Jarring art exhibit confronts the harsh reality of female genital mutilation

As a global society, we're often silent when it comes to issues of gendered violence, deeming them too distressing or uncomfortable to acknowledge.

But a new art project is confronting the silence around one of the most harrowing examples of gender-based violence -- female genital mutilation, or FGM.

London-based artist Aida Silvestri has created a jarring series of "sculptural photo-works" to raise awareness of female genital mutilation -- any procedure that "intentionally alters or causes injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons," according to the World Health Organization. She was inspired to tackle the issue due to her personal experience with FGM as a girl.

In 2015, she began an in-depth investigation into the practice, interviewing and photographing East African women living in London who, like her, had been cut.

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The resulting works make up Unsterile Clinic, an exhibit that has been on display since early July at the Rivington Place art center in London, closing on Sept. 17. The exhibit was curated by Autograph ABP, a UK-based charity promoting black artists and advocating the inclusion of historically marginalized communities in art.

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It is estimated that more than 200 million girls and women alive today have experienced one of the four types of this type of FGM. These girls most commonly live in Africa, the Middle East or parts of Southeast Asia -- regions of the world where the practice is most concentrated.

While the practice is condemned by international human rights organizations, social and cultural pressures keep FGM a common practice for women around the globe.

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Unsterile Clinic confronts viewers with this issue using startling visuals to provoke a conversation. Each work features a woman's portrait in black silhouette, with a folded leather piece depicting a vulva stitched onto the mouth of the portrait -- a nod to the forced silence around FGM. Each leather vulva, in distinct tones to resemble the participants' skin color, reflects the particular type of FGM endured by the women depicted.

"I [chose] to take an aesthetic approach in order to reduce the intensity of the subject matter," Silvestri says in an artist statement on her website. "It is my hope that this approach will make it more accessible to a wider audience."

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FGM can have devastating consequences for women and girls who endure it, including complications during childbirth, infertility, infections, loss of sexual pleasure and even death. Anti-FGM advocates argue that it has no religious or cultural significance, but rather serves solely to exert power over a woman's sexuality and body.

In 2012, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution to eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation, aiming to increase education on the harms of the practice, strengthen health care support in developing regions and increase advocacy in highly impacted areas. Yet, the practice still continues, with an estimated 3 million girls still being cut each year.

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The intention behind the project is not only artistic; there's undeniable activism embedded into the project, too. Silvestri says she hopes the work can help resolve some of the medical and social stigmas around FGM, so women can adequately cope with life after violence.

"The aim of this project is to raise awareness of this procedure in the hope that women, young girls and children who may not realize the severity or what type of FGM they have [endured] are encouraged to go through an early screening process before it becomes an emergency," she says on her site.

"I also hope that this project encourages medical staff, when examining women affected by FGM, [to] have the courage to speak openly with them about it."