A Snapshot of Southend as a Cultural Environment for Womxn
Ruth Jones founded the Agency of Visible Women in 2018. Initially intended as a play on words for an exhibition, The Agency's positive impact on its members in its capacity as an artist network resutlted in mine and Ruth's determination to develop it into an actual institution.
As part of our desire to expand the Agency beyond its initial stages as a collaborative, exhibiting group of womxn artists, we applied to a-n to conduct research in our home town with the womxn and femmes we know and those we had not yet met. This took place over the summer and autumn of 2019.
The resulting publication is "A Snapshot of Southend as a Cultural Environment for Womxn Artists", a risographed artists edition of 50, published by The Old Waterworks (TOW). This is presented as a boxed set of 52 cards, with an A4 folded risographed explanatory sheet, card fold, and printed sleeve cover. It is also available as a digital document.
Publication launch was postponed during the coronavirus outbreak, but we have now launched the physical edition alongside a (free) digital version plus text-only and dyslexia-friendly digital variations.
Covid-19 collides with pre-existing inequalities so that different groups of women will be disproportionately impacted. The majority of artists and creatives were already living precariously with insecure income and low pay; the pandemic has increased this precarity. In an AN survey, 93% of respondents said that they, their practice or career had been affected by the pandemic, with 60% expecting a 50% reduction in income. Therefore womxn creatives are likely to be doubly affected and the words of the womxn who contributed to the the publication have more resonance than ever:
"Collaboration over Competition"
"Community over Institution."
August 2020 Images by Anna Lukala
As part of our desire to expand the Agency beyond its initial stages as a collaborative, exhibiting group of womxn artists, we applied to a-n to conduct research in our home town with the womxn and femmes we know and those we had not yet met. This took place over the summer and autumn of 2019.
The resulting publication is "A Snapshot of Southend as a Cultural Environment for Womxn Artists", a risographed artists edition of 50, published by The Old Waterworks (TOW). This is presented as a boxed set of 52 cards, with an A4 folded risographed explanatory sheet, card fold, and printed sleeve cover. It is also available as a digital document.
Publication launch was postponed during the coronavirus outbreak, but we have now launched the physical edition alongside a (free) digital version plus text-only and dyslexia-friendly digital variations.
Covid-19 collides with pre-existing inequalities so that different groups of women will be disproportionately impacted. The majority of artists and creatives were already living precariously with insecure income and low pay; the pandemic has increased this precarity. In an AN survey, 93% of respondents said that they, their practice or career had been affected by the pandemic, with 60% expecting a 50% reduction in income. Therefore womxn creatives are likely to be doubly affected and the words of the womxn who contributed to the the publication have more resonance than ever:
"Collaboration over Competition"
"Community over Institution."
August 2020 Images by Anna Lukala
