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Exhibition Title: Confront it. Tackle it. 

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Exhibition Title: Confront it. Tackle it. 

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By: Samantha Abbe

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Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Rape Scene), 1973 In class
Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Bloody Mattresses), 1973 In class
Kiera Faber, Completely Human, 2012, In class
Kiera Faber. "Completely Human." Kiera Faber. Accessed April 27, 2017.
"Sue Williams." 303 Gallery. Accessed April 27, 2017.
"Untitled (Rape Scene), Ana Mendieta 1973." Tate Modern. Accessed April 27, 2017

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In this photograph, Kiera Faber shows a girl put in a bag with a man sitting on top of her. This leaves a lot of room for us to assume what happened before this image to have had this take place. The man is peacefully sitting on a woman and all we can see are her feet. Was this consensual or was she dragged off? Kiera Faber is showing us there is a body which is confronting the problem of sexual assault. The man and woman are alone in a room with no one around. This can be assumed that there were no witnesses. This shows the woman as vulnerable and shows a theme of violence.

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Photograph

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In this image, Ana Mendieta wanted to point out how in most cases of rape there are no witnesses.This was created in an abandoned farm house. The mattress is covered in clothing and food while there is blood splattered on the wall. These are the unseen qualities of sexual violence, the brutality, and the obscurity of the scene. Since this location is so remote there is no witness, without a witness, these scenes are usually ignored and easier to walk away from, especially if there is no body or human there. There is no evidence that there was a rape here or what happened here since there is no body, but our culture makes assumptions that because there is a mattress that there was a rape and since there is blood on the wall that someone was then killed after. The assumption is that it was a woman who was raped and killed.

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Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Bloody Mattresses), 1973

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Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Bloody Mattresses), 1973

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Sexual assault is an unwanted force used where people become victims of heinous acts.  I have discovered that the art world has a way of bringing awareness to society about assault that opens our eyes to how people are affected and impacted by being coerced and forced into doing something they do not want to do. I have selected different pieces of art that depict the various ways artists are able to express sexual abuse.   Each piece of art reflects a different form of one being violated and the emotional impacted it has on society. One in five women and one in seven men in the U.S. have been raped in their lifetime and almost half of females (46.7%) and males (44.9%) are raped by an acquaintance. Sexual assault is a serious problem and I hope this exhibition sheds light on how powerless people become when faced with a threatening encounter. One of the main ways to express a sexual attack is through art. Artists use their images to voice their opinions about being forced into an unwanted sexual situation by creating new alternatives of visual narratives. All of the works I have included show a magnified dislike for sexual violence.  Each artist expresses the physical and emotional aspect of sexual assault in their subject matter. The works vary in mediums from photograph to paintings but, they each show the threat of sexual violence in society.   The goal of this exhibition is to help survivors of sexual assault and let them know they are not alone. I am most interested in images that do not refuse to show the brutality in their artworks. I have chosen artists who tackle sexual assault in a confrontational way rather than creating it into a metaphor.

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This image illustrates Ana Mendieta bent over a table with blood smeared on her butt and legs. Her hands tied to a table with bloody hand prints around the table. She created a response to a girl who was brutally raped and murdered at the University of Iowa, Sara Ann Otten. This work shows violence against women and shows how vulnerable the victim is while she is bent over a table. Ana Mendieta created this image in order to force people to confront what they see. To see how this is so dehumanising and vile, and to show people what the reality really is instead of ignoring it. This image creates a relationship between the viewers and the image. The audience can relate to the issues being shown such as violence against women and rape. This image shows the violence when we see this woman with blood all over her, which is confronting the problem by making people really think about the issue of sexual assault. Ana Mendieta invited friends over and they found her like this so that they could see how bad this problem really is without running away from it.

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Ana Mendieta Untitled (Rape scene) 1973 Photograph, colour on paper 

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Ana Mendieta Untitled (Rape scene) 1973 Photograph, colour on paper 

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The quote " A man walks into a psychiatrist's He says to the psychiatrist, my dick won't get hard." The man, "Every time you tell a joke, a feeling dies" is being used to explain the painting. This is showing sexual abuse and violence. This shows the man as the more dominant sex and shows the man having more power over the woman. This shows that men do not care about the female body in art and pop culture. In the painting there is a man and a woman in a sexual relationship while the man is holding a gun to the woman. The man seems to be in control in every one of these images and is doing this in a very forceful way. Holding a gun to the back of a woman's head shows that the woman did not want to have sex and this is rape. This painting is very visual. It shows how the man takes advantage of the woman and assaults her with violence, rape, and emotionally. This is showing a very deep rooted issue with how the man is making her have sex with him. These paintings are forcing people to see the man sexually harassing this woman.

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Sue Williams, Spiritual America, 1992 Acrylic on canvas, 2 panels

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Sue Williams, Spiritual America, 1992 Acrylic on canvas, 2 panels

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In Sue William's bronze sculpture Union, the viewer will find that the artist does a nice job of informing her audience of issues that she has been surrounded by during her life. William's piece presents a girl being punched in the face immediately signifying domestic violence. If the viewer looks closely they will find that on the back of the fist the word love is inscribed indicating that though one may love another violence can still occur. This also could be portrayed as sexual assault by a lover. As the audience studies the bronze sculpture they will come across strong statements etched below the girls chin. This is a message meaning violence and assault.This sculpture shows the violence when the fist meets the face of the woman and is head on confronting the problem.

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Bronze