The struggle around visual representation is one that feminist artists have always been engaged with and which Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock highlighted in Framing Feminism: Art and the Women’s Movement 1970 – 1985 (1987). We are delighted to host Griselda Pollock as a keynote presenter to lead a symposium debating the current state of affairs with speakers including Sonia Boyce, Enam Gbewonyo, Rose Gibbs, Catherine Long and Ope Lori.

A resurgence of feminism in the west and globally continues to gather momentum, accompanied by the realisation among young women that we have been sold a fabrication: that equality has been achieved thereby making feminism redundant. At the same time, capitalism has co-opted the language of feminism in the mainstream media and it can be argued that the backlash against feminism has taken on its most virulent form: behaviours and products that are all part of the capitalist arsenal are recast as feminist tools of ‘empowerment’ while the derivation of that power remains strikingly unexamined.

Supported by Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Graduate School.

Image: Ope Lori, Alpha and Beta, 2015, video

For the full schedule of the symposium click here