Unapologetic
The Bold Exhibition Redefining Feminine Power and Rejecting Silence
With her latest project, Unapologetic, renowned feminist artist Kat Shaw invites women to unmask, uncover, and unapologetically embrace their authentic selves. This groundbreaking event is more than an exhibition—it’s a demonstration. A protest. A rejection of the years women have spent apologising simply for existing.
At its core, Unapologetic is a celebration of women taking up the space they deserve, reclaiming their voices, and embracing their individuality. Kat Shaw’s work has long explored the complexities of inequality and womanhood, and this project is the culmination of her vision: a space where women can shed societal expectations and revel in their power, strength, and sensuality—however that looks to them.
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Unapologetic – The Exhibition
This transformative event takes its inspiration from the vibe of a protest march, featuring artwork surrounded by banners and slogan placards that reject societal norms and challenge the oppression of women. Kat’s artwork is more than paint on canvas; it’s a call to action, a movement designed to strip away the layers of conditioning that have silenced women for generations.
“It’s about women no longer being silenced,” Kat explains. “We’ve been told to shrink ourselves, to stay quiet, to fit into a box society made for us. Unapologetic is about ripping that box apart and stepping into our truth.”
Here are Dr Amy Mullen’s words on the research project:
We are an all-female interdisciplinary team of feminist researchers (spanning literature, psychology, creative arts) from Australia (including one of the Unapologetic model-participants) who would love the opportunity to showcase a synthesis of the de-identified and anonymous written stories from Unapologetic to elevate the messages and collective voice of Unapologetic participants and Kat Shaw's Unapologetic movement to wider academic and international audiences. What this means is that our team (in partnership with Kat) would like to analyse your deidentified submissions, focusing on highlighting cross-cutting themes and recurring narratives within these stories, and sharing this 'collective voice' in contemporary research reports within psychology, health, and/or feminist academic journals. The goal of this would be to highlight the Unapologetic voices in new and different ways and in so doing contribute to the broader discussion of female empowerment, contemporary impacts of patriarchy, and highlighting of women’s voices (including in partnership with Kat at each step as a key collaborator and co-author of arising academic publications). Several members of this team are currently collaborating on a similar project with another set of written submissions linked to an art project with members from Rainbow Communities (Dear Queensland, in collaboration with New Zealand artist Shannon Novak) and so we hope to employ similar methods of analysis to ensure that the women's voices within the Unapologetic project are given an additional platform from which to speak and be heard--and ultimately to advocate for positive and much needed change in the world.
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Dr Amy Mullens (She/Her) BA, MSc, PhD, FAPS
Professor of Psychology
Clinical & Health Psychologist
Research Theme Leader ‘Health Equity’—Centre for Health Research
President Sexual Health Society Queensland
Co-Chair Australasian Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance
Let’s Work Together
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