Client: Women For Change
In the last year 5,578 women were murdered in South Africa—a 33.8% increase in femicide from the previous year, in an ever-growing crisis. The government responded with silence and inaction. So we built something they couldn’t ignore, The Unburied Casket, 33.8% larger than a standard casket and a symbol of the truth they have tried to bury. The casket was shrouded with traditional Zulu bead work, each hand-stitched to represent a life lost. A funeral procession delivered the casket to the seat of South Africa’s government in Pretoria. There, in front of thousands of protestors and broadcast live on national television, it was opened. Within it, the faces of dozens of victims with their names and stories no longer buried, the signatures of over 150,000 South Africans, and a memorandum demanding action. With the country watching, the memorandum was signed. Today, The Unburied Casket continues to travel the country until femicide is treated like the national emergency it is.
