{"id":137,"date":"2015-05-03T20:24:57","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T01:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpacad2.winona.edu\/winona360\/?p=137"},"modified":"2015-05-03T20:38:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T01:38:33","slug":"minnesota-artists-exhibit-about-family-violence-sparks-controversy-at-winona-state-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/minnesota-artists-exhibit-about-family-violence-sparks-controversy-at-winona-state-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota artist&#8217;s exhibit about family violence sparks controversy at Winona State University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Kayla Langmaid<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Langmaid unspeakable\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MJd2JJOs820?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A Minnesota multi-award winning visual artist\u2019s exhibit has brought controversy to Winona.<\/p>\n<p>Shirl Chouinard of Cambridge, Minnesota, designed \u201cUnspeakable,\u201d an exhibit to promote awareness of family violence and sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibit featuring 10 life-sized fabric dolls was placed in the lobby of Winona State University\u2019s Maxwell Hall from March 23 to April 10.<\/p>\n<p>The dolls represented abused women and families, according to Chouinard.<\/p>\n<p>Chouinard\u2019s dolls in the exhibit had black patches of fabric, which represented bruises.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Meskan, Winona State junior, said she overheard students who said the exhibit was creepy.<\/p>\n<p>She said it took her \u201caway\u201d that the exhibit was placed in Maxwell\u2019s lobby.<\/p>\n<p>During a university tour, a family was brought through the lobby, according to Meskan.<\/p>\n<p>Meskan said she saw a look of sheer terror on a little girl\u2019s face while she passed by the dolls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t seem fair to have people who are unsuspecting of it,\u201d Meskan said.<\/p>\n<p>Ruth Charles, a WSU social work professor, said she saw Chouinards\u2019s artwork exhibited at a conference last June.<\/p>\n<p>Charles said Chouinard was the only art exhibit at the conference and it stood out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to bring her here,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n<p>Charles explained the 10 pieces could represent one day in a social worker\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn life experiences you might not have experienced this or seen this,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOther majors, they might not know what actually happens behind closed doors and this is the chance to open those doors to know what happens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Charles said she tried to have the exhibit featured in Winona State\u2019s Watkins Art Gallery but there wasn\u2019t space for it.<\/p>\n<p>Abigail Eucker, a freshman at Winona State, sat in the lobby to study. Eucker said she thought the dolls were creepy at first.<\/p>\n<p>She saw why the exhibit might upset people.<\/p>\n<p>When Eucker read the information about the exhibit, she didn\u2019t think it was so bad.<\/p>\n<p>Chouinard spoke at Winona State on Wednesday, April 8, about why she made the dolls.<\/p>\n<p>As a part of the lecture series, Consortium of Liberal Arts and Science Promotion, Chouinard explained she was abused as a child.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-120\" style=\"width: 176px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/04\/Langmaid-Chouinard.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-120\" src=\"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/04\/Langmaid-Chouinard-176x300.jpg\" alt=\"Shirl Chouinard an artist from Cambridge, Minnesota spoke at Winona State on April 8 about her exhibit \u201cUnspeakable.\u201d The exhibit was displayed in the lobby of Maxwell from March 23 to April 10.\" width=\"176\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/04\/Langmaid-Chouinard-176x300.jpg 176w, https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/04\/Langmaid-Chouinard-599x1024.jpg 599w, https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/04\/Langmaid-Chouinard.jpg 749w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 176px) 100vw, 176px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shirl Chouinard an artist from Cambridge, Minnesota spoke at Winona State on April 8 about her exhibit \u201cUnspeakable.\u201d The exhibit was displayed in the lobby of Maxwell from March 23 to April 10.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMany &#8211; many years horribly abused as a little girl,\u201d Chouinard explained. \u201cI was raped three times before I was 13.\u201d Chouinard said.<\/p>\n<p>Chouinard said the doll named \u201cMonica\u201d was made in honor of one of her sisters.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI earned the right to make this work,\u201d Chouinard said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chouinard said she knew there was controversy because of her exhibit.<\/p>\n<p>She said she knew there was a post on a<\/p>\n<p>WSU Confession Facebook page from an anonymous student.<\/p>\n<p>A part of the confession said, \u201cAs a rape and assault survivor, it really haunts me to walk in there. It makes me feel sick. The way to end rape culture isn&#8217;t to put up traumatic art exhibits, it&#8217;s to educate our young men. I can&#8217;t even walk into Maxwell right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Chouinard, if at least one person talked with her after her lectures, then it would make a difference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"size-medium wp-image-120\">\u201cThis will reach a person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kayla Langmaid A Minnesota multi-award winning visual artist\u2019s exhibit has brought controversy to Winona. Shirl Chouinard of Cambridge, Minnesota, designed \u201cUnspeakable,\u201d an exhibit to promote awareness of family violence and sexual assault. The exhibit featuring 10 life-sized fabric dolls was placed in the lobby of Winona State University\u2019s Maxwell Hall from March 23 to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/minnesota-artists-exhibit-about-family-violence-sparks-controversy-at-winona-state-university\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Minnesota artist&#8217;s exhibit about family violence sparks controversy at Winona State University<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}