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! On Tour Margate - Liminal Gallery
In this episode we are in Margate at Liminal Gallery talking to founder and curator Louise Fitzjohn and Margate based artists Mercedes Workmen and Catherine Chinatree.
Liminal Gallery represents contemporary artists working across the UK and Ireland. Its main ethos is to present an all-round snapshot of what is happening right now in contemporary art, showcasing artists at all stages of their careers working across all mediums.
Mercedes is a self-taught artist; predominantly working in ceramics but also other areas of sculpture, painting and drawing.
After her mum died in January 2020 she decided to make some tiles for a splash back in her kitchen and it grew to be huge project; she created enough tiles for 3 bathrooms, a utility room and her whole kitchen.
Her work is a response to her overactive mind. She has ADHD and work fast and determinedly. Themes that recur in her work are relationships and interactions, perceptions, judgements, idiosyncrasies, cliches. Most usually around womanhood, motherhood and identity
Catherine is a multidisciplinary artist, with a strong focus on large scale paintings, both indoors and outside. The work can be described as both figurative and socially surreal. She also work with sound and moving image in a collage type of way, connecting footage/sound at random.
Most of her inspiration comes from the events of everyday life, of symbolism and rituals and the people she meets. Often complex layers of history, social anthropology and Cultural displacement become part of the work, as she investigate the notion of the constructed self and human behaviour. Being of Welsh, Caribbean and Irish descent, She is deeply rooted in hybrid culture, and the idea of a shared reality. Not only between us as humans, but also everything that makes up our natural/supernatural world, and how we balance between the two.