Danger! An Exhibition with Frances Aviva Blane
Danger! (on display at the PV ONLY, Tues, July 14th 6-8.)
Slipware jug, 23h x 15w cm
photo: Sylvain Deleu
Text round the neck reads: This jug has been covered to protect you from its dangerous ideas.
Text on the handle: There is no such thing as a lesbian with a penis.
Exhibition: Danger! Peggy Jay Gallery in Burgh House, Hampstead, NW3 1LT July 15th-26th. PV 14th 6-8pm Do Come!
Open: Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 10-4, Friday 10-1. Saturday also open but entrance is via the cafe.
About the Pot
I made the jug this year, 2026, in loving memory of the delicate nerves of Britain's Museums.
In 2022 I was invited to take part in panel discussion that was part of an event at one of our major UK art museums celebrating ‘Queer’ culture – or Lesbian and Gay as I would call it. That would be inaccurate though since, in ‘queer’ circles, gays and lesbians are probably a minority these days. That, at least, has been the experience of many a lesbian artist.
What happened on the night
My co-panellist, Louise, and I talked about being lesbians and potters and how that affects the way we make art and what we make. It was very well attended – a full house – with an appreciative audience of all ages – much smiling, nodding and applause. The organisers firmly stood their ground and were genuinely inclusive. I say this because they included us – feminist lesbians who are critical of Gender Ideology and not afraid to say so. We also took a pot each. I took ‘Brave Face,’ from the project with women@thewell and Louise brought ‘Found’ from her ‘A Woman’s Work is Never Done’ series. Both pots were on display during the talk.
Boundaries: What was 'speakable' and what was not.
The panel discussion included some images of our work. We had discussed what we would talk about earlier in the week so were prepared for her questions and knew what the boundaries were. Yes, there were boundaries. Louise talked about the ‘Cotton Ceiling‘ but could not say what that actually was. I was not permitted to read out the text on the image of 'The Butch Pot,' saying, ‘there’s no such thing as a lesbian with a penis,' but I could explain ‘Lesbian not Queer,‘ on the same pot. There were small compromises but it seemed worth it to achieve the diversity of thought and experience that is real for lesbians. Without those differences being ‘speakable’ in a public space, museums become platforms for propaganda rather than art and that is not a good precedent to set.
The ticking time bomb
The event was immensely successful. We congratulated each other and ourselves as we crossed the bridge to the station and headed home. It had been very well received. The feed back was excellent but, rumbling menacingly in the bowels of the organisational structure, all was not well. The inevitable 'investigation' followed - not of the artists, of the people organising the event. Poet and teacher Kate Clanchy talks lucidly of this process in her substack post, 'Your HR Story.'
I know nothing more of the 'HR story,' to use the redoubtable Clanchy's words which breathe frost into the warmest hearts and freeze the blood in mid flow. We who have been treated to this process all know about 'that email' though and we know that the process is designed to punish and, if possible, to destroy, the recipients' livlihood and, ideally, their entire career. The roll call of those affected now stretches to many hundreds. The vast number of employment tribunals have lengthened the waiting times for court hearings by 3 to 4 years, according the BBC.
Here is what I do know
The HR stories all look much the same. They follow the same punishing process which resembles the contemporary witch hunt. They are never about what the targeted woman has done and rarely are they about what she has said, they are about what she thinks and how she may have expressed that in a meeting or online or in a private conversation. I compared it to a witch hunt but the Stasi's conduct in the DDR is perhaps a closer comparison. Croation writer Slavenka Draculic covers this with searing accuracy in her book, 'How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.'
In this case..
In this case, the main target got the lawyers in and got advice and support from the Free Speech Union and from Maya Forstater whose case resulted in the landmark judgement establishing gender critical beliefs as protected. It was settled. HR backed off. Jobs were kept but the organiser of the event left soon afterwards as the working environment proved too hostile and too stifling.
A pot and a jug
'The Butch Pot' was made in 2020 and records the Lesbian Strength March in Leeds, 2019. All the banners and slogans were present at that march. 'There is no such thing as lesbian with penis' is a quote from the late Magdalen Berns, (1983-2019,) remembered movingly here by the feminist chronicler, Lily Maynard. The Butch Pot has yet to be shown in a public space in Britain and, if the museum's response to an image of it in a small panel event is anything to go by, it won't be considered 'halal' for many years yet. It has been shown twice in two tiny private galleries in London to invited audiences. That we have landed here in the 2020s would have been inconceivable in 1990. It is the Berns quote that was deemed 'dangerous' and has been cited twice since as likely to 'offend' or 'upset' the apparently delicate audiences of these venerable institutions. 'Dangerous' is the word always used and that keeps coming back to haunt me. That is why it's on the Danger! jug and why the exhibition is so called.
Danger!
Danger was made this year. I am making a series of satirical jugs and pots remembering each of my cancellations. They are the record. They are also 'The Revenge Pots.' One day, possibly not in my life time, they will be 'speakable,' even if, for now, they are not. Danger! the eponymous pot, will be on display for one night only. In other words, even 'Danger' is still not speakable, not yet. The one night is the private view so, once again, it is an invited audience. Many people consider it 'hilarious.' I cannot yet find the laughter. I find it deeply depressing.
The good news..
The better part of this is that the Burgh House Museum director and the gallery manager were thoroughly decent, direct and honest about it all. There was no sleight of hand or hiding the truth as has been the case with every cancellation I have had for the past 16 years. The gallery is a mixed use space - available for wedding hires, private parties and the like. Work shown in the space has to be 'family friendly,' or, as I prefer, 'age appropriate.' We had a meeting and discussed every pot in detail that might be deemed 'awkward' for the space. It was the word, 'penis,' that troubled them. The pot will be presented on a plinth over a meter high. Most children I know old enough to see to read the handle would either be old enough to keep quiet until after the event, or would be hysterically nudging their pals saying,'Look! It says willy!' They were concerned that might step over a line for some of the hirers and that could threaten a major funding source. It is an indicator of the high anxiety levels affecting all areas of the arts, charities and business world now and that I find deeply depressing.
The Exhibition
Peggy Jay is a tiny gallery. I will be showing six pots after the opening night and Burgh House are to be congratulated for including a number of other potentially 'controversial' pots in the show and for their honesty in dealing with the issues at hand. It is an example of good practice and a viable way forward.