Interviews with the creators of U.K Ladyfest Promotional Artwork 2001-2008 Interviews edited by: Heather Crabtree & Melanie Maddison Heather writes: “My society, the culture I have learned, tells me that Art is something special, separate, something that only a few can participate in while the rest stand by and watch” (Ruth Nobel, 'Womban' in L Saunders (ed) 'Glancing Fires' Women's Press, London, 1987 p21) So um, I've been told what to think about art a lot. I've been told what to think, how to think it, what is and isn't 'art', how to react and to feel, even if I'm not feeling that etc., for ages. I studied Western art history for ages, then modern western architectural history. I was at University; I chose to go on a course that 'taught' me about 'art'. I use the parenthesis knowingly. The thing is, and this is what gets me, you are being told what is and isn't art all the time too. We all are, all the time. We are constantly being told and having statements and views reinforced that there are standard, acceptable styles of art. We are constantly being told what constitutes Art (with a capital A) and what falls outside of that constructed, sacred realm. We are permanently expected to fall in with the beliefs of a small number of people that sit at the top of constructed and exclusive cultural hierarchy that is at once unachievable to many and imbued with a rigidity and out-dated pompousness that should be ridiculous to most. There is a cultural cache connected to artists, what constitutes an artist, what they are meant to be, do and create…and what gender they should be, in order for their work to be powerful, effective and to be able to ‘speak’ to an audience or have and gravity or brevity whatsoever. Often, small groups dictate what is and isn’t considered to be respectable, useful and important. They are responsible for the continuation of hideous cultural norms concerning women, as artists and as art objects. Outside of this constructed traditionalist, male-dominated, consumerist and faddish realm (the very one that I have studied for so long!) there are clearly vast amounts of talented, creative female (and male) artists who produce valid work for specific reasons, and that work is crushingly important in it’s ability to speak for and to a huge number of people. The DIY community in the UK, Europe and the US, its aesthetic, ideals and ethos has a powerful and committed legion of followers and contributors. In relation to this project and Ladyfests the world over, I believe that the assorted ranges of visual materials produced for Ladyfests constitute an important and obliquely challenging stance in relation to the aforementioned standardised and sterilised world of western art. There have been hundreds of Ladyfest events across the world, sadly, we couldn't have documented them all, or at least we could but that would be a huge ongoing project that may last the rest of our lives! So we decided to concentrate on Ladyfests in the United Kingdom. We were interested in how these events were represented visually depending on where they were, what they were predominantly showcasing (arts, music etc) and how the creators of these art works felt their pieces spoke to their audience, and what it could say to new audiences. We wanted to collect as much of this amazing work as possible, so that we could present the amount of works created as a document in it’s own right as the visual production of a specific cultural movement. Ladyfests have, more often than not been associated with feminism, and asserting female actions, activism and creativity in the face of a predominantly male dominated music and art world. The artists involved with Ladyfest promotional and visual materials have often utilised the female image in such a way as to turn the tables of the traditional, paternalistic 'male- gaze' as well as employing new, non-mainstream, low budget or DIY visual aesthetics as part of subverting cultural norms and ascertaining individual space and identity for their creativity. This work speaks for itself, the artists here are speaking for themselves, about something they truly believe in, and don't require anyone else to interpret their work for them. Similarly, we can interpret these works as we wish, enjoy them at our leisure, and draw from them what we will, as there is no one to tell us what to think or how to feel in this community. I am not going to tell you what to think about this artwork, I've told you about some of the background and why we embarked upon this project, I'll leave the rest to you. Heather Crabtree. February 2007, Leeds, UK. Melanie writes: When the idea of this project was first suggested to me by Heather I figured it’d be quite interesting. I already had quite a collection of neat Ladyfest fliers that I’d kept from over the years, and the idea of interviewing their creators seemed like quite a natural project since I was already heavily involved with interviewing international female artists about their work for my own zine, Colouring Outside The Lines. Plus I figured collecting together more of this artwork would create an aesthetically pleasing project, one that preserved and documented the images that had been created before our festival, Ladyfest Leeds, came along in 2006/2007 – allowing us to view where we’d come from, and plan for where we were going from there. What I didn’t quite bank on was how a little interesting project would blossom into what has become, for me, a really important collection of voices charting the development, approaches and attitudes of UK Ladyfests. It has produced an archival of material which had never been collected together in one place before. This collection, for me began to create a graphic language of Ladyfest, a graphic language affiliated with the progression and construction of feminism within the UK; the posters, logos, fliers and designs speaking for themselves about changes, progression and developments of Ladyfest, and cultural feminism over the past six years. Perhaps most importantly, however, in collecting together the artwork that had been created over the past 6 years, it allowed us to view, archive and document women’s collective and alternative cultural and creative activisms, so that they're never forgotten. And in giving the creators of this artwork a voice over their work, their intentions and their views on Ladyfest it created space to present an under-represented area of cultural feminist activism – a creative, artistic one where individuals involved use their talents and creativities - whether burgeoning, or already developed - to make their own statement about their festival; thus advertising and promoting an arts festival that celebrates the achievements of women, whilst also voicing and celebrating their own. Perhaps one of the most important points here, however, is that of archiving our alternative cultural activisms and achievements so that they’re never forgotten. Already, in trying to put this project together we hit brick walls in trying to contact the artists responsible for certain festival artwork (such as those involved with Ladyfest Birmingham 2004, and Cardiff 2006) – it seemed although some people had already fallen through the cracks, forgotten, their work remaining anonymous, and thus not spoken for (in this collection and beyond), beyond its initial visual communication and purposes. Each and every one of those artists is important, both for the work they created, and the history they developed with it. Too much of women’s history has been forgotten, especially on a grass-roots, alternative or everyday level. We hoped to try and counter that pattern of loss by searching high and low for leads that would take us towards finding and contacting as many of those who importantly shaped the graphic language of Ladyfest in this country. People that I spoke to within this collection of interviews had such informed, passionate and articulate awareness of the role of Ladyfest within feminist, and more popular culture. Many were able to talk to me about how they felt their own, and others’ artwork was an important representation of their city’s festival, and thus it was important to them that they got it ‘right’, and the social, cultural, regional, gender and political influences or responsibilities impacting upon this ‘appropriate’ and specific representation. Many of the artists in this collection whom I interviewed were thankful for this project coming together, and allowing them - as individuals - to talk about, articulate and analyse their own work. Many women claimed that this was the first opportunity they had received to really think about their work in terms of achievement, its long-term effects, and its political importance. Many of the artists had known their work was not just art for arts sake, or solely as an aesthetic product, but had not before been offered much of a voice over their creativity and understandings beyond their own Ladyfest collective. I am pleased that this collection has offered opportunities for voices to be shared, expressed and understood, and for ideas to be reassessed and re-evaluated, whilst also allowing an opportunity for those who had not before analysed their work, to think about contributions that they may not have known were applicable to their work, or to think of the traditions that had come before, and the ways in which each of our individual creativities may shape what is yet to come. The artwork not only holds a political purpose – in terms of crediting, encouraging and celebrating individual and independent female creativity – but also a political purpose and responsibility when representing Ladyfest(s).