Doing What Comes Naturally

Both Megan and I were really excited when Feminist Drum-Head three piece Charismatic Megafauna said that they’d love to premiere their debut music video at ‘Doing What Comes Naturally presents ‘Spare Rib.’’ 

Described as “reverse cheerleading” by Nightshift Music Magazine the band began life in a field in Oxfordshire, they have gone onto play across London including the V & A and Open School East.

The video gathered a resounding round of applause on the day and we’re happy to be able to share it on our blog as well.

You can find out more about Charismatic Megafauna in various ways:

Website: http://charismaticmegafauna.hotglue.me

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cxmxfx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Charismatic-Megafauna-410759832463289/timeline/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Amongst the 100 plus attendees to the event were reporters from both Vice Broadly and Monocle24′s radio show ‘The Stack.’

Charlie Craggs spoke to Zing Tsjeng (UK Editor of Vice Broadly) about her NailTransophobia campaign:

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/the-trans-manicurist-trading-nail-art-for-education

"If I was on the street, I could argue with every person that looks at me funny, but I just don't have the energy," Craggs told me. "My activism is positive activism—it's not about being like 'fuck these people.' I'm all about 'honey, have a [cookie] and a pink telephone, it's all positive, it's all fun, it's all good intentions. For me, that's what I wanna be doing [...] That's what I'm trying to do with my life: to get to a point where I can lift myself out of my reality."

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Photo: Steph Wilson for Vice, Broadly

Vice Broadly - is described as a website and digital video channel devoted to representing the multiplicity of women's experiences. Through original reporting and documentary film, we provide a sustained focus on the issues that matter most to women. As one YouTube commenter succinctly put it: "So basicly [sic] vice but excluding anything of relevance that includes men."

We were also lucky enough to have a Bill Leuty from Monocle24′s radio show ‘The Stack’ with us for the event, who picked up on some crucial themes which arose from our panel debate on ‘Art, Activism and Publishing’ speaking after the debate to our panelists on the themes and the relevance of ‘Spare Rib.

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You can check out a re-run of the show over on Monocle24′s listen again service:

http://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-stack/

Episode 159 from the 12th of September. 

We were really excited when Chloe said that she’d be happy to perform as part of our event. In our heads we’d had in mind the idea of a closing performance which hinged on the ‘Spare Rib’ collection - unpacking it, reflecting on it, delving into it as we had done for the 6 months of research we undertook prior to the event taking place. 

Initial discussions were incredibly thought provoking, sat in the Periodicals Rooms after work Chloe definitely had a lot of questions - which not only were important to her but became incredibly relevant when justifying the event to ourselves, giving myself and Megan the oportunity to think through a whole new framework:

- Why had we chosen that particular journal (of all the journals in the Periodicals Room)?

- What we thought of ‘Spare Rib’.

- Why was ‘Spare Rib’ important?

- What made ‘Spare Rib’ relevant to today?

- Why it was important to create this event within the context of The Feminist Library?

Alongside what felt like hundreds of other questions - it was interesting working with Chloe on her research as for the first time we had the opportunity to start talking about the project and our research outside of one another.

A few weeks after our initial discussion with Chloe, Megan and I were sat side-by-side on a dark Wednesday evening in the Periodicals Room again watching a run though the week before the event. I felt goosebumps watching an artist who not only complimented everything we’d been saying to one another but revitalised it, twisted it and threw out there ideas which perfectly chimed with concerns that rang true today, creating a ‘what if’ moment which my mind had never thought to go to before. 

Working for the Tate Library and Archive department I’m always interested in how artists interact with Library or Archive collections - how they re-imagine them and re-work them to make it not only relevant to today’s discourse, but - in the case of Chloe’s performance - highlighting the positive intersectional aspects of ‘Spare Rib’ rubbing the tone of the magazine against the frustrations we still felt today.

Chloe came up with something which not only completely fascinated us, captivating our imagination, but reflected on the magazine through a hyper realistic, optimistic, witty and so undeniably refreshing approach. Chloe re-presented the past as a fictional realm of possibility and hope - doing so in a matter of fact manner which crafted a space that seemed more realistic and plausable the further the performance went. 

