About Silhouettes
What are Silent Witness Silhouettes?
Silent Witness Silhouettes are a traveling exhibit of dedicated red life-sized figures, each representing a woman who has died at the hands of her intimate partner. Each Silhouette bears a shield- shaped plaque bearing personal details provided by the victim’s family. Even though these victims were silenced by domestic homicide, their Silhouettes are powerful in spreading awareness of domestic violence without speaking a word.
In every case of women who we honour, their killers were convicted of their crime in a court of law or died in an act of murder/suicide. Not every woman we honour has a Silhouette created in their name yet, to find out how you can help see Create a Silhouette.
Where can I see the Silhouettes?
The Silhouettes are on display at Silent Witness Events and are available to be booked as an exhibit. They are stored in a safe place until called upon by the community.
To book a Silhouette exhibit for an event at your organization, see Book an Exhibit.
How are Silhouettes created?
Creation of Silhouettes are a team effort between communities, Silent Witness chapters and the families of victims. The first step of the creation of a Silhouette is to choose a woman to honour.
For more information on how to create a Silhouette to honour a fallen woman in your community, see Create a Silhouette.
How honouring women with Silhouettes began
In 1990, an ad hoc group of women artists and writers, upset about the growing number of women in Minnesota being murdered by their partners or acquaintances, joined together with several other women’s organizations to form Arts Action Against Domestic Violence. These compassionate women felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state. They set out to create something that would commemorate the lives of the 26 women whose lives had been lost in 1990 as a result of domestic violence. After much brainstorming, the women began to design 26 free-standing, life-sized red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, children–whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance. A twenty-seventh figure was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders went unsolved or were erroneously ruled accidental. The organizers called the figures the Silent Witnesses
The Debut
On February 18, 1991, more than 500 women met at a church across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol to showcase with the newly-constructed Witnesses lined up at the front of the sanctuary. The women formed a silent procession escorting the figures in single file across the street, up the steps, and into the State Capitol Rotunda for public viewing as statements about the tragedy of how their lives ended. The sheer volume of space the figures occupied spoke of their power… and the loss. The Silent Witness Exhibit was officially launched.
The National Initiative
Inspired by the impact of the Exhibit on many lives, a few of the project supporters came together with Janet Hagberg and Jane Zeller in 1994 with the determination to create a larger goal, namely the formation of a national initiative dedicated to the elimination of domestic murders. It was then that a five part process model evolved starting with the creation of Silent Witnesses Exhibits in all 50 states. Within one year a total of 800 Silent Witnesses had been created representing women who were killed as a result of domestic violence in seventeen states. The movement soon spread to Canada.