Uplift Magazine

Can Feminist Art Change The World?

By: Sarah Barnes, 20.10.2010 | Comments (0)

That, my friends, is the question posed by the organisers of the Carnival of Feminist Cultural Activism and it’s a discussion they are keen to get you involved in!

The 3 day long ‘carnival’ (part conference, part festival) is set to take place in March 2011 at the University of York but, in the meantime, the organisers are keen to enlist all sorts of voices to take part in the event itself and discuss what feminist art can do for society. So, if you are an academic, an artist, an activist, all of these or none at all, and you have an opinion that you want to share on how creative culture can address issues of power and gender then these Feminist Cultural Activists want to hear from you!

Perhaps you have an idea for a presentation, a performance, an exhibition or a workshop… whatever it is, get in touch with the event organisers and share your thoughts.

Deadline for all proposals is the 31st of October, so you’d better get a wiggle on if you want to get involved! All the info you will need on how to submit can be found here.

Although the content for this carnival is still being collected together, I’m already pencilling the dates into my diary, such is my excitement around the theme! Registration for the event won’t be open until the 20th of November, but the organisers have already published the prices for early bird tickets, so start saving up now to make sure you don’t miss out! All other details can be found on the Feminist Cultural Activism website and also on their Facebook event page.

(Image is of the Guerilla Girls, of course!)

Joan Mitchell: Over here and demanding your attention

By: Sarah Barnes, 19.08.2010 | Comments (0)

I get a thrill from learning about kick-ass creative females, so you can imagine how glad I was that tonight’s Culture Show had a whole segment devoted to abstract expressionist painter Joan Mitchell.

Now, I must admit that I had not heard about Mitchell before… but this is not so surprising since, whilst she has been described as ‘one of the most important and singular American painters of the post-war period’, Mitchell (born 1925) has been largely obscured by her male contemporaries. Her peers in the macho world of the abstract expressionist movement included art superstars Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock –  and much has been made of Mitchell’s work falling by the wayside due to gendered favouritism.

Still, it seems Chicago born Mitchell was tough enough to carve a path out for herself in the art form; an assertive, sometimes stand-offish, foul mouthed female, Mitchell carried on perfecting her craft long after abstract expressionism had fallen out of favour with fickle critics. She continued creating her vibrant and lively works up until her death in 1992.

Having remained obscure to far too many for far too long, Mitchell now seems to be getting the recognition she so rightly deserves – and the first British exhibition devoted to her works is set to open at Edinburgh’s Inverleith House on August the 27th. Find out more here.

You can catch the Culture Show episode which features Joan Mitchell here (it’s the Edinburgh Festival Special, Part 2)

Walls Are Talking

By: Sarah Barnes, 13.05.2010 | Comments (0)

To any normal soul, the prospect of visiting a whole exhibition dedicated to wallpaper may sound rather like a glorified trip to B&Q. However, when I clapped eyes on the promo material for the Whitworth gallery’s exhibition dedicated to wallpaper, art and culture, I excitedly began organising my trip there and then. Blame it on my adoration of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic feminist novella, The Yellow Wallpaper, but I have long thought that wallpaper, as a medium, is ripe for artistic subversion.

The Manchester Whitworth’s Walls Are Talking is the first major UK exhibition of  wallpapers created by artists (with major names such as Andy Warhol, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst in the mix), and its aim is to take wallpaper away from its comfortable purpose of  aesthetic backdrop and present it as a confrontational force in delivering messages about warfare, racism, cultural conflicts and gender.

The big names are sure to pull in curious art lovers eager to see Warhol’s famed Cow Wallpaper and Hirst’s odes to pharmaceuticals and butterflies. But, whilst I was pleased to see Sarah Lucas’s Tits in Space and Julie Verhoeven’s Show Studio commissioned pornographic chinoiserie, it was actually the lesser known artists that opened my eyes up to the artistic possibilities of wallpaper.

Vigil Marti’s ‘Bullies’ (above), for example, is an eye meltingly vivid depiction of all the school peers who had teased him for his homosexuality, presenting them as a garish constant in the background of a victim’s existence. Canadian artists collective General Idea’s work ‘Aids‘ (1988), based on Robert Indiana’s infamous Love, is a clever play on the replication of the virus in host cells whilst also portraying the shift to a time when free love is no longer easy and innocent.

I also loved Zineb Sedira provocative ‘Quatre Generacions Des Femmes’ (1997) which combines the masculine (in form and as an occupation) Islamic geometric patterning with the names of the women in her family, asserting the importance of females in societal structures.

Any visitors who do stumble into this exhibition because they see a connection with The Yellow Wallpaper (which, I have to admit, is never alluded to by The Whitworth… although I can’t believe the curators aren’t aware of the story) will not be dissapointed as there are plenty of subversions of wallpaper around themes of  monotony and claustrophobia. Kelly Mark’s 12345 (1999/2000) is a simple hand-drawn tally in black on white, counting the passage of time (or the ticking off of domestic duties) as if in a prison cell.