After the performance finished it seemed odd to think back to what actually happened in the past, to think through how it could all have been so different and how ‘When Things Happen’ they transform the narrative of the future. Of course hindsight is a wonderful tool, but Chloe has masterminded it in a unique and emotional way which allows the audience a possibility to engage with decisions that aren’t too far-fetched, this is because these decisions are being made by Feminists up and down the country and all over the World and by highighting those choices we maybe come to realise that change is represented by the people most affected. 

Megan and I would like to thank Chloe for her time, effort, amazing research and thoought provoking performance.

You can watch full videos of the performance below (Part 1 and 2).

Chloe Cooper’s performance ‘When Things Happen’ Part 1.

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Chloe Cooper’s performance ‘When Things Happen’ Part 2.

Video:  Leslie Deere

Spare Rib exhibition

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Summer Zine Fest.

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Summer Zine Fest

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Charlie Craggs’ #nailtransophobia campaign as part of The Feminist Library’s Summer Zine Fest.

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Summer Zine Fest.

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Our Panel Debate; ‘Art, Activism and Publishing’ featuring from left; Rose Nordin (OOMK), Rudy Loewe, Soofiya Andry, Louise Kimpton-Nye, Megan Pickering, Sophie Risner.

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Summer Zine Fest.

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Summer Zine Fest.

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Rudy Loewe at their stall as part of the Feminist Library’s Summer Zine Fest.

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The Feminist Library’s Summer Zine Fest.

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Chloe Cooper about to perform ‘’When Things Happen’ a ‘Spare Rib’ inspired performance in the Periodicals Rooms at the Feminist Library.

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Chloe Cooper’s performance ‘When Things Happen.’ 

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Chloe Cooper’s performance ‘When Things Happen.’

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Chloe Cooper’s performance ‘When Things Happen.’ 

When looking through the Spare Rib collection at the Feminist Library London, I found it heartbreaking to read through articles written when Margaret Thatcher was in power. “It was, until recently, a generally held belief that each of us, regardless of income, had a right to at least the basic necessities of life – healthcare, education and a habitable home. These basic rights are being systematically removed by the Conservative government.” It is heartbreaking because these words written in 1987 could easily be published today, in 2015. With another ruthless Conservative government in charge, we are entering a terrifying time where our healthcare, education and social housing are under brutal attack.   The NHS is being further privatised, the Human Rights Act scrapped and replaced with a racist’s alternative, the health minister is anti-choice, the justice minister pro-capital punishment, the equalities minister homophobic, and the disabilities minister voted against protecting child disability benefits. This list seems never ending and is getting worse by the day. Council homes are also being deliberately abandoned and damaged by the council, leading to them being demolished and sold to private landlords, who then build luxury apartments, which are unaffordable even to working people on an average wage. I have decided to focus this post on these historic and present attacks, as I believe alternative media, art and activism will be strongly needed over the next five years in order to fight back against the current oppressive Conservative government. One article in Spare Rib discusses major areas of concern under Thatcherism. One of the biggest fears - especially for those with less money - was the government’s damaging changes to council housing. The 1980 Housing Act introduced “Right-To-Buy” council homes, which could destroy social housing for those most vulnerable. These fears were vindicated. A decade later, more than a million council homes were sold, and not replaced. This is still happening today. We now are seeing less and less social housing, and more unaffordable housing. The government should be building more housing that is actually affordable for those most vulnerable, instead of continuing with this classism.

