Women's Refuge

1978

We have compared a story of a woman who was denied a place to live in 1978 by the council to the current day story of women who are still being failed by the system to show the scale of the issue. We have used the imagery of a bed and pillows to emphasise that these women are at risk of being homeless, and no longer have anywhere safe to stay.

Our piece is a poster of a bed pasted onto the floor of our location, with a trail leading to the door of the Dunn's building. After finding out that earlier this year a protest for women who were suffering from domestic abuse took place in our very location, we came to the realisation that our piece should be making the point that even 40 years on, people are still having to protest for the same thing.

Elliot Herbert Byrnes, Sophie Attwill, Jack Garrad and Morgan Shipley.

Women's Centre

1996

We found out that Bristol no longer has the centre for women affected by domestic violence, that was referenced to in our feminist archive pamphlet. We were interested in the idea of erasure in our outcome and designed a mat which says ‘WOMENS CENTRE’ representing the lack of a women’s centre. The mat is placed in front of a brick wall and locations where people could not pass through. We wish to point out the inaccessibility of women’s centre in Bristol in the present day. Thus making it harder for victims of domestic violence to seek for help and shelter.

The video below contains images from: Chau Luong, Christopher Campbell, Cristian Newman, Gabriel Benois, Hailey Kean, Jose A Thompson, Kat J, Kevin Laminto, Laetitia Buscaylet and Sydney Sims.

Boon Syeun Kee, Ning Xin Lee, Mira Adinigrum and Lee Enever.

Our Best Kept Secret

1976

In Broadmead, on the 31st of July in 1976, Bristol Abortion Groups held a street event in the shopping quarter of Broadmead. This event was held to draw attention to their continuing campaign for a woman’s right to choose.

In Broadmead, on the 8th of November 2018, we held a stall in the shopping quarter of Broadmead to promote sexual health facilities and information to the public. The stall consisted of a strikingly painted pink board that had the title ‘Our Best Secret’. The board had 28 hooks attached to it, on these hooks were tear-off information cards. These included 12 clinics (information on their whereabouts and when walk ins and appointments were available), 8 FAQs surrounding the subject of abortion and contraception, 4 helpline/ website resources that were relevant and a combined 8 illustrations.

Thank you to the illustrators that contributed to this project. Kate Healy, Joe Wood, Eleanor Jackson, Georgia Moore, Chanel Buckland, Rose Tasker, Amber Sorayapour

Anna Quarrie, Paige Lanyon, Emma Simpson and Emma Tobey.

Gay Disco

1970s

Blending the idea of a lesbian disco night - as we had found a ticket of at our visit to the archive - and the current state of its original location, a car park, we have created our site-specific outcome ‘GAY DISCO HISTORY PARKING TICKET’.

Using the conventions of a typical parking ticket we designed a subversive outcome to trick the eye of the audience, and therefore engage them to pay close attention. The current context of the location causes a shift in narrative for the outcome because of it’s neutrality as a space - as opposed to the narrowed admission of the ‘Back of the BQ’ where the event previously existed. The situational factors of a car park means our audience is varied and fairly unpredictable, correlated only by location. Inside the yellow sleeve is a ticket receipt-style document which acts as a record of the forgotten gay disco history found in the Feminist Archive - detailing the events, their tone and its journey to extinction.

Anna Mills, Brogan Martin, Jamie Robertson and Ben Kurtaran.

Women's Workshop

1993

The Bristol women’s workshop is one of the oldest female organisations still running, we wanted to reinvigorate and celebrate what happens in the space by raising awareness of the workshops and learn some skills of our own.

Our Site Specific outcome takes the form of 5 wooden joints made to celebrate the ethos of the workshops. The workshop stands for; Modern practical women learning, teaching and being comfortable in a hands on building environment. We have celebrated what goes on in the space with the process by which we have made our outcomes and by inviting more women into the space in order to grow the community of practical, inspired women who feel comfortable and safe.

Special thank you to Bristol Women's Workshop.

Meg Alderson, Beth Knapp, Matt Webber and Kye Taylor.

