The Unknown Women
Evolving with Love
Pyramid of Love Honouring The Unknown Women
The Unknown Women Pyramid of Love was installed outside the Museum of London in the Docklands for 11 months. This was the perfect place to honour The Unknown Women, traumatised through war, colonialism, enslavement and patriarchal oppression. The plinth was left vacant after BLM protests in London, the statue of the enslaver Robert Milligan once stood proudly there. The Docklands was the main hub for trade in Britain for hundreds of years, and trade often went side by side with war, colonialism or enslavement.
The Inspiration
The inspiration for the PoL came from my relationship with my mother. I compromised our relationship when I was 13 years old. My mother came to London from a village in Jamaica in the 1960s. She was 17 years old. After 4 years my mother had given birth to 4 children. At age 13, I found out I had 2 sisters who were given up for adoption. I was angry and I felt betrayed by my mother, this affected my relationship with her. My father abandoned us when I was 2 years old.
I was in my 20s when I was able to reconcile with my mother and father. I appreciated the hardships my mother and father could have faced. African families were broken during their enslavement, men were not able to father their children, women were used and their children were trafficked. This happened to multiple generations over hundreds of years of enslavement. I wanted to create something to honour my mother and women like her who have been traumatised by the crimes of patriarchal oppression.
Remembrance Day Woes
The idea of The Unknown Women came at the beginning of November 2020. Around this time I usually get a little anxious about Remembrance Day. This day has wreaked havoc on my peace of mind, for a long time. There seems like overwhelming pressure to honour people who fought and died for Britain. I feel they are worthy of honour, but I also feel their victims are worthy of honour too.
The Unknown Women Pyramid has a goddess on each side and they represent different races. My intention was to help heal the traumas of patriarchal oppression for the oppressed and the benevolent oppressors who want to reconcile.
We only intended the Pyramid to stay up for 2 days in December so we could have a happy, wonderful end to the year of lockdowns in 2020. The Pyramid stayed up for 11 months. It became more poignant as 2020 saw a huge rise in domestic abuse all around the world during the lockdowns.
Rise of the Matriarchs
The Unknown Women is a symbol of empowerment for women. In general, women are more compassionate, more peaceful, and have a deeper understanding of life. They carry babies inside their wombs for up to 9 months. This is often a period of introspection, self-awareness, and a deep understanding of life that men can never truly appreciate. Their monthly cycles also offer the opportunity for deep introspection.
Matriarchal societies were more prevalent once upon a time. I feel matriarchal societies promote a more harmonious way of living. Women leaders are less likely to send their sons and daughters into war because they tend to appreciate and value life more.
Remembering a Black African Society
This Pyramid of Love was modelled on the pyramids in Sudan which tend to be steeper pyramids. They were built by Nubians and they pre-date the pyramids in Egypt.
Infinite Loves Earth Mother Symbol
The Earth Mother symbol on the top of the Pyramid is part of a collection of Infinite Loves jewellery. Each Symbol is dedicated to a cause, the Earth Mother symbol is dedicated to women and our Mother Earth. At least 80% of the profits from the sale of the Infinite Love symbol will be given to women empowerment and environmental initiatives.
Reflections of Guerilla Activism
Over the past few weeks, I have reflected on what we did, the lessons learned, the impact we made and opportunities for the future.
The greatest lesson I have learned from the Pyramid of Love was an appreciation of the depths of the conditioning we are subject to as we enter our world. We are all conditioned to oppress women. Language, religion, culture, media, education and monuments, all have elements that suppress the spirit of women. The legacy of oppression coupled with unapologetic stances serves to continue the subjugation and dehumanising of women.
I am thrilled we have graced the plinth with a statue that does not glorify malevolence. We received no media coverage. This was expected because of what the pyramid represents. It raises uncomfortable questions that involve looking at past transgressions to understand how we have evolved to keep sexism and racism alive.
The Pyramid of Love is a project which shakes the traumas of patriarchal oppression, many of which we are unaware of. We now know we have to give Father’s Day a shake. It is currently aligned with the most important time of the year, the solstice. Father's Day is celebrated on the same day in the majority of countries. This subconsciously promotes the importance of men. Mother's Day in countries is fragmented around the calendar year. This may seem innocent but we feel it is a major tool of patriarchal oppression.
Atonement
If Britain confronted its crimes of the past, many of the paraded ‘heroes’ would be vilified. This may conjure up feelings of shame and anger, if we hate our ancestors we can hate ourselves. This explains the deflections and reluctance to look back at the less glorious side of British history. However, I feel we can honour all our ancestors regardless of their crimes, by honouring their benevolence with an awareness of their malevolence and understanding they were a product of the conditioning of the times. Greed clouded their morality. We all have something loving and nice about us. It may mean that some ‘heroes’ may no longer make the grade to be immortalised in statues when their malevolence is weighed against their benevolence.
Vandalised
and
Weather Worn
Sychronism and Confessions
We used Banksy and Sadiq Khan's names to cloud the red tape on the removal of the pyramid. When we were installing the pyramid we donned our hi-vis jacket and clipboards. We created a delivery from Banksy to Sadiq Khan. Sorry and thank you, Banksy and Sadiq Khan. When the pyramid was first vandalised, someone painted over the sign which described why we installed the pyramid. They used black paint and it dripped onto the bronze emblem below. At this time, we had a good relationship we CRT, the landowners. We had an agreement we would inform them of anything we planned to do at the plinth. I am sorry, I repaired the pyramid without asking permission from CRT. I repainted the sign gold and wrote www.PyramidsofLove. While I was doing it, gold paint dripped onto the bronze emblem on the plinth.
The bronze emblem honours imperialism and it now has black and gold paint over it. Oil and gold are the main driving force behind of imperialism. The synchronism is on point.
Sychronistic
Black and Gold
Imperial Greed
The Impact Made - Support Us
Pyramids of Love is an evolving story. Our aim is to create a global movement where empty plinths around the world have a Pyramid of Love. So far, we have created a portable Pyramid of Love Honouring The Unknown Children, dedicated to those traumatised through abusive systems under the guise of benevolence.
Our most recent Pyramid of Love Honouring the Unknown Women was vandalised twice and the links to the website were taken off. This hasn’t deterred us. We are currently creating a Pyramid of Love honouring Animals to highlight the appalling treatment animals often receive. We are also developing an education pack.
The pace of our movement is dependent on finances. I have funded everything so far on a part time teachers salary.
Please support us in any way by sharing what we do on social media or by becoming a patron of our work.
Click on a picture to read about each Goddess and the artists.
Collaborators
Initial Concept & Build by @infinitelovesymbols,
Goddess of the North, East and West painted by @morganico_com,
Goddess of the South painted by @mariainpaint & mushrooms by @herstorylondon.
Performance by @yuliya_V_Krylova ( Butoh, red dress )
Performance by @taeatehateh @atehtae ( bells bunny )
#3Dprinting of the Infinite Love Earth Mother symbol by @afro3dprinter
@ Museum of London Docklands, No1 Warehouse, West India Quay, London E14 4AL.
Thanks to Banksy & Sadiq Khan.