ntilit
J A N E
The mine situated at the Snyder Estate takes after a woman’s name J A N E.
Jane became a widow at uncertain age and this part on of her new
Identity gets to be transferred in time and space to become the Widow
Jane’s Mine. Her life’s story remains obscure together with the
circumstances that lead her to transfer the ownership of the mine. One can project, however, what widowhood at the time entailed, not only as a “woman’s issue” but rather as a “social issue”.
The JANE is an installation and performance by in collaboration with visually impaired dancer Christine Krishna Washburn. “Ihe installation consists of 5 handmade chaus and a wearable made by ntilit. Both the installation and the performance feed on the unknown about Jane’s legacy and invites the audience to project in retrospect how the societal stigma agarnst a woman who lost her spouse might have impeded on her in addition to her grief of loss.
Even today underlying discrimination against “widow women” is still lingering, but very little spoken about. For the majority of “widow women” life remains what can be described as not expected to be happy without their spouse by their side, or to be a part of any auspicious occasion or event. Furthermore, the “widow” is “uglified”, to deprive her of the core of her femininity, and in parts of the world, still today, is considered an economic and social burden and therefore has limited rights.
The installauon JANE, is a tribute to her as a woman and an embrace of her past, a displacement and separation, which is still carried on through Widow Jane’s Mine. She is not alone, each one of us, is a widow in its symbolic sense, having lost parts of our extended souls. JANE is part of us all, as much as any other human being.
With our encouragement any JANE can continue to dress up, as she always did, wear her favotite jewelry and most importantly seek her own identity not the one worn to her. Let the JANE’s mine, be a reminder towards that direction.
NTILIT was founded by Natalia Roumelioti, a designer and artist with background in architecture.
NTILIT, is a design studio dedicated to a passion of creating wearable sculptures and site specific mixed media installations, while aiming to tackle preconceived social norms around the notion of body and space. She is also the co-founder of RUHO Design, a furniture design studio focusing on ways of reclaming and re-purposing old furniture,
and co-founder of Embodied Crafts. a creative platform that brings kids and elderly together. Her work has been noted through competitions, publications and exhibitions at venues such as the P.V MoMA, Queens Museum, BHQF, Reverse, Chashama, Watermill Center,
Carnegie Hall. She studied architecture at NTUA of Athens (1999- 2005), then she pursued a Master in Design/Space/Culture at thc NTUA (2008), and later on a Master on Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University in NY (2009).
Krishna Christine Washburn is a Visually Impaired dancer and disability rights activist from Harlem, New York City. She has performed with Heidi Latsky Dance, Infinity Dance Theater, Marked Dance Project, and LEIMAY and specializes in ballet, contemporary, and Butoh performance styles. This year marks the beginning of Darkroom Ballet, her educational dance workshop and professional development system for blind, visually impaired, and sighted dancers, at Gibney Dance. She is incredibly happy to be continuing her artistic collaboration with Ntilit, which has included performances at Immersive Gallery, Chashama. and Queens Museum, as well as video projects.