The effects of social cleansing through the above methods is sickeningly evident in London, through the gentrification of many areas. Social housing is being demolished and the majority of homes rebuilt will be completely unaffordable for current residents. Plans to create a small amount of ‘affordable’ housing are completely false: these homes will be at 80% of market value; not affordable for people on a low to average wage. Our government is not working in the interest of people, their priority is profit. @FocusE15 are a group of mothers from a hostel in East London. They faced eviction due to funding cuts and were told to look for private accommodation in Manchester, Hastings and Birmingham. These women have been fighting for their right to stay in London close to their families and their lives ever since; occupying spaces, attempting to save council homes and ensure decent housing for all. One of the estate that is still due to be demolished is Aylesbury Estate, in Southwark, London. Here residents as well as activists from surrounding areas have been fighting to stop the estate from being demolished. This year the estate was occupied, in response to which Southwark Council spent £140k on building an exclusion/containment fence around the estate, blocking occupiers in it, and forcing residents to go through private security gates before being allowed to enter their own homes. This art piece follows me walking around Aylesbury Estate, the morning after protesters tore down the fence, which was then quickly replaced. 

Our research and development time with ‘Spare Rib’ sadly came to an end recently as we sat down together to digest the last remaining copies in The Feminist Library’s collection in preparation for our salon event in August. 

As part of our research we’ve been documenting stand-out features of the magazine including layout, text and illustrative aesthetics. Over the course of the next few weeks / month we will be sharing with you our personal favourite aspects of the magazine in the run up to the announcement of our event programme. 

Having grown up reading ‘2000AD’, and being accutely aware of the presence of ‘Viz’ magazine and lately the satirical practice of Steve Bell and Martin Rowson it is clear that male illustrative work in the UK maintains a large percentage of our visual landscape within the media. With this in mind ‘Spare Rib’ works as an inspiring, unique and rare compendium of female illustrative and artistic practice and ideas from the 1970s - 90s.

It is encouraging to see that illustration forms a fundemental back-bone to the editorial practice of ‘Spare Rib’ helping to reflect and compliment the political agitprop of the magazine and also creating a much needed focus on female and feminist visual activity (all of which may I add is still highly poignant and relevant today).

Never Give Up by Jacky Fleming http://www.jackyfleming.co.uk/postcards/?pid=213

One of the women who helped to define the illustrative agenda of ‘Spare Rib’ was Jacky Fleming who spoke in 2007 to Jess McCabe of ‘The F Word’ about her experiences coming to Illustration:

It may seem hard to believe but when the drawings first appeared they were perceived as being quite extreme. The most frequent question then was: "What do men think about these?" Amazing how little women have to do to cause a stir, and how much men can get away with before anyone takes any notice at all.

What was such a revelation was the realisation that there wasn’t a one-size-fits-all stylistic approach to ‘Spare Rib.’ From issue to issue, decade to decade the pages worked as visual and text based documentation of the cultural, political and domestic progression of women throughout the UK defining a non-heterogeneous visual representation of equality very much in keeping with what we would define as ‘intersectional’ today.

Activating the pages as a visual call to arms, but also finding the illustrative beautiful, fascinating, structural and relevant - so that turning pages didn’t just fuel new visual encounters but proposed new ways of interpreting and digesting. Fleming discusses the role of addressing feminism through art as a constant societal challenge:

Feminism always gets a bad press, and always has done. If you think its bad now look up what the press had to say about suffragettes. It's always been the issue that makes you unattractive as a woman and will probably affect your ability to bear children. In truth women are desperate for something we can relate to, especially if it makes us laugh as well.

‘Spare Rib’ worked across illustration, lino-cuts, etching, painting and print - not only creating work for female artists and image-makers, but also enabling a larger and more dynamic sense of visual freedom and appreciation - bringing alive art forms which could maybe previously be seen as either ‘unfashionable’ or too politically radical for the time. Allowing and expressing a space defined visually by women for women. 

The strong working methodology of ‘Spare Rib’ created a new era of collaboration which required visual artists and illustrators with frustrations and political ideas to step outside of the shadows and into the lime light. Making it not only OK to visualise such ideas and thoughts but actively encouraging this activity to fuel change. 

Illustrators who we recommend checking out from the pages of ‘Spare Rib’ (links where possible have been added):

Rachel Ashton

Sue Coe

Bongiwe (Bongi) Dhlomo

Ingrid Emsden

Jacky Fleming

Christine McCauly

Folake Shoga

Artist unknown.

