ISSUE 16
For this issue we sought artists that are underrepresented or biased for ANY reason in the world of contemporary art and how their work highlights the unheard and the marginalised and explores the struggle and aids the debate. Whether this is a sexual, cultural, demographic, educational, age related, mental or physical health or for financial reasons - their practice spotlights how they are marginalised and prevents them from being heard, selected and represented within the contemporary art scene,
Artist name: Beatriz Domínguez Alemán
Title: Smoke and Mirrors
Media: Photography
Description: “Smoke and Mirrors” is a 7 x 10 edited photograph from the series “The construction of a self-portrait". These photos highlight phrases the artist received during her upbringing that defined her self-esteem and body perception. After the photographer spoke about her sexual abuse, allegations of her being dishonest/attention seeker came afloat, giving the name to this piece: "Smoke and Mirrors".
Instagram: @entremaresphoto
Artist name: Vinay Hathi
Title: PISSHEAD
Media: 2021 Acrylic paint dripped over K of Karpackie lager, wrapped around spray can.
Dimensions: 18 x 6.5 x 6.5 cm (H x W x D) https://vinay.mozello.com
Description: It’s hard being part of the world of contemporary art when you can’t afford to explain your work and views, putting yourself at a further disadvantage for employment.
Instagram: @vinayhathi
Artist name: Scarlett Hope-Gates
Title: Image from 'IN SUSPENSE: HANGING ON BY A THREAD' in Margate 2021
Media: Sculpture
Description: My work rejects institutional norms by citing itself as un-placeable to enforce a feminist agenda. I see my sculptures as people, not physically, but they have emotions, relationships and feelings, and we’re witnessing their acts with one another. The nurturing connection between the two forms is prevalent in this piece. The mother figure holds power within this sculpture, she's an authoritative figure that is a protector for the child.
Instagram: @modernart.sohg
Artist name: Amanda Sinclair
Title: Death of Mrs Jones
Media: Photography / Ceramics
Description: My original concept of this piece of work was a part of a series result of images that depicted the hallucination of PTSD. I constructed a ceramic head, including a human element of teeth. My intention for submitting this piece of work, is to display the connection of older females and their place in society and the workplace. The connection of death an worthlessness and the obstacles we face as an invisible entity in everyday life.
Instagram: @pinkonero
Artist name: Carrie Ravenscroft
Title: Neurodivergent
Media: Watercolour and pens on A3 paper
Description: Recently I have been considering neurodiversity and how we can work towards carving out our own diverse spaces as neurodivergent artists. I have been recently diagnosed with ADHD and I’m coming to terms with this coupled with my other diagnoses. I’m new to talking openly about mental health and disability but wanted to share my perspectives in a raw way and to help me with my thinking.
There are lots of things I haven’t been able to do in life. Things I’ve tried and failed horrifically at and things I’ve started but never finished. Like a lot of ADHDers, I’ve tried new exciting things, full of hobby-making potential. Things that could’ve been, but never were, because I haven’t yet learnt the trick of keeping those things going - rock climbing, piano, skiing, taekwondo, speaking french, dance, digital art, and so on. There are many clubs and classes that I’ve joined with more passion than the average person only to then crash and burn, with no immediate gratification and perfect skill on the first go. No surge of dopamine release? Nah, never again.
But there’s something in art. I haven’t figured it out. But there’s definitely something in art. I have definitely failed at art, but so far the success rate is higher than anything I’ve ever engaged with. It’s a specialist interest subject. When I paint, I feel good (dopamine?), so I do it again and I improve. And when I see growth in my ability I get addicted. There’s something here, to say that if you have ADHD and you find just one small joy in your life, it might be worth following that and seeing where it goes. Hence me pursuing my love of art.
Reflecting on the articles I’ve read on ADHD, I feel there is a heavy focus on the deficits (sorry, I tried to avoid that word in this context, but the thesaurus is suggesting attention, which is way worse). Anyway, I think it’s understandable. The problems associated with cognitive disorders such as ADHD can be so awfully debilitating that “normal” functioning is a dream. We fall behind our peers, risk social isolation, financial debt or damaged self-esteem. I am grateful for the medical model that can provide relief from the suffering that comes with this neurological difference between neurotypical and neurodivergent people, because from my and many other peoples experiences, ADHD isn’t a gift. It can however contain gifts. I have never before seen myself this way, particularly as a woman, because we women aren’t meant to be confident, right?
