Sexual Assault: The Roadshow art exhibit in Toronto aims to shatter taboos about victims
Exhibit on display at Nathan Phillips Square, features work from across GTHA
The creator of a travelling art gallery passing through downtown Toronto wants to change attitudes when it comes to how society views sexual assault, saying victims can actually overcome their trauma even if they feel they've been failed by the justice system.
Sexual Assault: The Roadshow is a travelling exhibit that features art inspired by acts of violence and is the brainchild of Jane Doe.
The exhibit, which uses a re-purposed shipping container as a venue, is currently set up in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square.
"Women who are sexually assaulted are viewed [as] overwhelmingly traumatized, as passive and broken and as unable to take care of themselves any more," said Doe in an interview on CBC Radio's Metro Morning.
"And of course that is a false notion."
Doe says the goal of the travelling exhibit is to change the way people think about sexual assault, the nature of harm it creates and how victims react.
"Looking at the art in a shipping container, those notions are put down … the art that is being created is causing us to slow down, take a look and think differently about the crime," she said.
"It shows that we are more than just the acts of crime that have been committed against us. We are not victims, we are women and we live our lives and overcome."
Systems fail women and men, Doe says
This week in Toronto, York University PhD student Mustafa Ururyar was convicted of sexually assaulting Mandi Gray in July, and was sentenced Wednesday to 18-months in prison.
Doe, who says she sat in the courtroom when Ururyar's sentence was delivered, believes prison convictions do little to fix the issue of sexual assault in society.
"Our systems now, all of them, have failed women, they've failed men also," Doe said.
"With prison sentences … there are minimal programs, if any. And the people, mostly indigenous and black and racialized men are demonized. They are treated as if they are not human and we all seem to be OK with that," she said.
Response to art has been positive
"It's been a reaction of awe, happiness, it's a relief for so many people to see the art," said Doe when talking about those who have taken the time to stop by her exhibit.
Sexual Assault: The Roadshow will be in Nathan Phillips Square, its third stop of the tour, until Sunday.
The plan is for the exhibit to make it to 15 other stops over the next three years.
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With files from Metro Morning