1978–80

Extract from the publication...

is a travelling exhibition made by Monica Ross, Sue Richardson and Kate Walker. Ross, Richardson and Walker met at the Women Artists/Historians Conference of ’74 (2). They have worked together subsequently, organising, writing and exhibiting within the context of the Women’s Art Movement, at one point of its recent intervention in the Gallery System. “FEMINISTO POSTAL EVENT” ’75–’77 (3) was one example of this phase.

The concept of collective artwork is related, in , to the process called Consciousness Raising within feminist small groups (4) and also to the progress of the Women’s Art Movement in Britain.

The development of the W.A.M. has been slower here than in some parts of Europe, and very fragile compared with its strong proliferation in the U.S.A. It has been forced to develop a theoretical basis, partly because the exclusion of women from our institutions has been firmer in Britain (5). In many cases the developments of women’s art abroad have been easily assimilated into the main body of the culture, and sunk into the elitist category: “avant-garde.” A few of these co-opted phenomena exist within the British artworld (6), but the slowness of this process has given us the opportunity to explore alternatives and to sharpen strategies to a finer point. An outline of the practice of indicates this point of attack.

is made in situ at each gallery. The artists work publicly, improvising the installation for one week at each site, after which it is kept for a further period. It then travels to the next exhibition space where it continues to grow, building upom previous work. This type of working procedure as a feminist strategy is best described by extracts from a dialogue (recorded Birmingham May 1979) between Ross, Richardson and Walker:

THE GENERATION WHICH THIS TRIO REPRESENTS IS THE FIRST IN WHICH WORKING CLASS WOMEN HAVE HAD ACCESS TO ART EDUCATION. SOME OF THESE WOMEN ARE MAKING A CONSCIOUS COLLECTIVE ATTEMPT TO COMBINE MOTHERHOOD WITH A PROFESSIONAL CAREER (& INDIVIDUAL CAREERS) “SOLUTIONS”, SUCH AS WE HAVE SEEN THROUGHOUT ART HISTORY DO NOT WORK IN THEIR INTERESTS.

ARISES FROM A PARADOXICAL BACKGROUND: the education of women of working class origins in a pursuit which has been the prerogative of the leisured classes i.e. what is called, “FINE ART” - mainly white, European, male and middle class.