Suchergebnisse

The new work, Mad Mother, was exhibited in Liberties, an exhibition of contemporary art reflecting on 40 years since the sex discrimination act, curated by Day + Gluckman. The exhibition toured to The Exchange, Penzance, 22 October 2016 – 7 January 2017. Liberties includes the work of 24 women artists including Helen Chadwick, Jo Spence, Joy Gregory and Rose Finn-Kelcey. The works reflected the changes in art practice within the context of sexual and gender equality since the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) in the UK. Some artists confronted issues that galvanised the change in law whilst others carved their own place in a complex and male dominated art world. From the radical movements of the 1960s and 70s, the politics of the 80s, the boom of lad culture in the 1990s to the current fourth wave of feminism, encouraged largely through and because of social media, all of the artists question equality and identity in very different ways. The exhibition presented a snapshot of the evolving conversations that continue to contribute to the mapping of a woman's place in British society. Body, femininity, sex, motherhood, economic and political status were explored through film, photography, sculpture, performance and painting. The curatorial partnership, Day + Gluckman. have been exploring the above themes for their research project, A Woman's Place, which questions and addresses the contemporary position of women in our creative, historical and cultural landscape through contemporary art. The project embraces contemporary art and discussion; commissions, conversations and action. To date, Robins has been part of the initial project discussion group (July 2013) and first symposium, CoHabiting: Contemporary Art, History and Feminism (January 2015) as well as this initial exhibition. Project partners are Ham House & Gardens, Knole House and Mottisfont, National Trust and Danson House, Bexley Heritage Trust. The research and development of the project were funded by the Arts Council.The exhibition presents a snapshot of the evolving conversations that continue to contribute to the mapping of a woman's place in British society. Body, femininity, sex, motherhood, economic and political status are explored through film, photography, sculpture, performance and painting. The curatorial partnership, Day + Gluckman. have been exploring the above themes for their research project, A Woman's Place, which questions and addresses the contemporary position of women in our creative, historical and cultural landscape through contemporary art. The project embraces contemporary art and discussion; commissions, conversations and action. To date I have been part of the initial project discussion group (July 2013) and first symposium, CoHabiting: Contemporary Art, History and Feminism (January 2015) as well as this initial exhibition. Project partners are Ham House & Gardens, Knole House and Mottisfont, National Trust and Danson House, Bexley Heritage Trust. The research and development of the project is funded by the Arts Council.

A paper based around a selection of my own knitted works, Knitted Homes of Crime (2002), How to make a piece of work when you're too tired to make decisions (2004), It Sucks (2005) and the knitted banner series (2000 – 2005). The paper reflected on my use of knitting to explore and subvert the pervasive issues of the domestic, motherhood, gender inequality and the craft/fine art divide. Issues that are still pertinent over thirty years after Su Richardson was producing her crochet and mixed media works for "Feministo: Portrait of the Artist as a Housewife (1975 – 1977)", ICA, London, 1977. The paper was part of an event entitled, "Counterculture Crochet", organised by the Women's Art Library/Make to accompany the exhibition, "Burnt Breakfast and other works by Su Richardson", curated by Alexandra M. Kokoli at The Constance Howard Gallery and Special Collections Reading Room at Goldsmiths, University of London 6th July - 9 September 2012. "Simultaneously celebrating, exploiting and subverting the connotations of feminine craft skills such as crochet and embroidery, Su Richardson's home-made objects explore domesticity, femininity and their mutual implication from a distinctly feminist point of view. The exhibition, 'Burnt Breakfast and other works', includes the iconic crocheted 'full English', in which the womanly skill of crochet is used against the grain, to express in a humorous manner a growing dissatisfaction with patriarchal gender roles, and also to challenge the hierarchical division between art and craft. "Cooking and crochet cancel each other out, making this Breakfast into a mockery of more than one aspect of housewifely duties," explains the curator Alexandra Kokoli. To mark the opening of the event to the public, the College hosted 'Counterculture Crochet'; a Q&A with the artist, presentations on the work and its contexts by invited speakers Hazel Frizell, Janis Jefferies and Freddie Robins, and an open discussion with the audience (6 July, New Academic Building, Goldsmiths.) Su Richardson's work marks the intersection of feminist aesthetic, philosophical and political preoccupations. This exhibition reveals Su Richardson to be a key precursor to the recent and fast-expanding reclamation of craft techniques in fine art practice, exemplified in the work of Freddie Robins, Tracey Emin, Craig Fisher and Gillian Cooper among many others." http://www.gold.ac.uk/library/exhibitions/exhibitions-archive/

'He's behind you' was exhibited in the joint show, 'Fifties, Fashion and Emerging Feminism: a contemporary response' held at Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2011) and curated by Lucy Day and Eliza Gluckman. Robins' work referred to the oppression experienced by many women in the 1950s, a period of social change associated with the idealism of the Festival of Britain. 'He's behind you' presented a small, fragile, slightly distorted knitted 'skin' hanging in a cramped, dark, wooden wardrobe. Robins presented her knitted work as a critical response to the celebratory historical displays of 1950s fabrics in the exhibition. Robins' use of knitting to explore these themes undermines perceptions that knitting is inevitably related to contented domesticity, comfort and security. By explicitly situating her body of work in terms of a feminist agenda, she asserts an overtly political dimension in her work. Robins identifies works such as 'He's behind you' as the latest developments in a theme stretching back to Su Richardson's overtly feminist 1980s works using crochet and mixed media. Robins' presented the project at the conference 'Counterculture Crochet', Goldsmith's, University of London in July 2012. In her paper, 'Cosy', Robins acknowledged Richardson's importance in identifying knitting's ability to subvert and challenge ideals of domesticity.