To speak is to resist: Reflections on performing PTSD

This article explores the ethical dimensions of performing trauma through the lens of artist Heather Sincavage’s body of work addressing intimate partner violence (IPV) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Through analysis of her performances 2375, Monstrous and Terrible to Behold and To My Small Hearth His Fire Came, Sincavage reflects on how durational actions, material symbolism and spatial composition can communicate the long-term psychological impact of abuse beyond its immediate occurrence. Rather than presenting a redemptive narrative of survival, these works emphasize the ongoing and often invisible nature of trauma, countering dominant cultural expectations that survivors ‘move on’. The article considers how performance can resist the silencing of post-abuse experience, especially in the context of gender-based violence, where survivors are frequently pathologized, blamed or erased. Sincavage positions her practice within a lineage of feminist and trauma-informed art, while interrogating the risks and responsibilities of inviting audiences into such vulnerable space. The article questions whether staging trauma might perpetuate harm, and emphasizes the need for ethical intentionality – in both the creation and reception of such work. Ultimately, the article argues that performance, when approached with structural awareness and emotional care, can be a powerful mode of resistance: not by resolving trauma, but by asserting the survivor’s presence, authorship and right to be seen. Performance becomes not just testimony, but a sustained act of visibility in a culture that often demands silence from those most affected by violence.