International Women’s Day 2014

Celebrating International Women's Day and the launch of CARE International's 'Walk in her Shoes' campaign was an inspiring way to spend last Saturday morning.

I arrived to a large crowd gathered around our modern day suffragettes still sporting Victorian wears but with messages that were very much of relevance in today’s world.

Speeches from the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, and women’s rights campaigner, Dr Helen Pankhurst were fantastic indications of how far and wide the tentacles of the feminist movement has reached.

Justine Greening’s speech outlined the steps that are being taken within government to play an increasing role in women’s rights and steps towards placing women at the centre of policy.

Government campaigns targeting issues such as female genitalmutilation and forced early marriage will take centre stage in July 2014 during a UK hosted conference addressing these issues in the UK and abroad. Greening also signposted the UN, William Hague and Angelina Jolie’s recent campaign against rapeas a weapon of war.

Dr Helen Pankhurst also took to the podium and spoke of her great-grandmother and grandmother who spent their lives fighting for women’s rights.

Referencing the ‘gender shackle’ that women still face by virtue of being a women, Pankhurst underlined that individual struggles are often influenced by external cultural factors. A number of factors, such as birthplace and access to education and healthcare augment complex challenges faced by women across the world.

Pankhurst went on to explain why CARE International’s campaign ‘walk in her shoes’ to raise money for water projects in the developing world is so important. 

Approximately 780 million people round the world do not have access to clean water, and it usually is the role of the women to collect water for their families. Walking an average of 5 miles per day, means that water collection creates yet another ‘gender shackle’ and negatively impacts on the time and resource needed for women to reach their full potential.

Parkhurst urged supporters to ‘amplify their voices’ and reminded us of the philosophy underpinning any campaign: That one voice is commendable and strong, but that ultimately change is accelerated with a collective effort.

In solidarity with women around the world, I will walk 10,000 steps a day for a week for CARE International’s ‘Walk in her Shoes’ Campaign this March.

'When Harmony Went to Hell'

I thought I’d resurrect my long-lost blog with some musings from the current Rivington Place exhibition: When Harmony went to Hell.

An exhibition of two parts, we are first invited to understand the DRC through the work of contemporary Congolese photographer, Sammi Baloji.

In the quest to ensure that history is not erased by the promises of modernisation and progress, Baloji’s photography, film and montage work explores his native country’s colonial past and political present.

Foucault’s theories of power and repression are referenced in relation to Baloji’s work, his images, in particular his montages, serve as an excellent transition to the photographs and writings of Alice Seeley Harris from the early 1900’s.

An active member of Anti-Slavery International, Seeley Harris’ photographs and first-hand accounts from lectures at the Congo ReformAssociation, resulted in public outcry across Europe and America.

Cited as the first example of campaign photography, Seeley Harris’ work exposed the dire conditions of Congolese slaves under an oppressive and violent regime and are hailed as instrumental to the eventual demise of King Leopold II’s reign over the Congo in 1908.

Her accounts of the exploitative rubber and ivory industries can be compared to those of the extractive industries in developing countries today and begs the question: How we can ensure that the Hobbesian notions of the human condition do not prevail in the 21^st Century?

A chance to see rarely exhibited works of great historical importance, this is a must see exhibition.

Rivington Place

London

EC2A 3BA

16 Jan – 7 March 2014

The world according to Diane Arbus...

Diane Arbus's photography is well known for being direct and powerful, her work is associated with images of those in the margins of society: subcultures consisting of 'freaks', 'outsiders' and other 'undesirables'.  Often framed in the centre of the photograph, close-up and with the subject posing with a confident gaze towards the viewer, an uncomfortable intimacy is created between them, the subjects, and us, the viewers.  

Diane Arbus was an interpreter, her photographic style allowed the subjects to stand up to the viewers, demand us what we think, challenge us to judge, and ultimately, let us know that they don't care for our thoughts.  For this reason the Jeu de Paume, in Arbus's first major retrospective in France, laid bare the images - accompanied only by their original names - to confront the viewer in a way unique to each.

We, as viewers, are not being asked to identify with the suffering, we are not asked to be compassionate, as in journalistic photography for example.  Neither those photographed, or the photographer ask this of the viewer, we are just asked simply to look.

