New Project

Start of 3rd year and another project.

I started looking at people who were unable to communicate / express themselves and are open to abuse and violence. The elderly, children, the disabled, men and women. There are various types of abuse: verbal, physical, psychological and emotional.


I started looking at domestic abuse. Shockingly 1 in 5 women in Ireland who have been in a relationship have been abused by a current or former partner (O'Connor, M, & Kelleher Associates, Making the Links, Women's Aid, 1995). National Research by the National Crime Council found that 1 in 7 women have experienced severe abusive behaviour. Internationally at least 1 in 3 women, up to one billion women, have been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in their lifetimes (Ending Violence against Women, L. Heise, M. Ellsberg, M. Gottemoeller, 1999).
Statistics Information


I started looking further into domestic abuse against men. This is less documented. In my research I came across some helpful websites:

Amen - a support and information service for male victims of domestic abuse

The National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based violence

A Voice for Men

Men as Victims

Hidden Hurt

The Observer News Article

Help for Abused Men

I spent quite some time researching and working on men's own testimonies. What I focused on initially was the use of implements that women used on their partners:

Kettles of boiling water
Baseball bats
Scissors
Hair straighteners
Baking implements
Drumsticks
Irons
Drills
High heeled shoes
Candlesticks
Pokers

I wanted to create a wallpaper from images of these implements.

 

 

Here is the wallpaper image I created:

 

 

My aim is to screen print this onto material to create curtains out of them. I also want to print this image onto men's shirts. I aim to also work on top of these images on the shirts by cutting and stitching text.

 

Images to follow.