2021

It’s still not pretty was a two-part exhibition in Triskel Arts Centre and Cork City Council Atrium and was produced in association with Domestic Violence Network Cork. The exhibitions were part of ‘16 Days of Action Against Gender Based Violence’ – an annual international awareness campaign to combat violence against women.

The DVN Cork is an advocacy group comprised of non-governmental, community-led and statutory organisations that share information and expertise to work collaboratively for the betterment of their clients. Acknowledging that 2021 was a challenging year for their service users, Deborah O’Flynn from OSSCork highlighted that “the necessity of ‘locking down’ society in order to protect our population from potential infection from Covid-19, created, unfortunately, a perfect environment for perpetrators to exert even greater control over their current and former partners”. Despite the ‘Still Here’ Government initiative incidences of violence and ongoing coercive control increased in 2021.  As a result most agencies experienced a surge in the demand for their support services even as stay at home measures have eased.

The campaign was an opportunity to raise awareness of the necessity of zero tolerance to domestic violence. DVN Cork invited myself, in collaboration with r. a. g. e. feminist collective, to mark the campaign with a solo exhibition that reflected the experience of domestic violence victims and brought attention to the many barriers they face in securing their safety.