Paddy Killer at The Customs House, South Shields.

This was a small, but perfectly formed exhibition of Paddy Killer's work from the last 30 odd years.  There were about 20 'snippets' - 12" square framed images from assorted projects over the last 30 years.  They were either drawn in Indian ink on silk, or black and white pen on glass.

Paddy Killer, Snippet of The Mirror, drawing in Indian ink on silk

Paddy Killer, le puy lace, Drawing in ink on glass

Paddy Killer, drawn thread work, drawing in ink on glass

Paddy Killer, Punto in Aria Lace, drawing in ink on glass

Paddy Killer, Mary Swift's Blouse, drawing in ink on glass

Paddy Killer, How Could She Sleep At Night, Snippet, Indian ink on silk

Paddy Killer, Armada portrait lace,  drawing in ink on glass

Paddy Killer, Snippet of How Could She Sleep at Night.  Indian ink on silk

Paddy Killer, Flanders tape lace, drawing in ink on glass

Paddy Killer, Belgian Bobbin Lace, drawing in ink on glass.

Paddy Killer, Venetian Lace, Drawing in ink on glass

 Incredible, well drawn, finely executed works - let down by insufficient information on the artist statements.  Consequences of Mary Swift, is a stunning drawing on silk, c 3' x 6', with a series of dates (1873-1899; 1900-1929; 1930-1949; 1950-1968) down one side, but no indication of what it means.  Are these dates the date of birth of a girl child, followed by the date at which she had her first child?  Surely it cannot be dates of birth and death?  Some narrative about what the drawings of people represent would have made it more meaningful.

There were glass pendants c2.5" x 4" in a downward arch shape,  with drawings of single sections of lace scallops.  They would make beautiful, striking necklace pendants.

I like this exhibition because it features a local female artist, shows the longevity of her artist career; and shows interpretation of female-gendered textile art, along with non-female media (glass and water jet cutting)into jewellery pendants.

Great day out.

Who Gets Represented? Thoughts from the Swimming Pool.

I had a great 2500 m swim this morning.  I was thinking about my research during the swim.

I'm getting more and more interested in the notion of masculinist and female values.  I don't think female values are clearly defined.  So how can female values be defined?  I wondered about asking people who work at the Fawcett Society, whether they had any views.  Or what about the people at the East End Women's Museum?  Who else might have views on what they think female values are?  What about the women who are Friends of the Shedio?

I've been thinking about the gendering of media.  I need to read around this.  I'm clear that some media are gendered, and known to be gendered - oils and stone sculpture are masculine; watercolours and textiles are feminine.  But what about media like print (does gendering vary across different print media?). What about media like cigarette cards?  Does scale matter? - do smaller media link with women and larger media with men?  Or is there no such correlation?

What sorts of people have been represented in the 20th Century Gallery at National Portrait Gallery? Katherine Tyrrell has written a great blog post on her take on the new rehang - she is unimpressed.  Too much grey and beige on the walls, too much gold framing, too many image sited too high on the wall. Too little natural light.  OK for representation of gay people, far too little representation of ethnic minorities. She does not like the chronological layout, and preferred the subject clustering (like Family) of the previous hang. I think the new rehang is better than the previous, because there is a wider range of people represented, and far greater proportion of women.  But I've been thinking about what women I'd like to see represented.  The NPG policy states

"The Gallery is particularly interested to acquire works which reflect the diversity of British history and culture and highlight achievement in a wide range of different fields, from sporting success, entertainment, science, the arts, business, politics and intellectual life. "

Are these criteria masculinist?  I think they may be.  I think men are more likely to be competitive, (or rewarded for being competitive?) and sports certainly pay professional sportsmen more than professional women (eg football!) and prize money is more for men than women (eg tennis! And the argument that women play 3 sets whereas men play 5 could be resolved - just make them equal sets!). My brief investigations into entertainment show male domination, showing more of female roles depicting typically younger and more decorative, or supporting roles.

