Download the thesis - South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault

following trauma?”, I ask, if rape, or sexual abuse, is the destruction of the soul, can
immersion in a creative space, working with an artist and being part of a community of
practice, re/construct the soul. Without laying claim to a universal truth, my thesis,
involving victims of sexual abuse, whose experience I discuss below, together with my
own experience as an artist, suggests the answer is an emphatic “Yes”.
For most participants who joined in the creative projects I discuss below, it was not a
question of whether art might be useful so much as a belief that art would be useful to
them. The impetus for joining the art group was the invitation to create and bring art
into their lives; for many it was a summons to respond to a desperate need.
The claim art “is lifesaving” may sound outrageous. However, it is an assertion I have
heard a number of times about creative participation. Indeed, participants said that
the contribution to their wellbeing of being involved in making art was, “Well, I am still
here”. That is a big statement for survivors of sexual abuse to make, though it may
sound overstated to the rest of us.
In grabbing hold of the opportunity and in taking a leap of faith, most discovered that
“like a key turning”, as many described it, art opened them to places previously closed
and to possibilities seemingly unattainable and beyond dreaming. A creative practice
by its very nature pushes against boundaries, barriers and preconceptions. As
participants pushed, they discovered an opening into the “outside world” and, at the
same time, into the internal world; this observation suggests one reason why art can
be such an effective counterweight to trauma.
Beauty, love, care, community, the normal and normality, expression, sorrow and
mourning are words with which this thesis is infused. These were words commonly
used by the participants to state, indeed emphasise, the connections and
communication between themselves and others, with their internal selves, and with the
“outside world” made possible through this active engagement with art and artists.
They provide context for understanding the meaning and consolation art provided to
lives in which these feelings or experiences had either been absent or disabled. Many
of these words have been and are the subject of intense discussion and debate within
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