On Tuesday the 14th, we silently held fourteen photos in Hull City Centre for fourteen minutes to honour the stories of the departed women behind each image. The fourteen women known to authors of An Untold Story who died during the time it took to write.
It was the first time we’d ‘come out’ so visibly about the issues we care about in our home city of Hull. Until now, we’d been busy weaving connections wherever we could behind the scenes, which would build a safer future for sex workers and women involved in prostitution in Hull. You can read about our work in previous blogs.
The time has arrived, however, to speak up loud and clear, for all to hear. And that’s what we’ll be focusing on for the duration of this exhibition with the artists Henry/Bragg across Hull and London until August, as we attempt to amplify its message throughout.
But we chose to begin with the universally understood message of a boldly held silence.
For all our worthy and eloquent words, rants, our screams, songs, and cries of pain, only the honour of silence could do justice to the wordless burden of lost life. In silence we hoped to collectively speak from the centre point of every heart that came together with us, and to the hearts we wished to reach.
From the resonance of that core: we aim to pivot the development of the future work that will pave the way for a fairer system. The lost evidence is in the memory of those we have loved. Their legacy should be the roadmap for change in this city, so that nobody has to fear sexual violence or attack because they are deemed less worthy to be protected and served by the repercussions of justice. So that nobody facing the multi layered disadvantages life has dealt them is cast aside to suffer without support.
More to come on what this change could look like, and how we hope to collaborate with those with the resources to achieve it, now that we have the High Court’s mandate.
