An art-project-in-progress and upcoming exhibition is calling out for contributions. The organisers have released the following:
“In the last few weeks, we’ve been participating in a discussion group in
London called The Flip Side: When Sex is Not Okay*. *For us, not okay
experiences mean times when someone has felt unsafe, unable to say no,
threatened, misled, or pressured into something, as well as experiences of
sexual abuse or assault. It also includes times when people have had
distressing emotions or states of mind during sex – which might mean feeling
dirty, guilty or ashamed; having flashbacks; or disassociating.*
*We are perpetually encouraged to stay silent about our experiences, even
though we have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. We need and deserve
spaces where we can break this taboo and be honored for our creativity,
strength, and courage.
* *
That’s why we’re really excited about an idea we came up with last
week: *putting together a night for people to display artwork that relates to these
experiences*. One of the ideas we had was to create pieces of artwork based
around objects we associate with moments in our pasts when things weren’t
okay – for example, clothes we were wearing at the time, CDs, photographs or
gifts from perpetrators, basically any object that triggers these memories.
For many of us, throwing out these objects can really difficult, since they
evoke so much meaning, but so is having them in our homes. We were thinking
people could submit pieces of artwork, and write short blurbs/stories to
accompany the art if they felt comfortable doing so. At the end of the
night, we’ll have a massive smash-up party, so that anyone who wants to can
smash their piece!
Of course, any other creative means of expressing these experiences is
equally welcome — poetry, narratives, zines, performances, letters written
to perpetrators or abusers — anything/everything! We want to emphasize
that you don’t have to identify as a survivor to contribute to the night,
and we are happy to display anonymous contributions. We encourage
contributions from people of all genders, ages, and experiences.
The gallery night will be sometime in late July, so our tentative deadline
for submissions is *10 July 2011*. Please let us know if you have any
suggestions for potential spaces to use for the show, since we’re still on
the look-out.
Submissions can be mailed in, brought in on the night, or picked up by
someone if necessary. If you want to sell/display zines, do a performance
piece, or anything else, please let us know! Drop us a line at *
whensexisnotokay@gmail.com* to talk about your piece, let us know you’re
contributing something, if you have any feedback on the event, or just want
to say hi! Also e-mail us if you want the address to send your piece to or
more info about how to get invovled.
We’re also planning to have a working day sometime in mid-June, where we’ll
bring some supplies and food, and sit around and work on our pieces
together. E-mail us if you’d like to be invovled in that.
Thanks so much for your time,
The lovely, beautiful members of the discussion group
Ps. The discussion group is also in the process of putting together a zine
on strategies for negotiating and navigating not-okay experiences with sex.
We would love love love contributions from other people on this! And we’ll
have the zine ready for the art show. If you’d like to get involved, please
email us at *whensexisnotokay@gmail.com!*”
The exhibition will be held on 22 July, 7pm – 11pm at the Lambeth Women’s Project, 166A Stockwell Road, London SW9 9QT. Spread the word.
I AM MY OWN WIFE. 