INTENT / BIGGER PICTURE / ISSUES
My reasons for doing such a taboo subject for my project isn’t for the controversy, it because I don’t think it should be such a controversial topic of conversation. My aim is to create a body of work to do with sexual violence, but I specifically want to make sure it isn’t ‘pretty’ and shows it with justice to the severity of the situation.
I want to make it a topic that everyone is able to talk about and address without feeling uncomfortable. Obviously I am aware that whatever I make won’t be able to do this for the world etc, but I do think that it is possible for me to put the thought in my peers and anyone else who see’s it’s heads, for anyone who is ignorant or uneducated on the situation, just to get them to understand what it is that is happening on a daily basis to many woman and men everywhere. The reason I think it’s so important to me that more people understand is because I used to be ignorant and uneducated on the matter, I did notice it happened a lot being a teenage girl but I didn’t see being groped or kissed without my concent as an issue or something that was wrong. Until one of my friends was raped I didn’t realise how much it happens and that it isn’t just something that can happen if you’re in a dark ally or in a club by a stranger, it could be someone you know (which statistically is more likely) which in this case it was.
During a conversation (crit) with my peers, many had concerns that it wouldn’t display it in a fair way as making art on something so horrible can sometimes end up beautifying the thing which wasn’t the intention of the artist. To stop this I’m thinking about everything very carefully before I do it, the subject not only being very controversial is also a very sensitive subject and could be quite traumatic for some viewers. I have to make sure to do the people who have given me their stories the justice they deserve and to make sure I don’t alter what they have told me or belittle their stories.
Another issue that was brought to my attention by my peers was that how are the audience going to know if the stories I am working with are true or false. This is something I find quite difficult to address as I don’t feel if it was stories about some other subjects that anyone would question it, the reason so many court cases to do with sexual violence don’t end with the ‘attacker’ going to jail or receiving any punishment for their actions is because there usually isn’t any evidence. In order to have evidence you would have to had known something was going to happen to record or make sure their was a witness. And the truth is most people wouldn’t be aware it was going to happen to them, yes sometimes you are ‘lucky’ enough that what happened was seen by witnesses or caught on cctv or some how have evidence. So when some of my peers asked how they could be sure it was true, I think it kind of gave the impression that they weren’t very educated in the matter. There is no way I can prove to you that the stories are true, however its completely the choice of the viewer whether they believe it or not.
RAPHAELLA STEWART 