Alex Brew
Artist Statement
'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? What happens when male power is challenged? What happens to the woman challenging it and what happens to the man in the picture?
The images show both domestic and public scenes. The nudity brings to mind a close relationship and yet these are strangers or acquaintances. The images confuse our understanding of domestic violence and rape in a culture that believes that the stranger is more dangerous than the man in your bed 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 illuminates the risks women take everyday and the problems of a culture that’s comfortable with those risks provided she refrains from challenging the man lying next to her. This leads to a spiral of violence against women but a violence that is pushed indoors.
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Alex Brew is an art photographer and freelance writer living in London. She was born in the North West of England in 1976 and studied at Warwick University. She later took practical tutorials in portrait photography with Peter Cattrell at Central St Martins. Since then she has worked with the social documentary photographer Larry Herman.
She worked on the national domestic violence helpline and is active in feminist circles. She uses photography as a way of experimenting with feminist ideas and is currently working on a project titled “Asking for it” about fear, submission, violence and masculinity. Her work uses poems and text as well as images to get her message across.
Her images are all made in black and white using traditional dark room techniques.
An exhibition of her work will show at the Islington Arts Factory from 9-11 May 2008 as part of the international women’s DIY festival: Ladyfest.
She also worked for several years in the private and public sectors as - amongst other things - an arts and science news writer and press officer. And has had articles published in coffee table art books and feminist publications.
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