Day 9: Gwen Datyner

31 January 2020

What Is Your London?

For many, the idea of London conjures up postcard pictures: the London Eye, Buckingham Palace. However, these depictions of the capital that we’re used to seeing in the media, advertising and the press are outdated. That isn’t the reality for young people living here today. London is nothing without the people that live in it, and each individual has their own story to tell so the participants of Creativity Works: Visual Storytelling were briefed with showing the world what their version of London is, to let the world see their perspective.

This is Gwen's London...

A Girl’s Walk Home

50 percent of women say they always or often feel unsafe walking alone at night. 61 percent of women regularly take steps to avoid being sexually assaulted. (YouGov, Mar 2019) For women living in any city, travelling home late at night can be a daunting task, leaving them with feelings of high anxiety. As an artist, Gwen Datyner wanted to create staged narratives that would explore this fear.

To begin, Datyner asked women on her Instagram feed, and family and friends to describe what they do when they are traveling alone at night, so to gain a better understanding of the precautions these women take. She exaggerated these responses to create visual fantasies, magnifying the feeling of anxiety and concern.