Consequence of Experience

Body of Work

CONSEQUENCE OF EXPERIENCE

Consequence of Experience is inspired by a childhood dress reminiscent of the fluffy nylon dresses sent to Cornelius by her grandmother prior to the political instability that required her family to flee the Congo.

Cornelius was a child at the time of Independence and the Simba Rebellion in the Congo. The letters she sent to her grandmother share events that she found important as a young child reflecting her curiosity, joy and innocence masking the fear and uncertainty during this time.

The rubbing of a soft graphite stick over rag paper placed on top of the child’s dress stiffened with acrylic gel marks an impression of the dress onto the paper. Rubbing gently transfers vague translucent image, more pressure transfers a bold impression which like belonging, sometimes feels unmistakable and at other times ambiguous and doubtful.

The rubbed impression taken from the dress can feel like two identities, one that is shown to the world and the other hidden behind. The text on the rag paper skips leaving out bits which function like the soft focus of memory as it can fragment, fade, rip and unravel leaving gaping holes and absences.

Cornelius, her mother, brother and family dog, escaped across the Congo border into Uganda two days before the Mahagi border fell to the rebels. Her father was prevented from leaving because he was a doctor. After the border fell the family waited in Uganda not knowing what was happening in the Congo.

Still in the Congo, her father removed an arrow head from a rebel soldier, then hearing that the border was now in rebel control, drove further inland.

Her father and a friend who volunteered to say behind to keep him company miraculously survived the journey to Bunia over rough roads and five makeshift barrier posts do to a number of armed soldiers who flagged them down and insisted on hitching a ride. These soldiers were able to talk their way through all the barrier posts.

Bunia was only a temporary haven of safety. After several days they overheard a pilot saying he needed a navigator. Her father volunteered on condition that his friend could accompany them. Once they landed in Uganda both her father and his friend refused to return to the Congo. This pilot was later shot down and killed.

Several of her classmates and a number of students from her school and their families were held for more than 4 months by rebel soldiers in various conditions. At the time Cornelius remembers following the news with her family and feeling grief and sadness as reports trickled out of torture and death. Two of her classmates and their parents were brutally murdered on the bank of a River. Several younger school mates and their parents and a number of her friend’s fathers were also killed.

Cornelius recently revisited the Congo which compelled her to address her experience as a child in the Congo.

The rubbings for this series were created during a residency funded by the Manitoba Arts Council at Deep Bay where Cornelius took time to reflect, research and revisit her childhood experience in the Congo.