Feminist Satire, No Safe Spaces
Opening Night
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art,
Warsaw, July 7th 2023.
Here are a couple of favourite photos from the opening.
It is a huge honour to be showing my pots in such a prestigious museum and in such an art-serious city like Warsaw.
I owe thanks to Agnieszka Kołek for inviting me and to her magnificent team at the museum, particularly to the exhibition designer Julia Lipiec and the brilliant in-house technical team for making the show look so lovely.
The show was curated by Agnieszka Kołek and Jo Bartosch, a British feminist journalist who has long taken an active interest in art and has known my work since 2019 when she first wrote about 'And the Door Opened,' the project I did with women@thewell. Some of those pots are in this show.
Perhaps the biggest thank you is always for the audience. I was delighted to see so many people. I don't know a soul in Warsaw - or anywhere in Poland - so these were genuinely interested to see the work. They listened attentively and were full of interesting questions. I don't remember the last time I had so many lively conversations with people, serious about art, in a gallery.
It was particularly encouraging to meet so many younger people. By young, I mean mostly under thirty. They were deeply engaged with the both the material art and the form as well as with the narrative and the issues my pots respond to. This was multi-dimensional interest. They were inspiring.
'Feminist Satire, No Safe Spaces'
continues until October 1st.
At some point I shall be returning to do a guided tour of the show and, possibly, another event. These are all yet to be decided. I'll keep you posted.
A guided tour of my own pots: how do I do that? The show is in three identifiable sections but all interrelated:
I satirise religious extremism - Islamism in particular - and I celebrate the women in Iran who must fight it day and night.
I satirise the sex trade and honour the women - sex trade survivors - who campaign against it.
And I satirise Gender Ideology and ridicule its supporters and the institutions that give them shelter.
23 Pots and 2 huge drawings cover these three main areas of satirical and critical interest. All three are forms of ideoglogical extremism and all deserve rigorous mockery and attack.
You can read more about the exhibtion in Jo Bartosch's excellent introductory essay.
The Castle Gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday, 11-7pm and admission is free on Thursdays.