Statements in Semaphore
FiLiA Artist in Residence 2017
I have just had amazing news, that the Arts Council England have approved funding for me to be Artist in Residence with FiLiA, a charitable organisation focused on promoting positive change for women through united action and solidarity whilst also celebrating difference and diversity. But this funding is subject to raising £2300 of other funds myself , and that is why I am here! If you back this project you are supporting community Art, Local women, local support organisations and myself as an Artist.
Please have a read below about what I am doing and why I need your help, and take a look at the rewards I have on offer for those who are able to back the project. I also have a project FB page here.
SUMMARY
Statements in Semaphore is a project I am running through 2017 as my role 'Artist in Residence' with FiLiA. The project will take two parts, firstly producing a series of art workshops for women in my local area, and secondly developing a series of my own art work that will be a commentary to and made in response to the year long project. The work produced by the women participants and myself will then be exhibited in London and locally at the end of 2017.
PROJECT DETAILS
I am passionate about my Art practice being something that engages people and makes conversations happen, but not just Artists. I want to engage with people who do not normally take part in the Art world. This project is about just that and it is why I wanted to work with the charity FiLiA over 2017, so instead of being on my own working, I will be engaging with other groups of women and my work will come from that. I will begin by providing workshops for three groups of women in both my local community and in London who receive support from three seperate organisations. These workshops will offer the opportunity for the women to create their own art work alongside and with the support of the professional artists.
The organisations that I will be working with are:
Working Chance, London
Domestic Violence Hampshire, The YOU Trust, Aldershot
Taking Steps, Basingstoke
The amazing Artists that will be working with me on these workshops will be:
Leah Thorn: www.leahthorn.com
Janet Pavone: www.janetpavone.com
Cate Field: www.catefield.com
Through this project I will also be creating my own work. Initially I will continue to develop my photographic work - Statements in Semaphore. Through this work I meet women and photograph them performing a semaphore letter. The series forms several alphabets which have been used so far to create socially relevent messages from within the communities that they are created, and then exhibited. In meeting and photographing the women I also get to speak to these women about themselves, hear their experiences and talk to them about what I am doing.
I hope that this project will start conversations between people in my local communities, it will provide a direct link between the community and the Art using particpants from the local area AND it will ensure that they are able to come and see the work themselves when it is shown. Because it is not just about creating this work, it is about access, for women into Art, and for the Art world into the lives of women and women's experiences.
Through both the workshops and my art practice I will be meeting with and working with local participants as well as artists. Through this I hope to acknowledge and break down a little the frequent barriers between local communities and the Art events that go on within them. I also want to start this residency as I intend to go on, by bringing together women from the local communities that I live and work in, together with Art. Specifically women who usually have difficulty accessing such events or art.
I will also be developing a project website that will play a large part in ensuring that this residency can grow an audience and continue into future projects, supporting more women and artists.
'Art has a unique ability to communicate the diversity of women’s experiences, and to engage the public with feminism in an accessible way.' FiLiA 2016
WORK ALREADY DONE
I already have the support of Arts Council England, which is phenomenal. They will be funding the majority of the project but I also need to raise £2300 here.
I have already started developing my own work for the project. I have taken photographs of 25 women and artists including two of the Guerilla girls while they were in London and this work has been exhibited successfully twice through December 2016.
The Artists and organisations I wish to work with are already confirmed. I have already confirmed venues that we can use and exhibition links for the end of 2017. We now simply need the funds.
FUNDING
The funding provided by the Arts Council and yourselves will go towards:
Paying Artists and running the workshops (without any charge to the organisations or participants).
Materials for Workshops and exhibitions.
Creating and running a project website to reach a wider audience of women and organisations.
Development of Art work and creating/preparing the final pieces for exhibition (Artists work and participants work).
Storage of particpants Art works.
Exhibiting the works, including promotion and ensuring particpants can attend the exhibtions (inc travel costs).
REWARDS
If you are keen to support this project then donations of any amount would be amazing. However I also have a few unique rewards available too. These include various sizes of screen prints of the original semaphore photos, a chance to be a part of one of the alphabets and a chance to suggest a message that the project will produce or project in one of its exhibitions.
The screen prints will vary in size depending on the pledge but they are also all unique. They will vary in colours but you can choose the letter that you wish to have.
Please see below to choose your letter/photo or visit the FB page if you wish to see the names of those with their letter. Please remember that the screen print will originate from the photo but the finished look is quite different.
Each piece is a unique piece of work individually made by me. See the image of Mandy - Letter H below as an example.
Project photos taken from Artist's own work including images of the following Artists and Women in no particular order:
The Guerrilla Girls- Frida and Kathe, Amy Dignam, Dyana Gravina, Dagmara Bilon, Anna Enhold, Roisin Rae and Sophia Marinkov Jones, Mandy, Laura, Jane, Diane Goldie, Mel, Zac, Anne Newton, Carole, Kim, Sam, Gemma Nelson, Kelly, Caitlin, Petranella, Stefi, Laxmi Thapa, and the Letter X as itself.