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| Image by Erin Aniker |
Using a variety of materials, methods and technology
these insightful artworks explored the thoughts and feelings BME Women growing up in Britain. Looking at the artworks was more than just a chance to reflect. It brought back my own experiences of growing up in Britain, memories of how in the late 70s. In those days I had been so bold and confident in giving what I thought was useful advice to friends and siblings on dealing with those racists and bullies in school, yet when it came to defending myself, I had been hopeless in challenging people in power…instead I would search for comfort in dreams of my 'idyllic past'….I can still remember how upset I felt on the day we were told that we would no longer be getting our usual carton of milk because Margaret Thatcher, the Education minister, had passed policy to cut it.
But this exhibition was different, It was not sentimental, not longing for a lost world, not struggling with how to 'fit in'…..it was full of artworks communicating a diversity of experiences of childhood, identity and presence in public spaces. It expressed a consciousness of the different forms of racism and it seemed to to be saying, this is us, this is our struggle, this is our past, we don’t need any pity……and this is how we see ourselves…
Joy Miessi through abstract shapes, figures and writing titled: 'Expected to centralise my image on mainstream beauty' expresses how it feels to be a Black Women struggling to challenge mainstream ideas of beauty. In the work 'I'd pray for the Women who helped me rise' she acknowledges the inspiration and empowerment provided by strengthening links between younger and older Black Women, in the struggle to determine their lives individually and collectively…
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| Expected to centralise my image on mainstream beauty |
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| I'd pray for the Women who helped me rise |
Joy Miessi is based in London. Joy translates moments, conversations, feelings and intimate thoughts into visual pieces for reflection.
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| El-Wak Stadium, Accra |
Jess Nash’s vibrant paintings (El-Wak stadium, Accra and Aerial perspective) of Ghana ask ‘Where you from?’, they show how the past is always here with us in everything we do, feel and think. The way the colours of the fields, roads and walls all blend together, the aerial perspective of the paintings, the way the shapes of the buildings relate to the spaces around them all reveal how coexistence rather than distance shapes her world here and there…
Danika Magdelena’s photos taken from her: ’Girls don't cry’ series states: ‘My goal was to show girls that heartbreak is something we all go through and we shouldn’t be ashamed of. Some of us feel more intensely than others, and with this project, I want to say that you are not alone, and you will not remain alone. You can express yourself in whatever way you desire’. She expresses that emotional world which is so much a part of us our very being. That emotional world which with the brutal 'free market hands' of capitalism, patriarchy and racism carves and compartmentalises us up into smaller and smaller pieces...
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| Photo by Danika Magdelena |
Olivia Twist’s ‘The Babe With The North Face Puffer’ drawn with a black sharpie on lime green paper. Its of a young Black Woman with glasses looking directly at the the viewer. The brightness of the lime green and the wavy lines of the skin contrast with the plain lips, eyes, eyebrows and glasses all force the viewer to confront themselves and ask questions.
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| The Babe With The North Face Puffer |
The zip on the The North Face jacket leads the viewers eyes straight to the face, making it the central focus of this drawing. While looking at this artwork I asked myself - what is she thinking? what is her story? where is she? what is her relationship to the artist?
With her left shoulder resting on the wall beside her, she appears relaxed, however, her face with its black wavy lines suggests something else. This brings together the struggle of the artist, the woman being drawn and the viewer. This is not just the struggle to categorise, simplify, or express but to actually immerse yourself in her world and to see it from her point of view. The North Face jacket provides an armour and the direct gaze through the glasses speaks, ‘I am who I am, I have every right to be here, I am part of you’ …
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| We got off at Westfield |
Another artwork by Olivia Twist, 'We got off at Westfield' is of two women, the younger one appears to be walking with her left hand on the left shoulder of the older woman while her right hand holds an mobile phone to her ear. She has long wavy black hair and is wearing a black Adidas sweatshirt with tracksuit bottoms. Her face is lowered as she concentrates on listening to the person on the phone. The older woman is leaning forwards. She has short hair, is wearing a turtle neck striped jumper with a pair of dark striped trousers. She is looking sideways at the viewer. They are walking past a shop window with a poster advertising fast food. Written in neat handwriting and in capital letters - Fish and chips, Chicken wings and chips £6.00,
Chilli Chicken or Lamb £5.95
Jalfrezi Chicken or Lamb £5.50
Shatkora Chicken or Lamb £5.75
Masala Chicken or Lamb £6.50
Prawn and King Prawn dishes
Dansak Chicken or Lamb £5.50
Korahi Chicken or Lamb £5.50
The very act of creating this everyday scene with its fast foods advert, branded sportswear, personal mobiles and the two Black Women walking, talking and listening has shattered the power of the market in shaping identity and relationships.