Women can be seen in science, but I'm not sure our society promotes their achievements in the same way as men.  A classic example of this was the woman who identified the helix structure of DNA, had her discovery shared with a competitor's team,  without her permission, and was only very recently credited with this as her discovery.  If I include medicine in science, I can remember quite a few large portraits of leading male surgeons, but none of midwives, female surgeons or supporting functions like radiography, physiotherapy or occupational therapy.  There's nothing in there about service industries like transport or catering.

In politics, the people who spring to mind are elected politicians (majority men) whereas politics could be a field that chose to represent Greenham Common women, or women who campaign against Female Genital Mutilation.  But I don't see any of these in respected, traditional galleries.  So is this because they don't value women?  Their policy states they know they have an under-representation of women.  So if this is the case how do they plan to address it?  Perhaps they need to do root cause analysis of their criteria for collecting.  The descriptors in the NPG policy are implicitly masculine in my opinion, because the immediate examples of people in the public eye who spring to mind, in many of these categories, are men.


So I need to get ethics clearance before I start any research.  This means I need to work out the questions I want to ask to identify female views on values, and female views on the gendering of media and create a form, to attach to the ethics clearance.

Considering my Framing as a Researcher

I thought about my next stage of research while at the pool this morning.  I want to analyse the newly rehung 20th Century Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery to see what values I can identify in the various portraits, using Schwartz Theory of Basic Values.

However, I need to be aware of my own framing in how it will affect the values that I perceive in the portraits.  On the one hand, I believe there is no such thing as absolute objectivity, and that we are all subjective to some extent.  But that is no reason not to strive to gain a fair analysis.

My framing              Implication

White                       May not be aware of issues for ethnic minorities.
                                 May focus on the 'white perspective' without realising this may be skewed
Female                     May not be aware of issues for men
Straight                    May not be aware of issues for gay people
Middle aged             May not be aware of issues for older/young people.
                                 Technological change may have passed me by
Urban                       May lack awareness of rural issues
Educated                  May lack awareness of perspective of the less educated
                                 May be inclined to overthink/analyse
Working class          May be more inclined to be critical of middle class/upper class people
Manual industry       May be more aware of their skill based and more inclined to publicise
                                 manual workers' achievements.

A Few Days in Cardiff

Shirley and I went to Cardiff for a few days.  We visited Cardiff Castle, The National Museum of Wales, and St Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life.  As usual, I was looking for anything that represented women or art.

Cardiff Castle had been owned by the Marquis of Bute.  His main home was Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, but he had extensive business interests in Wales - mining and docks.  He had the castle apartments decorated in the most extravagant Arts & Crafts Gothic style ... but he and his family only occupied the castle for 4 weeks in summer, and 2 in winter!  He was alleged to be the richest man in Europe - and displayed ostentatious wealth.  A devout Catholic convert, a keen linguist, with rooms in arabic styles as well as Arts & Crafts. Lots of animals depicted. Very interesting to arts and crafts enthusiasts, but actually slightly uncomfortable.  Arts & Crafts main fault was that extolling the virtues of hand-crafted decoration meant it was unsustainable - only the very richest could afford it - and these people were living extravagantly on the labour of the poor - in this case miners and dockers.  This sits badly for me.  Interestingly Cardiff Castle was given to the people of Cardiff in 1947, when the mines were nationalised.  The Marquis no longer needed to come to Cardiff as his business interests were no longer.  If the mines were nationalised - what compensation was given to the Marquis?  The mines would not have been donated to the nation!  The current Marquis is a tax exile in Switzerland.

Hand carved monkey with servant bell concealed in its mouth

Coat of arms.
Symbol on right is the scarf of the fair maiden that would be tied around the lance of her favoured lancer

The National Museum of Wales has an outstanding collection of artworks, frequently acquired by bequests from significant local donors.  There was an interesting display of two paintings hung together, juxtaposing images of women.

