Wednesday 30 November 2011

Forced Sterilisation Campaign Designs

I decided to create a piece of design based on human rights and forced sterilisation after reading about how the former government of Peru forcibly sterilised over 200,000 women as a way of trying to reduce birth rates among the poor. 




I felt passionate about communicating this issue to the wider world after learning that many of these women were believed to be indigenous Quechua Indians, and were threatened with fines or imprisonment if they did not go though with the operation. And the fact that the modern world turns a blind eye to the recurring violation of human rights on such a major scale, impacting the defenceless and the poor. If we cannot learn from the awful mistakes of the past, then how can we better ourselves in the future?

The piece is very much a balance between providing a concise synopsis of the issue, and the eye-catching and thought provoking illustrations. These two images aim to draw the eye in, and graphically tell the story in a split 'positive verses negative' manner. One is representative of Peruvian culture and scenery through colour, and focuses in on the literal aspects of freedom to choose to have a child. Yet the second image is left quite abstract and sinister in tone, allowing the viewer to make what they can of the situation. Is it representative of fear? Imprisonment? Isolation? victimisation? You decide…