The Continuous Voices project, which aims to develop and explore ideas from survivors of sexual assault in Ballarat through art, has opened its second exhibition at Lydiard Street's Art Space.
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Thinking About Monuments, Maquettes and Metaphors features sculptures made from cardboard and found items, telling personal stories of trauma and hope - participants were guided by artist Eliza-Jane Gilchrist, and the results are at once uplifting and haunting.
Trevor Coad said his massive Millstone of Hope, from which a sprig of amoranthus flowers - or Love Lies Bleeding - bursts out of the centre, represents several metaphors, including Luke 17:2.
"It's the idea of a millstone being both the bringer of life - it's how you get flour for the food, in Ballarat it's how you crush the ore to get the gold - but also a symbol of the millstone around your neck," he explained.
"'It'd be better to have the millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the deepest sea than to cause one of these little children to stumble' - one of the biggest understatements, and most powerful things.
"I guess along with the painful bits, I really want to share the hope - as I see my friends who are survivors grow, it's often harder to see it in yourself than in other people.
"It's my hope for the changes that stop this stuff happening, and for those of us who are survivors, it's hope for healing, for wholeness, for peace."
Maggie Schirmer's sculptures are also intensely personal - a mouth sewn with golden thorns, a spider's web around a crucifix ensnaring a leaf.
"I made a decision when I found Continuous Voices to immerse myself into as much of it as I could as a deliberate intensive healing process," she said.
"For me, in terms of the program itself, one of the many blessings of it is finding the connection between our peers, with us all meeting each other in different ways and having a healing, creative experience that's built the glue for long-term connectedness - for us, we could often go very deep very quickly without having to give a context - we automatically know each other's context.
"More often than not, the similarities of the consequences of what has happened to us are understood immediately without explanation."
The program, which also includes photography, storytelling and songwriting, and more, is part of a broader program to determine how best to create a memorial recognising survivors of sexual abuse in Ballarat, as well as those who have died.
"From my own perspective, I want hope to be shared, that the idea of this particular thing is that because of the millstone, this is now a safe place, the memorial becomes a safe place for people to come and for children to play," Mr Coad said.
"A place for healing and quiet reflection and so forth."
Ms Schirmer said she hoped it would be broader than that - a place for healing to continue the connections.
"I think I must still feel unheard, for example in my court case, I couldn't turn up in person, so I feel like I haven't been heard for all the pain and things that happened, I wanted it to be seen by the people who stand for what happened," she said.
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"My sculptures represent the discomfort, and I feel strongly that that needs to be somehow put into the memorial, even if it has to have hope going forward.
"I know the funding pool is not continuous forever, but I get sick of listening to who does and does not get funded, and this small project that would support the community in Ballarat who has been so heavily affected - intergenerationally, our children, our parents, our relationships - it needs to be here, because it should be here."
The exhibition is open Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 3pm until April 30.
Affected by this story? There is help available.
You can phone the Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault, in Sebastopol, on 5320 3933, or free-call the crisis care line 24 hours on 1800 806 292.
Or phone Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380, or Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277.
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