Cathy's Art Diary

Novel loan display at the National Maritime Museum of this boat used in the Extinction Rebellion protests earlier this year. The boat is parked on the river side of the museum where it was moved to on 19 July under police escort when the Metropolitan Policy issued a section 12 notice banning the use of boats, vehicles and other structures in the protest. It’s shown with interesting facts and figures about the protest and looks great in the space. It’s rather nice to have a boat outside the confines of the gallery and not a bad place to park it until it’s needed again!

Interesting discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival about the role of the visual arts in protest. The sculptor Hazel Reeves, who created the statue of Emeline Pankhurst for Manchester, gave an outline of protest art she’d  seen while on a six month post with the UN to work on women’s issues.   She then talked about the commissioning process for the Pankhurst statue, the unveiling and how she sees it not just as a one off art work but also a focus for further expression. Maria Balshaw, the director of the Tate, then talked about how the Tate galleries are opening themselves up more protest art talking about the Tate Exchange project on the 5th floor of Tate Modern which invites in different groups to give people creative tools. She sees the turbine hall as a megaphone for issues. They then had a fascinating discussion on the issue covering how art is moving off walls and out of galleries and the emotional resonance of events like ...

Slightly confused exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum taking as its premise the idea that many social movements start form disobedience and create objects made by people taking design into their own hands. I think what I struggled with was it seemed to take the premise that all disobedience was good and I’m not sure I would agree. Sure some amazing social and political change has come out of disobedience such as votes for women and equal rights in America but some disobedience is just violence in another disguise.   I did like the idea of showing objects designed by people for a cause and used by them in their campaign and this included now iconic ideas like the pink triangle for gay rights. It was good to see the suffragette tea set which I think I’ve now seen in three shows this year!   It was also interesting to see practical design solutions not just artistic design such as a gas mask made out of plastic water bottle. Reviews Times Guardian...