A Nova Scotia artist is raising awareness of gender based and intimate partner violence.

Executive Director of Alchemia Art Workshop and Artist Christopher Quigley created an exhibit called ‘Transformation of Dangerous Spaces’.

“We are a non-profit art workshop based in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. I’m here to discuss with you a project that I’ve been working on, which is one of the most pressing public safety and human rights issues: gender based violence and intimate partner violence. It’s called the transformation of dangerous spaces. It’s a travelling public art installation that confronts men with the uncomfortable realities of power, privilege, consent, and complicity through a highly immersive, sensory, multisensory, interactive experience. This project started after a death in my small town. We have a small town of 1000 people, and her name was Elaine Mosher. She was killed in our small town, and it affected me. It affected me to the point where I wanted to help. I wanted to do something that would help shift the needle and help create more of an understanding of what we’re dealing with.”

During discussions with friends, Quigley says they talked about violence and the systems that fail women and fail men, as well as the systems that build men. They also discussed the lack of consent and the silence.

“We have to be involved, accountable and take responsibility for the culture that we’ve inherited and the one that we continue to shape. This follows the mass casualty report requesting and asking men to participate more in the issue, because this isn’t a women’s issue, it’s a men’s issue,” Quigley adds.

His inspiration for the exhibit was personal and was rooted in lived experience for Quigley.

“It’s actually an eight-stall immersive experience designed to mimic a familiar gendered environment, like a public restroom stall. So we recreate eight of these in a controlled bathroom or controlled gallery environment. Stall confronts a different facet of gender based violence and intimate partner violence, and it’s built to travel to galleries and universities where we can educate,” Quigley explained.

Quigley has been travelling to different communities across the Maritimes and across the country, speaking to organizations and City Councils in the hopes of piquing an interest.

He says the eight stalls in the display offer an experience that is not meant to shame, but to awaken and turn past observation into active responsibility.

The exhibit used light, text projection and other sensory controls.

“One in three women in three women in Canada experiences intimate partner violence, and that’s a public health crisis. That’s a justice issue, and yes, it’s a local government issue. But despite decades of tireless daily activity and advocacy, education and awareness campaigns, the numbers remain stubborn, and one reason is that the people who need to be part of the conversation,” Quigley stressed.

He says the project is about acknowledgement, and breaking the silence, “It’s about standing in the discomfort long enough to understand what others endure daily, and it’s about initiating change, some real change, cultural change. And we believe, and we know that every community has dangerous spaces, and every community has the power to transform them.

Quigley appeared before Moncton City Council this week and presented details about his ‘Transformation of Dangerous Spaces’ exhibit.

“It’s about standing in the discomfort long enough to understand what others endure daily.  We believe that every community has dangerous spaces and every community has the power to transform them.”

Councillor Charles Leger asked city staff to work with Quigley in an effort to find somewhere that could host the display, ” I think it would be very beneficial.”

He also recently presented to the Saint John City Council, and there was an interest in the exhibit expressed there.