we have been open a week. steve has made paintings for a book cover commission, helen has brought stuff in, placed it in her space and been frustrated at life requiring her presence elsewhere, sam has sized (?) a couple of canvasses and started some prelim sketches. sarah came in to show her dad her (empty) space, libs – no sign at all! i have made a promo trailer for our exhibition and found a dead pigeon (which now hangs in a bag outside my studio window between photo shoots).
i have a sense of not knowing how to make work. i have images laid out, i have all my sketchbooks and notebooks in from the last couple of years, my computer is loaded with podcasts from tate events – i listened today to a brilliant Toril Moi discussing how she (amongst others) “is not a woman writer”. such inspiring feminist theory. made all the more pertinent by the fashion students at my old uni raising money for their degree show with a calendar of themselves in bikinis. i have emailed various solent powers to express my anger and will be interested to know how they respond. the lack of feminist engagement in young people today frightens me sometimes. there is such mainstream acceptance of objectifying imagery that we become numb and thoughtless about what our bodies are and how to respect them and the people they house. and the others that our bodies represent.
i hope our studios can be a site of feminist integrity. bring it on.
