WUNRN
National Women's Council of Ireland
The
National Women's Council of Ireland initiated the Legacy Project to challenge
mainstream representations of women and work and to look instead at the
alternatives.
There are four core commissions led by artists, whose ongoing work chimes with
the interests of the Legacy Project.
The commissions will involve the unpacking of historical and contemporary ideas
about work, society, and economy as well as advocacy and legacy building. An
interest in the role of writing and the photographic image in making and
breaking the status quo runs through the artists' ways of working. For some,
this happens mainly in the research process, while in others this is at centre
of the completed work.
These commissions aim to create another kind of public dialogue that will
amplify the advocacy work of the NWCI, the membership, interested communities
and individuals. They are equally about the contribution artists make to our
knowledge of the world.
The Legacy Project was launched as part of
the One Struggle
Conference organised by SIPTU Equality on 9 March 2013.
The commissions will be completed in September 2013.
The Contemporary
Each
of the commissioned artists were presented with a 'brief' that reflected the
development of the core ideas behind the project. These ideas emerged first
through consultation between the curator, NWCI staff and members. The artists
were asked to respond to the 'brief' individually, but all have started from
the same place.
Three things in particular emerged in the development of the original 'brief'
and these were communicated to the artists:
Firstly, the growing experience of ‘precarity’ among women in particular; how
changing work practices that remove security and redefine paid and unpaid work
are becoming more and more mainstream. Secondly, the concept of access to
'representation'; whether that is legal, political, or cultural remains a
struggle. Thirdly, 'visibility', or the lack of it; typically, the day to day
work and working environments of those active in the voluntary and community
sector remains invisible as the focus is normally on outcomes and specific
output. In this case the commissions offer a great opportunity to address this
at a time when the sector is undergoing change.
The Historical
The commissions are happening in the anniversary year of the 1913 Dublin
Lockout. In the year ahead, this history will no doubt be appropriated, argued
over, and represented by many interests. Many of the conversations about the
Legacy Project have referred to this anniversary year. At the Jacob's biscuit
factory in August 1913, most of the women who walked out of the factory who
were locked out, never got their jobs back. Documents show that Jacob's
management were nor beyond engaging in 'black-listing' workers given poor
reputations by previous employers. Yet the factory owners advocated for
progressive approaches not just to manufacturing and technology, but also to
the physical decor, learning, and recreational space of the factory.
Mid - 20th century, the history of biscuit brand's relationship with women
workers and consumers takes us into a corporate culture of light entertainment
and television awards, the sponsoring of RTE agony aunt Dear Frankie, and
images of women in the Tallght factory in 1985 of women sending hi-nutrition
biscuits to Ethiopia as part of the famine relief effort associated with Live
Aid. A decade later, one influential chairman of the company becomes the founder
donor to the Irish Museum of Modern Art collection.
Next Steps
The artists have sketched out their initial ideas and directions. The work in
the coming months will involve participation in events, the gathering of people
together, sharing of information, ideas, and the documentation of thematic
discussions and activities about the role and representation of work and women.
In August 2013, the Legacy Project will take part in a major exhibition at
Limerick City Gallery organised on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1913
Dublin Lockout.
The complete Legacy Project will be exhibited in Dublin in September 2013.
All the artists, as part of the usual way of working, from time to time
collaborate with or work with others. Over the course of the Legacy Project the
artists will look for connections and links that will broaden the community of
interest around the commissions. Opportunities among the artists to have
an input into one another's plans might also arise, it's not a requirement.
The Legacy Project celebrates women’s activism in challenging conventional
thinking about work and how it is represented.