INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY EVENTS STARTED OFF WITH AN ‘UNCONFERENCE’. ‘WOMEN, VISIBILITY AND PLAYFUL ACTS 2’ WAS A DAY OF TALKS, PERFORMANCE, EXHIBITION AND MAKING WITH ARTISTS, RESEARCHERS AND WRITERS BASED OR WORKING IN LEEDS. THE DAY WAS HOSTED BY LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY RESEARCH GROUP F=, ‘AN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH GROUP EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FEMINISM IN CREATIVE PRACTICE’. THE SOLD OUT EVENT WAS HELD IN THE NEW ART SPACE, CITY LIBRARY.
DR. LIZ STIRLING OPENED THE ‘UNCONFERENCE’ WITH A MIXTURE OF WELCOME SPEECH AND SPECTACLE AS SHE DISROBED OUT OF HER POWER SUIT AND INTO A PERFORMANCE WITH HER COLLABORATOR LAURA ROBINSON. AFTER MUCH GAFFER AND MASKING TAPE, LEAVES, TWIGS AND BAMBOO THE TWO TREE WOMEN OPENED PROCEEDINGS – AND WE PROCEEDED AS WE MEANT TO GO ON.
DR. CASEY ORR TALKED US THROUGH HER PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK, PORTRAITS OF WOMEN AND IDEAS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF NATURE TO CULTURE STARTING WITH AN IMAGE OF HER MOTHER BECAUSE ‘EVERYTHING STARTS WITH MOM’.
JO HASSALL EXCAVATED THE MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF THE HOSTESS TROLLEY AND, WITH GIANT PAPER MACHE FINGER, INVITED US TO JOIN HER IN THE JOYS OF ‘PICKING SCABS’ A PERFORMATIVE METAPHOR FOR UNEARTHING OUR AUTOBIOGRAPHIES.
DR. KIFF BAMFORD MIXED RESEARCH WITH PERFORMANCE AND FILM, ALL THE WHILE WHISPERING IN FRENCH, IN HIS TALK ‘LYOTARD’S LIPS - QUIVERING AS I GO TO SPEAK’.
BRISTOW AND LLOYD’S ‘HOME RULES’ SERIES OF HAND PAINTED SIGNS, WERE SHOWN TO BE GRAPHIC, FUNNY AND POIGNANT REPRESENTATIONS OF THE POWER RELATIONS IN THE HOME (I WANT ONE.)
STUDENT FILMS AND GRAPHIC ARTWORK FILLED THE HALL AND MIXED WITH WORK BY CARTOONIST JACKY FLEMING, CASEY ORR, GILL GIBBON, DESIGNERS CONWAY & YOUNG AND OTHERS. GIANT PAPER MACHE HIGH HEELED SHOES, LADY RAZORS AND PINK LEGO; SYMBOLS LAID BARE AND SPEAKING OF A CULTURE IN NEED OF A WOMAN-CENTERED OVERHAUL. CABINETS OF FEMINIST ARCHIVES AND PERSONAL MOMENTOS COULD BE EXPLORED WHILE LISTENING TO A SPECIALLY CURATED RADIO TRANSMISSION BY MARION HARRISON.
THE ZINE COLLECTIONS OF MELANIE MADDISON, ‘SHAPE AND SITUATE’ AND ‘COLOURING OUTSIDE THE LINES’ SHOWED THE BREADTH OF IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL WOMEN OF EUROPE.
THE POWER SUIT REAPPEARED, THIS TIME ON DR. GILL GIBBON, AS SHE EXPLAINED HOW SHE USES ITS INVISIBILITY TO SNEAK INTO ARMS FAIRS WHERE SHE DRAWS THE SHOCKING WORLD OF THE ARMS TRADE.
THIS WAS FOLLOWED BY A TALK BY COMMUNITY CURATOR JUDE WOODS ABOUT HER MULTILAYERED WORK AND INCLUSIVE PROJECTS IN THE LIBRARY.
PERFORMANCE POET ROMMI SMITH PROMPTED US TO ‘REMEMBER THE THINGS OF WHICH THEY ARE FORGETFUL’ THROUGH HER WORK EXPLORING ARCHIVES AND THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF AFRICAN HERITAGE. SHE LEFT US BREATHLESS AND HANDED US TO HELEN CROSS WHO CLOSED THE DAY WITH HER FUNNY, UNCOMFORTABLE AND PROPHETIC STORY ‘OPEN LETTER TO BEES’.
IN A CLOSING CEREMONY ROBINSON STIRLING INVITED THE AUDIENCE TO MAKE CUSTOM HATS IN COMMEMORATION OF ‘WOMEN OF THE WORLD’ AND LED EVERYONE INTO LEEDS ART GALLERY WITH A WHOOPING CRY OF ‘MORE WOMEN!’
ANYONE STILL LEFT WONDERING IF FEMINISM AND EQUALITY HAVE A CULTURAL CURRENCY IN LEEDS, AND WHETHER IDEAS OF GENDER AND VISIBILITY CAN BE ARTICULATED WITH HUMOUR AND RIGOUR, CHUTZPAH AND PANACHE, I URGE YOU TO SEEK OUT THE WORK OF F=. THEY ARE WOMEN OF VISIBILITY AND PLAYFUL ACTS AND THEIR TIME HAS COME.
