My practice is drawing-based; the impulse of the work is to challenge, subvert and resist
stereotypical depictions of the female figure. I use drawing for its directness and immediacy:
I have a strong line, there’s an urgency to ‘pin down the image’. For me, drawing is always
‘live’. My studio-based practice is mainly work on paper, canvas and on found objects using
charcoal, paint, spray paint and collage which extends to installation, banners and billboards
as public artworks – I strive for the work to be visible, if it remains unseen it becomes too
interiorized, the banner format is a communication with the world.
My work has long explored the idea of bringing woman ‘centre-stage’ to depict her as
protagonist, to hold her own space. Through my juxtapositions of historical and cultural
references, I have been developing a hybrid visual language of the female figure over many
years. Nancy Spero described the human figure as ‘the most profound and complex
conceptual symbol, a hieroglyph of gesture and of body language.’ Like her, I find my
imagination is inexhaustible when dealing with the figure.
I often stage the figures in relation to tightly organized architectonic forms: mappings,
geometries, structures. These complex arrangements and inter-relationships demand careful
planning, composition and construction, making use of appropriations from art histories,
prehistory, world cultures and the esoteric.
I often return to drawing from life to re-energize my practice: I reference the ritualized
‘codified’ gestures, strong poses and self-confident physicalities of contemporary performing
bodies in my work eg dancers, strippers, pole dancers. In the 25 metres long canvas ‘State
of Her’ the past and the present are inextricably woven via a cinematic splicing together of
these multiple figures. I choreograph them to demand attention, displaying all their trappings
and codes of ‘femininity’ – these strictures are in tension with their gestures of freedom to
assert their autonomy. ‘To move freely with energy in the world is an extraordinary ideal.
Women should have this room for possibility.’ (Nancy Spero)
In stark contrast to the more dynamic figures, I also use images of the inert dummy as a
metaphor for alienation or control – these objects are perceived to be silently compliant but
in my work they exert a vital presence, functioning as a kind of secular ‘i-dol’. I have a
fascination for the Germanic ‘Romantic Grotesque’ with its tradition of dolls as human
substitutes. I also explore the phenomenology of symbolic objects of the feminine by drawing
directly on to found objects including spoons, shoes and gloves as personal relics.
EDUCATION
2001 University of East London: MA Fine Art
1985 Norwich School of Art: BA hons Graphics (Drawing/Printmaking)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS and PROJECTS
2024 Totems of Hope: Banner installation AllisJoy Soho
2023 Artist residency: Chateau Sacy France
Rite of Spring: Banner installation Old Market Cross North Walsham Norfolk
Totems of Hope: Banner installation at Prittlewell Priory Southend-on-Sea
2022 Her Discontents: Group show Downstairs Brixton at the Department Store
Dreamhaus: Public film screening Focal Point Gallery
2021 Women Making History: Suffragette Procession Banners London Scottish House
2019 British Textile Biennale: Suffragette Procession Banners
2018 The Ghost Tide: Thames-Side Gallery
Rethinking the Menopause: ARB Cambridge University
Things: Tamara Projects New Cross London
Procession Suffragette Banners: Spill Festival
2017 Dummy: Artist Residency METAL
Histories of the Hoo Peninsula: Whitstable Biennial
Turner Prize drawing event: Ferens Gallery Hull
Lines of Thought: Artist project British Museum, University of Hull
Something Blue: Cultivate Gallery
Platform 15: Leydon Gallery
2016 Mind Control Tower: Installation Estuary Festival Commission
2015 The Dance Within Us: Live Drawing event Tate Liverpool, English National Ballet
Anti-Fashionistas: Banner Installation Village Green Festival METAL
The Big Painting Challenge: Specialist contributor BBC (broadcast 15/3/2015)
Changing Room: Solo show Shout Media
2014 Draw 14: Society of Graphic Fine Art Mernier Gallery
The Discerning Eye: The Mall Galleries
The Contortionists: Banner Installation Village Green Festival
2013 On the Line: METAL
Look the Doll in the Eye: Installation TAP Gallery
LifeCycle: Participatory installation Village Green Festival European Cycling Friendly Cities
Play Southend: Drawing digital game project, contributing artist
Switch Ideas Lab Pacitti Company: Participating artist
