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Woman Up!
WomanUp! podcast speaks to and about artists, academics, writers and activists, midwives, carers and more all (m)others and all womxn. Those challenging ideas and ideals, questioning assumptions and provoking social change.
Originally created under the Desperate Artwives collective, Woman Up! is a podcast dedicated to creating a living archive of these people and this work, that anyone can access. We find those trying to change current structures founded on biases that have to do with gender, caring responsibilities, race, and the integration of the private and the public space. We have conversations about lived experiences, achievements, and aspirations and we will share campaigns and awareness around crucial intersectional struggles and subjects.
Series 4 included 6 episodes produced in partnership with the innovative Procreate ProjectWoman Up! is produced by Artists Amy Dignam and Susan Merrick
Special thanks:
Althea Greenan and The Women’s Art Library at Goldsmiths College for providing us space and equipment to record for S1 and S2 as well as support for the project;
Rosemary Schonfeld and OVA for the use of their track Early in the Evening, and to the Women’s Liberation Music Archive for storing such inspirational music that we can then find!
Mike Dignam for remixing the track
Woman Up!
Woman Up! Series 4 Episode 6 - Louise Ashcroft 'Tales from the Bird Hut Sperm Bank and Other Alternative Parenting Futures'
Louise Ashcroft is an artist who makes video, performance, audio, watercolours and objects which humorously chronicle her critical meddling in real life situations. Often, her work involves analysing cultural content (like the Argos catalogue, call centres, tech culture, the reproductive industry or breakfast cereal marketing).
She has made several audio works for BBC Sounds and has spoken at leading digital arts festivals such as KIKK and Chaos Computer Congress. She has presented work at Frans Hals Museum (NL), Museum of London Lates, Wellcome Lates, BQ Berlin, Arebyte, Bobinska Brownlee, Tate Learning, Open Space Contemporary, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Artsadmin, Turf Projects, Duckie, Coastal Currents Festival, Camden People's Theatre, Supernormal Festival and Latitude Festival. She teaches Fine Art at Goldsmiths, London, and co-founded the free peer-led art school AltMFA in 2010.
She likes expensive trainers and angry Marxist rhetoric.
Louise says
"My work looks at barriers to starting a family as a queer woman, and the personal relationships that are in play in these decisions. We need to be rethinking social structures of parenting, not always going down the ‘nuclear’ style family and gender binary structures. I didn't want to be a parent or non parent in a relationship, I just want to be involved in a family! How can someone parent without being a traditional ‘having a baby’ parent?
Childfree by choice is a movement focused on choice, which can be problematic. Choice is a very loaded word, but is also a word that capitalism is based on. Having kids or not is not always a choice for people. Like for me, but then that means you can explore different ways to be ‘family’, which can be equally exciting."
Useful links
https://www.louiseashcroft.org/bird-hut.html
Insta @louiseashcroft1