This painting represents female surgeons who have experienced sexual assault from colleagues.

We’ve portrayed a woman to be a porcelain vase, we wanted to show the fragility and delicate nature of human life. By painting these red cracks, we wanted to represent scars and the permanent nature of the trauma, this is to emphasize the physical and mental pain she has endured. The use of the red on her body apart from the face is symbolic of how she repressed her feelings similarly to how the female doctors and nurses in the NHS stayed quiet for so long about sexual assaults from male practitioners.
The traces of finger marks left on her skin visualises the aftermath of violent touch – just as pottery becomes unchangeable after being fired, a permanent imprint is left on victims – no amount of paint can truly conceal the damage done.

We also wanted to depict her to be an object to reflect objectification of women and the lack of care given to women in healthcare, and more broadly, society.