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Ladies to the Front – The Art of Noise
Margaret Whitlam Galleries
8 April - 16 July
Ladies to the Front – the Art of Noise is an opportunity to celebrate women artists who work across performance, sound, composition and visual arts, and has a strong emphasis on some of our leading alumnae from Western Sydney University.
This exhibition is a somewhat joyous experience of energy, power, rebellion, and of course punk feminism, or no offence to the vintage of most of the exhibitors, Meno-Punk* at its core. The title of the exhibition is a play on the Girls to the front cry by Riot Grrrl bands of the early 1990s especially the call of Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill.
The Riot Grrrl movement began in Olympia, Washington, when a group of women held a meeting to discuss how to address sexism in the punk scene. The women decided they wanted to start a “girl riot” against a society they felt offered no validation of women’s experiences.
Riot Grrrls believed in girls actively engaging in cultural production, putting on gigs, creating and recording their own music and fanzines rather than following existing materials. The bands associated with Riot Grrrl used their music to express feminist and anti-racist viewpoints. Bands such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy provided sharp social commentary on the position of females in society at large.
Focused on the support females can receive from one another, Riot Grrrls problematized the female body by talking about female desires, body parts and more taboo subjects such as incest and rape in an upfront and at times, perceived as confrontational. Tired of being misrepresented, the Riot Grrrls, declared a media black-out in the early 1990s, and refused to speak to any mainstream journalists or allow documentation of their activities.
Are the ladies in the exhibition continuing to rejoice in women’s representation and the DIY aesthetics of the 1990s, are they defiant members of a Girl/Ladies Riot?
Exhibiting Artists: Holly Harrison, Justene Williams, Kate Brown, NELL and Tina Havelock Stevens
Exhibition curator: Gen-X Meno Punk, Margaret Hancock - Senior Curator, Western Sydney Creative
*The term Meno Punk comes from the myth shattering documentary and podcast about peri/menopause and the creative process seen thru the lens of defiant Gen-X musicians and doctors.
Ladies to the Front – The Art of Noise Supper Club
Western Sydney Creative warmly invites you to our Ladies to the Front – the Art of Noise Supper Club on 14 May at the Margaret Whitlam Galleries.
The Whitlam Institute, Building EZ, Parramatta South Campus , WSU
4:30pm drinks, nibbles, viewing exhibition and drop in workshop
5:30pm official welcome
Join us for an evening of connection, conversation and community.
The Supper Club offers guests the opportunity to share dinner while enjoying a thought-provoking series of conversations centred on exhibition Ladies to the Front – The Art of Noise, alongside a creative workshop, fingers crossed some creative readings and a performance in the Margaret Whitlam Galleries.
Program
4:30pm-5:30pm Double Dare ya Drop in creative workshop led by Associate Professor Michelle Catanzaro and Associate Lecturer Alicia Ball
Drinks/nibbles and chance to view exhibition (upstairs Margaret Whitlam Galleries)
The galleries will remain open until 9pm.
5:30pm Official Introduction MC Margaret Hancock
5:35pm Welcome to Country Aunty Peta Strachan TBC
5:45pm Female Led – Sydney’s Street Press - Associate Professor Liz Giuffre
6:10pm Irregular Spaces: Sydney's DIY Scene 2010–2013 - Associate Professor Michelle Catanzaro
6:30pm Dinner
7:10pm Creative readings by Katherine Pollock author of Her Fidelity
7:25pm Performance Kate Brown and Lawrence Quinn
7:50pm Panel Discussion–Kate Brown, Holly Harrison, Justene Williams, NELL and Tina Havelock Steven with moderator Nina Stromqvist
8:45pm Close
Program subject to change