Lisa Hecht’s Chain Link Fence (2000) and Matthew Meadows Razorwire 2 (2007) also play on the idea of imprisonment, making a statement that however comfortable and luxurious a home can be, it can also feel like a stifling and restrictive environment. Hayley Tomkin’s ‘Cry Baby’ (1996, below) draws an instant emotive response to its muddle of sad babies – is this the stuff of nightmares, or simply the stuff of sleepless nights?

I must admit I was surprised just how enjoyable and engaging an entire exhibition dedicated to all things patterned and flocked was, but you really have to hand it to the folks at the Whitworth in that respect. There were some classic works in there, some fantastic graphic works and a lot of important messages.  Much better than a trip to B&Q, any day!

Walls Are Talking is free to enter and runs until August the 30th.

Dayanita Singh’s Dream Villa

By: Sarah Barnes, 13.03.2010 | Comments (0)

New Dehli born and based artist Dayanita Singh is a brave woman. In order to seek out beauty, photographer Singh has been travelling at night to unfamiliar locations and setting about looking for dream-like visions to capture on camera. The result of her nocturnal travels makes up her new book ‘Dream Villa’.

Part art object and part travelling exhibition, the book simply presents Singh’s images in all their peaceful, mysterious and eerie glory. The images speak of the relationship between man and nature, as Singh relishes in the effects of un-natural lighting and how it brings vividness and colour to the dark night.

Dream Villa is available now from Steidl.

Talent Spotlight – Fiona Woodcock

By: Sarah Barnes, 19.01.2010 | Comments (0)

The sharp eyed amongst you will remember Fiona Woodcock’s quirky Christmas cards from when we signed off for our festive holidays. Having become intrigued by Fiona’s big bouffanted ladies, I loved discovering more of her work and getting to know her playful experimentations with patterns, blow pens, graph paper, stickers, prints and paints.

Fiona’s blog has some clues as to the inspirations that make this creative woman tick , but what better way is there to get to know Ms Woodcock better than with a little Q&A?

Hello Fiona! You’ve said that you knew a long time ago, when you were growing up in Leicester, that you wanted to be an illustrator. Is your inner child pleased with your career choice?

My inner child is delighted with how things have worked out career wise. I’m very lucky that I have the opportunity to work on lots of great projects within the animation industry and also to develop my own illustration work and personal projects (e.g- the hand printed card range).

You went to Glasgow School of Art… What was the most important thing you learned there?

I had a brilliantly creative three years in Glasgow. It’s very hard to pin-point just one important thing, but I was told about the benefits of being out of your comfort zone. A very useful piece of advice when you need to push yourself creatively.

When do you feel inspired?

I get inspired a lot, sometimes as a result of seeing some mind-blowing work, or spotting a unique colour combination out of a train window. I get inspired at gigs too, I think it’s to do with witnessing someone being brilliant at their chosen field.

Where do you tend to work?

I’ve got a studio set up in my flat where I work. I also go into production studio’s when I work on animation projects. I like the combination of doing both.

What’s the best thing about where you live?

I live in South London. On a local level I’m keen on the nearby Antiques and Collectables Fair and my allotment round the corner. But London as a whole is a constant inspiration to me. I still get a buzz just from crossing the river Thames.

What is your favourite medium?

I tend to play with different materials, but I mostly use acrylic paint due to its rich colour range.

Your blog collects together lots of lovely visual inspirations. What particular stuff tends to turn you into a salivating aesthetic-magpie?

I magnetise towards strong colour and geometric pattern and have a leaning towards found 1950’s- 1960’s printed ephemera.

I like work that appears to have an effortless simplicity and that is a little bit imperfect.

Who are your favourite creatives? Who would be your dream partner for a collaboration?

I admire the individual approach of the artists David Hockney, Peter Doig and Gerhard Richter, the inventiveness and versatility of Miranda July and Mike Mills and the strong design sense of the classic title sequences of Saul Bass. A dream partner for a collaboration would have to be Michel Gondry.

And what would be your perfect commission?

I’d love to design an album cover for the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s

What has been your career highlight, so far?

It’s very hard to pin-point this. I designed some commercials that were screened in Times Square in New York a few years ago, which was very exciting, but I can’t say they were creatively my career highlight. So, maybe because it’s at the forefront of my mind, I’ll say the collaborative project that Sandy Suffield and I have just created for the current ‘If You Could Collaborate’ exhibition (above). It’s a great honour to be alongside such talented collaborators.

Sandy and I depicted 6 Sun headlines. The one with the pills (below) is of the headline the day after Michael Jackson died.

It’s a shiny new year! What are you planning to do with it?

This year I plan to develop my screen printing from card sized to larger format pieces. Also an animator friend Maki Yoshikura has written a brilliant short story that I’ve started to illustrate, I hope to work with her to develop it into a short animated film or a book.

To see more of Fiona’s work, take a trip to her portfolio site… or go see her work in the flesh at the If You Could Collaborate exhibition. It runs until the 23rd of January at A Foundation Gallery, Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London, E2 7ES with a late opening (til 9pm) this Thursday the 21st. Lovely stuff!