Two Short Stories about War: Men / Women – exhibition, London Gallery West, University of Westminster, Watford Rd, London, HA1 3TP

Exhibition date: 25^th October – 2^nd November 2025

Two Short Stories about War: Men / Women is Iwona Abrams’ solo exhibition commemorating the collective trauma of women who were victims of rape by Red Army soldiers at the end of World War II. The project is an attempt to break the silence around the forgotten history of war rape and aims to initiate a broader dialogue in society about rape and violence against women in the contemporary context of sexual violence as a weapon of war. By commemorating specific acts of rape committed regionally (Silesia), this exhibition, on its 80th anniversary, aims to act as a warning against the sexual atrocities that accompany every war.The exhibition is made of two intertwined sections:

Short Stories about War: Women consists of a series of prints representing female torsos, and necklaces made from the original sound recording. Interweaving threads of family and politics, the works use the original source (voice), to bring together narrative and testament, identity and memory, also to help us reflect on how we construct and interpret history and how to move forward.

12 digital prints on Hahnemühle, 42 x 45.5cm, 4 woodcut prints on GF Smith Zen paper, 45 x 64cm and installation comprising of approximately 20 laser-cut ‘sound necklaces’ suspended in space.

Short Stories about War: Men is a series of prints representing a man and his shadow (always inseparable). There is inherent duality within human beings, the coexistence of good and evil impulses. Sometimes the symbolic shadow grows bigger and the evil wins… The works allude to a novel by Italo Calvino, The Cloven Viscount.

3 prints, 297 x 210cm (each made from 100 A4 laser photocopies) and 5 black and white photographs on paper, 29.7 x 21cm.