DEEP SOUL is...
ADVOCACY.
I have a heart to speak out for the Uyghur people, whom I have had the privilege to live amongst for almost 10 years. They are a people who have been targeted with injustice, both in their home country and everywhere around the world where they have dispersed. Oppression follows them as their home country continues to surveil and threaten them wherever they are. I am passionate about creating work that shows the beauty of Uyghur culture and acts as a voice to help them tell their stories. So far this includes my Life on the Silk Road photography book (below), a t-shirt project (pictured right and below), a novel (in the works), and more to come!
Stand up for the oppressed with this exclusive, custom-made T-shirt. Designed by a Canadian woman (me!) and a Uyghur woman, and sewn by an Afghan woman, these one of a kind t-shirts will help you amplify the voices of those facing oppression globally!
A portion of the proceeds will support education and training programs for displaced Uyghur women in Istanbul, Turkey.
Available for purchase in the store.
Above, you can see the original image the t-shirt is based on (the closeup portrait of the woman in purple). I took this image of a Uyghur woman in Xinjiang, China in 2013.
I learned Gel Printing about two years ago, and quickly fell in love with the process...especially learning to transfer my photos onto the printing plate and using paint and stencils to create new designs. That is how the design you see on the t-shirt came about. I transferred the previous photo onto the gel plate and then added other elements to it to tell a broader story of the suffering the Uyghurs are experiencing.
The bars on the bottom right and left represent the re-education camps and prisons that Uyghurs are being placed into. There is Uyghur text in the middle of the design that represents that each Uyghur has their own unique story. The flowers above her head represent her strength and beauty in the midst of her suffering.
I then asked some Uyghur women if they would model the shirts for me. Many said no because of ongoing fears of repercussions to their families back in their homeland if they are perceived as speaking out against the government. Others agreed to be photographed if we hid their identities. Others were willing to show their faces and said they were done being afraid.
All are incredibly brave and have lived through unimaginable pain. You can see their images above.