Will you take our work forward?

There's a phrase I often use to describe people or places that I love: 'I just want to put them in my pocket'. The desire for closeness, for continued engagement, to take someone or something with me as I move through the world. 

It's not often that I actually can (or should) take the fullness of an experience, reduce it down to a pocket-sized version, and carry it forward with me. The recent Towards Recognition of Abuse, Understanding, and Mutuality through Arts (or T.R.A.U.M.A.) exhibition was an exception.

I had the pleasure of attending the exhibition's opening at the King's College Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre on 8 February. It was immediately clear that this event had been developed with care and intention. With an understanding that the content may be triggering for some people, organisers had a support worker present and had positioned self-care stations around the room. 

There were refreshments, knitting tables, an art-table for general or prompted art making, and a LOUDFence tree for writing messages of support for all victims and survivors of child abuse. This was not an exhibition only meant to be viewed, but one to be engaged with as well.

This ethos of care and intention was also embedded in the project and artworks themselves. First, the idea for the T.R.A.U.M.A. exhibition stemmed from previous work on the Safe Seen Supported project. This was a survivor-led initiative which asked adult survivors 'how to reach and help children and young people experiencing abuse in their households' during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report from this project highlighted four key themes: 1) the importance of awareness and education, 2) the need for safe places and trust, 3) the significance of children and young people being heard, in control, and supported, and 4) the barriers to disclosure.

Building on this, T.R.A.U.M.A. was a collaborative survivor-led art project which was designed to 'support recognition, facilitate conversations, build awareness, and animate public debate around abuse and trauma'. Pieces could be viewed in any order and ranged from photographs to clay sculptures, poems, and textiles. 

One of my favourites collaged images and words together to produce semi-hidden phrases such as 'I cannot ask for help' or 'My needs don't matter'. Another scrapbook-like piece featured torn out pages and the reminder that to understand abuse, we must explore the 'space of disruption and missingness'.

One target-like piece reflected the vigilance of abusers when finding and selecting targets. Live performances of selected poems on opening night underscored the importance of platforming and listening to survivor voices.

Finally, the work of the T.R.A.U.M.A. project did not end at the exhibition doors. Unlike with most exhibitions I've been to before, there was a subtle ask of the exhibition attendees from the artists: Will you take our work forward? Will you remember that protecting children and young people from violence and abuse is everyone's responsibility?

To aid us in doing so, the artwork from the exhibition was re-produced into a smaller version of itself, into a card deck designed to make it easier for children and young people to recognise their experiences as abusive. This card deck and its instruction manual were available for viewing and purchase, and so, in response to the artists' call to action, I put it in my pocket.

Reviewed by Madison Wempe
Lived Experience Advisory Board (LEAB) Coordinator/Research Assistant at King's College London