Bag of Excuses
Kiosk’s Gordon Hewitt looks at the exhibition by artists Gemma Mae Halligan and Sinead O’Neill-Nicholl about Femicide - “Bag of Excuses”
Professor Jane Monckton-Smith (University of Gloucestershire) developed a Homicide Timeline, effectively a framework for tracking risk in situations where women in relationships are subject to violence and coercive control. The video outlines the eight steps towards murder: a history of violence; coercive and controlling behaviour; love-bombing to obscure, “apologise” for, the violence; and the step which struck me forcefully, planning. These men, almost universally, prepare for what they will do. It isn’t a momentary impulse, another excuse; not an act of passion, caused by stress, or the arrival of the “red mist”. These acts are planned.
This Homicide Timeline, along with material from a BBC podcast, “Femicide: Eight Steps to Stop a Murder” which examines in brutal detail victim’s lives, and their murders, provided the catalyst for the ideas and activities that became ‘Bag of Excuses’.
Gemma Mae Halligan, a theatre-maker and Sinéad O’Neill-Nicholl, a sound artist, produced something imaginative and high impact in the process. It included arts workshops where discussions could take place alongside the art-making. It was a highlight of the Imagine Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics of which it was part.
When I asked them what their aims were with this installation Sinéad said,
“The work is about highlighting the research of Jane Monckton-Smith. We wanted to bring it to more people, especially younger people.”
Gemma pointed out, “There are so many things that are taken as facts about Intimate Partner Homicide and they are myths. We need to be able to clearly identify the behaviour associated with controlling and abusive relationships, and understand that it is preventable.”
The research, the podcast and the art installation offer something which cannot be underestimated, given the present appalling situation; an argument, a theory, which suggests that femicide is preventable. As Gemma suggested, preventable!
And while the material might not be easy reading, listening or viewing, it is both compelling and hopeful.
It was a last minute decision, to walk up the stairs of the PS Squared Gallery in central Belfast to have a look at the “Bag of Excuses” art exhibition. The theme was Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) and given this issue’s dominance of the local news cycle lately, it was something I was just as keen to miss.
Northern Ireland is by most accounts a post conflict society, a beacon for how to achieve a lasting peace in a world at war. But recently the news reflects, not a return to “The Troubles”, but a disturbing situation nonetheless.
Over 30 women have been murdered here since 2020 – one of the highest rates of femicide per head of population in Europe. The majority of these women were killed in their own homes by people they knew.
When you look into the figures regarding VAWG, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) claim that they answer a call regarding domestic violence every 16 minutes, and that there were more than 21,000 VAWG offences in the 12 months between 2024 and 2025, the latest available statistics. 21,000! Is it in any way reassuring that this was a slight reduction compared to the statistics for the previous year?
The question I was asking was, are there any grounds for hope that this situation can be addressed, and could this information really be communicated in any useful way artistically?
The installation was simple, immersive. You are placed inside domestic situations, you sit at a kitchen table, the excuses are generated around you. Women’s voices repeat phrases which are heard repeatedly in these types of relationships, and these phrases express disdain, irritation, anger. The same thing happens at a section with a hallway mirror. Sometimes the voices express “love” but mainly it is language which undermines, bullies, causes distress, lays blame, generates fear. The installation is draped with red material, from floor to ceiling, signalling red flags, warnings, and on one of the pieces of fabric the words of coercive and controlling men are written. And then there is a video.
See information about the art installation at the following links.
https://www.wimbelfast.com/voices/bag-of-excuses-exploring-femicide-through-art
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=928519336726522
The Homicide Timeline and the podcast “Femicide: Eight steps to stop a Murder” can be found at the links below