For Women’s History Month 2022, photographer and activist Eliza Hatch, has teamed up with illustrator and creative, Bee Illustrates. They co-curate Hysterical, their debut London-based charity exhibition. It celebrates women and people of all marginalised genders by fusing art and activism via their work.
“The theme of the show,” Thatch writes on cheerupluv, the Instagram account which brought her into the public eye, “is to subvert the notion of “attention-seeking” or “dramatic” women… And reclaim words that have historically been used to oppress people of marginalised genders when speaking out on the issues they face.”
Hysterical, dramatic, emotional, neurotic; are words constantly lobbied at women and marginalised genders, as a way to restrict and invalidate their thoughts and words.
Historically used to oppress specific communities, these words will be reclaimed in a new exhibition set to launch this week. Hatch hopes that they can use the exhibition to illustrate the changes taking place in society, and express their experience of new wave activism.
She writes, “by amplifying the work of artists and activists using their voices for change, Hysterical will show how creatives are responding to the world around them and using art as a tool for advocacy!!”
Creating a Buzz
The exhibition will showcase works by creatives from multiple disciplines including photography, illustration, film, textiles and digital media, whose work focuses on issues such as identity, race, sexual harassment, gender, disability, politics and more, to subvert the notion of “hysterical”. The theme of this year’s LGBT+ History Month was Politics In Art, which fits in perfectly with the theme of the exhibition, reminding us all of the power in using art as a tool for advocacy.
The exhibition is creating a heavy buzz. It promises to feature work from artists of the new digital era. That is, those free from the containment of traditional boundaries. Those who aren’t afraid to speak their mind; many of whom have had their initial breakthrough on Instagram.
Through the Lens
Dazed previews, the work of Tayo Adekunle, in the lead up to the exhibition, writing, “she uses her photography to explore the fetishisation, and sexualisation of Black women’s bodies through the lens of colonial photography and the display of Black people, by placing images of herself alongside ethnographic photographs of Black women, which were once circulated around Europe as pornography, to question the images’ subjects’ agency.”
Capturing the Anxiety
Bee Illustrates successfully captures the anxiety which applies to so many young women and marginalised genders.
Hysterical is open from March 24 2022 to April 3 2022 at no format Gallery, Casting House, Moulding Lane, London. All proceeds from each event will be donated to gender equality profit UN Women UK and LGBTQ+ charity UK Mermaids.
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