CoP Essay: Laura Carlin's 'Inside a Rape Trial'

In 2006, an article entitled ‘Inside a Rape Trial’, written by Barbara Toner, appeared in The Guardian. This article was accompanied by an illustration produced by Laura Carlin, and would go on to win a V&A ‘Illustration of the Year’ award.

         The article and illustration deal with the isolation of rape victims during trial by the courts of law, with a focus on one particular case of domestic rape. The article references how the jury at this case were warned that they could not accuse unless they were positive the accused was guilty; with the absence of concrete evidence, the case was acquitted. Toner followed the case, and later wrote the article, in response to a set of figures that were published in 2005, figures that revealed that, at the time, just one in twenty reported rapes ended in conviction.

           Within her illustration, Carlin uses several subtle but effective visual cues that allude to the isolation of rape victims by the British justice system. A large, almost entirely blank space surrounds the lone figure of a woman walking away from the Crown Court; her stance is dejected, she looks downward, and trails her handbag behind her. The character appears to go unnoticed by a mass of figures, shown in the foreground of the image as going about the errands of everyday life, all coloured in the same light washes of grey, barely distinguishable from one another. They represent the sense of a mass, of continuation, and, perhaps, of the unchanging nature of a broken system. The central character, however, is coloured with far darker, stronger ink lines, juxtaposing the empty space around her, and further perpetuating a sense of isolation.

             Carlin’s use of a cool and almost entirely monochromatic palette is another way in which she allows sentiments of bleakness and aloneness to resonate through her illustration, as is her use perspective and proportion. By carefully positioning other, tiny characters at the top of the stairway, Carlin is able to display the central character as dwarfed by the Crown Court, with its sprawling front steps, tall marble pillars, and high walls. In amongst all that, she is tiny, and it is this sense of defeat that makes this image such a powerful one. The line work Carlin employs within the illustration is delicate and fragile, featuring very few solid, definite lines and forms. The most solid shapes and heavy colour washes within the image are used near the top of frame, to depict the entrance, walls and columns of Crown Court, with the image gradually ‘de-solidifying’, the closer the eye wanders to the foreground, a powerful and poignant reminder of the rigidity of the justice system, a system which, even with figures relating to abhorrent sexual violations spiralling beyond control, is perhaps failing to protect those most vulnerable.

              Carlin’s ‘Inside a Rape Trial’ editorial illustration is successful on many levels, as it resonates with a sense of bleakness and fragility. Using a variety of techniques, the artist has produced an implicit, yet through-provoking work of illustrative socio-political commentary. 

Inside a Rape Trial by Laura Carlin (2006)