Women in Moving Pictures

1980s

The work is a series of new posters responding to the original Women In Moving Pictures group (WIMPS). We wanted to display the posters in a creative way in the harbourside area around the Watershed; which has been our key location for much of the work WIMPS did.

We chose to move our object around as to show the posters to new audiences. The posters were moved through the area on a temperoary structure and the film merges our footage with powerful female Oscar speeches and clips. We feel that whilst this provides a strong audio score it also reminds the viewers that these issues are still very real and relevant today.

Joe Williams, Toby Wilkins, Lily Hummphreys and Alix Ingram.

Sistershow

1973

Our project is developed based on original material relating to ‘Sistershow’ found in the archive. We took the tone of the visual language used in the show and designed a t-shirt which has a hand- drawn illustration of breasts on it,we wore it outside the theatre in Bower Ashton, where Sistershow used to perform.

Katie Howard, Chloe Ham, Holly Hedongfang and Isobel Lee.

Bristol Pound

The focus of our piece is on the address of long time feminist, Ellen Malos, who resides at 11 Waverly Road. The archival document that lead us to this address was mainly addressing issues within the gender pay gap and equal pay for men and women. We created a new design for the Bristol Pound, that relates to the document and Malos herself. We thought this would be a great way to keep the topic of her work in the circulation of Bristolian society. Our outcomes have been developed into three different designs for a £1, £5 and a £10 note and which involve an illustrative, photographic and typographic design base.

Ollie Slee, Tom Leigh, Gemma Frost and Morgan Kinnaird.

Enough

1970s

The work responds to ‘Enough’ publication from the archive that contained content related to the demands made by the women’s movement during the 1970s.

Our new site specific work asks women now what they want to change and what they demand in the 21st century.

We used the idea of street signs to express our idea as they represent a warning, guidance and restriction.

Tania Putrindr, Vania Clarap Philbertha and Sherine Gracella Winata.

Her Too

1986

We responded to the original BREAD Zine from the archive and created a poster using similar processes to the original; as an edition with the use of a risograph machine. In the new outcome, we wanted to raise awareness of clubs, societies and organisations that work with women of all walks of life in Bristol. The poster itself details over 50 organisations that women of different race or belief can refer to for support and guidance. The produced outcome benefits the cause of intersectional feminism.These were placed in and around Colston street.

Dawid Giermak, Milly Nash, Kayleigh Yearsley and Tom Jones.

Women's Aid

Bristol women’s aid was formerly located in the currency exchange shop, JN Money. During our research into the location, we discovered that JN money were still receiving letters for Bristol women’s aid from women who are asking for help. We feel it is unjust that there are women who face domestic hardship that still need help but aren’t getting it. Subsequently, we decided to write a large letter of protest to Bristol city council on behalf of the women of Bristol arguing that more services for women need to be and should be provided. We carried our letter of protest through the streets of Bristol, from JN money and eventually to the town hall, where we placed the letter at their doorstep.

William Devlin, Megan Preece, Rebecca Enos and Jacob Webb.

Out On The Table

1979

‘Out on the table’ responds to the book ‘Half the Sky’ an introduction to women’s studies, found in the Feminist Archive South.

We met Helen Taylor one of the nine women who wrote the book and whose archive we looked at. We had a discussion with her about whether the book was still relevant today and if we have progressed enough. From this conversation with Helen we created a film with visuals inspired by the meetings they use to have where they would have a feast. We then created postcards, ‘out on the table’ with a description about Half the Sky and questions about inequalities which are relevant today in society for women. We went back to Helen’s address and posted these postcards through her old door and other houses on the surrounding streets for the day.

The idea behind the postcards is to encourage women to generate more conversations about feminism, women’s position in society and the inequalities which are still around.

Charlotte Hooper, Emma Gray, Nathan Day and Tom Astbury.

What She Also Did Was...

