AOTM Harapan Sentiasa Ada | Allie Hill Design

There is always hope

Harapan Sentiasa Ada | There is Always Hope

Craft workshop, mural and awareness campaign for a domestic abuse hotline for women

Calls to WAO’s (Women Aid Organisation) hotline for victims of domestic abuse increased significantly during the months that our mural was on display at the LRT station. This, to me, was all that mattered.

The following are photos of our workshop and mural, accompanied by excerpts from my speech delivered on International Women’s Day, at the launch of this project.

Art workshop for Women’s Aid Organisation

This workshop was a collaboration between myself, fellow artists Rupa Subramaniam and Chan Wen-li, and a group of clients who were seeking refuge, or have sought refuge in the past with WAO. The working theme we had chosen was Harapanku, Impianku (My Hopes, My Dreams). For security and privacy reasons, participants’ faces are not shown in the following photos.

We decided to create flowers together, and our materials of choice were discarded plastic bags and old fabric scraps. From an artistic perspective, the materials were significant as items that can be found in any household, and often discarded without any regard. From a practical perspective, we also wanted to bring across the message that art is about finding beauty in ordinary everyday things – discarded things, even; and in the same way, finding beauty in our everyday lives.

Special big upcycled thanks to Carolyn Lau for teaching me about fusing layers of plastic bag together with a home iron!

When the participants arrived, we made ourselves comfortable, and over a drink, I explained to them why we chose flowers as a symbol of hope. Like the seeds of flowers that lie in the darkness of the soil, with enough patience, encouragement and nurturing, they will one day emerge as seedlings of hope. And with continued support from others, and a lot of self determination, the plant will thrive and one day, blossom with beautiful flowers.

However, like our hopes, flowers are also be very vulnerable. They can be plucked in an instant, or trampled to the ground. But here’s the thing about flowers though… when a flower falls to the ground, seeds are scattered, and if we don’t give up, with enough determination and love, one day, not only will a flower rise and bloom again, many many flowers will bloom, and a field of flowers will appear.

Everyone got this idea immediately and although initially timid, there were shy nods of agreement and some smiles. And then we got to the fun bit. Rupa and I each demonstrated ONE method only. Then we put some music on and said, ‘come on, let’s play.’

The rest of the afternoon felt like it flew by in minutes. Just look at variety of designs that emerged - combinations of fabric and plastic, different centres, different shaped petals, wonderfully whimsical ones, and crazy experimental ones! It didn’t take long before we were all giggling like a bunch of schoolgirls, teasing each other, and most importantly helping each other, throwing ideas around and by the end of the afternoon, some of us were twirling to the music with bunches of garbage bag flowers in our arms! One of the participants had brought along her baby girl, and we all took turns to carry her to dance amongst the flowers, delighted by her gleeful laughter. One or two even burned their fingertips on the hot glue gun, but they laughed it off and carried on. Every time we finished a flower we put it on the concrete floor.

By the end of the second session it looked like a field of flowers had somehow emerged from the hard cold concrete! It was our very own field of hope. We all walked amongst the flowers in our little field, admiring each others handiwork. We threw them into the air to make the baby laugh, took feet selfies and lots and lots of pictures. I remember thinking that I had not been in such a blissful space for a very long time myself. But it made me especially happy to hear some participants say that they too, were really enjoying themselves and can’t remember the last time they did something like this.

Art allows us to lay down our burdens for a while and just be present to the moment and the act of creation that we are facilitating with our hands, hearts and minds.

There was also a time for reflection, where we shared our personal hopes and dreams. Some of these thoughts were included in the mural at Masjid Jamek LRT station. When it was time to part, we all felt like there was no longer any distinction between who was coordinator, who was participant, who was the teacher and who was the learner, and when we all hugged each other good bye, some of us felt so moved that we could not hold back our tears.

At that moment, I realised… Rupa, Wen-li and I, we had nothing to offer. I mean, we turned up with some discarded plastic bags! And what resulted was… caramarderie, joy, a sense of fulfilment, a sense of bliss. The crafted flowers were just the by-products, ladies and gentlemen – the real magic was in the process.

Art may not solve practical problems, but if it helps us to reclaim our sense of hope, then perhaps, that will be just enough to push us into those first hesitant steps of identifying ourselves as a survivors and not victims. As we create art, we also create possibilities.

Mural for WAO’s awareness campaign

The flowers made during the workshop were photographed and combined with Chan Wen-li’s drawings for WAO’s hotline awareness campaign. Wen-li’s character was named TINA, which was also short for ‘Think I Need Aid’. The campaign was to announce an SMS hotline where victims of domestic abuse could simply type or say ‘TINA’ in order to access help. Aside from highlighting the TINA hotline, our workshop participants’ crafts and expressions of hope were also showcased.