Altar - Remembering Romanian Feminism

This altar is dedicated to the underappreciated efforts of Romanian women throughout the history of Romania. Coming from a Romanian family, this is a topic that is important to me. The struggle for progress in regards to feminism has been a global one, but not all countries have made the same amount of progress as others. Though it is now a member of the European Union and has become increasingly economically developed in recent times, Romania has lagged behind other European countries in terms of gender equality. Romanian women are often excluded from academia and other institutions of power and a large scale feminism movement is virtually non-existent. This is despite the numerous contributions that women have made to Romania society. I created this altar in order to honor these underappreciated women and celebrate their importance and their march towards greater equality. The power of the altar is the ability to remember the contributions of those who have come before us so I chose to emphasize the rural village history of Romania with my artifacts, since in the village women contribute greatly to the survival of these small communities. In my altar, I feature several key artifacts that represent the four natural elements of fire, earth, sky/wind, and water. These are as follows: the clay plates in the bottom tier represent the earth, the pan flute in the bottom tier represents the sky/wind, the figurine water well on the top tier represents water, and the various candles represent fire.