Each poster shows scenarios which initially seem innocuous but on closer inspection show examples of misogyny, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Fuat Hassan (left) and Claire Bath (right) with their poster at a bus shelter in Hendon
(credit Middlesex University)

Two university students have transformed bus shelters across Barnet with art created to spotlight “low-level misogyny”.

Claire Bath and Fuat Hassan, two third-year graphic design students at Middlesex University, created the artwork as part of the annual international initiative ‘16 Days of Activism’ and the university and council’s collaborative project ‘Hear My Voice’.

Posters titled ‘See The Unseen’ were displayed at six bus shelters around Barnet for two weeks in December. The artwork was inspired by the children’s puzzle book Where’s Wally, where children search for the hidden character Wally.

A large moving image, created by Claire and Fuat, was split into different sections to create the posters.

Each one shows scenarios which initially seem innocuous but on closer inspection show examples of misogyny, sexism and harassment, such as a man standing too close to or staring at a woman, making them feel uncomfortable or threatened.

The students drew on feedback from students, teachers, and their own experiences when thinking of what scenarios to depict.

Claire and Fuat came up with the idea for the project, which took around seven weeks to create, by building on an assignment set in class to tackle “low-level misogyny” in particular looking at “what goes unnoticed”.

One of the “biggest hurdles” the students explained was differentiating between misogyny and low-level misogyny. As part of looking at the umbrella themes of sexism and misogyny Claire and Fuat wanted to examine the minutiae.

Claire said: “Your first instinct is to go to unprecedented comments in the work place or at a school but sometimes its things women don’t feel the need to report, or you feel you can’t report, because it was such a small aggression.”

She added: “We really had a lot of feedback from people, even in the beginning of this project when discussing it with our tutors, we had a very supportive teacher who was telling us about her experiences in the work place with low-level misogyny and that gave us the idea to discuss it with all different age groups.”

Fuat said: “We didn’t want it [the artwork] to be so obvious, we wanted to intrigue the viewer, to make it bright and colourful but there’s a deeper meaning to it.”

He added: “I wasn’t too knowledgeable on misogyny, specifically the low-level stuff until asking questions…it’s very eye opening. Women experience a lot more stuff that goes unnoticed in comparison to men.”

The bus shelter displays also coincided with a panel discussion between students and Hendon MP David Pinto-Duschinsky last month, on the topic of sexism and misogyny.

At the discussion student work was exhibited, including Claire and Fuat’s, under the ‘Hear My Voice’ campaign, the ongoing collaboration between the university and the council to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, and domestic abuse.

Sara Conway, cabinet member for community safety and participation, said she was “really pleased” to see the artwork from the students as part of the joint initiative.

Listing the local authority’s work on the topic, she said:“The council helps tackle violence against women and girls with major investment in upgrading and expanding the borough’s CCTV system, and piloting a safe havens network, together with Barnet Homes’ one stop shop, for comprehensive domestic abuse support.”

Both Claire and Fuat said they wanted to keep working on projects on this theme in future.

Fuat said: “We’ve been encouraged to take this current project further and see where it can actually go. For example if it was seen on the underground as advertising, you look up and think ‘I can relate to that’ or if a man reads it think ‘Do I do that?’.

“Something like that takes it a lot further, it would be interesting if we could get that opportunity, maybe one day.”

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