Sex After Rape
Artist Statement
Trigger Warning: Rape Discussion
it’s been two year since I was raped. In that time, I have found ways to navigate sex—and trauma—anew. The following series explores the pain of sexual violence as well as the rediscovery of my body.
after Sharon Olds invokes the poem The Day They Tied Me Up by turning the words of that poem into descriptions of a body being assaulted. The imagery of the bed in after Sharon Olds is reflective of the imagery in “the room,” alternately showing the banality and violence of the bed.
Not 2 be dramatic has disrupted text surrounding a monolith and explores the ideas of memory loss. Rape is a physical assault as well as a mental one; survivors must grow ghosts in the gaps of what the mind cannot remember.
selfie and Why’s it always the ass explore the sexualization of my body. However, while Why’s it always the ass showcases an onlooker isolating and objectifying the subject, selfie is a reclamation of the sexual body through the taking and sending of nudes. Dartboard falls somewhere in the middle; the painting expresses the target-like nature of my naked form, but I am also willingly exposing myself, arms lifted. The colors in this piece are dissonant from the rest of the collection, as it is the bridge moment between the past assault and the new future.
Zarra uses he/his or she/hers pronouns and is from Jacksonville, FL. He currently works as an EMT while attending college at Macalester; she is multimedia artist, painter, and writer. This is her first art publication and she’s pretty excited about it. Zarra’s work can be found at zarratm.com, as well as @zarratm_art on instagram, and hopefully many museums in the future.
