March 2025
Historic Lobby
Main Level
– Artist Reception –
Thur, March 27 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Missing & Disappeared” is my new body of work centered around the crisis of missing and disappeared women in the United States. This show is composed of twenty panels of resin in which I have suspended a collage of paper materials from vintage clothing patterns. When a strong light is shone through the panels, multiple female silhouettes come into view, emerging from the shadows. “Missing & Disappeared” is funded by a MN State Arts Board Grant.
There around 13,000 unidentified decedents in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and all too many of them are women who went missing or were disappeared. In my work, the choice of using vintage pattern envelopes is significant. Often, when unidentified remains are found, decomposition prevents a clear identification. Unidentified decedents are usually described by the clothes they are wearing, and sometimes named after them. For example, a Sarasota County “Jane Doe” is described as “wearing a multi-colored cotton pullover shirt with an Italian label, a light colored “Spice Wear” skirt with a leather string belt and turquoise socks.” Since many of the unidentified decedents are from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, the vintage envelopes are contemporary to their lives. In addition, time has yellowed and warped the envelopes, creating a look like “cold case” police files, long lost in storage.
The collage pieces are displayed in resin for a 3D effect, but also because many families of missing persons report a sensation of being “frozen in time” or “time having stopped” for their loved on the day they went missing. The strong backlighting of the piece reflects the hope of new DNA identifying technologies for returning unidentified decedents to their families and identities. In some cases, as well, the identification of the decedent can lead to the identification of a killer and justice being served.
The work encourages viewers to participate in GEDmatch, which can assist law enforcement in identifying unknown decedents. GEDmatch allows people who have participated in popular ancestry genetic testing programs to upload their DNA file to help decedents be returned to their families.
About the Artist
Rachel Coyne is a writer, painter and public artist. Her illustrations have been featured in dozens of journals in the US, England and Canada including: The Emerson Review, the Rappahannock Review, Lunch Ticket and Phoebe Journal. She is a 2023 recipient of a MN State Arts Board Grant.x
Artist featured: Rachel Coyne
Purchase Location: Historic Lobby (Main Level)
HOURS*
Mon – Fr, 10AM – 5PM
Sat., 10AM -2PM
*Also open 1 hour before most performances.
Always Free to Attend. Always Inspiring!