The older woman staring back at the viewer and the younger woman with her attention on the voice at the other end of her phone with her hand on the shoulder of the older woman, these human connections immediately subvert the dominant discourse and presence of competitive individual consumers in pursuit of economic self-interest.
Olivia Twist is a london based illustrator who ‘has a keen interest in exploring concepts of heritage, oral history and the ‘shock of the familiar’. Olivia routinely explores concepts of routine, the mundane and nostalgia.
Dayo Adesina’s artwork also caught my eye. At first glance Dayo’s collage,‘Stomach Ache’ looks like just a number of random unrelated images stuck onto blocks of bright colours drawing you into a child’s world. But give yourself time. You will see that the colours have meaning, the images are connected, and together with the text are communicating a message. The central focus is a photo of a young black girl with blue eyes, wearing pale yellow African clothes. She is looking directly at the viewer. Behind her stand two young women with pink blank faces and red hair with the no facial features. Both of them are wearing a uniform of a skirt and a sweatshirt (one red, one blue). All three figures stand in the centre of a pink circle (same pink as the faces) on top of a vertical bright red cylinder (which looks like a stick of seaside rock). Behind them is a sheet of grey photographic paper standing in a portrait position. Below them embedded in the red (similar to the red of the coca cola label) and in sharp focus stands a picture of a Coca Cola bottle with vegetable roots inserted into its mouth.
The white text framing the coca cola bottle, ending on the same green as the Milo carton, reads: ‘Sweet like a clue to help with with confusion’. The word ‘confusion’ appears below a large black plate with a purple Tinky Winky (from the children’s TV programme Teletubbies) holding a red bag, standing on plate's edge. Next to Tinky Winky are cartons of Nestles Milo stacked from four up to one. Emerging out of the green is a rectangle of blue with another set of Nestles Milo cartons, only this time they are stacked in the shape of a tree. Behind this carton tree is a photo of a fruit and vegetable stall which looks like a Market scene in Africa and behind this is a photo of an Ice Cream van with the text ‘Ali Baba’s’ above the window and the words ‘Freshly made soft ice cream’ with a picture of children playing and having fun below it (the only image which shows people moving in the whole collage). Above the Ice Cream van on a light blue painted background is a picture of a smiling child’s mouth, showing a toothless gum with baby teeth with letter S pouring out like saliva. Dayo Adesina’s collage reflects on the corporate consumption culture shaping childhood experiences for BME young women in Britain and in Africa. The destructive role of Coca Cola and Nestle on young children’s teeth, bodies and self image is contrasted with the fruit and vegetable stall in Africa. The sweetness of the sugar (from coca cola, Ice cream, stick of rock and Milo) and the image of the two girls with blank pink faces standing with the black girl wearing African clothes, looking unhappy, and the photo of Tinky Winky all point to the static and alienating way that global consumer culture attempt to define, control and shape gender, race and sexuality (Outside). The collage also expresses the confusion created as BME women’s collective experiences and their active selves are erased.
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| Stomach Ache |
The white text framing the coca cola bottle, ending on the same green as the Milo carton, reads: ‘Sweet like a clue to help with with confusion’. The word ‘confusion’ appears below a large black plate with a purple Tinky Winky (from the children’s TV programme Teletubbies) holding a red bag, standing on plate's edge. Next to Tinky Winky are cartons of Nestles Milo stacked from four up to one. Emerging out of the green is a rectangle of blue with another set of Nestles Milo cartons, only this time they are stacked in the shape of a tree. Behind this carton tree is a photo of a fruit and vegetable stall which looks like a Market scene in Africa and behind this is a photo of an Ice Cream van with the text ‘Ali Baba’s’ above the window and the words ‘Freshly made soft ice cream’ with a picture of children playing and having fun below it (the only image which shows people moving in the whole collage). Above the Ice Cream van on a light blue painted background is a picture of a smiling child’s mouth, showing a toothless gum with baby teeth with letter S pouring out like saliva. Dayo Adesina’s collage reflects on the corporate consumption culture shaping childhood experiences for BME young women in Britain and in Africa. The destructive role of Coca Cola and Nestle on young children’s teeth, bodies and self image is contrasted with the fruit and vegetable stall in Africa. The sweetness of the sugar (from coca cola, Ice cream, stick of rock and Milo) and the image of the two girls with blank pink faces standing with the black girl wearing African clothes, looking unhappy, and the photo of Tinky Winky all point to the static and alienating way that global consumer culture attempt to define, control and shape gender, race and sexuality (Outside). The collage also expresses the confusion created as BME women’s collective experiences and their active selves are erased.
