‘Act of Creation’, Tackling Gendered Time

Beaconsfield

Reading Groups for Sustainable Experimentation: Part Three. Curated by Fran Painter-Fleming

Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall

Reading Groups for Sustainable Experimentation Curated by writer and curator Fran Painter-Fleming in response to the exhibition Manifesto for Sustainable Experimentation, this reading group series draws on Beaconsfield Contemporary’s 30 years of production. Each session is anchored by a particular exhibition or performance, with each signalling different strategies for thinking otherwise. Working with film, performance and installation, each of the selected archival projects use these artistic mediums to challenge the often-hostile environments we find ourselves within, and to cultivate more compassionate ways of existing in the contemporary moment. Part Three: ‘Act of Creation’, Tackling Gendered TimeSaturday 2nd August 2:30-4:30pm. At the beginning of her life, she did not know how old she was ... But gradually, the word punctuality, meaning exactness to the minute, comes to rule her life ... Now, everything around her is designed to save time so she can squeeze more and more into her day ... She invests in a modem, a food-processor, a CD-ROM drive, a TV remote-control, voice-mail, e-mail, fax, home-shopping service, a remote-diagnosis machine, voice conferencing, video-on-demand, the Daily Me, home-banking, virtual education and an electronic camera... Living so perpetually in the present, she wonders where her past and future went ... Bush, K. 1995. Cottage Industry Beaconsfield 4 November-3 December 1995. [Exhibition catalogue]. London: Beaconsfield. This third session responds to one of the first exhibitions held at Beaconsfield’s current site, Cottage Industry (1995). Bringing together seven female artists, (Sonia Boyce, Kate Bush, Mikey Cuddihy, Siobhan Davies, Elsie Mitchell, Clare Palmier and Naomi Siderfin) Curated by the female member of Beaconsfield, this group show invited artists to share their experiences of navigating gendered domestic and economic constraints within the art world, looking at how invisible labour and care was often paralleled or blurred within professional settings. Whether tackling curatorial positions alongside fine art practices, supporting children or, students, this emphasis on hosting or guidance often slips into the workload of female creatives. Held across four sites, the gallery space, the exterior walls of Beaconsfield and two private homes of the featured artists, Cottage Industry broadened the scope of how exhibition making could be conceived and received, evolving in tandem with individual artists’ capacities and needs. 30 years on, this reading group looks at how the experience of female artists has changed, reflecting on radical histories of collective action, as well as carving space for generous ways of working. How can the art world create sustainable ways of working for its female artists and how can we tackle the realities of gendered time? Archival materials from Cottage Industry (1995) will be on display for participants to sift through and return to after collectively reading the texts. TEXTS: Extract from Hettie Judah, ‘Maintenance’, in Judah, H., and Hayward Gallery, associated with work. Acts of Creation : On Art and Motherhood. London: Thames &amp; Hudson Ltd, 2024. ‘Residencies as Programmatic Spaces for Communality: An Interview with Nina Möntmann, Irmeli Kokko’ Contemporary Artist Residencies interview Excerpt from Milkways, Camille Henrot, Hatje Cantz, 2023. *For those who want to read in advance, the selected extracts for each session will be made available to attendees ahead of each session. We will read the texts out loud together however, so no reading ahead is not compulsory. BackgroundIn opposition to dominant, capitalist or colonial constructions of time, each of these sessions also posits more elastic readings of time, bringing in scholars and artists who unpick how landscape, memory, language and gender each leave their own temporal markings. Bringing together archival materials from the selected projects with critical texts, this series fosters dialogue between the recent history and the now, encouraging participants to continue to weld tools of rebellion against dogma or oppression. This series has been conceived by Fran Painter-Fleming, a curator, writer and researcher based in London. Her curatorial research hinges on social memory, geopolitics, translation and myth, working primarily with live art and moving image. Her curatorial practice is grounded in slower methods of curating, working with artists or fields of research over extended periods of time.Book on Eventbrite for a minimum donation of £1+. Please pay as much as you can afford. All proceeds contribute to sustaining the project. BANNER IMAGE CREDITSClare Palmier, 'Home and Away', 1995 (detail), Peabody Buildings, Chelsea Manor Street, London SW3, as part of Cottage Industry, Beaconsfield 4 November-3 December 1995. Sonia Boyce, 'They're Almost Like Twins', 1995, outside gallery wall, 22 Newport Street, London SE11 6AY, as part of Cottage Industry, Beaconsfield 4 November-3 December 1995. Mikey Cuddihey, 'Room', 1995 (detail), ink on Lotke paper. Upper space, as part of Cottage Industry, Beaconsfield 4 November-3 December 1995. Siobhan Davis, 'Living Room', 1995 (detail), Islington, London N1, as part of Cottage Industry, Beaconsfield 4 November-3 December 1995. Naomi Siderfin 'Monochrome' (detail), Lead White oil paint on wax on floorboards. Upper space, as part of Cottage Industry, Beaconsfield 4 November-3 December 1995. Elsie Mitchell, 'Isle of Lewis' (detail), 3 screen 35mm slide sequence. Lower space, as part of Cottage Industry, Beaconsfield 4 November-3 December 1995.