Marr, Vanessa

English

University of Brighton Research Portal

Contributions by: Caroline ClaisseChiara PergolaFuturewellMadeleina KayNiam DoddLouise RondelRosie MartinVanessa MarrEdited by:Angelika StrohmayerRosanna BelliniSince its unveiling in November of 2020, there has been a lot of chatter about the statue of Mary Wollstone-craft in North London. The statue is of course long overdue as it has been 200 years since Mary’s un-timely death and a result of a long and arduous ten year campaign to have the writer and philosopher’s contribu- tions to femi-nist thought and actions remembered. She has served as an inspiration to many for her determination to pro-mote education and rights for women; opening a girls boarding school at just 25 years of age. However, we note that the decision to manifest a (highly expensive) statue of ‘every woman’ rather than of her specifically, and the physical manifestation of this ‘every woman’ as a naked person on top of what looks a bit like a silver wave, is not welcome. This has come as a disappointment and a shock to those involved in donating to the £143,300 fund that could make her image a real-ity. While we acknowledge representa-tion is a small achievement for ensur-ing the rights of women and girls, it is part of a larger spectrum of measures that seek to dismantle the hegemonic dominance of male thought and action represented across our cities.After seeing the silver statue, our first thought was that we wanted to make some clothes for Mary, and to give her a hat! But alas, we live in the North East and at the time it was not safe (nor legal under then lockdown rules) for us to travel down South to put those clothes on her. We’ve seen photos of Mary wearing a cape made of face masks, so we’re glad to see that others had similar ideas to us. There are no faster workers than angry women after all. With this zine-project, we take a fem-inist approach to the reproduction of the statue, giving artists and non-art-ists alike the chance to re-design Mary’s statue. We particularly want to welcome design fictions of what this statue *could* be in alternative futures. Using the existing statue as a starting point, how would you alter, adapt, de-construct, or re-construct this silver wave of the ‘every woman’? How would you best respect the legacy that Mary has provided in material form, using the existing statue as a starting point? After receiving quite awe-inspiring sup-port on social media for this project, we received seven submissions for our zine. We have collated these in the following pages. Thank you so much to everyone who has shared this call, to those who messaged us in support without being able to submit their own piece; and of course a huge thank you to those who took the time to think about and develop ideas of how the Mary Woll-stonecraft Statue could be changed to more realistically depict the power that she embodied. Nameless, nude and conventionally attractive is the only way women have ever been acceptable in public sculpture.”Imogen Hermes Gowar, Writer, 20202Of the 828 public statues recorded, 174 of them are female. 80 of those are named women, 15 of which are allegorical, mythical or otherwise fictional. And 38 of them are royal. April 201831. www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/mary-wollstonecraft-naked-sculture-maggi-hambling-b63158.html2. www.theconversation.com/mary-wollstonecraft-statue-a-provocative-tribute-for-a-radical-woman-1498883. www.bbc.com/news/uk-43884726As far as I know, sheʼs more or less the shape weʼd all like to be.Maggi Hambling, Artist, 2020 1  “Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum? 1989© courtesy www.guerrillagirls.comMy response inspired by the 1989 Guerrilla Girls poster. Photo credit ʻMother of feminismʼ © Paul Childs/Reuters By Caroline ClaisseChiara Pergola:author of this workKnowledge & Moonglasses:indispensable tools for looking at things in the right perspectiveSpacesuit:dress for the conquest of unexplored possibilitiesIn the name of:Feminist SolidaritySilver Gown:for financial purposesDestination:Planet EarthIt was unsurprising that the Mary Wollstonecraft statue caused some controversy, given that thecommission was given to an artist who has a reputation for being controversial. The reac-tion on Twitter was entertaining to say in the least; a lot of the debate on social media centred around individual interpretations of the artwork’s meaning. There was widespread objection to the statue’s nakedness, with popular author, Malorie Black-man, putting it bluntly, “I’ve seen many statues of male writers, rights activists and philosophers and I can’t remember any of them being bare-assed“.Others contested that the stat-ue was empowering to wom-en, and its defiant posture and expression represented women overcoming the struggles they have faced (represented by the steel blob the figure is emerging from). Some suggested that the presentation of the idealised fe-male form was actually demean-ing to women, insinuating that we should aspire to this beauty aesthetic, above other achieve-ments. One of my Facebook So Long As People Are Talking About Itby Madeleina Kayfollowers provided my favourite description of thesculpture, “a heap of amor-phous aluminium slag with a naked size 10 hottie balanced on the top”.Nonetheless, Maggie Ham-bling’s sculpture did achieve one unquestionable success; it got us all talking about Mary Wollstonecraft. “It’s an inter-esting piece though