The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureArt

Decriminalised Futures at the ICA

Decriminalised Futures at the ICA | Exhibition review
10 March 2022
Mersa Auda
Avatar
Mersa Auda
10 March 2022

Exhibition and art

Mersa Auda

Decriminalised Futures

★★★★★

Dates

16th February 2022 - 22nd May 2022

Entry

£5

Links & directions

TwitterInstagramWebsite

Through the works of thirteen international artists, Decriminalised Futures at the ICA sparks an urgent conversation about the multifaceted nature of sex work and the multiple problematic issues it raises. Those who work in this controversial business are often subjected to stigma, poverty, homelessness, exploitation, abuse and invariably face legal problems. The exhibition acts as a platform for open expression and is a rare opportunity for sex workers to vent their concerns, raise awareness and demand the decriminalisation of prostitution.

The material on display brings to light two particular needs that set the tone: firstly, to give a voice to otherwise muted members of society, and secondly, to encourage sex workers to connect and fight as a union rather than allow themselves to be isolated and marginalised as helpless individuals. The show mainly features multimedia installations composed of images, objects, audio recordings and videos. The viewer is encouraged to sit down, get close, and in some cases, put on headphone sets to listen to excerpts from interviews and discussions recorded during the Sex Workers’ Festival of Resistance.

One can hear the reports of women living on the margins flag up a variety of pressing matters, such as the catch-22 of reporting violence to the police, only to be targeted and criminalised themselves. Some lament the lack of first-person narratives in the recorded history of prostitution, which goes back centuries, but rarely places the sex worker’s perspective at its centre. Then there are voices challenging the way sex work is viewed. One woman states: “I’m a Marxist, and Marx starts with the assumption that all work for money is prostitution. You, and your body, and your time, and your skills, and your energies are at the disposal of another person, for money. The name of that is prostitution, and we have all been engaged in that, and we distinguish ourselves as being respectable or not respectable depending on our rate of exploitation.”

The women offering their accounts want to shake up the stagnant views that have solidified over time and that see them as the problem, rather than the laws that limit their freedoms and basic rights. Perhaps the material could have been presented in a more powerful way to match the urgency of the matter, whereas it feels scattered in the spacious rooms it occupies. However, it’s the value of the content itself and the message it conveys that makes this a necessary and worthwhile exhibition.

★★★★★

Mersa Auda

Decriminalised Futures is at ICA from 16th February until 22nd May 2022. For further information visit the exhibition’s website here.

Related ItemsartDecriminalised FuturesexhibitionICAreview

More in Art

Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic at the British Museum

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Cornelia Parker at Tate Britain

★★★★★
James White
Read More

Our Time on Earth at the Barbican

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms at Tate Modern

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Walter Sickert at Tate Britain

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Dopamine Land

★★★★★
Sarah Bradbury
Read More

Sony World Photography Awards

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Raphael at the National Gallery

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

Inspiring Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts at the Wallace Collection

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Exhibition and art

Mersa Auda

Decriminalised Futures

★★★★★

Dates

16th February 2022 - 22nd May 2022

Entry

£5

Links & directions

TwitterInstagramWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • More than Ever (Plus que Jamais)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Warpaint at the Roundhouse
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Tori and Lokita
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Moonage Daydream
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Stephen Fry enters the Radio Times Hall of Fame in conversation with Alan Yentob at the BFI Imax
    Cinema & Tv
  • Layering masters: How to make authentically delicious lasagne
    Food & Drinks
  • The Five Devils (Les Cinq Diables)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Moonage Daydream
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Crimes of the Future
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Decision to Leave (Heojil Kyolshim)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Boy from Heaven (Walad Min Al Janna)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • The Princess of Shoreditch in Shoreditch: “Ruth Hansom will only cook with the freshest and finest”
    Food & Drinks
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

“I wanted to burn that wedding dress by the end”: Georgina Campbell on starring in Suspicion
This Is the Kit at the Royal Albert Hall | Live review