ADHD, although not technically a disability, has definitely been disabling to me throughout every area of my life. Unrecognised, undiagnosed and untreated ADHD has meant school, relationships and work life have been traumatic. I have learnt to learn in the last few years, but before this I would make the same mistake over and over, not understanding what I did wrong. I would fail every exam and every coursework. I failed school, all 12 exams. So I did a plumbing apprenticeship, but I failed the exam. I did art and… I passed.
This is my most recent series called ‘ADHD’. It is an ongoing art project, with no final number of illustrations in mind yet, however I am now working on the 6th. When I get bored, I will stop. The illustrations contain various subtle references to my mental health at the time of painting, as well as what I was witnessing in those around me. Full series: www.carrieraven.com
Instagram: @ravenscroftcarrie
Artist name: Grigoria Vryttia
Title: Spider Woman or Spider Person
Media: Embroidery, vintage dress, umbrella, spools of thread, plastic flower and other fabrics.
Description: This work is titled "Spider-Woman" and "Spider Person", as an effort to avoid the assignment of gender roles. Through a long visual story about parenthood, toil, death, love and suffering it aims to pinpoint the still existing exclusivity of non-binary and female mothers from the art community. Parenthood should be a choice, but not between being a mother and an active artist.
Instagram: @grigoria_vryttia
Artist name: Natalia Ludmila
Title: Western Tutelage (From WrittenSpoken series)
Media: Watercolour on paper
Description: WrittenSpoken is an ongoing series that investigates the relationship between text, message, and written narratives. Initially, the series focused on sourcing material from printed news media by quoting text from articles or headlines. Exploring how extracted out of the initial context, these texts ranged from the nonsensical to an explicit outlining of a biased narrative. Consequently, this series also puts forward the notion that those that command the news outlets also influence visibility and the overall narrative. For this iteration of the WrittenSpoken series titled Into Territory, the sourcing of text was modified to cite and directly reference the influential book Orientalism by Edward Said. In his writings, Said broke ground on how we think of and talk about colonialism. By evidencing how its social and economic repercussions still permeate in contemporary societies. And its ever-presence in the exertion of influence on the dynamics of the global north/south relationships.
Instagram: @n_ludmila_
Artist name: Alice Brookes
Title: 'Untitled'
Media: Photos
Description: As an older woman I feel the constant pressure to reinvent myself, to become younger and younger - never allowed to age. The images of removing the tape are taken from a short performance to video piece. The removal of the tape references an attempt to reveal a 'younger self'.
Instagram: @art_exploration_uncovered
Artist name: David G Taylor
Title: Bearmaids II
Media: Mixed media incl. collage & acrylic
Description: 'Bearmaids in Pink Neon Sea' is primarily about gay identity and body image. Mermen are normally depicted as muscular buff-bodied creatures, a body type that gay men are also under pressure to conform to in order to have sexual currency in gay culture. It raises questions about gay conformity, body image, the performing of masculinity, and the struggle with 'gay shame'.
Instagram: @davidgtaylorart
Artist name: Catalina Aranguren
Title: Box head
Media: Photography
Description: I am a visual artist. I have a hard time describing sometimes how I feel my work fits the subject. "Box Head" is a photograph I took of my oldest son. He is at the age where he doesn't let me photograph him anymore. When I saw this picture after taking it, it really made a lot of emotions surface. The fact that I basically let my curiosity and creativity snuff out after I was unable to find a job in my field way before having kids. The fact that becoming a mother flourished that need to create again. The fact that as a mom of three boys under three I wasn't able to look for another job, creative or otherwise, as hiring day-care for three would be more expensive than what I could earn. At the same time, when my oldest was born, he was so light skinned, dirty blonde hair, big blue eyes...I often got asked if I was the nanny. How dare they even ask? As he got older the hair got darker, and the eyes became hazel, and the question did not happen anymore. The image of him with a box on his head seems to really pronounce all these feelings, the underrepresentation of an artist as mother, as Latin, as woman.
Instagram: @caranguren
Artist name: Nikki Davidson-Bowman
Title: Fragile
Media: Sculpture
Description: In 2018 I suddenly became partially deaf, developed tinnitus & hyperacusis resulting in me recoiling from creative & social events & spaces.
Whilst art organisations & spaces are keen to be inclusive, galleries, networking events & public speaking have become difficult to access.
The on-going series of ‘Shell’ works seek to increase awareness of hearing loss, to start the conversations around hidden disabilities, to fill the awkward silence and work out ways to make the every day inclusive, supporting those dealing with disability and its potential consequential isolation.
