Did you know that one in three women around the world don't have access to decent toilets? That's 1.1 billion women and girls who risk poor health, harassment – even attack – when waiting until nighttime to seek a private space to relieve themselves. Can you imagine being on your period, having diarrhoea or just, you know, going for a wee without four walls around you? When carrying out a basic human function risks the safety (and dignity) of so many women, it's a feminist issue.
Out of Order is a multimedia exhibition exploring the impact this has on women globally. Charity WaterAid has collaborated with artists from the UK and Sierra Leone (where 85% of women are affected) to create works responding to the crisis.
Through graphic colours, abstract drawings and moving storyboards, the artists raise awareness of WaterAid's campaign in Tombohuaun, Sierra Leone, which aims to raise £4 million to bring clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene to women across the world.
Ahead, we speak to five of the artists who created works for Out of Order about their craft, their creative process, and what they learned from the campaign.
Out of Order is at the Old Truman Brewery in east London from Thursday 16th – Sunday 19th November, 11am-7pm. The exhibition is free but donations from visitors will be warmly welcomed. Any money donated by the UK public to WaterAid's Untapped appeal before 31st January 2018 will be doubled by the UK government, meaning that WaterAid can continue to help even more people and improve toilet conditions for women all over the world.
Molly Fairhurst, artist and illustrator, Bristol.
Explain the creative process behind the piece you've made...
For the show I’ve made 27 ink paintings detailing the consequences of lack of toilets and poor sanitation on young people’s education, and then the process and results of improvements of these circumstances. I wanted to not only highlight the issues at hand, but show that this is a solvable problem – particularly with the help of charities like WaterAid.
What has surprised you most about working on the project?
I was aware that poor sanitation and lack of toilets is a huge problem, but hadn’t known or considered how embedded this would be in so many parts of women’s lives. I wasn’t aware of the dangers, illness and coping mechanisms, like restricting eating and drinking, that are sadly a very real part of many people's lives due to a lack of toilets.
Molly Fairhurst
Nina Cosford, illustrator, Hastings.
Tell us a bit about your work...
My work tends to focus on female narratives; exploring the everyday ups and downs of modern life while trying to balance humour and sensitivity. I like illustrating common themes like identity and self-deprecation but with an element of wit and hope which my audience can relate to and not feel so alone about. I think illustration can be a very powerful mode of communication which can speak to people universally on many different levels.
Explain the creative process behind the piece you've made.
The plan was to make a set of three pieces in response to the theme of periods and sanitation. I wanted to portray how different girls occupy toilet cubicles while on their period. The challenge I faced was trying to combine an element of humour with a sudden sense of seriousness in the third piece, to highlight the crisis that women in developing countries are facing on a daily basis. I used matching compositions and the same colour palette in each of the three pieces to unite them all, showing the girls in parallel with one another in the scenarios they can face when it's that time of the month. The circumstances are drastically different however for the third girl, as she is exposed, humiliated and vulnerable to the risks closing in on her.
Nina Cosford
Emma Shoard, illustrator, London.
Tell me a bit about yourself and your work...
I live on a boat and work from a shared studio in Hackney Downs. Most of my sketchbooks contain reportage from places I've visited, pieces on nature and conservation and homages to inspiring people I've read about. The stories I have begun to hear about women's lives in communities around the world practising open defecation have opened my eyes to hardships so many people face that aren't spoken about. For Out of Order I wanted to create something that I hope would feel like a document of a real woman, something diary-like that could be connected to one of these personal stories.
Explain the creative process behind the piece you've made.
After I read some compelling first-person accounts from women who do not have access to toilets, as well as WaterAid’s film Across the Tracks, I found myself thinking a lot about the journey each woman makes to find a place to go to the toilet and the time that this would take from their lives. This seemed to me the most noticeable distinction between a person able to pop out for five minutes to use the toilet and someone who must wait for nightfall, leave the safety of their school, workplace or home – possibly alone – to defecate in the open with no privacy. My drawings show one woman, inspired by many taking such a journey. She leaves the classroom as a child, spends her adult life walking and as she does, a pattern of bacteria and virus cells start to surround her. These cells make up the foliage that she enters to defecate. I wanted to show, as well as her being vulnerable to abuse, there is the unseen danger of disease.
What do you think people can do to help the crisis after seeing the exhibition?
The lack of access to decent toilets globally is a feminist issue and unless we address it, gender equality cannot be achieved. WaterAid is working globally to ensure that women and men everywhere get access to this most basic facility.
Emma Shoard
Josephine B. Dauda, self-trained artist and accountant, Sierra Leone.
Why did you want to take part in the exhibition?
I believe art is a great medium for raising awareness and as a woman living here in Sierra Leone – where so many women live without access to a toilet – I strongly support WaterAid's campaign to highlight the one in three women living without access to a toilet around the world. It is a subject I feel really passionate about and I hope people visiting this exhibition will be passionate about the subject too.
Explain the creative process behind the piece you've made...
I have used acrylic paint on canvas to create an image of a woman as she goes out to the bush to relieve herself. I explored the fear and shame women feel about using bushes as toilets and tried to create an artwork that gives the viewer a glimpse into how it feels to fear reptiles and other dangerous animals, and the indignity these women face when they feel exposed during what should be a very private moment.
What has surprised you most about working on the project?
I've used the bush a handful of times in Sierra Leone when going on long trips but didn't really give a lot of thought to the problems faced by women who use the bushes on a daily basis. The severity of the problems this can bring shocked me. No one should be exposed to disease and infection or attack by wild animals or men because they do not have access to a toilet.
Josephine B. Dauda
Eve Lloyd Knight, artist and illustrator, London.
Tell me a bit about yourself and your work...
I am always looking to push the boundaries of my work. I am very passionate about supporting the fight for women’s equality and I create a lot of work around feminism. I have recently finished a new illustrated book, Rebel Voices, on the global women's rights movement for children and adults. I believe education and awareness is one of the strongest tools we have to bring about equality. I have always been passionate about communication as well as the aesthetic side of illustration. I love colours, textures and graphic shapes, which I hope comes through in my work!
Why did you want to take part in the exhibition?
This project felt appropriate for me and my work; the lack of access to decent toilets globally is a feminist issue and unless we address it, gender equality cannot be achieved. I also welcome projects where I need to communicate something complex, and important. I find the challenge helps me develop my work and style further.
Explain the creative process behind the piece you've made...
First of all, I always research and absorb as much information on the subject as possible. The lack of access to toilets for women globally was tougher to read about than most so I found I had a lot of emotions to work with. I wanted to communicate the feeling of danger and cruelty that these women can face. I also wanted there to be a light at the end of the tunnel so I focused on the fight for dignity these women go through and the courage they show every day. I wanted there to be a sense of power so creating a wallpaper felt like the way to go. When the viewer is in the space they will hopefully feel the juxtaposition of fear and dignity bearing down on them.
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