Dangerously Beautiful Art

It all started with a vision - where would it be IMPOSSIBLE to paint people into the world... where was nudity the most controversial? Immediately, religion jumped to mind - hoy sites!?

To make this vision real, I asked women I met if they would be willing to be painted into the walls of religious sacred structures, and publicly, albeit anonymously, stand for the rights of WOMEN. It meant inviting women to trust me with their vulnerability & their safety, whilst projecting their silent protests against gender apartheid and violence against women onto the backdrop of a crazy, righteous and downright dangerous world. Nearly every woman I asked said yes, and through them, the Sacred Series was born.

The difficulty was unexpected - I just hadn't realised yet that Muslim women could not take part. To stand in these spaces in such a way would risk more than social shame — it could bring real violence, even death. The only possibility was to find women who had already stepped away — ex-Muslim women. That search took years, because leaving the faith often means carrying the weight of exile, fear, and danger long after. Its a secret - that I needed to find out about.

When at last these women were found, their participation demanded the highest level of protection. Anonymity become part of the art. Faces are blurred beyond recognition, every feature softened into shadow. Hair is covered in all but one of the 15 works, both as a satirical gesture of modesty & as an exploration of concealment: a reminder of how much of women’s lives have been dictated by what can and cannot be shown.

This anonymity is not absence, but presence of a different kind. It asks us to look more deeply: what does it mean to exist unseen, and what does it mean to claim visibility? To blur a face is to protect a life, but it also shifts our gaze — away from the individual and into the universal. Each woman becomes both herself and every woman. Each covered head speaks of both erasure and resilience. The tension between seen and unseen is its own form of power, and these works sit inside that paradox.

Over the course of a decade, three final pieces slowly came into being. They were the hardest to realise, and the most intricate and difficult to paint. They carry with them the risk, the defiance, and the quiet courage of women who chose to step into this paradox not only despite the cost, but because of it - no woman (and ultimately any person) should ever be in danger. Full Stop.

As this 15-day launch continues, these final three pieces will be shared towards the end. They complete the circle of the series, each one a rare offering from women who put everything on the line, even as their faces remain hidden.

STAY TUNED

Love Lily & I

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