Instagram: @nikkidbartist
Artist name: Ema Mano Epps & Jyoti Bharwani
Title: A Pocket of Wisdom
Media: Plant print on organic linen, petals, glass, cork, foliage
Description: Alongside coming from diverse backgrounds the aging maternal artists balance tensions of temporality and fragility, unravelling the unrepresented. The artmaking takes place through foraging, cooking and rethinking processes whilst allowing the threads of the personal, processed and domestic to ooze through collaboration. Wisdom gives strength to old recipes and new vulnerabilities.
Instagram: @emamanoepps and @paintspaces_studio
Artist name: Edgington
Title: Ode To Pregabalin
Media: Mixed media on paper
Description: Living with a long term mental health condition often creates many, many barriers for functioning within society and accessing things in the same way many others do. As part of this some of us take medication several times everyday. This piece depicts one of my four times a day taking one of my medications.
Instagram: @edgingtonmakesart
Artist name: Jess Swift
Title: Possession
Media: Terracotta
Description: As an artist with Dyslexia, Swift wanted to highlight her struggles with possession when it came to writing. After her work had been spell checked and changed by others, she felt as if it was no longer hers. By making pieces only she understood, she took back the idea of being possessive over her work. This series features 9 sculptures, which were made to symbolise her hard work, to respond to being told she was 'lazy' at school when she struggled with work.
https://www.instagram.com/jessicaswift_fineart/
Instagram: @jessicaswift_fineart
Artist name: Celine Lundqvist
Title: WOMEN
Media: Photography
Description: WOMEN is created to question and reflect on the lack of diversity and the unhealthy beauty standards presented in the fashion industry through interviews with the models participating in the project. The project is presented as a magazine to question the industry through its own medium.
Instagram: @celinesportraits
Artist name: Richard Lees
Title: Justice for Black Lives
Media: Lino print
Description: Images inspired by and in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Justice For Christopher Alder and Stand Up To Racism, drawing on partisan print traditions from Kathe Kollwitz and expressionism to Atelier Populaire, confronting the obstacles of racism in the UK and apathy in the UK visual arts.
Instagram: @lees_prints
Artist name: Kim Thornton
Title: The Long Silence
Media: Photography
Description: I have been silenced as a woman so many times.
To explore these experiences I looked at ironic contemporary language describing the way in which this happens and the history of women communicating using a secret fan language.
Wearing costumes made from domestic materials, with matching fans embroidered with the words mansplaining, manterruption and manologue, I decided to confront this behaviour
Instagram: @kimthornt
Artist name: Fred Fabre
Title: To Heaven
Media: Oil
Description: To Heaven - oil on OSB board - 55 x 180 cm (2021)
The demonisation of refugees is used to gain popularity by politicians but the problem is for the countries they are leaving. They are seeing valuable human resources vanishing and it furthers the crisis. Help and assistance to them and the developing world would be beneficial to everyone.
Instagram: @Drawlogia
Artist name: Alison Darke
Title: Don't Look at Me
Media: Sculpture
Description: A cabinet for the display and preservation of domestic crockery is here smothered in tightly stitched, moth-eaten blankets. Hiding the interior suggests a vulnerability and shame, while the surface describes the scars and decay of impending old age. The title alludes to the fear of scrutiny. The mature female voice is all too often silenced, ignored or mocked.
Instagram: @Ali_darke
Artist name: Verene Wolff
Title: Being Queen
Media: Digital
Description: This piece is a very personal work inviting the viewer into my state of mind when I am in low mood and having flashbacks caused by PTSD. Fighting to stay above water and stay alive
Instagram: @veren_e88art
Artist name: Sukhy Hullait
Title: Young Carers
Media: Photography
Description: I made the work to show the experiences of many young carers by focussing on one girl and her circumstances. I cared for two people since I was a child and like me there are many young carers in our society who largely go unnoticed. The work forced me to examine my own personal history as it echoed the experiences of so many of the young carers I met.
Instagram: @sukhyhullait
Artist name: Lejla Petrovic
Title: The witch hunt
Media: Conceptual work made of six digital : The witch hunt still exists. The witch is equally a woman, she is still a victim of patriarchy, misogyny, violence ... Through my work I try to point out misogyny as a constant in modern society.
Instagram: @lejlapetrovic_mama
Artist name: Jane Gibson
Title: Hostage To Domesticity
Media: Photomontage and embroidery thread on dolls house chairs
Description: Why are almost all the “great” artists, the old masters literally men? Because they have someone else taking care of their domestic arrangements! With domestic chores and childcare inevitably falling to women simply having the time to create, let alone master an artform, is a luxury rather than a job. Tied to the role of mother, wife, carer, I and many like me struggle to be heard above the noise of daily life.
