​​This year-long project involved weekly sessions where we worked with a group of women at their safe house in Kent. The aim of the project was to create a digital outcome that could be used both as an artwork and as a resource to generate awareness around the complexities of domestic abuse and coercive control. Conversations have continued with some of these women, leading to new video works such as Lazy Boy.

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The project involved meeting regularly with members of JHJH and led to many adventures, including a skydive and a calling out to the sea using a loud-hailer. Together we sought to find visual languages to express their individual and shared experiences in a way that could operate as both an artwork but also as an activist tool, to provoke conversations and create an environment for people to recognise their own situations and vulnerabilities. JHJH later used some of the work in schools and other community settings as part of their outreach programme.

 

The title Messy Business emerged from JHJH's motto "Our Mess is Our Message".

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The final outcome was 6 short films that, watched together, total 21 minutes. The six videos offer a narrative arc that speaks to entering a coercive relationship, the complexities of toxic relationships and a call out to seeking independence and autonomy. The six films - Land - Air - Break - Burn - Bridge - Beyond - can be watched here individually.