The Clothesline at Gallery 924

Gallery 924 will display The Clothesline starting on Friday, November 6th
Over 1500 postcards from all 92 Indiana counties with Hoosiers sharing their personal experiences of being sexually assaulted.

El Tendedero/The Clothesline Indiana transforms a symbol of traditional feminine roles into forums for conversation on violence against women. Participants anonymously answer one or more questions about sexual violence against women on pink postcards that are hung on a clothesline.

Led by Women4Change, with support from the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault & Human Trafficking (ICESAHT), as well as the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, El Tendedero/The Clothesline Indiana has involved more than 75 partners representing the visual, performing and literary arts, as well as civic, academic and government groups (including women’s prisons). Partners hosted more than 150 days of public events, performances and activities over a 12-month period. Additionally, partners engaged survivors’ groups and educational workshops to complete postcards in more private settings. Collectively, the initiative gathered more than 1,500 postcards from all 92 counties in the state.

The Indiana project was the first time El Tendedero was presented in multiple venues over several months as part of a statewide initiative to persuade lawmakers to change law.

One of the key events took place March 5, 2020, when clotheslines bearing Hoosiers’ personal statements about sexual assault were hung in the Indiana Statehouse, starkly revealing the scale of the problem and calling for legislative action.

Artist Mónica Mayer (Mexico, 1954) first presented El Tendedero at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City in 1978. She invited women to share their experiences with sexual assault, sparking conversation around an issue rarely discussed at the time. Since then, the project has been presented in a variety of contexts and countries.

Watch this page for more details on the November 6th opening at Gallery 924.