Frodsham Churches Together have been working with Chester Cathedral to raise awareness of the prevalence of human trafficking ahead of Anti-Slavery Day on October 18th.

As part of this campaign, the Cathedral is playing host to an exhibition from London-based Syrian artist Sara Shamma, which is entitled Modern Slavery and can be viewed in the Cathedral Chapter House until October 23rd.

The exhibition is the product of Shamma's artist residency within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, where she sat in on interviews with survivors of modern slavery, to learn about the psychological impact of their lived experiences.

She channelled all that she had seen and heard into a series of arresting paintings, through which she considers the meaning of survival, endurance and recovery from a survivor's perspective.

Avoiding a direct representation of events, Shamma concentrates on conjuring a visceral sense of distress and confusion, which bypasses rational understanding and appeals instead to the viewer's emotions.

As Cathedral Vice Dean, Jane Brooke, says: "She's evoked an implicit, rather than an explicit view on modern slavery," which affects an estimated 40 million people worldwide.

In Shamma's work, human figures are formed through a clash of fluid and choppy brushstrokes, blending contrasting colour palettes. In this way, she creates a sense of fragmentation and turmoil: of people in disarray.

Her intense background colours are almost aggressive in their dominance, and Shamma wilfully constructs a sense of disorientation in the viewer through the inversion of figures, contributing to the heightened pitch and overwhelming nature of the paintings.

However, while the simultaneously ghostly and vivid bodies that Shamma evokes often appear to be blurred at their edges, their eyes are steely in their fixedness.

Hardened by experience and encounters, they stare out of each canvas, boring into their viewer and commanding their attention.

Canon Brooke notes that this outward gaze jars with more mainstream depictions of modern slavery, whose subjects hang their heads and lower their eyes, shying away from the world.

By bucking this trend, Shamma urges people to really see the victims of human trafficking, both in the exhibition and in real life, where their newfound alertness may help them to recognise when someone is in trouble.

Shamma's Modern Slavery exhibition was chosen by Chester Cathedral as part of its Anti-Slavery Day campaign, which aims to encourage local authorities, companies, charities and individuals to do what they can to address the problem.

It is a cause which has also provoked concern amongst Frodsham's church community, whose Anti-Human Trafficking Group is now working with Cheshire Churches Together to raise awareness of modern slavery in our local area.

Local artist and steward at Frodsham Methodist Church, Alun Evans, has also created an artwork to complement the Cathedral exhibition.

Alun's piece, which is entitled 'Stamp Out Slavery', is a striking reminder to visitors that human trafficking and forced labour are by no means a thing of the past.

Frodsham's Anti-Human Trafficking Group want people to realise that slavery is taking place even in the quiet towns and villages of Cheshire, and that we can help stop it.

To help educate local residents about this issue, the Group run conferences, conduct awareness surveys and raise funds for the Salvation Army Fund for victims of modern slavery.

The Cathedral exhibition has also received support from Cheshire Police, whose officers will be dropping in regularly to help members of the public to recognise the warning signs of human trafficking cases.

In addition to the exhibition, the Cathedral is organising a series of talks on Social Justice. The penultimate one, on October 14th, will see Bishop of Grantham and Chair of The Clewer Initiative, The Rt Revd Alastair Redfern, speak via zoom on the subject of Slavery and Salvation.

To book a place, click here or email [email protected].

If you think someone is in immediate danger from human traffickers you should call 999 to report it.

If there is no immediate threat then you can call the Modern Slavery helpline on 0800 0121 700.

Sara Shamma: Modern Slavery is free to attend and open during normal Cathedral hours.

For further details, click here.

The exhibition at the Cathedral is supported by: Cheshire Constabulary, Chester Cathedral congregation, The Diocese of Chester, Cheshire West and Chester Council and individual donors.