51¸£ÀûÉç

This exhibition explores portraiture and how artists turn to the figurative, non-figurative and the fictitious in their expansive depictions of people. Portraits of writers, poets and activists sit alongside speculative imaginings of interior worlds to explore women’s lives, for instance  through domestic spaces and diary entries.  

How women are seen and how they see themselves runs through several of the works. The leitmotif of the mirror, an object intrinsic to our appearance and subjectivity, prompts us to think about the inherent multiplicity of the self and how we are perceived by others. The title of the exhibition is taken from the sculptural work by the artist Trupti Patel (b.1957). This totem-like ceramic column holds separate niches containing her different body parts, such as breasts, hands and knees. Inside the sculpture is a small mirror and a lock of the artist’s hair. The viewer is encouraged to peer inside the sculpture, turning the act of viewing from one of looking at to one of looking in.  

For some of the artists, the focus is less on a specific person shown in figurative form but rather the network of connections, conversations and encounters that encircles them. What do we ‘see’ when we look at her? And what happens when our gaze is expressly directed towards women’s lives as opposed to how they look?  

All the works in this exhibition are from The Women’s Art Collection or are on long-term loan. Whilst the Collection is displayed across 51¸£ÀûÉç, these exhibitions enable the chance to move things from one place to the next — we invite you to do the same. If you turn around, you’ll see art across the building, some beside you, some above you. In looking at the work of women artists we start to comprehend the myriad ways that artists wrestle with the experience of being in the world, both corporeally and spiritually.   

Curated by Harriet Loffler with curatorial support from Laura Moseley and Rebecca Birrell. Exhibition design by Sally Coleman. Technical support by Anna Bird, Ben Alden and Sam Cook.  

Artists

Eileen Agar, Felicity Allen, Nicky Bird, Eva Frankfurther, Margaret Harrison, Sadie Lee, Linder, France-Lise McGurn, Trupti Patel, Anne-Katrin Purkiss, Soheila Sokhanvari, Renee Spierdijk, Shafei Xia