TAGGED gains added power within the context of Sacabo’s previous work, which has long sought to provide refuge from the injustices suffered by women. In this disheartening present, it appears that Sacabo is no longer willing to look the other way. In this series she adamantly declares “I AM NOT THAT WOMAN.”
Walking the graffiti gauntlet from my house to my studio, I am confronted by a lexicon of rampant misogyny, violence, and sexual insults. The messages may be verbal but their effects are visceral. We are being ‘tagged’ – as hos, bitches, and worse. But I am not that woman.
Why have women become the targets of the rage and frustration expressed? Why are women bearing the consequences for injustices they have not committed? Where are the graffiti messages by women meant for men? I do not have the answers to these questions; all I have are these images of what it feels like to be a woman walking these streets.