The Spiral of Containment: Rape's Aftermath

The Spiral of Containment: Rape's Aftermath, the multi-media immersive and experiential exhibition by Mexican-Canadian photographer, cinematographer and foreign correspondent, Elisa Iannacone, featuring 25 hauntingly beautiful portraits of rape survivors, opens at South Africa’s iconic home of contemporary justice, Constitution Hill on 14 May 2022, with an exhibition specially curated for installation in the 25 isolation cells of the Number 4 prison.

The Spiral of Containment was first exhibited at The OXO Tower Bargehouse in London in 2018, to an overwhelming response from media and public alike. Consisting of 24 photographs, soundscapes and installations, and one holographic projection (self-portrait), each work in the SPRIAL suite of photographs features a rape survivor, in a fictionally-constructed portrait - magical-realist in style. The image drew from each subject’s recollections of their experiences, reframed and reworked into layered statements of empowerment, agency, and identity.

The portraits were photographed in a range of locations and countries, including seven in South Africa. The Spiral project, and method, evolved from Iannacone’s own experience of rape, and therapeutic recovery.

The 24 images are “colour-coded” into the 24 primary, secondary and tertiary colours in the colour wheel - with her own image, a 25^th, monochromatic hologram. Iannacone funded the project, which took five years to complete, from her work in war zones.

The Constitution Hill exhibition opened on 14 May 2022 and has been specially curated for accommodation in the chilling isolation cells at the bottom of Number 4 prison.

The Constitution Hill exhibition, which marked the resumption of the global tour, following lock-down, included text and digital links to the oral testimonies. The exhibition, which ran throughout Youth Month to 30 June 2022, is not only the first public viewing of the exhibition since its UK debut – but a first for the local survivors.

A single image of the larger exhibition was donated to the CCAC in 2022.