LETTERPRESS

SEE RED WOMEN'S WORKSHOP

'My message to the women of our nation' (detail)

'Is there Life after Marriage? Y B A WIFE' (detail)

Went down to the ICA this week, hoping to catch a screening of  Xavier Dolan's Laurence Anyways. I didn't see the film but I did get a chance to see this great -albeit little- exhibition of posters and ephemera from the See Red Women's Workshop (SRWW). The printmaking workshop was established in 1974 in north London. Their statement of intent, featured in the exhibition stated the collective's goal:

'to combat images of the 'model woman' which are used by capitalist ideology to keep women from disputing their secondary status or questioning their role in a male-dominated society.'

The SRWW tried to achieve this aim by producing their own images that portrayed aspects of their struggle: fighting against gender roles, government-sanctioned cuts, anti-woman violence, sexism, imperialism, racism and homophobia. The collective nature of the group was strongly emphasised as posters were only credited to the Workshop instead of a single artist. Many of the screen printed posters on display had a very similar aesthetic of flat areas of colour and simple hand-drawn illustrations while others, like the poster featuring Margaret Thatcher (above) combined collage and the women's drawings. Another version uses only newspaper headlines to communicate the destructive effects of Thatcher's policies on women and their communities.

'Alone we are powerless...together we are strong' (detail)

I personally found the some posters reminiscent of the style of Black Panther artist-activist Emory Douglas. Although not as militant, the SRWW's posters portrayed women as actively fighting patriarchy they were victims of. Unfortunately, the displays weren't dated but it seemed later works like 'My message to the women of our nation' represented a move towards a slicker, more professional direction in contrast to the posters with hand drawn graphics and type. As they moved into the 1980s the workshop members increasingly realised the need to create posters that would grab attention, utilising different graphic elements like pattern in posters such as 'ALONE WE ARE POWERLESS... TOGETHER WE ARE STRONG.' which was my favourite on display. It shows 16 identical women cradling babies imprisoned in box-homes who are asked by a single voice representing the husbands: 'What did you do to-day dear?'. Below the illustration the words 'Alone we are powerless...together we are strong.' serve as a call to action. The use of colour is key to its effectiveness- the housewives printed in stark black and white, with the radical slogan in bright red.

'Protest' poster

The SRWW did not seem to be influenced by any particular style or movement in graphic design but we can see the influence of counter-cultural psychedelic art in the works of the collective. I always find it interesting to compare graphic design produced by professionals with that of self-taught designers and amateurs. Around the time the See Red collective produced the posters on display, the home-made punk aesthetic was gaining popularity. A poster bearing the word 'PROTEST' in multicoloured bold capitals looks as if it were a direct reference to Seymour Chwast's 1967 anti-war 'End Bad Breath' poster. Green Uncle Sam is replaced by a green stern-faced woman protesting about women's issues, pageant winners and women in restrictive underwear spilling out from her mouth.

Above all, the SRWW was dedicated to accessibility. They made provisions for women 'to use our facilities and learn printing methods' free of charge (the Workshop was funded solely by the sale of its output before being given grants by the Greater London Council in the 1980s). The messages of the posters were always made clear through the use of slogans and inventive graphics and the posters themselves dealt with a range of issues, often incorporating intersectional feminism. They were empowering as well as informative.

Display of various posters produced by SRWW

Copies of 'The Beating of our Hearts' by Dodie Bellamy were included

'Take a pill Mrs Brown' (detail) 

The exhibition is a rather brief look at the output of the collective but the curators' efforts are aided by the inclusion of an essay (it's always nice to have something to take home!) by Dodie Bellamy which re-evaluates the slogans used in the SRWW's posters. I was looking forward to seeing this exhibition (particularly as I have been exploring graphic design in my narrative project from a feminist perspective) and even though I hoped it would be more extensive, I encourage anyone with an interest in feminist and radical graphic design to visit it and read up on See Red Women's Workshop!

PATTERNS (ARCHITECTURE)

Top: hexagons somewhere in Farringdon 

Bottom: rectangles on a building on Granary Street 

'I'M A UNION MAN NOW'

I work for the union 'cause she's so good to me;
And I'm bound to come out on top, that's where I should be.
I will hear ev'ry word the boss may say,
For he's the one who hands me down my pay.
Looks like this time I'm gonna get to stay,
I'm a union man, now, all the way.

'King Harvest Has Surely Come', © Robbie Robertson, 1969

As well as my college work on narrative, I'm working on -well, at least the ideas for- a zine about the history and contemporary relevance of trades unions in London. It's not really a subject I particularly have links to, besides living in an area where a couple of unions have headquarters, the main one being the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), housed in the appropriately named Unity House on Chalton Street. I hadn't given it much thought until seeing a flyer on a local barbershop window about the unions' presence in the area.

Figuring out the front page on Illustrator

In addition to my initial research in Bookmarks and Housmans and looking around at the various organisations, it was interesting to hear Owen Jones's opinions on the relevance and future of unions at today's Culture Now talk at the ICA. Again, it isn't a topic I'm too knowledgeable about but I agree with what he says about the unions being "all but airbrushed out of existence". After all, those of us who aren't trades union members only seem to hear about them when they're struggling against the powers that be for better pay and conditions for their members. Anyway, if I get away from the politics right now and return to my ideas for the zine, I'm thinking of working with black and white film (which I also something I plan on doing in my narrative project). Film photography isn't something I've worked with before but seeing Hisano Luttman's St Pancras Diary at the Hardy Tree gallery a while ago made me think about using this medium. Now all I need is a camera!

BRIAN GRIMWOOD

A week ago, I went to a panel at WORK Gallery on the subject of British illustration. I found that most of the audience and panel members (illustrators Brian Grimwood, Simon Spilsbury, Rose Blake and art director Richard Tennant) seemed to appreciate the resurgence of craft techniques in contemporary illustration -as a reaction against computer generated work. It was quite interesting point of view as I think that in comparison, young graphic designers are making so much computer generated work influenced by Internet art and Memphis (like my trendy squiggly icon!) to the point where even I'm a little tired of it. The other day I went back to WORK to have a proper look at Grimwood's retrospective:

The musical notation drawings (2008) were my favourite. Look at the character on the top right! I feel I should also note that the gallery lighting wasn't that terrible, it was just that my phone camera was on the outdoor setting.

THE ART OF PUNK

On Wednesday I went to the Art of Punk exhibition and panel discussion which neatly tied in with my research into the work of Linder Sterling. Since visiting Someday All the Adults Will Die last month I've been quite interested in the processes used as well as the punk aesthetic, so I've been using the library photocopiers a lot (and it doesn't hurt that a4 black and white copies are only 5p, either).