The living sculptor I chose to write about is Doris Salcedo (born 1958), a Colombian sculptor who is known to make installations that confront the trauma of Colombia’s civil conflict and, in turn, honor the victims of those who have been silenced or erased.  One of her most powerful works, Atrabilious (1958), which is made from plasterboard, worn shoes, cow bladder, and surgical thread, was created to address the issue of women who disappeared during Colombia’s five-decade civil conflict (tate.org). The shoes, sealed behind a semi-opaque animal skin and stitched into the wall with surgical thread, are meant to be a reflection of the intimate traces of lives abruptly interrupted. By making this sculpture, she wants her viewers to be confronted with the weight of loss without ever showing violence directly.

Salcedo’s practice is rooted in listening to interviews of victims and studying testimonials to make her sculptures that translate directly into grief. Even though she has not personally experienced the same violence as the victims she documents, her work becomes an act of ethical witnessing by carrying the stories of others with dignity and respect.