Barbara Bryn Klare’s Powerful ‘WHERE Were You Harassed?’ Project at Chamber in January – Artwalk 1/9

The avalanche of sexual misconduct and harassment allegations unleashed in 2017 – and the #MeToo movement that continues – has sparked a global conversation about the issue.

Bay Area artist Barbara Bryn Klare has found a potent, incisive way to harness that conversation into a compelling art project. Dubbed “WHERE Were You Harassed,” the project centers around the artist’s collection of victims’ descriptions of the locations where women and men reported having been harassed and assaulted. Klare  created the collection via Facebook, and garnered more than “100 responses on the first day,” Klare told the Huffington Post. 

Klare is showcasing one of her visual representations of those responses at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout January, with a wine reception set for Artwalk on January 9 (note date change) at the venues below, 5:30-7:30pm. 

“The project does not attempt to draw conclusions,” Klare told HuffPo about the project, which is open to all victims of sexual harassment and assault, regardless of gender. “But rather [it] serves as a vehicle to display sexual harassment locations and stories in plain sight. It is an open platform for self-expression about a very difficult topic.”

Klare is also exhibiting at the Chamber “Modern Boro / Modern Life” rescued textiles, a collection of some of her mixed media work featuring rescued textiles used to create social and cultural statements. 

“I examine the crossover between textile and drawing, thread and line, and the space between remnants and what used to be,” Klare says. “This ‘between-space’ is both solid and fleeting, like the moment between breaths—a line continuously tracing between now and then—that is deeply poetic to me. Our social fabric, with its most recent rips and tears, begs to be expressed.”

“My work sits between emotional and physical repair and its companions, degradation and decay,” Klare adds. “I rescue and champion the humble and frayed, finding a tentative beauty in things fragile, handmade or in need of care, while finding a complementary energy in their deconstruction.”

Klare’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, South Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Cambridge Sustainability Residency and Icelandic Textile Centre. Klare is curator for the online modernboro collection of ragged, tattered and patched pieces and is a Founding Member of Textile Arts LA.

The 411: Barbara Bryn Klare showcases “WHERE Were You Harassed” and “Modern Boro / Modern Life” rescued textiles at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout January, with a wine reception set for  Artwalk on January 9 (note date change) , 5:30-7:30pm. MORE INFO.​

Here’s the full list of Artwalk participants on January 9, 5:30-7:30pm, along with each exhibit’s month-long hours: