Tag: Feminism

Last chance to see Tai Shani’s Turner Prize-shortlisted work at DLWP

The De La Warr Pavilion extend our biggest congratulations to Tai Shani for making the 2019 Turner Prize shortlist.

Shani’s artistic contribution to our spring exhibition, Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, Act 2 and her continued support of our extended programme of events have been invaluable in the exhibition’s success. The Pavilion is thrilled to once again have the privilege of bringing Turner Prize-nominated work to our visitors.

From Turner Contemporary’s shortlist announcement:
For her participation in Glasgow International 2018, solo exhibition DC: Semiramis at The Tetley, Leeds and participation in Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance at Nottingham Contemporary and the De Le Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea. The jury noted the compelling nature of Shani’s ongoing project Dark Continent, particularly the work’s ability to combine historical texts with contemporary references and issues.

Developed over four years, it takes inspiration from a 15th-century feminist text, Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies. Shani uses theatrical installations, performances and films to create her own allegorical city of women populated by fantastical characters, transporting the viewer to another time and place.

Co-curator of Still I Rise, Cédric Fauq, on why Shani’s work was included in the exhibition: “Tai Shani’s work has that potency to shift the aesthetic vocabulary often attached to contemporary feminist practices. Not only her work appeals to the eyes, but it also has that haptic quality, it makes you want to touch. What I find particularly compelling is how this better leads you to focus on the stories she is telling. More than a realm, Tai’s body of work creates a whole cosmos. One where white patriarchy got swallowed by a black hole.”

DLWP visitors can see Shani’s works for free in our Ground floor gallery until May 27 when the exhibition closes. Her works are:

Showings, 2018
“These are models for a structured, tragic play about my family.
These are sites for myth making and the collapse of myth into prosaic materials both natural and synthetic.
These are her bodily remains.
These are cryptic; they are spell books, to be read literally but with profound belief.
These are maquettes for never closing, hedonistic nightclubs, where we can lose our minds.
These are a symbolic portrait of a time-travelling mystic. These are an aerial drone view of archaeological sites of unknown civilisations, from the very far past of the very far future.
These are dwellings for my cat Oedipuss.
These are a faery corpse.
These are a medieval vision of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.
These are airports for extra-terrestrials my parent’s sibling said when they saw them.
These are portraits for ghosts to come into our world, they can be summoned here.”

Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, Act 2, 2019, De La Warr Pavilion, Installation View. Image courtesy of Rob Harris.
Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, Act 2, 2019, De La Warr Pavilion, Installation View. Image courtesy of Rob Harris.

Dark Continent (Phantasmagoregasm), 2018
“Phantasmagoregasm is an 18th-century hermaphrodite writer of Gothic fiction. Many of the early Victorian prominent gothic writers were women that wrote under their own names, or under psychonyms, arguably establishing the horror genre. That character that appears in this exhibition is one of twelve from my Dark Continent project. They are interpretations of women that, at different points in history, had access to a public life and selfrealisation under supernatural and mystical terms.”

Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, Act 2, 2019, De La Warr Pavilion, Installation View. Image courtesy of Rob Harris.

Plan your visit to the DLWP on our website.

Read about the other 2019 Turner Prize nominees here.

 

Turbulent Spinsters and Badass Sisters

Ann Kramer delivers a crash-course history lesson on women’s suffrage in Bexhill and Hastings

 

Our aim for the workshops was to both provide information about the local women’s suffrage campaign and some key women within that campaign, and to make space and time for people to express their personal views verbally and creatively, using written and visual outlets.

With this in mind, Ashley McCormick and myself met on a couple of occasions to identify appropriate crossover elements within the Still I Rise exhibition that could be used to introduce elements from the local women’s suffrage campaign, based on my book Turbulent Spinsters: Women’s Fight for the Vote in Hastings and St Leonards. Reasons for doing this reflect the fact that local suffrage activity is not well known and also that, it can be argued, women’s fight for the vote was an extremely important example of women’s resistance that issues around feminism and gender highlighted in the exhibition.

Once we had identified the appropriate exhibits, we were able to plan and organise the workshop, ensuring a balance between providing information and encouraging participation in the form of various activities.

We began at the entrance to the exhibition with a general welcome and introduction, and a brief overview of the local women’s suffrage campaign, introducing local campaigner Barbara Bodichon and defining ‘suffragist’ and ‘suffragette’ along the way. Attendees were then invited to define what feminism(s) meant to them and to record personal acts of resistance. Some were shared and generated a lot of discussion.

We then moved to the first exhibit, a board game Roots and Bootstraps, which we examined. I used the exhibit as a jumping off point to explore issues of class within the suffrage campaign. I described the class composition of the local campaign, introducing activists such as Emma Fricker Hall, Jane Strickland and Lady Muriel Brassey. Participants were invited to make a list or diagram of female friendships and alliances and their meaning to them.

The exhibit Water Cooler Moments provided the opportunity for me to discuss verbal and physical attacks on suffragettes, locally and nationally, including hurling missiles, anti-suffrage letters to the press, physical attacks by the police and force-feeding. This was followed with an activity based on producing a mind-map of barriers that women still face today.

Our third stop was at Mary Lowndes’ suffragette banners and See Red posters, which I used to talk about the creativity and pageantry of women’s politics via banners, posters and slogans. I also gave examples of local suffragists and suffragettes, such as Isabella Darent Harrison who joined major demonstrations in London and also carried out creative acts of resistance in Hastings and St Leonards.

Finally we moved to the roof top foyer where we invited people to create campaigning slogans and placards, using coloured paper, stencils and collaging material. A number of brilliant slogans were produced and there was energetic discussion around a number of issues.

I enjoyed co-facilitating the workshop enormously. It was a lively and enthusiastic event. Participants were clearly engaged and found the subject matter stimulating, generating some very interesting debates. These in turn raised important issues such as the difficulty in defining feminism, the interlocking natures of oppressions, how personal acts of resistance, such as deciding not to wear make-up, might seem quite small, but can have a much wider impact. All the participants who attended certainly seem to have appreciated the workshop and to have gained insight and inspiration from the experience, not least the opportunity to discuss gender issues with others. I was delighted to have the opportunity to co-facilitate the workshop and found it a very positive experience.