Reminds me of the What Were You Wearing exhibit

The creators, Jen Brockman and Mary Wyandt-Hiebert, are longtime educators and advocates for survivors of sexual and relationship violence. In May 2013, while attending a training session, they encountered Simmerling’s poem What I Was Wearing. The poem describes Simmerling’s experience of rape in the summer of 1987 and the deeply ingrained memory of what she was wearing that night. It ends with the line, “I remember also what he was wearing that night even though it’s true that no one has ever asked.”[3] Moved by the poem’s stark testimony, Brockman and Wyandt-Hiebert began developing a visual response to the question it addresses. They obtained Simmerling’s permission to use her poem that summer, and the first exhibit opened in April 2014 at the University of Arkansas during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.[4]

Wyandt-Hiebert and Brockman began collecting stories from student survivors at the University of Arkansas, inviting them to share what they were wearing at the time of their assaults. As they worked to recreate those outfits, the goal was not to recreate trauma but to reclaim space for survivors and challenge the enduring myths that shield perpetrators and silence victims.[1]

The creators emphasized that the clothes displayed were intentionally ordinary—jeans, sweatshirts, t-shirts, uniforms, dresses—chosen not for shock value but to reveal how unremarkable the clothing often was. As Brockman explained, the aim was to expose the rape myth that changing one’s clothes can prevent sexual assault and to create a space where survivors might recognize themselves in the installation and know they are not alone.[5]

Different experiences of sexual violence are represented, including assaults experienced by people of various ages, genders, backgrounds, and professions. The installation was conceived not just as an educational display but as an act of solidarity with survivors.