Free the Pussy! Summerhall, Edinburgh, Thu 02 Aug 2018 - Sun 21 Oct 2018

Artist Tamsyn Challenger curates a new exhibition this summer of works of art made in protest to Pussy Riot’s imprisonment by the Russian government in 2012: ‘Free The Pussy’.

At the end of 2011 an anonymous feminist punk collective wearing luminous balaclavas performed a series of unsanctioned gigs or interventions in opposition to Vladimir Putin’s government and its association with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. This collective championed gender equality, LGBT rights, environmental activism and called for a female president. They challenged masculine authority and stood for freedom of expression. They were and are the PUSSY RIOT. This new exhibition aims to be an archive of the global protest in support of the Pussy Riot’s call. The show will include artist responses that can be seen in the book, alongside many others who stood in condemnation at the women’s imprisonment. This is the first time many of these pieces made in protest have been brought together for display. All of these works are as relevant now as they were then and stand as a testimony to the power of a woman’s voice. The show includes work from eco-electro girl band The Gluts (Hayley Newman, Gina Birch and Kaffe Matthews.)

Artists include: Gina Birch, Tamsyn Challenger, Judy Chicago, Billy Chyldish, Gaggle, John Keane, No Bra, Hayley Newman, The Gluts, Kaffe Matthews, Yoko Ono, Miss Pokeno, Pussy Riot, Jamie Reid, Layla Sailor, Wendy Saunders, Carolee Schneeman and more.

The Creative Critic Writing as/about Practice, edited by Edited by Katja Hilevaara & Emily Orley, published by Routledge, 2018

My 2013 text Elfie und Eleonore was published in the book The Creative Critic.

From the The Creative Critic companion website:

‘As practitioner-researchers, how do we discuss and analyse our work without losing the creative drive that inspired us in the first place?

Built around a diverse selection of writings from leading researcher-practitioners and emerging artists in a range of fields, The Creative Critic: Writing as/about Practice celebrates the extraordinary range of possibilities available when writing about one’s own work and the work one is inspired by. It re-thinks the conventions of the scholarly output to propose that critical writing be understood as an integral part of the artistic process, and even as artwork in its own right.

 Finding ways to make the intangible nature of much of our work ‘count’ under assessment has become increasingly important in the Academy and beyond. The Creative Critic offers an inspiring and useful sourcebook for students and practitioner-researchers navigating this area.’

With contributions from:

Jane Rendell, Susannah Thompson, PA Skantze, Iain Biggs, Emma Cocker, Graham White, Mike Pearson, Mojisola Adebayo, Nic Conibere, Diana Damian Martin, Augusto Corrieri, Owen G. Parry, Joe Kelleher, Taru Elfving, Peter Jaeger, Undine Sellbach and Stephen Loo, Salome Vogelin, Ella Finer, Helene Frichot, Kristen Kreider and James O’Leary, Brigid Mcleer, Cathy Turner, Phil Smith, Mary Paterson, Tim Etchells, Chris Goode, Hayley Newman, Mitch Rose, Maria Fusco, Simon Piasecki,  Goze Saner, Matthew Goulish and Lin Hixson, Tracy Mackenna, Rajni Shah, Joanne ‘Bob’ Whalley & Lee Miller, Karen Christopher, Louise Tondeur, Johanna Linsley, Lucy Cash, Douglas Kearney and Timothy Mathews.

Poetic Biopolitics: Practices of Relation in Architecture and the Arts, edited by Peg Rawes, Stephen Loo and Tim Matthews, published by I.B.Tauris, UK, 2016

As the French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault defined the concept, 'biopolitics' is the extension of state control over both the physical and political bodies of a population. Poetic Biopolitics is a positive attempt to explain and show how the often destructive effects and affects of biopolitical power structures can be deconstructed not only critically but poetically in the arts and humanities: in architecture, art, literature, modern languages, performance studies, film and philosophy. It is an interdisciplinary response to the contemporary global crisis of community conflict, social and environmental wellbeing. Structured in three parts - biopolitical bodies and imaginaries, voices and bodies, and social and environmental turbulence - this innovative book meshes performative and visual poetics with critical theory and feminist philosophy. It examines the complex expressions of our physical and psychic lives through artefact, body, dialogue, image, installation and word.

Poetic Biopolitics: Practices of Relation in Architecture and the Arts includes a chapter with lyrics, writings and drawings by The Gluts .