The Scarlet Cord Collection: A New Interactive Healing Installation

Behind the Artwork

The Scarlet WebThe Scarlet Web, Pamela Alderman, Multi media, 78 x 78 x 85 inches, 2017

Many of us are familiar with the phrase “hidden in plain sight” to describe the children tethered as modern day sex slaves. Some of these children roam our malls or airports during the day and may be even be standing next to us, unknowingly, at the checkout counter. But as we tenderly tuck our children into bed, the young sex worker is just being forced into the night to perform bizarre acts for the insatiable—the buyers of sex, more correctly termed, pedophiles or the sexually broken—who seek to entangle innocent prey.

The Scarlet Web, a five-sided structure resembling a 3D abstract spider web, is made up of a collage of empty frames and six photographic images connected with zip-ties to portray bondage. The work is designed to raise awareness and to provide a safe space for the victims of sex crimes to heal. Alderman and her team create a new kind of artist/citizen work that invites audience collaboration through relational aesthetics. The work lets others speak and respond.

The Scarlet Web invites viewers to go beyond the passive art walk. The work challenges the audience to become co-creators—through spontaneous art making. By winding and weaving the scarlet cord around and within the empty frames, we collectively create a work that speaks for those silenced within a web of lies. Through awareness and positive action, we can be a catalyst for change to help free the young sex worker enslaved within the lucrative underworld of sex trafficking.

The Scarlet Cord: Healing for Sex-trafficked Children

The Scarlet Web showcases images by photographer Zoe Fortuna. Be sure to check out Zoe Fortuna’s creative work.

For more information on how to book The Scarlet Cord for your next event, contact ally@watercolorbypamela.com.

The NEW Scarlet Cord Collection at GVSU

Behind the Artwork

Night Cries, Pamela Alderman, Multi media, 10 x 20 inches, 2017

The Scarlet Cord Collection with Night Cries and The Scarlet Web will be unveiled at Grand Valley State University. The evening will include a presentation by artist and facilitator Pamela Alderman and an opportunity for the visitors to co-create with the interactive healing installation.

GVSU EXHIBIT AND PRESENTATION
The Scarlet Cord: Healing for Sex-trafficked Children
Grand Valley State University – Frederick Meijer Honors College
Exhibit: April 3 to 7, 2017
Presentation: Wednesday, April 5, 2017 from 6:00-8:00pm
Frederik Meijer Honors College (multi-purpose room)
120 Niemeyer
4046 Calder Dr.
Allendale, Michigan 49401
Sponsored by Frederick Meijer Honors College, GVSU Women’s Center and Eyes Wide Open.

The Scarlet Cord Collection: Night Cries

It is difficult to ignore a baby’s cry that pierces the nighttime. Every new parent desperately needs sleep, but the baby’s cry, in the dead of night, tugs at hearts and demands a response.

Like the baby’s cry, the tears and groans of the victims of sex crimes at The Scarlet Cord exhibits tugged at my heart and forced me to respond. The new painting series, Night Cries, is my creative reaction to the history of pain and devastation experienced by many who visited The Scarlet Cord.

For Night Cries, voice actors recorded actual sentences from the victims I encountered. Then a videographer turned the recordings into audio sound waves. A collection of abstract paintings have been interpreted from audio sound waves.

Though it may take a lifetime to heal from the physical, mental, and emotional wounds of the victims of sex crimes, healing is possible. Like loving parents responding to a baby’s needs, a compassionate community can tenderly help these victims begin or continue their journey to wholeness and wellbeing. We can no longer ignore the cries of those enslaved in the sex industry. A collective response is needed to help end to trafficking.

For more information on how to book The Scarlet Cord for your next event, contact ally@watercolorbypamela.com

Healing in Arts at Calvin Noontime Series

Behind the Artwork2 Comments

Wall of Hope at Wing and a Prayer exhibit during ArtPrize 2013

Art has the unique potential to touch deep places within the human spirit. ArtPrize artist Pamela Alderman seeks just that: “to enter into the hearts of the wounded.” Her mission that focuses on the viewers and their needs through interactive art is unique and compelling. Dozens of stories have been captured within her healing spaces as people identify their struggles and release their hurts.

Alderman’s presentation will include highlights from her eight-year ArtPrize journey—where over 100,000 people have encountered art’s healing catalyst within her work—and a short video filmed in Phoenix during the 2015 Super Bowl at her sex trafficking art installation. By creating meaningful installations about challenging issues like cancer, autism, or sex trafficking, Alderman’s art invites transformation and hope.

Healing in Arts: A Pathway to Flourishing by ArtPrize artist Pamela Alderman

Noontime Series
Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 12-1 PM
Free one-hour program
Calvin College Chapel
3201 Burton SE • Grand Rapids, MI 49546

The Scarlet Cord Showcases at the Kent County Courthouse

Behind the Artwork

Wounded - Mixed media art and part of The Scarlet Cord installation

Pamela will be presenting The Scarlet Cord: Healing for Sex Trafficked Children at the Kent County Courthouse to help educate about commercial sex trafficking—called modern day slavery.

