Monday 10th October at
11 – 1pm OR 2 – 4pm,
Special Collections & Archives, The Library with Althea Greenan, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman.
This month we will look at Testimony, a seminal exhibition from 1986, featuring three black women photographers: Brenda Agard, Ingrid Pollard and Maud Sulter.
The Women of Colour Catalogue Reading Group has been initiated by artist Samia Malik and will run throughout the year. Its purpose is to make the archive an active space for learning, sharing and engaging with the work of women artists of colour who have made key contributions to contemporary art. Critical to this discussion is an exploration of how the archive is relevant to contemporary experiences of race, gender, sex, ability and class. Future sessions will explore ways to bring the archive to prominence at Goldsmiths and beyond.
Please note this session is open to all BA Fine Art Students including BA Fine Art Extension students. Two sessions are being provided to accommodate those who have critical studies or English Language classes on Mondays. Please choose one session to attend.
About the Collection
The Women’s Art Library (MAKE) is located in the Library’s Special Collections Suite on the ground floor of the library. The Women’s Art Library began as an artists’ initiative that developed into an arts organization publishing catalogues and books as well as a magazine from the early 1980s to 2002. The main purpose however was to provide a place for women artists to deposit unique documentation of their work. Thousands of artists from around the world are represented in some form in this collection. The Women’s Art Library continues to collect slides, artist statements, exhibition ephemera, catalogues, and press material in addition to audio and videotapes, photographs and CD-Roms. We welcome donations from women artists to help us develop this collection.
WORKSHOP READING TEXT:
Testimony: Three Black Women Photographers, Camerawork, London E2 (11-28 Feb)
‘Photography has been used against us for decades by anthropologists, in pornography, in fashion, in police files and in art books to negate us, degrade us and erode our memory. Now is the time to use it, photography can bring about change’ (Lubaina Himid).
Ingrid Pollard, Brenda Agard and Maud Sulter are three Blackwomen photographers determined to redress the balance, to document the reality of what it means to be a racial minority in the ‘motherland’. Whether it’s the ordinary everyday face of life, our cultural pioneers or our position in the (inter)-national political arena, they record it eloquently and with beautiful sensitivity.
Women’s Artists Journal, issue no.16
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/asrr-reading-group-workshop-tickets-28365246215
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