A personal and political journey through trauma
By Karlie Brunswick 'Rags'
The story behind the paint...
I am scared, immensely proud and a bit nervous about this. I am feeling the fear and doing it anyways, I have rebuilt my village. I would love for you to come along.
I am Karlie Brunswick. There - I said it.
For so much of my life, silence dominated, rendering me invisible and nameless, living in a consuming darkness. But my perseverance through the trauma I endured has allowed me enough light to see, to speak my story, in a language that I connect with, paint.
This exhibition is a nod to my courage and my choice to step further into the light, telling the world, myself included, that I have nothing to be ashamed of. The weight of shame that veils my story must be carried by those who noticed, and did nothing. We all knew something was not right in that house, and yet, the silence won another round.
We need to do better. Actions and words. They say it takes a village to raise a child, so build the fence, open the windows, knock on the door and be there. A village is small and know’s when something isn’t right, have the courage to speak and act when children are being mistreated. Don’t close the curtains and lock your gate.
My paintings do not appear disturbing, but you may find this exhibition a bit confronting in nature, as I am asking you to look at yourself, while you look at me.
This is a story of childhood trauma. Intergenerational trauma, my mother and abuser was sexually abused as a child by members of her family. I believe she used this to justify to herself her own sexual, emotional, and physical abuse of myself and my siblings, my paintings touch on different elements of her abuse that have impacted me.
The cone of silence. The first rule of the house was "don't talk", even as I paint these paintings 40 years on, the crushing sense of guilt I still feel about telling you this story is indescribable. So I’m breaking the rules, rules that built the walls of the cage I was trapped in for so long.
l can't paint the raw horror, the disgust, the shame.
But I can paint what you do see, the mask of a child in survival mode who doesn’t understand yet the complexity of layers upon layers of suffocating abuse, from someone who was supposed to protect her.
Each of these paintings is a story, and like all stories, they must be told. Because the abuse is playing hide and seek with the colours that paint my childhood, I encourage you to take a breath, be brave like me, and walk through the door, I left it open for you.
Information on all other future exhibitions will be posted here...watch this space.