Leni Fried Printmaking
Social Commentary
"Washing the Burka"
24" x 36"
Monoprint
$1,600
Artist Statement - “Washing the Burka"
I made a series of monoprints in 2002 in response to thisto this photo (right) which was on the front page of the New York Times showing women and girls in Afghanistan dressed in brightly colored clothing, washing clothes in The Kabul river.
The caption said: “No longer shrouded,” explaining that the U.S. military had now defeated theTaliban and Afghan women were safe to work, study and dress as they chose.
According to the Afghan Women’s Mission
April 2005 –“ Media in the United States have greatly exaggerated any victories for women's rights, and downplayed the conditions of warlordism, oppression and poverty that still flourish. In a recent trip to Afghanistan, Co-Directors of the Afghan Women's Mission, Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls found that the situation of women and girls was extremely dire and that little had changed since the fall of the Taliban.”
Washing the Burka incorporates 15 separate figures. All parts of the image are printed from cutouts of thin mylar that are inked and placed one at a time onto the inked background. There are 5 monoprints of this size from the series, but each one is unique in figure placement and color treatment though they share the same title.
*Note the print is the reverse of the photograph.
Leni Fried April 17, 2006
Enlargement of a shell casing used for carrying water
(upper right in photo.)