What about the women? Watch the winds of change.

My art practice is primarily concerned with site specific performance and often overlays historically prolific women. My latest project took form on Whitsun Sunday in May 2010 in Clovelly, North devon. Both place and date were relevant to a story we uncovered at the Devon Records Office as part of the Politics in Print commission with the Double Elephant Print workshop.

We arrived at Clovelly at 8am, the timing was perfect because the light was bright and reflection from the water suface was strong. The sun was high, and unusually hot, the beach was dotted with local workers and residents who quickly became interested in our presence on the beach. The nature of our activity, although queitly stated and undistruptive, seemed to take them by surprise. They were keen to discover what our action was about. Some of the residents present were aware of the story of the 3 Suffragettes and were reminded of the resonance of the story at Clovelly by our activity, and some were learning of it for the first time.

We walked the coastline, the terrain wasn't easy due to the rocky surface of the beach. We spent 3 hours walking the length of the beach to pay homage to the journey of the 3 historic women. Whilst bringing our contemporary vision to performance by flying flags of Suffragette colours. We were working the slogan 'What about the women? Watch the winds of change.' For me the action was about spell casting or enchantment to promote the voice of women for positive future social change. By the end of the 3 hours we were physically quite tired and in need of an ice cream.

The performance's aim was to highlight two parts of the story. The other section took place in the curch on the Clovelly Estate. we walked through the church yard in our dresses and used the flags from the beach performance as scarfs to cover our heads. We entered the church and took our seats, as to overlay the presence of the 3 militant women.

The story goes that on the 23rd May, Whitsun sunday, 1909, 3 suffragette women who were active in disruptive protest to ensure votes for women, secretly became aware of Asquith's private plans to be at Clovelly court that weekend. They knew he would attend the sunday service at the Church and their intentions were to 'get on the nerves' of the Prime Minister, who was bundled out of the side door of the Church as to contain his discontent. The women were advised to leave Clovelly and were escorted to Bideford. After staying only a few hours in Bieford, the 3 women walked 10 miles back to Clovelly via the coastline. They planted a display of banners in the garden of Asquith's retreat over night with the intention that he would wake up to open his curtain to reveal the votes for women campaign on his lawn.

The performance truly felt like a pilgrimage and evoked a manifestation in time and space of their lives. This work is in context to the work that we have been producing through the IWA program which has highlighted suffrage whilst working with the symbolism of their colours.

This work was performed by Nicci Wonnacott, Sally Trivett and Catherine Cartwright. This blog was written by Nicci Wonnacott. You can find Catherine Cartwright's account of the project here; //http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/544293

Walk for Peace 2009
http://vimeo.com/4668246

Sewing for Peace 2009
http://vimeo.com/8698043

 We wanted to flag up these two films made by Wiseman Productions, documenting the success of Sewing for Peace at University of Exeter and the Walk for Peace in Exeter High Street in 2009. Hope you enjoy watching them, some of you might be able to spot yourselves.

For more information about the projects, go to the International Women's Arts program website;
 www.internationalwomensarts.org

An Inspirational Women's Voice

As we were thinking about how we could continue from our last blog about the success of the Inspirational Women's Voices event that was part of the International Women's Day programme 2010 at Exeter Phoenix, we contacted another of the performers who featured in the line up of inspirational female artists from the South West region. Liv Torc is a very successful, award winning stand-up poet and the new bard of Exeter!

On the night of Inspirational Women's Voices, Liv performed a selection of her poems that were both hilarious and poignant, with themes of her experience and discoveries of womanhood. We contacted Liv asking her about what the International Women's Day event meant to her as a female performer on reflection. She told us that for her, the event was a brilliant example of female artists doing exciting and diverse work that reaches and entertains both men and women.

Somewhat amazingly, she has generously offered us one of her own poems as a very special treat for the blog!

So with great pleasure I share with you this;

Tits and Artist by Liv Torc

As a woman artist once bombarded with menstruating muses
And silent monologues about masculine abusers
I ran screaming in the face of feminist art
The kind that pulls the male and female genitals apart.

