Please go to my main website:
Alex Brew's website
Asking for it
'Asking For It' is a work in progress. The project involves the artist approaching men in public places – outside offices, pubs and gentlemen’s venues often in London’s square mile. She confronts them with her camera and sometimes asks them to fully or partially undress in a more private space – in an alleyway, a car park, or back at their place or hers.
She follows her fear into these situations of potential male violence and disapproval: situations where passivity, acquiescence and submission feel safer or more appealing than taking control. She takes note.
What happens if a woman leaves the realm of object to put the focus on men and is not deferential, submissive or flirtatious either?
The images show both domestic and public scenes. The nudity brings to mind a close relationship and sex and yet these are strangers or acquaintances. No sex is on offer. No money exchanged. The series confuses our understanding of what a stranger is and brings to mind domestic violence and rape. The images illuminate the risks women take everyday in a culture that believes that the stranger is more dangerous than the man by your side in spite of the statistics that show the opposite. Women (unlike men) are most likely to be attacked, raped or killed by a man known to her.
The project also deals with a culture that’s comfortable with women being exposed to those risks provided she refrains from challenging the man lying next to her. The woman has no power and yet is thought to be safer than a woman imposing her will. Women begin to believe submission is safer. It is used as a survival tactic. This leads to a spiral of violence against women but a violence that is pushed indoors. At least one in four women according to the domestic violence charity Refuge, a charity that runs the National Domestic Violence Helpline that I have spent a good amount of time volunteering on.
Some images show my anger at many men's collusion with sexism, their threatening stances and their posturing to show superiority or dominance. Others are quiet, reflective and show the trust and vulnerability of the man in the picture. But this project is risky in a country where any sign of sexual intent in the female is classed as asking for rape and where domestic violence does not carry as heavy a penalty as stranger violence.
You can see my other project at: Feminist Outings
Please contact Alex Brew on alexphotocontact@gmail.com