and has done what good art should do, it has got people discussing it.” Malorie Blackman added to her thread on Twitter. And asan artist myself, I agree that the best artwork attracts publicity by provoking debate. As Oscar Wilde said, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Good art is widely seen and shared because it engages people’s at-tention by resonating with them on a meaningful level – whether they appreciate the work aes-thetically is largely irrelevant.However, I think issue we need to address is whether Maggie Hambling was the right choice to deliver the original agenda of the commission. The ‘Mary on the Green’ campaign took ten years and had to raise £143,300 for the sculpture. On their web-site they state “Over 90% of London’s monuments celebrate men. This is set against a pop-ulation of 51% women.” Which infers that the purpose of the campaign was a “levelling up” agenda – to acknowledge more historic female figures in equal standing with their male coun-terparts. From this perspective, it seems to me that the artwork created does not deliver on the primary objective of the cam-paign. Perhaps there will be atime for alternative, “Avant Garde”, commemorative sculp-tures, but given that the current disparity is so stark, I think the priority should be to create sculptures which put women on an equal pedestal with men; that means the same size, stature and fully clothed and an actual representation of the person themselves (not a generic figure dedicated to the person). I feel like Hambling’s work is moreabout herself as an artist, than it is about recognising Mary Woll-stonecraft and her life’s work as a pioneering feminist. After all, when visitors go to Parliament Square to see the statues of Winston Churchill or Millicent Fawcett, they will rarely be talk-ing about the artist who created the sculptures.In this sense, the commission should have been given to a “craftsperson” not an “artist”, becausewhat we needed was a commemorative sculpture not an interpretative artwork.As it turns out, one of the de-signs proposed for the commis-sion was a dignified, full-sized, fullyclothed, bronze statue of Wollstonecraft with her left hand placed on a pile of books - which is befitting of the Woll-stonecraft Society’s objectives, “To promote the recognition of her contribution to equality, di-versity and human rights. And to promote equality and diversity in education, and stimulate aspi-ration and thoughtful reflection.” The problem with this design was that it was created by a man, and so the design submit-ted by a female artist was cho-sen in preference. This could beseen as an example of positive discrimination, but if so, it is short-sighted and based on the false assumptions that there is no such thing as a male feminist and that women can’t reinforce the patriarchy. The result of this decision-mak-ing process by the selection committee is that we arepresented with a sculpture which is focussed on the “strug-gles” women have faced, not their achievements, and all women are being represented by a miniscule, idealised female figurine in gleaming silver.Perhaps it would provide some insight to reverse the situation, and envisage an equivalent, “modern art” sculpture, of a famous British figure. Imagine a commemorative sculpture of Boris Johnson: the figurine is not actually representative of the prime minister (who is some-what over-weight), but anidealised, male form; naked and muscular with a large erect penis. Evoking a Roman warrior or a Grecian God, surely this is befitting of Boris who studied Classics at Oxford and has a reputation for cavalier ambition? The figure emerges from a huge turd to symbolise the challeng-es he has overcome during the delivery of his life’s greatest achievement: Brexit. Of course, the statuette might cause con-troversy, as some people might have an alternative interpretation of its meaning …But so long as they are talking about it, that’s the important thing. Right?Big Johnson, 2020. Sculpture by Madeleina Kay.Great Tits  Do they know the history, are they aware of it? as they share their pics of this lady, bare, with "great tits"  nothing else to make of it. No debate on this inspired generations but it's like the creator never gave a shit not contemplating their actions.. the weight of it much uproar has been caused, raging fits is this really what a lady is?  This does not educate the kids educate them by saying this lady didn't know the way to quit  she heard the male narrative and engaged with it unveiled it as a tale of shit revolutionary status.. fit what a cause for celebration is what it was and should get carried away with it .. she gave the world an inseminating kiss  Yet today it is the most insane remiss  a knife with a disabling twist kids will play a bit and say with grit  "let's go see Mary in the park.. that lady with the great tits"   Niam Dodd  niamdodd@gmail.com Vanessa Marr Email:v.marr@brighton.ac.uk Instagram:@vanemarrBy Louise Rondel & Rosie Martin“It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world!”― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindica-tion of the Rights of Woman“My dreams were all my own; I ac-counted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free.”― Mary Wollstonecraft

Re-Design Mary Wollstonecraft

https://cris.brighton.ac.uk/ws/files/23955026/Re_Designing_MaryWollstonecraft_Zine.pdf

Re-Design Mary Wollstonecraft

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