Violated

“Are you the artist?” the young woman asked from the distance of fifteen feet. But before I had a chance to move within normal conversation range, her rigid arm and raised hand extended towards me like a traffic cop—communicating a clear message: “Stop. Don’t come any closer.”

Although this young woman was trying to hide her past, she unveiled her deep secrets to a group of us at The Scarlet Cord installation outside the Ford Presidential Museum during ArtPrize 2014.

A volunteer asked her, “Would you like one of the artist’s cards?”

“No,” she responded. “I know more than I ever wanted to know.”

Then she walked towards me, but she kept the brochure table between us. “You have used all the right words,” she added.

One word from The Scarlet Cord installation came to mind: violated.

The young woman tried to maintain the impression of being in control, but she was fractured. Broken. She had learned survival skills. Self-protection strategies. I wondered, though, if these carefully laid plans were blocking the road to healing. Or was she doing the best that she could?

Learning to trust again would be a long process for her. It could take a lifetime to overcome such deep wounds. This young woman needed loving friends who would help break down her fifteen-foot barrier, caring people to journey with her towards wholeness and freedom.

The Scarlet Cord Film Helps Educate

Judge Patricia Gartner utilizes The Scarlet Cord Film as an educational tool for juveniles in the court system to learn about sex trafficking and its impact.

The Scarlet Cord at Manasseh Project

From the Heart

Scene from The Scarlet Cord video

That night I couldn’t sleep. Images of humans displayed like animals in a pet store window haunted me.

When I was nineteen, while traveling through Europe, our tour bus stopped at the Red Light Windows of Amsterdam. As I stood in the middle of the district, window after window displayed women perched on chairs—selling their bodies. Next to each window was a door; a steady stream of men flowed in and out of each door.

The IMPACT

I didn’t know that during my trip—the enormous abuse and degradation of women I had witnessed would grow into an ArtPrize art installation one day to help raise awareness for the children who are sex trafficked in Amsterdam or Thailand or even Grand Rapids.

The Scarlet Cord and The Super Bowl

Behind the Artwork

Targeted - mixed media by Pamela AldermanA year ago when Jim Waring, the vice mayor of Phoenix, spoke at The Scarlet Cord Exhibit opening during the 2015 Super Bowl, he had a message for the buyers of sex: “We are coming after you.” Listening to the vice mayor, I felt like I was on the set of a Batman movie.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an estimated 100,000 children are sold within the commercial sex trade in America each year. Wherever thousands of people pour into athletic or other large events—like the Super Bowl—the risk of trafficking increases.

Last year The Scarlet Cord exhibit was located on a vacant lot in downtown Phoenix during the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl, offering hope and healing to the sexually wounded and curious. During the two-week exhibit, we spoke to students, professionals, vagrants, tourists, and trafficked women.

Here are some of the Phoenix visitors’ responses to The Scarlet Cord:

  • One woman said she was trafficked while her father was wearing the coveted Super Bowl ring.
  • A young girl sat on the curb—holding her head in her hands—crying out, “I know what it is. I know what it is.”
  • A seasoned Phoenix news anchor said, “I did not realize the extent of the problem when I went out there; you can’t walk away without having an impact.”

Shared Hope International reports that “underage sex workers average 6,000 clients over the course of five years, and are typically instructed to serve between 10 and 15 clients per night. However, reports confirm that girls have served as many as 45 clients in a day during peak demand times, which includes major sports events.”

The 2016 Super Bowl is only days away. Will San Francisco, like Gotham, rig up the search lights in the sky—an “SOS”—calling for justice in the war against commercial sex trafficking? We need national leaders and concerned citizens who will stand for the protection of our nation’s most vulnerable—our children.

Visit the Do 1 Thing Challenge page to learn about seven red flags that may indicate a young person is being groom or targeted for trafficking. Find out more about The Scarlet Cord Exhibit and Film to schedule an event or to better understand the issue of sex trafficking—the dark world of Gotham—that exists in our communities. We may not be able to save the thousands of children that will be trafficked this year at the Super Bowl, but we can offer love and hope to one at-risk child within our circle of influence.

StreetLightUSA sponsored The Scarlet Cord in Phoenix, AZ

IMAGE: Targeted, Pamela Alderman, 21 x 62 inches, Mixed media, 2016

The work called Targeted—portraying a child, a bull’s eye, and a roll of film—pictures how children are the ones left harmed by pornography. Not only does the industry deliberately prey on children to ensnare younger and younger viewers, but according to Shared Hope International, one out of every five pornographic images is of a child.