One afternoon in 2005, I came across a tin full of cigarette cards at a flea market. I leafed through to look more closely at the miniature pin-ups. I noticed the backs of the cards with the dated biographies of the girls on the cards. I selected all the dancers from the tin (there were actresses, models, swimmers and tennis players I rejected, no one in the tin I had heard of before) and bought all of them. As I walked home, I decided to recreate all the photographs using myself as the model. The original cigarette cards were objects to be held, looked at closely. They were private cards to view, collect and exchange. As enclosures in cigarette packs in the late 1930s, it was presumed that these were gifts for a male consumer. Looking at them with contemporary eyes, they look glamorous, innocent, staged and seductive.
Art Encounters (2008)
An audio piece. I recount some formative art encounters, in order to think about what remains of the encounter. The afterwards reflections; did these experiences form the artist I am now? I presented this as part of the Mid-Residency group show at CalArts.
Bubikopf is an art history lecture on gender that morphs. An examination of women in the modernity of the Weimar Republic with new opportunities to be independent in the city, to go to art school, perform in cabarets. Weaving together gendered forms of feminine visibility this piece spotlights and speculates women’s entertaining, creative and Avant Garde work.
Documentation from my exhibition at Bloc Projects as part of Platform 2019 exhibitions through Site.
Audio recording of performance Two Songs A Capella and gallery talk, on Bloc Project’s website.
Here are some photographs from the exhibition I recently put together, based around my book, Viewing Pleasure and Being A Showgirl, How Do I Look? Thanks to the artists who took part: Sophie Lisa Beresford, Julie Cook, Nwando Ebizie as Lady Vendredi, Alice Finch, Laura Gonzalez, Lucy Halstead, Sharon Kivland, Britten Leigh, Chloe Nightingale, and Isabella Streffen.
At present I’m at Shows of Sheffield at Castle House most days, as part of Festival of the Mind. I’m presenting my cigarette cards and theatre flats and having some great conversations with the public!
Last night the exhibition London Life opened at Art Bermondsey/LA Noble Gallery. Two of my cigarette card recreations are in the show, and I was third prize winner for the work. (Thanks to Katherine Angel and Kate Enters for the photos!).
My work will be in Act II and Act III of S1 Member’s Show, Three Act Structure at S1 Artspace, Sheffield. Act II is open 6th August–23rd August and Act III which is a re-mix of Acts I and II featuring all of the works is open 27th August–13th September. The opening of the whole show was on 11th July, and now there is a programme of events that will take place during the subsequent Acts.
In particular there will be a publication and print portfolio launch on Friday 15th August and a screening and performance event on Saturday 6th September. For the latter I am working on a new performance.
I’ll post more about the up-coming events–it’s a very exciting project to be involved in!
