turning around and back again BY LAUREN VELVICK
The overarching theme of this year’s Wonder Women radical feminist festival in Manchester has to do with women’s representation and influence in our political and cultural institutions, responding to the centenary of the Representation of the People act. 1918 was the first time that any women were able to vote in Britain, but as we must be careful to acknowledge, it was only property-owning women over thirty who were granted this basic right with the act. As such, it is important to commemorate and respond with nuance, something that the researchlead art practices of Hannah Leighton-Boyce and Ruth Barker are able to do by virtue of their methods and structure. As part of the festival, Leighton-Boyce and Barker have been commissioned to produce new bodies of work to be presented in a twoperson exhibition at Castlefield Gallery, part of the gallery’s long-running ‘head to head’ series, whereby two artists whose work corresponds are placed in juxtaposition. Over the past year, both artists have been supported in conducting research residencies, allowing for the time and space to become embedded within their respective institutions and communities, and to explore unanticipated avenues. Barker, usually based in Glasgow, was working with Salford University and the university’s
art collection, whereas Leighton-Boyce, a Manchester based artist, has been in residence at the Glasgow Women’s Library. The Salford University collection is a remarkable resource, comprising works of Chinese contemporary art, artists’ film and prints amongst much more — at a time when many public collections are being plundered in order to plug the deficits created by austerity measures . The Glasgow Women’s library, on the other hand, is an equally vital resource as the only accredited museum in the UK dedicated to women’s histories, functioning as a counteraction to the patriarchally and colonially influenced collections of the majority of the UK’s museums and libraries. The distinctive nature of the two collections is relevant in considering the work that each artist has produced. Both Leighton-Boyce and Barker have approached broad, familiar themes and near-universal symbols, and yet their work can simultaneously be understood in terms of the personal and particular. Comparably, a university art collection wouldn’t always have been unusual, and one that still collects is sadly exceptional, whereas women’s histories are obviously intrinsic to history in general, but have had to be set apart in their own library due to omission.
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