CULPABILITY: Exhibition by Allison Dunavant

Exhibition Dates: April 2, 2018 – April 6, 2018

Opening Reception: Thursday April 5^th 2018, from 5-7 pm with gallery talk at 6pm
Allison R. Dunavant is a native of South Carolina, growing up in the North Myrtle Beach area. She has studied drawing and painting at Coastal Carolina University and is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the University of South Carolina. She has consistently been interested in social issues, particularly sexual assault and how it can be discussed visually. Within this exhibition Dunavant focuses on the victimization created by the prosecution of sexual assault, rather than by the abhorrent nature of the crime itself. She raises questions of both fault and accountability as they relate to sexual assault, and rape.

How does a serial rapist continually get arrested for rape yet serve no time in jail? How is it that he can continue his patterns of sexual assault? And if the same set of people have a role in making these decisions, in defining the legal recourse, can a level of culpability be assigned to them as well?

These are questions Dunavant intends the viewer to consider and respond to. She hopes the viewer will walk away with a further understanding of the reality necessary to seek justice in cases of sexual assault and reflect on what justice actually means…and whether it is attainable.