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| 'My message to the women of our nation' (detail) |
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| '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.
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| '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.
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| '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.
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| Display of various posters produced by SRWW |
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| Copies of 'The Beating of our Hearts' by Dodie Bellamy were included |
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| '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!
