400 Women - Tamsyn Challenger

400 Women is a direct response to the abduction, rape and murder of hundreds of women and girls in the Mexican border region of Ciudad Juarez since 1993, when the body of an unknown woman was found on the slopes of Cerro Bola, the first case of its kind to be documented in the area.

In 2006 Tamsyn Challenger travelled to Mexico where she met with some of the families of murdered and missing women. To create the body of work that comprises the installation 400 Women, Tamsyn Challenger enlisted the help of nearly 200 fellow artists over a five year period, inviting each to produce a portrait of one of the missing or murdered women or girls. Along with a photograph she sent out a short description, often in the form of a forensic report, of each case; this contained information such as what the women or girl was last seen wearing or details of how and where the murders had occurred. For some women no image existed, in these cases Challenger asked the artist to use the woman's name as they wished in the piece and she refers to these as 'name portraits'. Remaining deliberately non-prescriptive in favour of encouraging an individualistic approach to the work, Challenger's only directive to the artists involved was that each portrait should be on a uniformly sized medium echoing a retablo or altarpiece.

If you would like to know more about the project, here are some links:

400women.tumblr.com

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