| Nhuchche |
Posted
on 29-Apr-02 01:42 PM
[The exhibit runs through Tuesday at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 1 Story St., Cambridge. For more information, call 617-547-6789, ext. 333.]
Brookline
Postcards of their horror
From Nepal, a look at women suffering - but still hopeful
By Sarah Tomlinson, Globe Correspondent, 4/28/2002
Two years ago, Brookline artist and social worker Myrna Balk traveled to Nepal, carrying rice paper and pastels. Her journey took her to Katmandu and to a remote village.
The country has recently made headlines as the scene of a Maoist insurgency. Balk, though, encountered women who told of a different sort of violence: abuse by their husbands and fathers. Their drawings were simple, some almost childlike. Yet they told powerful stories of domestic violence, child marriage and other horrors.
''I was pretty overwhelmed,'' Balk said, describing her reaction when she first viewed the drawings. ''Adjectives are sometimes so inadequate. I was blown away, shocked, ecstatic. I thought, `Oh my God, these are wonderful, they could be posters against domestic violence.'''
The art those women produced is part of a Cambridge Center for Adult Education exhibit, ''Art as Witness: Shattered Lives - Unshattered Dreams.'' The exhibit includes Balk's own etchings about Nepal, her photographs of Nepalese women, and also text explaining how poverty and gender bias force women into the sex trade.
Using art as a vehicle to represent social justice was natural for Balk. She grew up in St. Louis and graduated from the State University of Iowa in Iowa City, a sociology major with a minor in fine arts. She moved to Brookline 28 years ago after obtaining a master's degree in social work from Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Then, she studied art at the Boston Museum School and Massachusetts College of Art.
Balk, 63, first traveled to Nepal in 1968 to visit friends there as Peace Corps workers. She returned several times between 1998 and 2001, visiting social service organizations dedicated to eradicating domestic violence. As she learned of the women's hardship, she asked them to use her art supplies to draw pictures.
''Myrna Balk's work,'' said Bonnie Abaunza of Amnesty International USA, ''captures the anguish and hope of women who have endured unimaginable suffering.''
The idea for the current show came from the women who drew the works, said Balk. ''They all said they wanted me to take the work with me and tell their story,'' she said.
Her own response to her time in Nepal is represented in nine drypoint etchings. The simple yet visually striking images were scratched into a metal plate and printed in hand-mixed black ink, tinged with green. Some images are overtly political; most focus on the women's experiences.
Balk initially worried that presenting such strong subject matter would cast a negative light on Nepalese culture. ''One thing I was self-conscious about was that I'm an outsider, but I have been very warmly received by the Nepalese,'' she said, saying she's been heartened by comments from patrons of Nepalese descent who have seen her work here.
The exhibit runs through Tuesday at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 1 Story St., Cambridge. For more information, call 617-547-6789, ext. 333.
This story ran on page 12 of the Boston Globe's City Weekly section on 4/28/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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