On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25th November), the Starving Artist Studio and the Young European Movement launched a collaborative exhibition, titled 'Break the Silence', which includes my "Hate Dress".
I suggested organising the exhibition as part of Young European Movement's 'Break the Silence to End the Violence' campaign against gender-based violence, in order to provide some emotive imagery and impactful personal stories to support the campaign ask for policy change on violence against women and girls. I have always wanted to collaborate with artist, Dr. Ally Zlatar - who also won the Charlemagne Youth Prize. Her 'Starving Artist Studio' curates exhibitions around themes of gender equality and women's health - so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to suggest a collaboration between our organisations. In the end Ally did most of the work, and an excellent job in producing the VR exhibition and catalogue which is hosted on her site. I led on promoting the open call, and curating the final selection of artworks - we had an incredible response with over 150 artwork submitted and I was really happy with the final exhibition which had a really diverse range of international perspectives on gender based violence and gender equality.
‘The exhibition features over 25 artists from 15+ countries which addresses the urgent issue of gender-based violence (GBV), a pervasive obstacle to gender equality and a critical human rights challenge across Europe. This exhibition seeks to amplify awareness and drive change through visual storytelling, data, and lived experiences, offering a powerful platform to highlight the range of abuses faced by individuals, particularly women, in today’s society—from physical and psychological violence to financial control and cyber abuse. Despite progress, GBV remains entrenched; in the UK, for instance, one woman is killed every three days'. The VR exhibition is viewable through this link.
Here are my pages in the exhibition catalogue - I am currently exploring the option of a physical print run, so we can distribute the publication at the campaign launch event at Europe House.
Comments