Women in Revolt, Exhibition, Tate Britain, London: 8 November 2023 – 7 April 2024

Painting, drawing, photography, textiles, printmaking, film, sculpture, and archival materials  show the impact on creativity of extreme social, economic, and political change.

As well as celebrating the work of well-known artists such as Sonia Boyce, Susan Hiller and Linder, Women in Revolt! presents many other  women, who despite long careers, are not often recognised. For the first time works by Poulomi Desai and Shirley Cameron will be on show in a major cultural institution.

Presented chronologically, it  begins with the first women’s liberation conference in the UK, Miss World protests and the formation of the Brixton Black Women’s Group. Artists such as Margaret Harrison, Penny Slinger and Monica Sjöö subvert the expected roles of women in society, while Kate Walker, Monica Ross and Su Richardson worked collectively on a postal art project, demonstrating how communities of women found ways to work collaboratively without formal infrastructure. Many of these pieces have not been shown since the 1970’s.

This period saw a dramatic evolution of the relationship between women, work, and the domestic environment. Frustration with the fact that women were expected  to be domestic slaves is the subject of work by Bobby Baker, posters by See Red Women’s Workshop and photography by Alexis Hunter, whilst The Hackney Flashers and Tina Keane consider the social and political implications of raising children in Who’s Holding the Baby 1978 and Clapping Songs 1979.

Sculptures by Rita McGurn and Elizabeth Radcliffe offer glamorous imagined images of the self, using techniques like crochet: often under appreciated because of their connection to domestic labour.

The exhibition explores the creative impact of Punk and Post-punk with collage, photography and film from artists and musicians like Marian Elliott-Said (A.K.A Poly Styrene), The Neo Naturists, and Gina Birch.

The consideration of sex in the practice of artists is also explored, from Cosey Fanni Tutti’s performance work to Jill Westwood’s Potent Female, 1983.

Protest, led by women is a core theme throughout the show. Banners, posters, and journals from the Greenham Common and Section 28 protests, and anti-racism and AIDS campaigns are accompanied by documentary photography from Format Photography Agency, Mumtaz Karimjee, Bhajan Hunjan and Caroline Coon, affirming women’s central role in this activism. A major sculpture by Margaret Harrison which references the fences of Greenham Common is installed alongside protest banners by Thalia Campbell.

The impact of women artists who were involved in key movements like the BLK Art Group and the advocacy group and archive Panchayat is explored, as well as their role in the first National Black Art Convention in 1982 and ongoing contribution to British Black and South Asian feminist art discourses.

Alongside works by key figures like Lubaina Himid, Sutapa Biswas, Claudette Johnson, Pratibha Parmar and Rita Keegan are works which are being specially conserved for the exhibition such as Nina Edge’s Snakes and Ladders 1985, an installation made of batik on paper and ceramics, which despite featuring on the cover of Maud Salter’s landmark 1990 book Passion: Discourses on Black women’s Creativity, has not been shown in over three decades.

The exhibition closes with work towards the end of the Thatcher administration, focusing on women’s response to Section 28, (which banned the promotion of anything to do with gay rights) and the AIDS epidemic, by artists which include Tessa Boffin and Jill Posener. 

The exhibition  concludes with works that reflect on the changing economic landscape and women’s place within it, by Joy Gregory, Franki Raffles and Roshini Kempadoo.