Flowers

“Through her Flower Series, Owanto brings to light the complex and contested issues surrounding Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). Often done in discreet initiation ceremonies around the world, FGM/C is an age-old ritual that has been used to signify the important transition from childhood to womanhood by curbing sexual desire.

“When I first came across these old tiny ‘celluloid’ photographs amongst my late father’s belongings, I was greatly shocked. They depicted an FGM/C ceremony, which, I assume may have taken place during the 1940s in what was then known as Afrique Équatoriale Française. I put them back quickly where I thought they belonged, in a forgotten place that I called le tiroir de l’oubli (the forgotten drawer).  What I had seen then was now engraved in my memory, where it would stay vividly. I was haunted by the violations created by both the cutting and the voyeuristic colonial camera lens that captured these young women. After doing some research old traditions of FGM/C, I was even more shocked. These faded black and white photographs from the forties represented the crude reality of a ritual that continues today.

More than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries where FGM/C is concentrated, of which 44 million are under 15 years old. Furthermore, more than three million girls are at risk for FGM/C annually.

I felt I had to retrieve these documents du tiroir de l’oubli and do something. I understood that these photographs carried a symbolic and ambivalent meaning. They depicted a ceremony, a celebration, yet, they also revealed pain. I wanted to bring the past into the present to open important dialogue. I wanted to transform these old celluloid photographs using digital technology, and to keep a record of human behaviour.  I understood that these images taken by a Westerner during the colonial era could be perceived as voyeuristic, but I wanted to use them and elevate them to the rank of art and activism to fight FGM/C.”

In Flower Series, Owanto retrieves archival photographs of an intimate, private and contested custom, and enlarges them to 2×3 meters high. The artist disrupts the violation in the image by removing the sections deemed most private. She covers the void with delicate cold porcelain flowers. The physical act of removing the flower, the “deflowering”, momentarily exposes the viewer to the truth. The flower is a symbolic cover-up that masks the identity of these young girls — an identity that was taken away from them — and hides this very loss. The original image is transformed to enable the young women in the old image to embody a different narrative. Flowers Series is a deep reflection on the rights of women over their own bodies.”

-Owanto

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