Antonio Mancini, Portrait of a Girl,
Courtesy of National Gallery of Wales

Terry Sketch, Night Watch
Courtesy of National Gallery of Wales

 Antonio Mancini (man) and Terry Setch (man or woman? credited as woman in Gallery, but man on Wikipedia) work in impasto. Terry Setch did a lot of work with the Greenham Common Women and had a high regard for these people who held firm with their beliefs in adverse circumstances (bad press and inclement weather).  The gallery description describes them as having 'strength, ingenuity, reliance, determination and power'.  Interesting descriptors, particularly given I am considering how women are represented. (Equally, further round the exhibition, I found watercolours by women, described as 'charming' - yuk!)

Sir Thomas Mansel and his second wife Jane Pole, 1625
Courtesy of National Gallery of Wales

I enjoyed sketching some of the gold work patterns and extravagant fabric details.  His trousers are some sort of black damask weave.    There was another portrait where Katheryn of Berlin, 'The Mother of Wales' 1568 had a lot of blackwork embroidery on her sleeves, and also on the ruffled collar - so lots of the embroidery would not be easily visible!  All that work and not clearly shown!

Then I moved from looking at Women as Subject, to Women as Donor.  Cardiff Museum has an extensive collection of Impressionist art - bequests in 1953 and 1961 from Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, who were spinster heiresses to estates from mining and docks.  Their grandfather was a Non-Conformist entrepreneur in mining, who built the Barry Docks because of the extortionate fees charged by Cardiff Docks (owned by the Catholic Marquis of Bute?) to export his coal. Both the sisters had toured Europe for their art education as young women, then worked as Red Cross nurses in WW1, turned the family home into a convalescent hospital, and conducted good works with the old and infirm.  Both collected art.  There were some classic paintings from series artworks - one from the Haystack series, one from Rouen Cathedral by Monet, plus Morisot, Renoir, Pisarro, Van Gogh.  Amazing collection, but I'm not sure how I feel about this immense wealth being built on the labour of the poor.  My Dad was a Bevan Boy in wartime - when mines were still privately owned - and he was always so militant on behalf of the miners, for their hard work in terrible conditions.  I am not able to articulate my position on this yet.

Finally we went to St Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life.  Great open air museum (it poured with rain!). Lots of traditional Welsh buildings have been dismantled and moved here.  A row of terrace houses showed progression of living conditions from 1800-1950.  Perfectly liable but huge contrast to St Fagan's Castle.  In the castle there was a sofa, covered in 6" embroidered squares made by visiting ladies.  There must be a story behind the object but the museum has not exploited it.

There were lots of Welsh speaking staff on site.  Apparently the Welsh language has been promoted since the Welsh Assembly has been created.  Good.

Drawing Two: Symposium at Coventry

I had an unexpected trip to Coventry on Thursday. I had been missed off the email list so it was a short notice booking of a hotel and off I went to attend the Symposium on Friday.

Marsha Meskimmon was the keynote speaker.
Conversations with Contingencies.
Feminism, Women, Gender, Drawing.

About drawing as conversation - across, between.  Conversation about women - sexual conversation. The etymological definition of conversation - Between the divine and the earthly.

Conversation - agency for categories.  How we understand the categories of Contingencies.
Contingency - Elizabeth Grosz - context.  'Sexual Signatures, Feminism after death of the author: Essays on the Politics of Bodies'. Grosz was debating what was feminism about?  women, hierarchy, context?  Not assured.  Style? Reader?  Much slippage.  None of them work.  No wholly effective classification.  Concluded it is provisional or momentary.  Enables the examination of subjects and meanings in process - it is a revised mode of agency.

Explore the processes.

Carolee Schneemann.  Much nude performance action.  Limits subjects/objects; limits; women's body as object.  MM noted her work is not always fit for feminism as CS uses herself, her body, as object.  I really get this.  I've never been keen on her work - and MM articulated exactly why I am uncomfortable with it.

