Sophia Hewson
- Joséphine Hengstwerth
- Apr 10, 2020
- 3 min read
Untitled (are you okay bob?), 2016
The Australian feminist artist Sophia Hewson created this three minute video piece in 2016 in her New York flat for an exhibition in Melbourne. The performance shows her face while undergoing a “self-orchestrated rape representation” (artist statement). She invited a man with the pseudonym “Bob” to her home to challenge the male power in society which is strongly represented by the dominance and abuse of power the male has over the woman during rape.
“The raped woman is nearly always represented with her face downcast and her eyes averted.” (artist statement). Even though the sexual intercourse takes place it does not seem erotic in any way compared to other female representations during sex like in porn and alike. The difference and confronting part about this work is that the viewer is not watching the woman being penetrated but rather seeing her stare back and forcing the audience to witness the act. The title “are you okay bob?” were the first words spoken by the artist after the intercourse, which in her words are to “reference the orchestrated nature of the event – who is using whom in this situation?”. She is in control of the performance but ‘Bob’ is in control of the intercourse while she is lying still. By doing that Hewson is taking back control and uses it to make a statement which is supposed to make the audience feel unsettled and to start a train of thoughts. Furthermore the title is reflecting on how women are expected to put the wellbeing of others before their own. Throughout history women have been expected to hold back their personal needs an in a society were “victim blaming” in rape cases is very prominent, the question arises of how much women need to hold back to protect themselves from unwanted judgment and blaming.
As suggested earlier the idea is also “central to this work […] that rape is more than an unwanted sexual act, that it is the foundation for the entire institution of the patriarchy, and hence it is the crucial battleground for dismantling male power.” (artist statement). Susan Griffins describes in her book: “Rape: The All-American Crime” (1971) that “women live their lives according to a rape schedule”, for instance that space and time can be owned by men when thinking about walking alone in the dark as a woman.
“In the ideology of the patriarchy we are forced to choose: devastated women or guilty slut / demonic villain or persecuted man. In this work similarly we choose: so perhaps the question is not ‘who is using whom in this situation’, but ‘why are we forced to choose at all?” (artist statement)
Sophia Hewson’s work has become relevant to me because my work is focusing on the same topic of sexual violence. I personally really enjoy her work and how this simple idea has such a deep meaning and impact. It made me aware of the bigger meaning in society of rape and the male patriarchy and started to think further about the topic. The fact that women are to an extend required to stay quite about their personal needs, reflects on statistics (which are important to my work) that state that approximately 85,000 women are being sexually assaulted every year in England and Wales (https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/about-sexual-violence/statistics-sexual-violence/) but only a shocking 15% of those report the violation. Why is that?
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