Al Elis
