The Truth Isn't Sexy art exhibition(s) & auction

3 October, 2007 - 11:45 — Melanie

The Truth Isn’t Sexy

A city wide art exhibition is occurring in Leeds during the first two weeks of November

The art exhibition will highlight issues affecting women; either work that addresses any of these issues, or work celebrating the strength, talents, abilities, or individualities of women (be that you as the artist, or the art's subject matter).

Followed by:

An auction of all exhibited art works, to be held at The Reform Bar, Leeds on 21st Nov, 7.30 pm onwards.
(The Reform will be providing all attendees with a first free drink!)

All these arty happenings are for the benefit of the Truth Isn't Sexy campaign.

To learn more about the national campaign, visit: http://thetruthisntsexy.com

There's still time to send your artwork to be featured in the exhibition and auction...

If you could send any work to be donated to the exhibition/auction to me by October 21st (allowing me ample time to organise it all to be sent to the various venues city wide) that would be great. If possible, if any work could be sent ready-to-hang/framed it'd be incredibly helpful.

Also, please send a short blurb about yourself (including contact details, maybe a bit about your piece, maybe a bit about why you were interested in being involved with this campaign, or indeed any other information) so that I can make promotional laminates about you to be hung alongside your work.

Just a quick reminder again that work pertaining to female strength, independence and individuality is particularly relevant to this exhibition.

Thank you so very much to anyone interested in contributing art work to these events, I can't begin to tell you how appreciated it is.

Many thanks,
Melanie (on behalf of Leeds TTIS)
xox

Any further queries, please contact me at:
m_k_maddison@hotmail.com

Or view blog at: www.myspace.com/colouringoutsidethelines

* * * * *

Launched to coincide with the bicentennial abolition of slavery, The Truth Isn't Sexy campaign aims to highlight the realities of sex trafficking and mobilise support for the few organisations working to support women who have been trafficked. Throughout the UK, TTIS Campaign Collectives are being set up to fundraise £2,500 in order to buy beer mats for at least 40 pubs in and around their home town. Designed to catch the viewer's attention by imitating telephone box calling cards, one side portrays an enticing image whilst the other highlights the brutal reality of trafficked women.

For more info on the campaign, check out http://thetruthisntsexy.com and come along to the Leeds TTIS fundraising events to show your support and have a good evening!

The Truth Isn't Sexy campaign has been devised to expose the truth between human trafficking and prostitution. Networks of criminal gangs are exploiting impoverished communities across our world and are buying and selling women and children as though they were commodities. Promised a life freed from poverty, these girls are easy targets. All it takes is an unfortunate response to a carefully worded advert in a local newspaper, a new boyfriend skilled in the art of manipulation, or a scheming family. The girl is then passed from the hands of care-less traffickers and sold on to brothels.
The atrocities these innocent women suffer can be compared with the worst type of slavery. Many of the girls have no idea that they will be involved in the sex-industry and those who do are often misled about the violent and brutal entrapment that awaits them.
Often having to service 30 to 40 men a day, they are kept locked up in brothels unable to access help. They are brutalized and threatened until they are broken and compliant. Technically this is organised rape.
Trafficked girls usually have no control over their earnings. They are told by their owners to pay off the highly inflated expenses of the journey; a journey they were either duped into taking or took without the knowledge of such costs being incurred. However, working off these 'debts' is almost impossible owing to constant fines and additional charges for food and board in the brothels. As well as the financial trap, they are caught in a physical and mental trap that uses violence and emotional coercion to maintain their enslavement.

* * * * *

FAQ

Q: Where will the money go?

A: Most will be going to buy beermats - the reason we as local TTIS collectives were set up. The TTIS/beer mat campaign represents one of two ways sex trafficking issues can be approached.

The first is supply - ie: supporting women who have been trafficked. This is what all the organisations that exist thus far address. This is done in several ways - providing beds, albeit scarily few, counselling, legal aid or lobbying for legislative change.

The second is demand - ie: addressing why sex trafficking exists on such a large scale in the first place. No other group, movement or campaign has ever really addressed this side of things and if we're ever going to stop the trafficking of women worldwide, both of these aspects need to be worked on. The big difference is that the supply side is reactive whereas the demand side is proactive. They're both incredibly important and really, one can't be truely successful without the other.

There are apparently four classifications of people who 'use the services' of trafficked women. The largest and ever-growing one is that of young people. People who may see the industry as simply harmless fun or 'just a laugh'. This is the main TTIS target audience. It is only by challenging these attitudes (making young men in particluar more aware of what these women go through) that demand may decrease and eventually, what we all hope for, stop.

We're not just putting on all these events in order to raise funds for the supply side of things and support the organisations which exist to clean up the mess created by the harsh realities of sex trafficking. This campaign is not just about money, not just a means to getting people to dig deep and give to organisations helping women. Instead, it is an approach in it's own right, and is trying to challenge the myths and cliches surrounding the sex industry, ensuring potential users are better informed.

Generally, when something is less tangible and the results are harder to monitor, it can be frustrating to those giving their time, support and money. These types of campaigns also take more time for any real change to be apparent. But unless we address the social attitudes and culture surrounding the sex industry, the 'why' of the sex trade, we'll always just be running around trying to clean up the mess instead of looking at why it's happening in the first place. Hence raising money to buy beer mats which'll enable us to do this.

Q: Which artists are involved?

A: Currently, I have received donated artwork from:

Dame Darcy
(www.damedarcy.com)

Sam Thorp
(www.graphicanatomy.com)

Elke Donders
(www.elkedonders.blogspot.com)

Millicent
(www.myspace.com/millicent_clown)

And more is arriving everyday - see: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=53074270...

* * * * *