Playful & sensuous exhibition promotes women's health

A special fundraising event for Women in drinks' official charity partner, ANZGOG, is being held in Sydney this weekend.

Wide Spread is part of ANZGOG's 'Save the box' awareness campaign. The exhibition features playful and sensuous artworks that invite people to continue the discussion around women’s health.  

It includes works from six young emerging artists - Louisa Beale, Phillipa Russell Brown, Anna Hedstrom, Skye Jamieson, Cheski Walker, and Eloise White – and is open to the public from Friday, December 16 to Sunday, December 18, at the Comber Street Studios in Paddington.  

The exhibition will be opened by thought leader and director of Family Planning NSW, Carolyn Miller.  

“I have a strong interest in women’s health so this collaboration between young female artists and ‘Save the Box’ is drawing attention to a topic that can be very difficult to talk about” said Carolyn.  

Gynaecological cancers are ending thousands of women’s lives each year. Many people feel uncomfortable talking about women’s health, words like vagina, vulva, uterus, cervix, and ovaries are often considered taboo.  

A radical difference to the toll of gynaecological cancers could be made through earlier diagnosis and better awareness.  

Artist Anna Hedstrom is one of the 10% of women to have had an abnormal result from a pap test, which looks for signs of cervical cancer. “I went home absolutely distraught. Then my gynaecologist told me that abnormal pap results were her ‘bread and butter’ they were so common” said Anna, who learned that many of the women she knew had also had an abnormal result but had never talked about it.  

“I was lucky, I got it in time, that’s what regular testing is for” she said.  

Eloise White says: “I think there’s still a need to discuss women’s issues” after her art works were removed from display on her university campus. “Why should they be taken down? My art is fun and playful – I use tacky colours and materials!” she said in response to being informed her art was ‘too confronting’.  

The artists have invited Sydneysiders to see for themselves that using female genitalia as inspiration for art doesn’t have to be confronting, or shocking, or gory.

“We love to watch people interact with our art” said Eloise, who encourages people to climb through her sculpture of a giant fluffy vulva, stroke it, touch it, giggle and blush.