Few titles sum up an era and a movement like Spare Rib. When the first issue came out in July 1972, many women were starting to question their position and role in society. The magazine was an active part of the emerging women's liberation movement. It challenged the stereotyping and exploitation of women in what was the first national magazine of its kind. It supported collective, realistic solutions to the hurdles women faced and reached out to women from all backgrounds. Spare Rib became the debating chamber of feminism in the UK. It continued until January 1993 and the full archive of 239 magazines provides a valuable insight into women's lives and this period of feminist activity.
Lucy feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square in 1981 There is to be a place in London where old family photos will be collected for researchers to view. News in from Spitalfields Life the wonderful daily blog by the Gentle Author (check it out!) tells us that Stefan Dickers, Archivist at the Bishopsgate Institute is offering a home to unwanted albums and family photographs, where they will be safely stored as an archive. It is to be called the London Family Photo Archive . He is happy to take receipt of digital copies of photographs if you wish to keep the prints. “We are looking for family and personal photos of everyday life, no matter if you have lived in London since birth or are a recent arrival to the city,” Stefan explained to me, “We are also looking for photos that depict Londoners on day trips and holidays outside of the city.” If you might wish to contribute albums or pictures and would like to know more please contactlibrary@bishopsgate.org.uk This sounds like a wonderful resource in the making....and look at what else they have!
Since opening in 1895, Bishopsgate Library has built up through its collecting policy a record of the development of photography in the capital, alongside it's ever growing collections of books, maps, directories and press cuttings. The emphasis is on the everyday life of London and the Library has specialised in collecting street photography and social and cultural images of London, rather than portraiture or people. The collections are also not limited to famous photographers.
Library Collections cover London History, Labour and Socialist History, Freethought and Humanism, Co-opertaion, Protest and Campaigning, Parliamentary profiles and they hold the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia archive
Researchers and students from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) have worked alongside Zandra Rhodes to prepare, photograph, and catalogue 500 dresses and garments selected from the designer’s private archive at her studio in London, including pieces worn by icons such as Princess Diana, Jackie Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, and Diana Ross.
The project has also created contextual learning materials which explore Zandra Rhodes' creative processes and production techniques, through video interviews, video tutorials, and drawings available at: zandrarhodes.ucreative.ac.uk. Here also you can see video interviews with Zandra Rhodes about the inspiration behind key, favourite garments selected by the designer. There are also video tutorials in which the designer and her specialist studio team demonstrate some of the techniques involved in creating a handmade Zandra Rhodes couture piece. In addition, there is a unique, comprehensive, and previously unseen series of fashion drawings from the 'Zandra Rhodes Style Bibles.'
Zandra Rhodes trained at one of UCA's founder colleges, the Medway College of Design, and is among the most famous names in British fashion over the last fifty years . Her er work includes the design of haute couture for clients such as Elizabeth Taylor, Freddie Mercury, and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Martha Rosler Library 1 August – 9 November 2008 Stills Edinburgh, 23 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh
The book collection of the American artist Martha Rosler is perhaps the perfect embodiment of her radical vision - and an archive of the marginalised American left. It has travelled the world -here's its journey.
e-flux, New York, 2005-2006, Frankfurter Kunstverien, 2006,
Museum for Contermporary Art, Antwerp, 2006, unitednationsplaza, Berlin, 2007,
Institut national d'histoire d'art, Paris, 2007-2008, Stills, Edinburgh, 2008,
Gallery at the University of Massachussets, Amherst, 2009
Martha Rosler's Library holds books on economy, political theory, war, colonialism, poetry, feminism, science fiction, art history, of children’s books, dictionaries, maps and travel literature as well as photo albums, posters, postcards and newspaper clippings . On exhibition they could be studied at will.
Martha states in thsi video that
"the practice of an artist is based on ideas and criticism and thinking and philosophy and science"
three cheers for that
Now back at rest the library is in the process of being catalogued and can be searched here. There are over 7600 books in the Martha Rosler Library; they can be viewed by their title, author, or at their original location on Martha Rosler's shelves. A keyword search for Feminism finds 555 titles.
Rosler’s website here describes her work thus '(She) works in video, phototography, text,
installation, and performance. Her work deals with the separation of the public
and private sphere, exploring issues from everyday life and the media to
architecture and the built environment'.
She has published 17 books of photography, art, and writing, in several languages. Her essay book Decoys and Disruptions, was published by MIT Press in 2004. Publication of her three-part series, “Culture Class; Art, Creativity, Urbanism,” based on the Third biennial Hermes lecture that she gave in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, in 2010, was recently completed in the e-flux Journal, followed by “From Gentrification to Occupation: The Artistic Mode of Revolution.”
The Special Collections at Cardiff University (SCOLAR) are a treasure trove worth exploring and . this year, SCOLAR is offering a pilot series of lunchtime workshops where you can do just that! http://scolarcardiff.wordpress.com/ SCOLAR holds much illustrated material including literary, scientific, medical, and women’s periodicals and miscellanies, newspapers, children’s literature, art and architecture, novel, plays and poetry, travel literature, ballads and almanacs, and prints, posters and propaganda. There is a workshop on women’s studies Decmebeer 6th or 7th, with sessions on historical travel literature and World War One sources in the spring. The workshops are intended to raise awareness of the breadth of material available to support research in these areas, and as a general introduction to using Special Collections and Archives.
"The workshop on women’s history sources will be led by Assistant Archivist, Alison Harvey. Topics will include: biography; children’s literature; conduct/advice manuals; crime; diaries and autobiographies; education; fashion; health and medicine; international affairs; journals and magazines; literature and journalism; music; newspapers; politics, suffrage and the labour movement; travel; University history; witchcraft; and women’s societies". What a great menu!!
Workshops will be held in Special Collections and Archives, on the lower ground floor of the Arts and Social Studies Library, Corbett Road, Cardiff. The women’s history workshop is scheduled for12-1pm on Thursday 6 December, and will be repeated at1-2pm on Friday 7 December.
Workshops are open to all, but places are limited, so if you would like to attend either session, you will need to emailHarveyAE@cf.ac.uk, stating your preferred time.
Girl Reading by Katie Ward comprises seven linked stories set over a period of over 700 years, from 1333 to 2060. Each is an imagined story behind a painting, photo or sculpture. The subject is always a girl, or young woman reading. The pictures are not shown in the book so I have given you the links below.
The stories are also concerned with the changing position of women and the choices they have had during those hundreds of years
The sandcasting video, is from Process Arts, managed by Chris Follows at University of the Arts London (UAL) c.follows@arts.ac.uk
Process Artsfocuses on "making" in art and design . This site shows insights into the acts of making and encourages users to share knowledge and experience online. You can go there to explore traditional and contemporary creative technical processes , and see work and the processes involved in its making online through video, text, image and sound .
Interesting courses including bibliographies, online texts and images etc are available from the MIT site where the Anthropology course linked above was taken from. Courses include many other subject areas of interest such as media studies, history, literature, music and theatre arts, women's and gender studies. MIT is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose mission is "to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century".
French-born, London-based artist Francoise Dupre makes work that celebrates women's creativity, re-contextualising knitting and stitching activities traditionally associated with domestic space. A new exhibition at the Womens Library in London brings together a series of her installations that use many craft forms to create ephemeral, playful, extraordinary sculptural patterns and objects.
This work should not go unacknowledged. Suzanne Prochaska the website owner says "My goal is to provide a comprehensive resource to vintage Barbie dolls, clothing, accessories and other collectible fashion dolls, beginning with Barbie's debut in 1959". http://blog.fashion-doll-guide.com/
