Sophia Hewson reads to mountains called the Court of the Patriarchs in Utah as research for her exhibition. Photo: Jason Flower
Warning – this story contains material that may distress some readers
His large, veiny hand forcefully pushes her face down to the side, his thumb pressed hard into her cheek.
The screen then flashes to black.
Sophia Hewson compares her work to Manet's Olympia. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Her face, held in a subtle grimace, now looks straight ahead as he moves above her. Her eyes fixed on us, the viewer, in a confronting gaze.
Melbourne artist Sophia Hewson has filmed herself in what she calls a "self-orchestrated rape representation".
For the work – titled are you ok bob? – she arranged a stranger to come to her then home in New York and have sexual intercourse with her on camera.
Artist Sophia Hewson at one of her previous exhibitions. Photo: Supplied
Throughout the choreographed three-minute clip, the lens remains on her face. Arms and hands are all you see of "Bob".
Opening at Windsor gallery Mars on Thursday, Hewson says the "militant feminist" piece aims to challenge the patriarchy.
"The raped woman, still today, is nearly always represented with her face down and her eyes averted," she says.
Artist Sophia Hewson in her studio. Photo: Supplied
"The most confronting aspect of are you ok bob? isn't watching as a woman is struck or penetrated, it's seeing her look back out at us from the experience. She looks accusingly as a subject, not an object."
To see a still from the piece click here.
Hewson, whose research during her almost decade-long career has included spending time with pornstars in LA and a polygamous Mormon cult in Utah, agrees not everyone will understand her work.
Hewson coated in black glitter and suspended in another one of her shows. Photo: Supplied
She admits she is worried about a negative reaction from some people, but delivers a sincere argument for it.
In her artist statement, she defines rape as the "ultimate weapon of male domination". She writes that to choose to put yourself in this situation challenges its use as a form of control.
The 31-year-old explains she needed to go to the extreme length of being penetrated because it meant her fear was real, rather than acted. By filming it, she says, she's owning how the raped woman is depicted.
Melbourne artist Sophia Hewson has filmed herself in what she calls a "self-orchestrated rape representation". Photo: Michelle Tran
Hewson believes society depicts the raped woman as eyes downcast, broken and shivering. The shame is hers, not the man's.
Even though many women are broken from the experience, she says, the high prevalence of sexual assault means that many more endure despite the trauma.
Hewson says the victim depiction, rather than that of a survivor, plays into the patriarchy's myth that rape happens only to others and is not an embedded part of our culture.
She says people have feigned sympathy for a raped woman when she is someone they don't know, but when she's someone they do, they disbelieve or silence her.
"We see it as horrible but as soon as it's our brother, our father, our friend, our boyfriend, there must be some other excuse. Everybody goes quiet," she says.
"How horrified are we of this issue of nothing is ever done.
"We will never resolve this issue until we stop seeing it as an externalised evil."
The Victoria College of the Arts alumni spent two years preparing for the work reading feminist theory and discussing its possible implications on her during psychoanalysis.
She compares it to Manet's Olympia, which broke with the traditional style of depicting nude women with their eyes downcast.
The 1863 painting sparked public controversy due to the confrontational gaze of naked Olympia, possibly a prostitute.
Hewson is following a lineage of contemporary female artists who have been turning the use of rape in art around by depicting its psychological and physical damage.
Historically, rape was used by men in art as an aesthetic or to create dramatic tension that betrayed the realities of rape.
are you ok bob? will also include Hewson changing her middle name and documentation of a trip to her birthplace in London, and another where she read to mountains the Court of the Patriarchs in Utah.
Victorian sexual assault crisis line: 1800 806 292
National sexual assault helpline 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732