Identical Twins.  Roselle, New Jersey 1967

Tattooed Man at a Carnival.  1970

A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th Street. 1966. 

Child with a Hand Grenade in Central Park.  New York 1962

Naked Man Being a Women.  New York. 1968.

Susan Sontag notes in 'On Photography' that the authority of Arbus's work is largely due to the fact that each of her subjects has posed for her and creating a 'straight-on, contemplative portrait'; rather than a stolen-snap taken in voyeuristic fashion.  The fact that Arbus's 'freaks' are willing to be photographed also leads Sontag to question their own perceptions of self 'Do they see themselves, the viewer wonders, like that?...Arbus photographs people in various degrees of unconscious or unaware relation to their pain, their ugliness'.

Untitled, 1970 & 1971

In the two years leading up to her suicide, Diane Arbus spent much time photographing people with learning difficulties.  It is in these photographs where I see a real joie de vivre.  All the photographs in this period are Untitled and it left me wondering if this was perhaps because she was unable, or unwilling, to define these subjects in the same way as the others.  

In her own words, 'a photograph is a secret about a secret.  The more it tells you the less you know'.

Diane Arbus

 

I absolutely love this self-portrait of Arbus pregnant, her cocked head seems to be subtly questioning her own image, freakishness and pain in the same way as her photographs do of others.  It proves that she is not afraid to turn the cameras eye, with its capacity to both capture and distort reality, on herself.

Freaks...

The other day I went to see Tod Browning's controvertial 'Freaks'.  Released in 1932, it caused disorder in cinema's around the world and was consequently banned in the UK for thirty years.  One women in the US even claimed that this film caused her to miscarry and tried to sue the studios.  

The sensationalist reaction to this film was because of Tod Browning's decision to cast people with deformities - rather than use make up and camera magic - as the circus 'freaks'.  At the time of release, audiences could not see past the abnormalities of those cast as the circus 'freaks' to see that the real story was based on the 'freaky' aspect of human nature itself.  

Browning choose to portray the circus side-show 'freaks' as good natured, moralistic and trusting, in complete opposition to the 'non-freaks' who are shown to be greedy and conniving.   Suggesting that being a 'freak' is not linked to the outward appearance of the body, but with a lack of morality.  

The film was edited many times for a version to be acceptable for the viewing audiences of the time but each cut was received as negatively as the last.  Today, however, 'Freaks' is enjoying its deserved cult status. 

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My favorite place to relax in Paris is in the hammam...

 Mosquée de Paris

Built between 1922-1926, this mosque beautifully mixes Islamic motif with the art deco style.  If you want to unwind then the hammam is highly recommended, it is an incredibly relaxing experience with the heat and steam literally transporting your stresses and troubles away.  If you want to go all out, you can also pay extra for a black-soap body scrub and massage treatments.

Modestly dressed visitors are also allowed to enter the Mosque itself (although not the prayer room) and  there are 'souk' style market stalls to buy fabrics, ceramics and other souvenirs.  Also very recommended is a mint tea with baklawas (honey and nut pastries) which you can enjoy alongside little sparrows which aren't too shy to come to your table and pick at your crumbs, making the whole ambiance very special indeed.  There is also a restaurant, which I look forward to trying out at some point soon...

For more information:  http://www.la-mosquee.com/

N.B. The hammam is open for women on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10am - 9pm and for men on Tuesdays and Sundays from 10am-9pm.

The Dotty Lady is on her way to London...

Yayoi Kusama at The Centre Pompidou

The first retrospective of works by celebrated Japanese contemporary artist, Yatoi Kusama, has recently ended in Paris and is making it's way to The Tate Modern in London (9th Feb - 5th June 2012).

As  a sufferer of mental illness from an early age, her art originates from hallucinations and psychological traumas.   Her illness is plain to see in her repetitive, obsessional dot patterns central to her work.

Kusama's large-scale installations invite the viewer to immerse themselves in a world of both order and chaos.  Since 1977, Kusama has, voluntarily, been living in a psychiatric institution.  

For a map to find The Centre Pompidou click here.