Feminism, Baths, and things to do.

by Ruth Barker, 7 Sep 2009

Hello,

I have made a new resolution to be more rigorous in my blogging. I will now try to write a post each week, and have set Mondays as my regular updating day, when I can try and let you know what I’ve been up to. By stating my intention to you like this, I realise I’m setting myself up for visible failure, but that’s ok. I will do my best, at least.

OK, so after a miserable week suffering with a cold, I went to the Subject in Process symposium at CCA, Glasgow on Friday.
Billed as a symposium on Feminism and Art, the day was, I think, a great success. Well curated, straightforward, and perfectly chaired by Sarah Lowndes who kept just the right balance between generosity of discussion and rigour of debate. The structure of the day itself was framed by the inspired decision to screen the 1979 Hegedus / D.A. Pennebaker documentary Town Bloody Hall in the morning, before any of the presentations. I would urge anyone who hasn’t seen this fantastic document – in which Norman Mailer struggles to chair a Debate on Women’s Liberation featuring a formidable panel of speakers Jill Johnston, Diana Trilling, Jacqueline Ceballos and Germaine Greer – to get hold of a copy. Mailer’s at times hilarious descent into inarticulate aggression and defensive insult-hurling has to be seen to be believed, forming as it does the centre of a narrative arc punctuated by presentations that are by turns elegant, witty, controlled, and always utterly articulate.
The CCA-hosted discussions that followed were, if more civilised (there was no wrestling on the stage of CCA 5) perhaps more also thoughtful as well as more generous, reflecting the shifts and evolutions that have occurred in the social and cultural context more generally as well as the development within the specifically feminist tradition. It was undoubtedly the best conference style event I’ve been to in while, and I’d offer my congratulations to all of the speakers – Sam Ainsley; Dr. Fiona Bradley; Kathryn Elkin; Adele Patrick; and Sarah Lowndes – for a much needed, and much enjoyed event.

Yesterday (Sunday, for those not keeping up) I was given a privileged tour of the “Govanhill Baths” building on Glasgow’s South Side by artist and Govanhill Baths Community Trust member Alex Wilde. A centre of the Govanhill Community from its opening in 1914 till it was closed without public consultation in 2001, the Baths remains a focus of community action and aspiration, and a dedicated group have been trying to get the building restored and re-opened. As part of this ongoing project, Alex has been helping to co-ordinate a series of artistic interventions throughout the (now sadly dilapidated) Govanhill Baths building. The artists have been hampered by the restrictions placed on their access to the building by Glasgow City Council, though when I visited the place was a hive of enthusiastic activity. There seemed to be a huge variety in both scale and approach to the works, all of which were still in development prior to the Doors Open Day weekend on the 19th and 20th September, during which the building will be publicly accessible and the works can be viewed.
I was getting the tour in the first place because I’ve agreed to support the project by writing a piece for the small catalogue that will accompany the exhibition, talking about the building itself and the works that have been commissioned. My condition for doing so was that Alex contributes to PAR+RS an account of her experiences in commissioning 20-odd works for such a challenging site – so fingers crossed she won’t renege on her promise and you’ll get to see some fantastic images of this simply incredible building. I’m working on my wee essay just now, so I’ll post it here when it’s done.

My other job today is to draft my introduction to Neville Gabie’s keynote presentation for the Invernessian Clanjamfrey, which I’m heading to on Friday. Neville’s contribution to the event is sponsored by PAR+RS and I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that I finally got to speak to Peter Jenkinson last week, starting the conversation that will allow me to chair Merlyn Riggs’ upcoming Art Breakfast event in Lumsden (hope to see you there!). It was very nice to chat to him, and to get a feel for the very genuine generosity which seems to underpin his practice as a cultural broker, as well as his approach. I’m more than looking forward to working with him, and I think the event itself will be particularly illuminating. Hope to see you there.

More later,

R