1980s

‘What she also did was’ is a response to a collection of women’s poetry published by Bristol publishers Rive Gauche and an event that took place at the Plough Inn. To commemorate the poetry book we had chosen, we called for women of the general public to complete the book’s title ‘What she also did was’ We made a set of beer mats based on the content we had received to go back into the pub. These celebrate the diverse role that women play in our society. Alongside this, we redesigned the Bristol Cowboys and Cowgirls football kit to celebrate 40 years of the feminist archive and match our green and yellow colour scheme.

Alice Hall, Megan Webb and Jenna Rogers.

Hysterical Women

We organised a zine making workshop made in response to a fanzine we found in the archive called ‘Hysteria.’ One of the locations that linked to this material was the Women’s Centre which was a correspondence address for the fanzine. The themes that we cover in the zine are based on the advice and workshops that were available at the Women’s Centre. The themes include: pregnancy, the female body and women’s rights. The title of our zine is ‘Hysterical Women’ which we chose as we wanted to take ownership of the word, look past the negative connotation of ‘hysterical’ and create a sense of empowerment around it and the issues covered within the zine.

Chloe Tyler, Nicole Swain and Anna Heywood.

BLAGS

1975

The new work is an interactive sound installation made in response to the Bristol’s lesbian and gay switchboard (BLAGS), founded in 1975, a helpline created to give support to the lesbian and gay community in Bristol. Our installation consisted of a telephone and a yellow page’s book.

The telephone has a series of buttons for the audience to press, each button triggers different sounds relating to the BLAGS support system, such as the poem which was in the newsletter we found at the feminist archive and sounds of someone calling the phone and telling their story.

The installation was meant to work as a sort of time capsule to inform the audience of the helpline but also hopefully taking the issues raised from the installation and relating them to today's society and reinforcing the idea that they are still relevant now. In addition to this we provided a yellow pages inspired publication displaying different types of support groups, communities, helplines and schemes in place for women who are struggling in Bristol today.

Roisin Robinson, Jasmine Roberts, Frank Jones and Olivia Rickarby.

St Werburgh’s Community Centre

1991

The ‘Bristol Festival Against Racism’ was a gathering of women who wanted to come together with their different perspectives to share experiences and create alliances to tackle racism. It took place at the st werburgh’s community centre. We visited the St Werburgh’s Community Centre and met with the director who gave us some background information on the history of the centre. We observed how much information was displayed on their walls and decided that a ‘historical noticeboard’ collage wall would fit in well in that environment. The purpose of this collage wall was to provide a visual format in which to present information about the involvement the centre had in anti-racist and feminist movements in the past.

Suzannah Bayliss, Sophie Marshall, Jay Pearson and Freddie Hawes.

Rule The Waves

1992

Our piece responds to material we found on Fem fm - the UKs first female-run radio station which ran in Bristol in 1992. The radio station broadcast out of a building in Brunswick Square.

We created an audio piece which was presented on an mp3 player accompanied by a risograph poster and pamphlet. We placed the installation in Brunswick Square, which was there for several hours, in which time many people interacted with the installation.

The concept behind our piece was to promote the ways in which women could make their voices heard so that they can make a difference. Our audio piece describes what Fem fm was and it’s relevance to the square and goes on to list the ways women can be heard, with each phrase voiced by a different woman/girl. We wanted to emulate the ambitions of Fem fm who felt that broadcasting was too male dominated.

George Bone, Ed Hambridge, Lewys Edwards and Martha Cornwall.

The Roxy

1980s

Roxy was a straight club which ran a gay night on Wednesdays for women during the early 1980s. The door was in the part of Fairfax Street which is now in the tunnel under the Galleries car park. Inside there were stairs leading to a big room with a bar, disco and large dance floor. These discos were women only, and although the majority who went were lesbians, straight women went too as it was somewhere they could have a dance without being pestered.

We decided to re visit Roxy Wednesdays, and bring the event to life again through a poster series, using bold and Lo-Fi design. The location of Roxys was never made completely clear, as it had been knocked down and built on, becoming the car park of the galleries. We made a film accompanying the posters is in the style of a promotional piece advertising the night.

Shannon O'Connell, Luke Wong, Charlie Gilding and Lewis Rose.