Note to readers: some readers may find the subject matter upsetting
We live in violent times, and especially so women.
Gender-based violence is a violation of women’s rights and a public health issue of global concern, with the World Health Organisation estimating that about one in three women have been subjected to intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
In the UK, the police receive a domestic abuse phone call every 30 seconds, yet it is estimated that less than a quarter of domestic abuse crime is reported to the police. But this is still almost one in four women in the UK who report gender-based violence.
Lou Blakeway’s exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery Brighton, Painting Her: Stories, is a very ‘feeling’ show whose sensitivities sit squarely with the victims of violent crime.
The paintings
Fifteen quite small paintings of women portray, at first sight, ordinary, everyday contemporary women, all adult, no girlishness; each on their own except for one mother and daughter Khaola & Raneem, also the only women who are not white.There is one large group, Women Talking, and one woman holding a small child, Julie & Kevin.
As you look you realise something familiar about the faces, and as you question this you realise some of the characters are from film or TV. One of them is Susan, the alcoholic creation of Alan Bennett and played by Maggie Smith.
Women Talking is set in a barn from the 2022 film of the same name, directed by Sarah Polley. The film exposes the rape of women in a closed Mennonite community by the men who used cattle anaesthetic to knock them out. This was as recently as 2009, when a woman woke up in the middle of being assaulted and the police were called.
Another knock-out painting is Gisele, in a red jumper; of course Gisèle Pelicot, the extraordinary French heroine. In recent weeks, she has bravely foregone her right to anonymity to give evidence against her ex-husband, who drugged her so that visiting men could rape her whilst she was unconscious.
And there you have it. These are all paintings of women involved with terrible events. Most of the paintings are of women who have been raped or murdered or both; 11 of the 15 paintings depict a real case, with more victims when children who have suffered are counted too.
And there is at least one woman, Leigh, who herself murdered her partner. Underpinning the stories are the straightjackets tailored by impossible manifestations of ‘doing woman’: a wobbly, bouncing tightrope of perfection as gentle, caring, doting mother and loving partner.
Lou Blakeway
Underpinning all this work is anger – the anger of the artist Lou Blakeway, who offers us a glimpse behind a curtain of silence behind which we may well find our very own selves staring back.
These few paintings signpost massive complexities in our relationships with ourselves in how we engage with violence. But rage has not blurred the focus of image, where thick paint glistens and considered marks engage with fabulous rich colour combinations. These are beautiful, glowing paintings.
Apart from a list of title names, no explanations are given. Blakeway says that she would like the exhibits to work as paintings. Well they do. But I feel that as this exhibition is strong enough to travel without necessarily the artist in attendance to explain and to talk with visitors, a brief summary of each case would be helpful.
The exhibition is only on for a short time but I think we will do well to watch this space, as Lou Blakeway’s painting enters the public domain of what Adrian Howe in her 2023 book names as “the global movement that is naming intimate partner femicide as a first order political problem and demanding justice for its victims.”
Like the silence broken by Gisèle Pelicot, in her inspirational refusal for her case to be heard in camera, the act of painting is itself an intervention in a terrible cycle.
Note: Lou Blakeway is Freelands Foundation Fellow at the University of Brighton. The Studio Fellowship programme offers artists funding for a year, a personal studio within the setting of one of the eight partner universities’ art departments, and dedicated time and support to develop their individual artistic practice.
Painting Her: Stories is on show at Phoenix Art Space, Phoenix Gallery, 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton, BN2 9NB, until 9 December 2024, 12.00-17.00.
For those needing support, contact: Refuge, the national Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000247.
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