2012 INDEPENDENT FREE STATE: Billboard project
CultureLab Protest and Propaganda: Participating artist Metal
Artist Residency: Tortola British Virgin Islands
2011 Festival of Britain 60th Anniversary: Artist Beach Huts Commission Southbank Centre
‘Superstrumps’: Female stereotypes project WOW Southbank Centre
This is Not a School: ‘Glittering Prize and Punishment’ Five Years Gallery
The Real Strumps: Solo Show White Wall Space
Deconstruction Project: Homeless Gallery
Pier: AVA Gallery University of East London
2010 Showflat: The von Heil Haus Commission METAL
Cover Versions: Village Green Festival METAL
TEFLTASTIC: Drawing performance Five Years Gallery
Cliffhanger: Artist Curator Synchro Studios
Subject to Recall: Curator site specific group show – Southend Museums
Lecture Hall FREE SCHOOL: Five Years Gallery
Making it/Faking it: Orleans House Gallery
Cliffhanger: Artist curator Synchro Studios
Assessment Criterion: Campus Gallery South East Essex College
2009 15 Artists 15 Days: Firstsite
As Crows Fly: Coexist Gallery
Sideshow: Village Green Festival METAL
2008 Love: Faux Gallery
Project Lulu: METAL
2005 Line: Campus Gallery South East Essex College
2004 It’s a Beautiful Noise: Synchro Studios
2003 A Room with a View: Atelier Gallery
2001 Last Chance Saloon: East London Gallery
2000 Blush: Underwood St Gallery
1999 On the Shelf: Firstsite
1998 Studio in a Square: Firstsite
1992 Pullit 2: Camden Lock
1990-92 Cooltan: studio artists
1988-92 Cable St Studios: studio artists
1989 Portobello Open
1988 ‘Earth Songs’ Young Unknowns
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, MEDIA
2020 Evening Standard ‘Women Making History’ book publication
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/women-making-history-banners-suffragette-march-a4549801.html
Curatorspace ‘Lockdown Series’
https://www.curatorspace.com/about/news/heidi-wigmore-lockdown-series/120
2018 GHostings.co.uk https://www.ghosthostings.co.uk/the-ghost-tide-by-rob-la-frenais/
The Guardian: Suffragette Artist Banners
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/gallery/2018/jun/02/womens-banners-to-celebrate-100-years-of-suffrage-in-pictures
2017 Scenario: Collaborators and Hecklers – Performative Pedagogy and Interruptive Processes http://publish.ucc.ie/journals/scenario/2017/01/Campbell/05/en#F2
2016 Vice.com Review of ‘Mind Control Tower’ Estuary Festival
https://creators.vice.com/en_uk/article/englands-mind-control-tower-war-history
2013 ’Imaginations’ – Journal of Cross Cultural Image Studies Interview re Superstrumps
https://www3.csj.ualberta.ca/imaginations/?p=4823
The Guardian 11.7.13 On the Line: Creating a museum of the Thames Estuary
http://www.theguardian.com/education/gallery/2013/jul/11/on-the-line-exhibition
2012 This is Not a School: Five Years Gallery http://www.fiveyears.org.uk/thisisnotaschool/THIS%20IS%20NOT%20A%20SCHOOL/PROGRAMME/slots/14/14.html
2011 BBC Womans Hour ‘Superstrumps’ live launch 13.3.11
Showflat: Metal Book Edition
The Times Art/Architecture Supplement 23.4.11 Festival of Britain
The Sabotage Times: April 2011
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/happy-holidays-a-celebration-of-all-things-summery/
TheWomensRoom
http://thewomensroom.typepad.com/the_womens_room/2011/04/buy-this-super-strumps.html
Oh Comely Magazine: May 2011
http://www.ohcomely.co.uk/post.php?id=182
a-n Magazine: May issue Review- Scintilla, Coexist Gallery
http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/1221514
2010 Level 4 Magazine: Review, Interview- Showflat solo show
Corporeal: Catalogue introduction Campus Gallery Southend on Sea
2008 DIY Portfolio Building for Fine Art: University of Essex/The Creative Way
2007 ARTUNEED: A Manifesto for the Public Realm- Commissions East participating artist
AWARDS, COMMISSIONS
2021 Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Award
Artichoke 14-18 Now Artist Commission ‘Procession’ Suffragette Banners
2016 Estuary Festival Artist Commission Mind Control Tower site specific installation
2014 Outdoor Media Ltd Sponsorship ‘The Contortionists’ banners Village Green Festival
2013 METAL Artist Commission ‘On the Line’
European Cycling Friendly Cities award: Participatory installation Village Green Festival
2013 Essex County Council Artist Grant ‘What The Doll Saw’
2012 Arts Council England Award ‘Independent Free State’
2011 Southbank Centre WOW Festival Artist Commission ‘Superstrumps’
2011 Southbank Centre Festival of Britain Artist Commission ‘Shell Grotto’
2010 Artinsite Lightbox installation Southend University Hospital