Artist Clarity Haynes on Art, Humor, and Healing from Sexual Violence

Content warning: The article includes graphic artistic representations of sexual violence.

Artistic expression, including humor, is one way that people can cope with and heal from sexual trauma. In this article, artist Clarity Haynes reflects on how her work has been shaped by the sexual violence she has experienced throughout her lifetime. She discusses her choice to laugh in the face of violence and trauma. She notes how both the poem “Rape Joke” by Patricia Lockwood and the painting “A Funny Thing Happened” by Sue Williams renoate with her. Humor becomes a way for her to reclaim her body and her story.

While reading the book "Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art and Sexual Violence in the 1970s" by Nancy Princenthal, Haynes realized how her experience has shaped her art. While it doesn’t address sexual violence directly, she uses portraiture to depict the strength and resilience of women. Her art depicts the torsos of women of varying backgrounds and identities. Through her series of powerful, large-scale paintings, Haynes highlights how women can take up space. She paints women as monuments and goddesses that cannot be knocked down.

It’s not easy to talk about trauma, especially sexual violence. But as a queer feminist artist, it’s important to me to not hide the truth about my life, about women’s lives, about LGBTQ lives. As a cisgender, white, middle class woman, I’ve been protected by my privilege. And yet violence has still affected me. It impacts so many of us. But we survive, and more and more, we are finding language, in words and art, to tell the truth.

We are grateful to Clarity for sharing an image for use in this resource. To learn more about her visit her site. To view her art book, visit this site.

SOURCE: Hyperallergic • AUTHOR: Clarity Haynes • LAST UPDATED: February 1, 2021