Folake Shoga.

Rachel Ashton.

Poster: Megan Pickering

Saturday 29th August, 2015.

As part of The Feminist Libraries 40th anniversary year we will be hosting a salon to celebrate and uncover the libraries unique collection of 'Spare Rib.'

The Feminist Library: http://feministlibrary.co.uk/

Spare Rib Magazine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spare_Rib

Quotes.

Documentation #2; Zine workshop with Mulberry School, Tower Hamlets.

We invited a group of A-Level students to Tate to take part in a workshop in response to the Show and Tell - we asked them at first to draw from the Tate permanent collection (500 Years Walk Through) specifically from the 1890 and 1970 / 80s rooms (for comparison), before coming down to the Show and Tell to complete their collages from work and images featured from the Tate Library and Archive Collection, after this they layered texts from free newspapers on-top to create further depth and understanding.

Documentation #1.

First and foremost both Megan and I would like to thank all those that came along to our Tate Library and Archive Show and Tell 'Doing What Comes Naturally'.

We had some really fantastic conversations in the short space of time that we had and are looking forward to seeing how we can take this forward.

Some of the feedback that we had included a need for an inventory of items so that people could go away and research / find the items in their own time.

Inventory for 'Doing What Comes Naturally; a Tate Library and Archive Show and Tell on Feminist Activist Art Practice.'

Archive Items

Jo Spence - uncatalogued Archive Collection acquired in 2013

COUM Transmissions book and 2 x images of Cosey Fanni Tutti from the uncatalogued Genesis P'Orridge Archive Collection.

1 x image of Cosey Fanni Tutti holding scissors from the catalogued John Mayor Archive Collection.

Papers and correspondence relating to 'Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists' (curated by Lucy R. Lippard), which took place November - December 1980 at the ICA.

Library Items

'Adrian Piper; Race, Gender, and Emodiment' by John P. Bowles

'Ana Mendieta: Earth Body' Ed. Olga Viso 

'After the Revolution; Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art' by Eleanor Heartney and Helaine Posner.

'Cosey Complex' Ed. Maria Fusco

 'Gendered Art and Feminist Theory,' by Tal Dekel

'Pornography; The Production and Consumption of Inequality,' by Gail Dines, Robert Jenson, Ann Russo, 1998

'Street and Studio' Exhibition catalogue for Exhibition held at Tate Modern, 2008

The Happy Hippocrite; Linguistic Hardcore, Issue 1' Ed. Mario Fusco

Library Special Collection; Artist Books

'Colouring Outside the Lines' Ed. Melanie Maddison.

'Guerrilla Girls; Greatest Hits' by the Guerrilla Girls.

'Inflammatory Essays 1979–82', by Jenny Holzer

'Rape Is' by Suzanne Lacy

'Shape and Situate' Ed. Melanie Maddison

AV / Audio

2 x VHS (of 4) from the `Performing Bodies' film series shown at Tate Modern in October, 2000.

Cassette Tape: 'Performance, Gender and Identity.' Study day exploring the relationship between gender, performance and self-portraiture which was held at Tate Modern in 2005 and discusses amongst others the work of Ana Mendieta and Frida Kahlo.

Information about how to view these items in the Tate Library and Archive can be found here: http://www.tate.org.uk/research/reading-rooms - you'll need to register to view these items, but this only takes a few minutes and can be done on the same day as viewing, you will only need to bring with you 2 x forms of ID; 1 x photographic and 1 x home address.

Lastly, Megan and I would like to thank all of the staff in the Library and Archive Department for their help and support in the run-up to and throughout the event and Jo Latham from Mulberry School for her assistance with our Schools workshop.

'Doing What Comes Naturally' Limited Edition Zine.

Don't forget to pick-up a limited edition zine designed and created by 'Doing What Comes Naturally' co-host Megan Pickering. 

These will be available to pick-up at the Show and Tell and are a limited print run of 50. 

Image: www.hackneyhistory.wordpress.com