Caitlin Greenberg

Echoes of Silence

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This artwork, created for the GBV symposium, embodies the silenced voices of women—the whispers, the unspoken thoughts, and the suppressed truths that demand to be heard. Echoes of silence is created from blown glass and mixed media to reflect the tension between fragility and strength, silence and chaos. A soundscape of superimposed female voices, speaking and colliding, echoes the inner clamour of suppressed thoughts—urgent, chaotic, and yearning to be acknowledged.

 

The process of glassblowing mirrors this narrative. Expelling breath into molten glass becomes an act of reclaiming and materializing one’s voice—a visceral transformation of formlessness into form. The act of shaping the glass becomes a metaphor for the tension women experience—navigating societal constraints while striving to express their authentic voices.

 

The delicate, elastic sphere created under immense heat and pressure symbolises the fragile balance women navigate expressing themselves while constrained by societal expectations. The fragile, pressurised surface of the blown sphere reflects the weight of unspoken words, the internalised chaos of suppressed thoughts held back for fear of judgment. Each scar and imperfection in the glass holds memory, serving as a reminder of resilience and the struggle to break free from silence.

 

Drawing on themes from my master’s study of the shadow and suppressed collective memory, this piece reflects my journey as a woman grappling with questions of belonging and voice. As I navigate these tensions, the artwork becomes both personal and universal, a collective memory of the silenced and suppressed.

 

This is a call to listen: to the unspoken, the whispered, the loud chaos of superimposed voices. For every silence holds a story, and every story deserves to be heard. This work is a testament to resilience, expression, and the power of breaking free from the confines of silence.