Launched by two passionate Gold Coast women in 2022, the HOPE : EPOH project seeks to help women victim-survivors of domestic or family violence explore and share their lived experiences in a safe and supportive way.
The HOPE : EPOH project utilises therapeutic arts processes including handmade sculptures and a type of narrative photographic art known as Photovoice, to help women tap into their creativity and explore their skills, courage and resilience via artistic mediums.
By employing positive psychology and hope therapy over the last several weeks of workshops, the team has helped participants explore the idea of hope, both the positive side, where it can empower one to create change, and the negative side, where passive hope (epoh) enables one to rely on things outside of their control to change.
This exploration of the duality of hope will form the theme of an upcoming exhibition in late November entitled ‘Projecting Projections’, that will hopefully encourage audiences to think about hope and domestic and family violence in different ways.
HOPE : EPOH Project was founded by GC Creative Events Incorporated - via Deirdrie Tehan of Eco & Arts Therapies, and Elysium Greene of Lil' Indie + Selfcare or Bust, as an initiative of the Investing in Queensland Women Grant program 2022.
“It all came about at the top of HOTA,” recalls Elysium of the project’s genesis.
“I was up there when Deirdre told me about Photovoice happening around the world and asked me if I had any ideas about that and if I wanted to collaborate with that. We very quickly created the concept around HOPE : EPOH.”
Deirdre explains how she came up with the idea for a Photovoice-based project.
“I’ve always watched Photovoice and been interested in it - especially now everyone has a camera on them all the time – it’s about using photography as a tool to share their voice. The images become their words.
“I was introduced to it about ten years ago as a form of photo therapy, and being that I was a photographer and I’m doing therapy, for me it was about bringing both of those things together.”
Now that the workshops are completed, Elysium is now taking the media created by the participants (both advocates and women with lived experiences of DFV) and is pulling together a multimedia design that will be projected onto 2m high letters spelling HOPE. The audience will receive headphones with which to listen to the accompanying soundscape, essentially all having their own experience of the work.
The ‘Projecting Projections’ exhibition will run during the UN Women’s Global event 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which happens from 25 November to 10 December. Use the QR code in the flyer below to keep up to date with the exact timing and location of the exhibition.
