London Group members Aude Hérail Jäger and Tisna Westerhof bring their exhibition about belonging and displacement to HARTslane, London.
Aude Hérail Jäger | Tisna Westerhof
THE OPEN DOOR
HARTslane, 17 Harts Lane, New Cross Gate, London SE14 5UP
25 September – 6 October 2024
Private View Wed 25 Sept 5.30-8pm
RSVP [email protected]
Exhibition Open Times: Thurs – Sun, 2-6pm and on Sun 6 Oct, 12 noon – 3pm
Workshop Details:
Aude Hérail Jäger and Tisna Westerhof – Protest Banner: Saturday 28 September, 12 noon – 2 pm
The artists invite participants to create their own protest banners in response to the question: What message would you like to write to yourself to be reminded of your autonomy, aspirations and resilience? The workshop includes quilting and appliqué techniques and is based on storytelling as a way to free creativity as part of designing and making the protest banner.
The Feminist Library – Your DIY Manifesto: Saturday 5 October, 12 noon – 2 pm
The Feminist Library invites local residents of all ages to attend a community manifesto writing workshop. Participants will learn to think, converse, and map the intersections of their diverse stories and feminisms, exploring how the personal is political, and visualising what our collective power holds. They will explore intersections of feminist theory and how they relate to our everyday lives, and will collaboratively produce a collective manifesto that outlines their desires for imagining otherwise. By the end of the workshop, participants will have created individual manifestos and one communal one.
The workshops are open to all, free.
THE OPEN DOOR is a collaborative exhibition about belonging and displacement across time and space by Aude Hérail Jäger and Tisna Westerhof. The project evolved from a series of conversations during the 2020 pandemic, when the two artists started exchanging thoughts and creative ideas about notions of home, the significance of childhood memories and family ties, especially during times of separation.
The result is a collection of intimate works based on personal experience interlaced with critical observations of contemporary life, in particular the role of women in society both past and present, expressed in works on paper, textiles and sculpture.
An integral part of the project is the Women’s Quilt of Pride, a collaborative piece of textile art created in workshops with members of the local communities in France and London. Participants were invited to dedicate a textile square to an inspirational woman, family member, friend or public figure. The experience of personal expression through an ancient craft forming a cathartic bond between the participants while the resulting quilts serve as testaments of togetherness and hope.
First shown in the vast vaults of a former vineyard in rural France this Spring, the exhibition has been adapted to the urban setting of a converted motorbike garage. For the London iteration, the artists have worked closely with members of The Feminist Library who will present a selection of their large archive collection of feminist literature to complement the displays.
The exhibition opens with a conversation chaired by The Feminist Library between the two artists and Nazira Mehmari, Operational Manager at IKWRO, the Women’s Rights Organisation whose members contributed to the Women’s Quilt of Pride, as well as Dr. Farhana Hoque, Social and Medical Anthropologist, University College London, who contributed to THE OPEN DOOR catalogue, and Cristiana Bottigella, co-founder and director of hARTslane.
Originally known as the Women’s Research and Resources Centre (WRRC), The Feminist Library was set up in 1975, at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) and a time of intense political campaigning and lively collective organising.
Based in Peckham, The Feminist Library supports research, activist and community projects in this field. The Feminist Library is trans-inclusive, welcomes visitors of any gender, does not require registration or membership, and provides an intersectional space for the exploration of feminism.
