"Dispatches from the Montr茅al Biennial: Andrea Bowers's Piece on the Steubenville Rape Case," Blouin Artinfo's In the Air
To create the multi-part piece 鈥淐ourtroom Drawings (Steubenville Rape Case, Text Messages Entered As Evidence, 2013),鈥 2014, LA-based artist Andrea Bowers transcribed the texts by hand as they were read aloud in a Steubenville courtroom last year. Although, as the title indicates, they were used as evidence in the case against the Ohio football star rapists, Bowers鈥檚 piece remains the only place that they are available en masse for the public to read. (鈥淲hy wouldn鈥檛 you try and help me,鈥 reads one of the text messages from Jane Doe.) Large rectangular drawings painstakingly created with thousands of tiny blue marker hatches, they were inspired by the virtual space of cell phones. 鈥淭his project is particularly personal for me because I鈥檓 from Ohio,鈥 Bowers told Artinfo during the show鈥檚 installation yesterday. 鈥淭his project is my wanting to have a document of what rape culture is.鈥