Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake…

It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one.

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan

Signe illuminates broader societal patterns of gendered violence, the systemic institutional silencing of survivors, and the absences that follow.

The installation presents headstones from Rosehill Cemetery, one of Chicago’s oldest memorial parks, drawing attention to the names of women. Many inscriptions identify women through relational terms, such as “his wife,” reflecting the ways women are historically remembered in relation to others rather than as individuals.

The series invites reflection on absence, memory, and endurance. Functioning as both an archive and a commentary on the social structures that shape recognition and visibility, the images engage with questions of time, repetition, and remembrance.

In the United States, intimate partner violence claims the lives of at least three women each day. These numbers reflect only reported and acknowledged cases.

Three images are added daily to register the ongoing scale of loss.