16 Days of Activism
Launched in partnership with Southwark Council, the intervention was a key initiative during the 16 Days of Activism campaign to raise awareness about violence against women and girls.
The intervention featured three powerful artworks by Divya Mittal, Alina Rancier, and Anne Plaisance, displayed at Southwark Council’s headquarters on Tooley Street, London, from November 25th to December 6th.
The installation provided a reflective space to foster dialogue on gender-based violence, connecting audiences to the issue in a unique way. Positioned in the council’s reception area, the installation engaged a broad audience, offering a safe and accessible environment for personal engagement with the artworks.
The Sheroes exhibition complemented other campaign activities, including displays on screens at London Bridge Station, Peckhamplex, and council headquarters.
I am Free, 2016
Divya Mittal
Charcoal on paper, 153 x 305 cm.
This artwork explores autonomy, agency, and the influence of social systems on identity, advocating for the empowerment of women and marginalised groups against systemic oppression and violence.
The artist’s focus on resisting external challenges reflects feminist efforts to confront patriarchal norms and societal constraints. Emphasising resilience and growth, the piece calls for reimagining power structures to foster spaces for authentic self-expression.
Perfumes, 2024.
Anne Plaisance
This series of perfumes show the multiple manipulation techniques used by abusers, giving a visible form to something intangible that is hard to define and recognise, complex as the elaboration of a perfume, referring also to the physical and chemical trauma bond created with victims.
The sense of smell is closely linked to memory. The group of brain areas that are best known for processing emotions, learning, and memory also process odours.
Anne Plaisance is a French visual artist living near Boston in the United States. Her work focuses on female empowerment and she uses art to channel her gratitude, love and greed for life whilst at the same time exploring her fears and anger against social injustice.
Embody Safety, 2024.
Alina Rancier
HD Video – 6 mins
“Embody Safety” is a movement meditation where the artist explores what it means to commune with the natural world and feel safe as a Dominican woman who is constantly facing the resistance of an upbringing where true wilderness would always be pregnant with danger. Shot in Kent, UK.
Alina Rancier is a filmmaker and video artist who’s work is sensual, dramatic, and colourful, with an undercurrent of discomfort and darkness.
Through video art, she explores human behaviour and the ways fear, love, and loss shape intimacy and transformation. Her compositions often use surreal and metaphorical imagery to uncover the hidden emotional and psychological layers within us.
A Latina artist raised in a repressive and violent culture, Alina’s work reflects a deep yearning for freedom, connection, and change. She often performs in her pieces or directs actors to embody the tensions between societal norms and personal liberation. Her recent works experiment with poetry and voice-over, signalling a move toward blending moving image and language. While rooted in video, she is eager to expand into immersive installations to further engage audiences.
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