A powerful and disturbing self-portrait in pencil by Suzy Brown. Suzy created this piece aged 24 at a time when she had yet to fully acknowledge the reality of her own experiences of abuse.
The piece gives graphic clarity to how this young women viewed her inner self. It shows a self-perception that many who have been sexually abused will identify powerfully with: an inner monster, deformed, defiled and hideous. A view of the self that speaks of our often strong identification of ourselves as the abuse. That which we cannot name or even acknowledge becomes ourselves…we become, in our own perception, all that in truth was the abuse: monstrous, depraved, sick, horrifying…
One In Four hopes to exhibit more of Suzy Brown’s work in Dublin in the near future.
