Research Centre
Art and Design Research Centre

Date
2013

This research recovers and re-historicises the suffragette as a militant artist in order to infuse and sharpen contemporary interest in the relation between art and politics through the inspiration of suffragette tactics and rigour

Hester Reeve and Olivia Plender (in the construct of The Emily Davison Lodge, an ongoing collaborative art work) worked with Tate to produce the installation, The Working Table of the Emily Davison Lodge 2010–3, and to co-curate an accompanying exhibition of Sylvia Pankhurst’s art work.

This research recovers and re-historicises the suffragette as a militant artist in order to infuse and sharpen contemporary interest in the relation between art and politics through the inspiration of suffragette tactics and rigour. Reeve and Plender initially came together by co-authoring a chapbook as part of SHU's Transmission publication series. This lead to four new art works commissioned by the Women’s Library and exhibited in the group show ‘Out of the Archives.’

Reeve was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 programme,Women’s Hour, and the Internet-based Hercircleezine published an article publicising their proposal that June 4th become celebrated as Emily Davison Day. It was in response to one of these works, Open Letter to Tate Britain, that the director of Tate Britain invited the Emily Davison Lodge to work with them in addressing the still problematic status of art works made by women. The same work was taken up and extended into artists’ pages in the publication, Living Labour, published by Sternberg Press and Henie Onstad Museum, Oslo.

Reeve developed an additional art work to promote 'Emily Davison Day', a website that digitally mimics the suffragette tactic of leafleting, and was invited to talk about this work at the ‘Art, Politics and the Pamphleteer’ event at the People’s History Museum. Reeve was also invited to talk about her Emily Davison-inspired work at ‘The Northern Gathering’ in Morpeth, the suffragette’s home town.

Researchers involved

Hester Reeve - Senior Lecturer in Fine Art

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