Women and Conflict
Jenny Matthews
Network / Rapho
This exhibition is a visual report on what women do in times of war and its aftermath.
At the end of the century war is overwhelmingly directed towards civilians. As a consequence most casualties are women and children.
Women are primarily the ones who cope with the disruption of life; they are the carers and mediators. Given half a chance though, many take up arms and fight in the front line, or enthusiastically take on work normally seen as male.
Preview
Women's bodies themselves can become the site of battle. Rape is used as a weapon of war. Sexual violence against women is a way of putting pressure on men and terrorising whole communities. The consequences are devastating on a personal and social level.
The exhibition begins and ends with Vietnam. The war there shaped my politics in the sixties. The photo of Phuong, who was born without eyes as a result of that war, was hard to take. It was hard to confront the repercussions of war on the totally innocent, and impossible to understand what it would be like to have no visual sense - the sense that I depend on for my work. May the children in these photos grow up without the fear of violence that their mothers have known.
Jenny Matthews
