The Time of Our Lives focuses on the pioneering drawing practices of women artists and their impact on feminist activism from the 1980s until today.
The exhibition showcases the work of key artists, examining drawing’s versatility as a medium and the ways it has been used by women to raise consciousness around social and political issues, such as reproductive justice, sexism, racism and other forms of oppression.
Working both independently and collaboratively, often without commercial or institutional support, the voices of these agents for change are now being heard and their trailblazing work taken forward by a contemporary generation of women artists. Beginning with drawings made by Monica Ross in the 1980s, the exhibition will include works by Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce, Margaret Harrison, Claudette Johnson, Lizzy Rose and Soheila Sokhanvari, and includes new commissions by Kate Davis and Jade de Montserrat.
The Time of Our Lives will also include an interactive study display in our library, showcasing drawing in magazines, newsletters and posters from UK feminist collectives past and present. The exhibition is curated by Jacqui McIntosh and Drawing Room, supported by a Curatorial Research Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Commissions fees are kindly supported by Marcelle Joseph. It coincides with Women in Revolt, a concurrent exhibition at Tate Britain.
Sutapa Biswas works question ideas around gender, cultural identity and race, often through a personal lens.
Sonia Boyce addresses issues of race, identity and gender in the media and day-to-day life, often using herself as the central subject.
Kate Davis has often explored the ways that gender has been represented and challenged representations of the female body by celebrated male artists.
Margaret Harrison has been at the forefront of British feminist and activist art since the late 1960s and was co-founder of the London Women’s Liberation Art Group in 1970.
Claudette Johnson fills large scale paper with drawn images of black women ‘to tell a different story about our presence in this country’.
Jade de Montserrat draws words and fractured images of her body to voice personal experiences of exploitation and violation at the hands of institutions, in particular those linked with cultural production.
Lizzy Rose (1988-2022) was an artist and disability activist whose diverse practice included writing, film, installation, curation and drawing.
Monica Ross (1950-2013) was an artist working with video, drawing, installation, text and performance whose practice was shaped by feminism and other movements for social, cultural, and political change.
Soheila Sokhanvari’s expansive, multimedia practice explores the contemporary political landscape with a focus on pre-revolutionary Iran of 1979.
Drawing Room/Tannery Arts, Unit 1b New Tannery Way, Bermondsey, SE1 5WS 25. Dates: Jan 2024 – 21 Apr 2024. Times: Wednesday–Sunday 12-6pm; Library & Shop Tuesday–Sunday 12-6pm
