Nine months ago, when Michelle de la Vega began making new art for a show coming up in 2017, she didn’t like talking about it. A few people responded to her ideas awkwardly, one dismissing her topic as old news. So if someone asked, she softened her answer or spoke quickly and changed the subject. She felt less and less motivated to work, so the sculptures and video were developing only in fits and starts.
Then came the tape.
The leaked recording in which Donald Trump bragged to another man that he kisses and grabs women as he pleases set off a storm of protests from women speaking out about unwanted sexual attention. Celebrities, politicians, writers, and women all across social media came forward with their stories. More important than any single detail was the size of the wave, every woman in it rising against silence.
It was as if the presidential election had reached a hand into de la Vega’s studio and shaken it awake. Suddenly, what everybody else wanted to talk about was the same subject de la Vega had felt silenced about—women’s silence itself.
