Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms – Review by Anna Pigott
Feminist Art
Activisms and Artivisms
Katy Deepwell ed.
Valiz
Review by Anna Pigott
“The promise of art activisms is that they redefine both how art and politics can be understood by bringing together unexpected elements and new configurations, encouraging us to see the world and how it operates differently and presenting different models of art production and social organization”
- from introduction by Katy Deepwell
Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms is the first publication in the series ‘PLURAL’, by Amsterdam-based Valiz, an independent publisher on contemporary art, theory, critique, design and urban affairs. Plurality is an apt description for this collection of perspectives from 37 different contributors, all related to the intersections between feminist art and feminist activism, and the zone of ‘artivisms’ where the two become entwined.
Editor Katy Deepwell’s opening essay provides a critical framework for these interactions, contextualising book’s overarching implications in reference to thinkers such as Lucy Lippard and Chantal Mouffe. If the slightly denser side of critical theory is not in your comfort zone, you can enjoy this book just as much by skipping the intro to begin with and diving straight into one of the many essays at random. With subject matter as varied as; motherhood; care; trauma; class; queerness; wages for housework; Greenham Common; curating from a black female perspective and ecological perspectives on art-making, everyone can find something within this volume to interest, enlighten, provoke thought and offer new perspectives and connections.
The book itself is a satisfyingly chunky tome to plunge into – over 400 pages, beautifully designed by Lotte Lara Schröder with a combination of retro and hand-drawn typefaces and cut-and-paste style graphics. Each essay is fully illustrated, although the black and white reproductions work strongly for some imagery, while others lose impact or legibility. We can assume this decision was made to prevent the book becoming prohibitively expensive and inaccessible, as one of this size surely would be if printed in colour. This is also compensated for by the choice of beautifully thick (and eco-friendly) paper stock, which alongside the design, makes the book an appealing object and a pleasure to hold and read.
The publication was born out of a conference of the same name at Middlesex University in 2018, and the experience of reading it very much has echoes of people physically coming together (back when that was a possibility!). You can imagine yourself in a crowded and buzzing lecture theatre, listening to the voices of different contributors, each bringing their own different style, crossing over in unexpected ways. Also felt is the excitement to walk out with a head buzzing full of ideas, and to keep the conversations going.