The fight for sex workers’ rights is nothing new. Since the nineteenth century there has been a ceaseless struggle to get sex work decriminalised – to recognise sex workers as workers, and protect their lives and livelihoods in the process.
This group show features artists – most with experience of the sex industry – using creative expression to explore ideas of labour, migration, trans liberation and social justice. It starts with Aisha Mirza’s bedroom installation filled with pink fluffy rugs, zines, chokers and sex toys. It’s an empowered, bold, strong approach to the topic. Danica Uskert and Annie Mok’s zine, which comes next, is much more harrowing and vulnerable, and Cory Cocktail’s choose-your-own-adventure video game creates an alien world with endless pitfalls around every corner for a fictional future sex worker. Lining the walls are listening stations playing long recordings of round tables and discussions.
There is a lot of violence here, a lot of sadness too
Tobi Adebajo’s three screen video installation is the most immediate, in-your-face work here, a red space with throbbing bass and curtained-off rooms. You creep along, sneaking peeks at videos about boundaries and aggression and sex. It’s powerful, immersive.
Upstairs, videos deal with ideas of abusive laws and spiritual connections. Yarli Allison and Letizia Miro’s heady, aggressive film installation, about ‘the ideal’ sex worker, is confrontational and clever – probably the best thing on show.
There is a lot of violence here, a lot of sadness too, but there’s also solidarity, empowerment and collective strength. I don’t think it really works as an exhibition; there’s lots to like, tons of ideas to set spinning in your own head, but displays of zines and loads of long recordings of debates and lectures just don’t make for a good viewing experience. But it does work as a political statement, as a loud, defiant call for change. The fact that this show feels radical despite being part of a century-old struggle shows just how far there is still left to go.
