London in the Spring

Longer days, warmer weather … it’s time to explore.

Outstanding Feminist Art

For these two highly recommended, concurrent shows - for the price of one - head to the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank before 5th May.

Afro Goddess Looking Forward (2015), Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas’s  ‘All About Love’ is an ode to voluptuousness and absolute bringer of joy … not to mention the infinite sparkle. This is her first major international tour and it’s glorious. What to expect? Large-scale - yet intimate - spectacularly staged, bold, rhinestoned painted compositions that foreground Black femininity. There is a generosity and abundance in Thomas’s realms that exude visual pleasure, agency, and kinship.

"To truly love we must learn

to mix various ingredients -

care, affection, recognition,

respect, commitment, and

trust, as well as honest and

open communication."

- bell hooks

Each piece features or is inspired by friends, family, girlfriends or hired models - her mum, singer Solange and photographer Carrie Mae Weems among them - all are muses, shining on huge tableaux. There is nothing extractive about her work, nothing voyeuristic - it really is all about love - and what a beautiful clin d’oeil to bell hooks. There’s is a cheeky, subversive side too. She turns Western art tradition on its head with a sumptuous take on ‘Déjeuner sur l’herbe: les Trois Femmes Noires’ - above - re-imaginings male dominated white bourgeois art and the male gaze as Black sisterhood - and winning!

In a further twist, Mickalene Thomas’s version responds not to one, but two ‘Déjeuner sur l’herbe’. The first by Manet (1862/3) with its focus on female nudity juxtaposes realism et classicism, while the second, by impressionist Monet (1865/66), painting centres on technique and colour. My vote goes to Mickalene Thomas - hands down.

Untitled (1976), Linder

Next door, Linder’s work is as provocative as the title suggests ‘Danger Came Smiling’ and is brimming with a mix of fantastical, sexy and mundane cut outs of kitchen utensils collaged to body parts. Linder Sterling first appeared on the scene in Manchester during the 1970’s punk era and has been an active artist ever since. But like many women artists she’s been overlooked - as a result, she’s had to wait to turn 70 for her first full retrospective.

Spread across four huge rooms, the exhibition brings together collages, photography, masks, performance - including footage of Linder’s performance with the band Ludus, and more.

She made her first major, and possibly most recognisable, piece for the Buzzcocks’ ‘Orgasm Addict’ single cover, in 1977 with Malcolm Garrett, who did the graphic design of her original work. The piece is now at the MOMA and nearly 50 years later, a version of it features as the poster for the show (see above). Much of her work over that time has consisted in collaging together seemingly incompatible elements, ‘scalpeled’ out of porn, fashion and household magazines and manipulated to create skilful photomontages that highlight society’s blatant sexism and invite us to reassess traditional assumptions about gender, identity and sexuality.

In some ways, her work is reminiscent of zine making - a cathartic, political activity for our fractured times.

Five decades of feminist history

The LSE are currently hosting a small, free exhibition - “Women of the World Unite: The United Nations Decade for Women and Transnational Feminisms 1975 to Now” - celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mexico City Conference, a moment that felt a pivotal moment in feminist history. It was followed by Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985 and Beijing in 1995. The  retrospective, which draw on the collections of the LSE Women’s Library,  documents the promises, challenges and critiques of the UN Decade for Women and the wider histories and legacies of global feminisms … a look back with lessons for moving forward.

In March, they hosted a tour of their archives. Archivists shared copies of feminist magazine Spare Rib and other feminist literature in the exhibition space before leading us to the actual archive for a curated presentation of some materials packed with fascinating snippets of information. Maybe what struck me the most, looking around at the boxes on shelves, containing all these compelling, marginalised his/her/their_stories that most of us have never even heard about because they are erased from the mainstream … but also, in light of what is happening in the US, how easily all of it can be taken away. The exhibition ends on 22nd August.

Sex in the City

If you are partial to walking tours - you must check out Laura Augustin, The Naked Anthropologist. She runs a wide range of tours with a wonderful combination of knowledge, humour - the cheeky kind - and story telling - unearthing the marginalised stories that make history.

I had the pleasure of meeting meet Laura, many moons ago. We were both speaking at the Dublin anarchist book-fair - I was star struck, having read some of her writings on sex work. I knew she’d started doing tours and finally got it together to sign up … and now, I’m hooked.

A Rake's Progress, 3: The Tavern Scene (1735), William Hogarth

This particular tour takes us through Holborn/Covent Garden, exploring London’s Sex Industry and the Stage in the Long 18th Century. Some time ago, I came across “The Covent Garden Ladies” by Hallie Rubenhold, the book that inspired BBC2's ‘Harlots’ - a fascinating account of the area in the mid-18th century, that focuses on Harris’s List, a publication that catalogues the specialities of the capital’s sex workers  - at a time when London was considered the capital of sex … a far cry from today’s gentrified tourist trap.

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - famous 17th century playhouse

Predictably, the content of Laura Augustin’s walk is much broader - beginning in the middle of the 17th century and ending with the 18th, a period of great changes, not least in the attitudes towards sex - and women. Charles II came to power, marking significant cultural shifts. It was the age of play houses, coffee houses and molly houses. Women were allowed to act, plays included lots of sex and swearing … and sex was not limited to the stage. The Covent Garden Piazza was an open space, women sold flowers, oranges … and sex, which could be way more lucrative.

The tour is two and a half hours long and utterly compelling - as well as super informative. And while the area has undergone major face lifts since then, Laura Augustin's mischievous story telling manages to bring it all to life - changing your perspective about Covent Garden for ever!