Instagram: @diva_jane_gibson
Artist name: 江峰 Jiang Feng
Title: U.S. (Unwholesome Shelter) 「美」國
Media: Photography
Description: This series juxtaposes the torn and dirty USian flag with the naked bodies of all genders, races, sexuality, nationality, and cultural backgrounds. The piece is the representation of my own experience of being a racialized person in the U.S./west.
Instagram: @jiangfeng_mine
Artist name: Nihilivonne
Title: Masking
Media: Etching
Description: Masking - the hiding of autistic traits. It happens almost automatically, conditioned by years of exclusion. Observing autistic people: how do neurotypical people behave? How can I manage to belong? So we take off the mask and join in with the small talk, suppress "stimming" (e.g. repetitive hand movements), go beyond our limits and keep out noise and glaring lights and too much physical contact, trying everything not to be labelled bizarre and wrong, everything not to be excluded from groups, lose our jobs, be excluded from society. But this mask suffocates, suffocates the true self. After years of masking, often all that remains is burn-out and depression. I am no longer willing to pay this price: I have destroyed the mask, even if it is dangerous. As an autistic woman, I have struggled with exclusion all my life - being shown and told "you are wrong, you are not like us". Like many autistic people, I have experienced bullying, been unemployed for a long time, homeless for a year, have negative psychiatric experiences and have PTSD symptoms as a result. Art has therefore always been my anchor, my catharsis and my main means of expression. In recent years I have successfully set up my own business and am active in the autism rights movement. While I have not overcome exclusion, I am finally no longer reliant on the goodwill of the majority (even if prejudice and stigma continue to hurt).
Instagram: @nihilivonne
Artist name: Lal Davies
Title: Stories We Cannot Tell
Media: Photographic/Written
Description: This is a self-portrait with text made as an exploratory piece for a body of poetry work, for which I’m currently making a film. ‘Stories We Cannot Tell’ speaks to a desire to get under the skin of silence - in all the ways I have been silenced as a mixed-race woman and as a survivor of trauma.
The silencing remains the obstacle, the dismantling of which is an ongoing process via creative means - in this way I ‘speak’ for myself...though sadly, I know I am not the only one to be silenced.
Instagram: @laldffilmiau
Artist name: The Naked Artist
Title: Love
Media: Body art photography
Description: The obstacle is exterior and is filtered interiorising my fears of never being accepted in society for being me. A strong woman artist, mentally healthy, loved and gay.
Instagram: @suziepindar
Artist name: Emanuel Carvalho
Title: To the New State, they said
Media: Oil on linen, 145 x 198 cm
Description: This life-size painting reflects on the continued journey towards non-categorisation of gender-identities. The characters are placed with the aim to gaze back at the viewer, challenging their pre-conceived notions of otherness. I question that if perception is an acquired construct, moulded by experience, it can also be subjected to reflection and change.
Instagram: @emanuel__car
Artist name: Jessica Hamp
Title: Polaroids
Media: Photography
Description: I was born with one hand due to the condition amniotic band syndrome, growing up I struggled to accept myself and covered up for many years. During my art degree I started making work about my disability and this allowed me to process these difficult emotions and accept myself.
Instagram: @jsshmp
Artist name: Ayshe-Mira Yashin
Title: RIOT GRRRL - DON'T LET THEM SILENCE YOU
Media: Fine liners on paper (illustration)
Description: Riot Grrrl was a 90s underground feminist movement which was largely associated with punk music, a DIY art aesthetic, and anarcho-communist politics. The activism of this movement involved punk music starring women, underground feminist gatherings, and the creation of zines. I was so inspired by Riot Grrrl that I decided to create an art piece inspired by it, with the guitar symbolising the loudness that I think is necessary within feminism. This piece is about becoming empowered through activism and through the use of one's own voice.
Instagram: @illustrationwitch
Artist name: Beth Barlow
Title: Denbigh Hospital -Build A Tower
Media: Installation
Description: Denbigh hospital was the decrepit Victorian mental health hospital where I spent my last year at uni creating art. "Build A Tower" was a performance in which I built a tower with unsuitable materials, the silent repetition an expression of a need to say something solid without the correct means. The pieces here were a later revisiting of the work, exploring my own and close relatives struggle to find useful means of expression when mentally low.
Instagram: @bethbarlow13
