Stop Victim Blaming: The story behind the visuals
Five artists from Northern Ireland have designed thoughtful, challenging, and impactful images to accompany Victim Support NI’s new #StopVictimBlaming project, which launched on Victims of Crime Day, Monday 22nd February.
Each illustrator was tasked with creating an image which would represent the victim blaming that comes with five different crimes.
For illustrator Jacky Sheridan, who produced the illustration relating to domestic violence, it wasn’t a topic she was unfamiliar with but she did ‘research quite a bit.’
“Unfortunately, domestic violence is a reality a lot of women are familiar with or aware of, from a young age. It was important to me to to illustrate the myth accurately but not in a triggering way to any victims or survivors.”
This was something that illustrator Fiona McDonnell was also conscious of, as she produced the image relating to sexual violence. “I wanted the illustration I created to be more visually impactful than other imagery I had seen in similar campaigns. I was also very cautious about the artwork potentially triggering victims, so a lot of my research was trying to find a balance between this.
“It’s a strong belief of mine that we have to work on changing this societal attitude towards victims of sexual violence, and I am so proud to be part of this project that aims to debunk these myths.”
David McMillan, who illustrated how victims are blamed in cases of robbery, mentions how social commentary work like this is so important. “I’m a person that loves to absorb as much news and new information as possible, and feels very strongly about a lot of issues. As illustrators, I think it is important to be politically and socially engaged and to be able to use our work to highlight and depict these topics.”
Artist Thomas Bannon, who focused on those with a criminal record then becoming victims later in life, reflected, “To be honest I hadn’t read or heard much about this specific kind of problem for individuals who have a criminal record. I’m glad it was brought to my attention, I suppose that’s the idea of this project. This was a slightly more sensitive subject matter to deal with, it had to be approached with care. I hope that comes through in the work. It was challenging for sure, I do like a challenge now and again. It pushes you outside of your comfort zone which is really essential for growth as an illustrator.”
Finally, artist Jamie Beard, who had the task of illustrating assault, found it to be a ‘strong learning experience’.
“In allowing me the opportunity to visually convey the issue, this in turn gave me a chance to better my personal understanding of it, and also of how best to approach communicating sensitive topics in general when looking through the lens of illustration. I feel the best projects are usually the ones we learn a lot from.”
You can read more about this project at: www.victimsupportni.com/About-Us/Stop-Victim-Blaming/