This artwork shows the way in which culture of imperialism and racism forms a lens through which we see and shapes the how see ourselves and how we remember ourselves. Dayo Adesina’s ‘Stomach Ache’ is more than an artwork for the public consumption of ideas, its power lies in the fact that by producing this collage Dayo Adesina has created a space to think and also made visible her very own experiences (Red Spoon, Red Knife).
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| Outside |
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| Red Spoon Red Knife Dayo Adesina studied Fine Art at the university of creative arts in Farnham before switching to the BA illustration course in her final year. Her work examines childhood, collective memory, place, sexuality and the body. |
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| I Grew up holding signs |
Sofia Niazi’s work entitled: Still no News, was a project for her MA. The images, (using internet based GIF making tools) are of women and girls carrying out routine tasks inside the home. In the image, ‘ I grew up holding signs’, the young woman in the centre is writing on a large blank white sheet of paper and on the desk close to her lay a pair of scissors and what some pots of glue. Her table lamp, exercise book and pens have been moved to the edge of her study table. Three empty placards stand against the wall and the wide open door to her room links what she is doing inside to events outside. Sofia Niazi through her work aims to show how the daily lives of women have been destroyed by the ‘war on terror’. The overpowering straight lines, the stark, empty rooms, the lack of any decorative items carrying memories, the focus on the functional furniture all create feelings of sadness and longing. The intense warm colours (Still no news, No guests allowed) emphasise the restricted space (physical and emotional) forced on those left behind. The images are of Women waiting for news about family members who have been taken away without charge, subject to house arrest or been sent to prison. Women who are trying to get justice for their loved ones…Women who refuse to give up and Women who refuse to be invisible…
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| Still no news |
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| No guests allowed |
Another work by Sofia Niazi (below): needs no additional comments, it speaks for itself. In the first frame, there is a sketch of an Asian patient receiving a vaccine from a Doctor. The text reads:
Patient: I am travelling to Pakistan in a few weeks and the
Doctor's reply remind us why there is a need for campaigns like Docs not Cops: Is that for business, pleasure or
‘t_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _’?
‘t_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _’?
In the second frame a female student with a reading list in front of her asks a librarian with a computer monitor on her right, ‘I am looking for books about revolution and radical politics’ the librarian replies reveals the who is being criminalised and put under state surveillance: ‘Level D, just opposite the CCTV camera’
The third frame expresses visually the impact of the governments prevent policies in the Education system. A Muslim school student has written A for Allah and is looking up at a teacher who with a suspicious look asks: What other Islamist words did Daddy teach you?
Sofia Niazi is an artist and illustrator working and living in London. She employs various digital and hand drawn techniques in her work and explores themes relating to politics, technology and animals.
There are so few exhibitions like this one which bring together so many different experiences and make such strong statements about growing up and living in Britain as BME Woman. It would also be very inspiring to produce an exhibition about the Black Women Refugees, Asylum seekers or Domestic Workers who are struggling against the racist and sexist immigration laws. They are also challenging the idea of what it means to be a Black Woman in Britain today…
Artists who exhibited their work at the ‘WE ARE HERE’ exhibition of artworks by BME Women in Britain from 6th-9th July 2017:
Dayo Adesina, www.cargocollective.com/dayoadesina
Aleesha Nandhra, aleeshanandhra.com
Leyla Reynolds, leylagracereynolds.tumblr.com
Sofia Niazi, sofianiazi.co.uk
Jess Nash, jessnash.co.uk
Freya Bramble-Carter, freyabramblecarter.com
Danika Magdelena, siriusfilm.tumblr.com
Kariima Ali, kariimaali.com
Lilian Nejatpour, lilian-nejatpour.com
Liv&Dom, livanddom.com
Nasreen Shaikh Jamal al Lail, nasreenjml.com
Olivia Twist, yesoliviatwist.com
Joy Miessi, joymiessi.com
Erin Aniker, erinaniker.com
