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Quesnel Art Gallery hosts “what were you wearing” exhibit

The art installation features recreations of what victims of sexual assault were wearing
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The “What were you wearing” exhibit runs at the Quesnel Art Gallery until Oct. 1. (Cassidy Dankochik Photo - Quesnel Cariboo Observer)

The walls of the Quesnel and District Art Gallery are lined with outfits, making a statement about sexual assault.

Each piece is similar clothes to the ones a victim of sexual assault was wearing when they were attacked.

Catherine Forbes is councillor at the Quesnel Women’s Resource Centre.

“It’s really to help dispel the myth of what you were wearing probably had something to do with a perpetrator choosing you as a victim,” she said. “One (of the outfits) is a nightshirt, one is a little girl’s sundress, one of them is a guy wearing a lifeguard shirt and pair of shorts.”

Each outfit is accompanied by a written story.

READ MORE: Former Quesnel mayor under investigation after sexual harassment allegations surface

As Forbes discussed the art exhibit, other councillors at the centre were taking an emergency call from a victim of sexual assault.

“It’s to bring light that this is happening in our community, and it’s happening on a regular basis,” she said.

Forbes said the exhibit was organized because the resource centre wasn’t sure if they would be able to have their annual Take Back the Night march because of COVID-19 rules.

The exhibit was first created at a university in Kansas.

READ MORE: Oakes calls on government to continue work against sexual violence on-campus

“If only ending sexual violence was as easy as changing our clothes,” Forbes said, quoting from the exhibit. “Instead it requires all of us what enables us as individuals and as a society to ask what were you wearing in the first place.”

“What were you wearing” will be on display at the Quesnel Art Gallery until Oct. 2.

Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email: cassidy.dankochik@quesnelobserver.com


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