Janine Antoni.  Loving Care.  None of her work is nude.  Uses hair as paintbrush and wears a dark body stocking that makes her body look somewhat like a paintbrush handle.  Uses hair to paint hair dye all over the floor.  Cannot be restrained to canvas.  The leaky body.

One's work and interpretation changes over time - by self and others.  (Yes!  I really get this with my undergrad work).

Bodies we don't see and inscribe.

Andre Lorde -  For the Masters tools will never dismantle the masters house.  Sister Outsider.
They may allow us to temporarily to beat him at his own game but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.  (binary thinking).

Sonia Boyce.  Lay Back, Keep Quiet 1986.

Judy Watson, Low Tide Walk 1991.

Karla Solano Home 2005.  Assumption - masochistic work.  But actually in deerskin.  Visceral but not damaging.  Inside or outside.  In fact, home is neither inside nor outside.

Catherine Opie - Self Portrait - Cutting.  Questions around lesbian identity, home, family.  Deliberately painful and hard.

Jenny Holzer.  Lustmord.  1993-4 Realisation of systematic rape in Kosovo.  Destruction of the 'other'.  Writing on skin in the voice of perpetrator and victim.  Really powerful to read the perpetrator's words written in the first person.

George Grosz Lustmord - damaged WW1 soldiers.

Susan Hauptmann Self portrait with feathers.  2007

Sarah Ahmed The Cultural Politics of Emotion.
quote p187

Many ways to display female work.

Be clear about what point you are making.
Define your category in your own right.
Not 'only'.  Contingent cases.
Feminism is not one size fits all.  Change and keep modifying.
Strategies move (or competent strategic thinkers should make sure it does!)

Images to follow.

Art class at the Granary

I've had a lovely couple of days at art class.  I started carving a Lino panel, trying out the new resin Lino.  I was inspired by Aunt Joan's counted thread sampler and simply drew some of the stitch patterns, at different scales.  I discovered I was drawing in line patterns and decided to carry on with this, to see how far I could push it, rather than exploring texture.

I stuck to black and white printing ink, on black and white papers - tissue, tracing, newsprint, dressmaking layout pages and collage.  I experimented with two tone print where you rollout black and white inks at the same time side-by-side, to make a great area in the middle. I also did a little overprinting.  Then, once home and dried, I stitched into some of them.

Very pleased with the outcomes, but now I'd like to experiment with more colour.

Plain print

With blanket stitch on right hand side

Black on black

Black print on spotty tissue

Two tone print with stitch on dressmakers pattern layout page

Two layer print on tracing paper

Overprinted with white

Two tone print over graphite

Black and white print on black tissue

Selective white overprint

Selective white overprint and collage

White overprint on collaged paper

 Black print on collaged black tissue

White print with collaged words

Two tone print with stitch

With stitch on pattern layout paper

Two tone print and overprint on black tissue.

Jill's PV at Lanchester Gallery, Coventry Uni

Lovely evening at Jill's Private View.  Good opportunity to talk to people from the artist community in Coventry.  Jill's work included a lot of stitched work on domestic linen.

I spent some time talking to Darren, who is a South African student.   Darren's interpretation of the work was that it was strongly colonial.  This was a total eye-opener to me.  I read it as very traditional in stitch style, but quite modern in its use of found materials and joining of unconventional fabrics.  Darren read  Jill's work as being from the same style as his grandmother's.  He's aged c35, so his parents are my age, and his grandparents would be my parents age.  His grandmother migrated from the UK to South Africa as a young woman and brought her linen (probably created as part of her bottom drawer) with her.  He viewed his grandparents as part of the colonising British community.  We discussed a piece made from blue cotton and white crochet.  He read it as colonial because the uniform of domestic servants in South Africa is made from this blue cotton.  When I spoke to Jill she said it was inspired by one of the Greek islands, where the houses are painted with this blue around the basement because it is the protective colour of the evil eye.

Just shows what the difference is the reading, between the author and viewer.

Photos to follow.