Equal to me meant I did not have to continuously point out
What being a woman was all about.
Screw the sugar coated puppy dog tails

I wanted to reach for the guts and nails of alpha males
Write poetry not about the fall or rise of femininity

But the joyful twists of human inanity

Live a reality close to the brink of blissful insanity

Stand on a stage with a comical war to wage

Fight from the page the suppressive depressive rage

That comes when men and women judge themselves too much

I wanted to talk about life and love and touch and touch.

As I got older I realised I must be a feminist after all

Because every time I pick up a mic

And stand alone upon a floodlit floor

I am responding to some bright but distant inner call

That says woman don’t have to be silent anymore.

International Women's Day 2010

March seems like a long time ago now, but it's always good to reflect on a great evening that was Inspirational Woman's Voices held at Exeter Phoenix as part of the International Women's Day programme 2010. The evening ran through a wonderful line-up of 5 inspirational female artists who all gave performances ranging from music, dance, poetry, live art and film.

Not only was this event an extreme success in that the artists played to a full and well received audience, it was a wonderful opportunity for the community to be brought together to celebrate international women's day for the fourth year running at the Exeter Phoenix.

I’m happy to confirm that from the International Women’s Day events on 7^th March; ‘For the Record’ schools performance and the ‘Inspirational Women’s Voices’ evening event we have raised a donation of £750 for SAFE’s emergency fund to assist women with no recourse to public funds.

One of the performances in the line up was a dance piece by local artists Emily Keene and Gemma Kempthorne. It fused live dance and film to create narrative about the changing female role in domestic space.


We would like to share with you an interview that Emily gave just before the event. The interview gives a small insight into what inspired the piece and how Emily and Gemma aimed to celebrate what it is to be female from generation to generation.

ʻInspirational Womenʼs Voicesʼ

Live art, music and film event for International Womenʼs Day

Exeter Phoenix - 8pm, Sunday 7th March 2010

Interview with Emily Keene, film-maker for ʻDomestic Blissʼ
By Monique Luckman

ML: Where are you from?

EK: I grew up in West Devon, studied fine art in Sheffield and moved back to the South West because I love the region and wanted to work here.

ML: What is 'Domestic Bliss'?

EK: 'Domestic Bliss' is a lively, fun performance piece about women's changing role in the home using dance and film.

ML: What inspired you to deal with the theme of the changing role of 'women in the home'?


EK: Gemma and I wanted to create a piece that women of all ages could relate to. There are so many things us ladies have to think about; career, cooking, family, housework, looking gorgeous. We are constantly given ideal lifestyle tips, but finding that work-life balance is sometimes hard to achieve. 'Domestic Bliss' gives a nod to women's lives over the last fifty years, and brings it up to date with images and ideas that affect us all today. We're quite excited by what we've made and look forward to presenting it at the Phoenix.

ML: How does Domestic Bliss differ from your previous work?

EK: My background is in media arts and creative writing, so it has been interesting
converting my ideas to live performance. The process has been like cooking a recipe, sometimes following it, and sometimes throwing in some new ingredients to see what happens. We found some great locations and people to work with along the way. It's been a really fun process.

ML: What was it like collaborating with Gemma Kempthorne?

EK: Working together has actually been really easy. We met in November and immediately found a shared language of ideas and aims. We first spent time constructing a story for all the live action and filmed sequences to work around. Gemma's got lots of energy, and there's quite a lot of humour to her choreography. I like finding the beauty and poetic in everyday places. We have managed to combine all these things in this piece. Though our training and backgrounds are quite different, there are many cross-overs to our working process. We both want to develop new work after the show.

ML: What is International Women's Day for you?

EK: International Women's Day is a great chance to celebrate being female, find
connections between generations of women and get inspired. Doing this project has highlighted that even small things we do everyday can change lives and make things better. 'Inspirational Women's Voices' will be a great night for the girls! (...boys are invited
too!)