Female artist films herself having sex with a stranger to challenge way people view assault

The 31-year-old Australian describes her latest work as ‘conceptually challenging’

Sophia Hewson's latest exhibition is on display at Melbourne's MARS Gallery (Sophie Hewson)

An Australian artist has filmed herself having un-simulated sex with a stranger in a so-called ‘rape representation’ to encourage debate on the patriarchal nature of sexual violence.

Sophia Hewson – who arranged and choreographed the three-minute piece called Untitled (“are you ok bob?”) – invited the man to her home in New York to record the video.

Throughout the scene the focus is on Miss Hewson’s face as she looks towards the camera, and only the arms of ‘Bob’ - the man’s pseudonym - can be seen.

“The raped woman is nearly always depicted with her face downcast and her eyes averted," she explained in a statement on her website.

“The most confronting aspect of Untitled ("are you ok bob?"), isn't watching as a woman is struck or penetrated, it's seeing her look back out at us from the experience.

“Caught in her gaze, the viewer is not only forced to bear witness to her subjectivity, but implicated in her desolation.”

The work of the 31-year-old artist, who was born in Cambridge, UK, but is now based in Melbourne, Sydney, has often explored the relationship between female objectification and the role of male power.

She says her latest work is “conceptually challenging” as it “threatens our assumption that man's power is unsurmountable”.

She also said she wanted to highlight the idea that rape is "more than an unwanted sexual act, that it is the foundation for the entire institution of the patriarchy, and hence it is the crucial battleground for dismantling male power".

And she noted that while the piece may provoke a "horrified reaction", the subject of rape "isn't just about our desire to eradicate the epidemic".

“It's essential to the patriarchy that rape is taboo, because demystifying the act challenges shame and erodes the fear that is needed to suppress the majority," she added.

Clarifying her motivation for the video, and perhaps pre-empting detractors, she stated: "I’ve never had rape fantasy and I didn't enjoy making the work physically."

According to joint statistics from the Ministry of Justice and the Office for National Statistics, 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped in England and Wales every year.