Award-winning exhibition tackling sexual violence comes to Newcastle
12 October 2023
Newcastle University’s Law School and School of Arts and Cultures are joining forces with a multi-award-winning photographer to tackle sexual violence victim-blaming.
The collaboration is taking place as part of a social action and research project into Sexual Violence, Law and Photographic Artwork.
Jayne Jackson created the multi award-winning photographic art series named ‘Asking for it’ over a three-year period.
Based on multiple case studies, the images highlight victim blaming in cases of sexual violence through the clever use of historical styling and ‘mugshot’ format. Using make-up artists, actors and historical photographic techniques, Jayne - who also works as a commercial photographer - created a series of 23 ‘mugshots’ each representing a different decade and each depicting a reason to victim-blame for example ‘Flirted’, ‘Wore Red’, or ‘Swiped Right’.
The fascinating body of work is the result of twelve months of specialist research that Jayne undertook as part of her MA. ‘Asking for it’ includes intriguing images, taken using historic wet plate collodion methods, which were inspired by research at The Dorset History Centre.
The Asking for it exhibition will be on show:
- Shieldfield Art Works (SAW) Gallery: 13th - 26th October 2023
- City Library: 26th October - 9th November 2023
- Long Gallery, Newcastle University: 30th October - 12th November 2023
For women who need to talk to someone about rape or sexual abuse, the Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland Helpline can be contacted on 0800 035 2794 Monday – Thursday (6.00 pm – 8.30 pm). Safeline provide the National Male Survivors Helpline, which can be contacted on 0808 800 5005 – 9.00am-8.00pm weekdays and 10.00am-2.00pm weekends.
For Newcastle University students, information about the support available for survivors of sexual violence can be found on the Survivor Support service webpage.