WOMEN SMASHING WINDOWS
KIRAN KAUR-BRAR
8 -23 March, 2019
Coinciding with International Women’s Day, 2019 and exhibiting throughout March - Women’s History Month - WOMEN SMASHING WINDOWS is a performative action in the window by Kiran Kaur Brar, and the residual display, reminding us of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and equal rights. In a city such as Stoke-on-Trent, like many others built on patriarchal industrial process, where all of the cities statues are of important men, this work is a reminder that in order for society to equalise, there are plenty more windows - or ceilings - remaining to be smashed through.
In 1908, suffragette Adeline Redfern set up the Stoke-on-Trent branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). After decades of peaceful but ineffectual protest, a militant streak within the movement gathered pace leading to acts of civil disobedience around the country. During the notorious window smashing campaign in London in March 1912, over 150 women armed with hammers, stones and clubs simultaneously smashed the windows of shops and offices to demonstrate that the government cared more about broken windows and private property than a women’s life or political rights. This scale of the protest was unprecedented.
In March 1912, Adeline Redfern was arrested and tried at Bow Street for breaking windows “to the value of £20” on New Bond Street. She was among the 126 women who were arrested and tried, 76 of who were sentenced to hard labour.
This work aims to highlight that particular historical moment while drawing attention the urgency of the women’s movement today.
-------------
Through resilience and playfulness, Kiran Kaur Brar is interested in questioning assumptions about progress and power and the social, political and ideological systems that narrate them. Using photography, video, performance, text and collage, she attempts to resist formulas and aesthetic continuity. She is particularly interested in exploring the possibilities offered by site specificity to link the micro politics of the exhibition space/institution to the macro politics of the wider world. The visual language she employs is influenced by the context that she is responding to.
Since graduating from Central Saint Martins and Chelsea College of Art and Design, Kiran has had the opportunity to develop her practice through various contexts such as international residencies, commissions and collaborations, as well as exhibit in shows including Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2006 (Rochelle School London and The Coach Shed Liverpool), Intrude 366 (Zendai MOMA, Shanghai), Journeys With No Return, (Akbank Istanbul Biennal Parallel Event, Rochelle School London, Galerie Kurt-Kurt Berlin), Frictive Familiarities, (Biografteantern Rio, Stockholm).
---------------
INTHEWINDOW is an exhibition programme taking place solely in the unique window exhibiting space of AirSpace Gallery. Seen daily by hundreds of passers-by, works in this window are commissioned largely through open calls for emerging practitioners, and for artists wishing to test and experiment with new works.
In 1908, suffragette Adeline Redfern set up the Stoke-on-Trent branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). After decades of peaceful but ineffectual protest, a militant streak within the movement gathered pace leading to acts of civil disobedience around the country. During the notorious window smashing campaign in London in March 1912, over 150 women armed with hammers, stones and clubs simultaneously smashed the windows of shops and offices to demonstrate that the government cared more about broken windows and private property than a women’s life or political rights. This scale of the protest was unprecedented.
In March 1912, Adeline Redfern was arrested and tried at Bow Street for breaking windows “to the value of £20” on New Bond Street. She was among the 126 women who were arrested and tried, 76 of who were sentenced to hard labour.
This work aims to highlight that particular historical moment while drawing attention the urgency of the women’s movement today.
-------------
Through resilience and playfulness, Kiran Kaur Brar is interested in questioning assumptions about progress and power and the social, political and ideological systems that narrate them. Using photography, video, performance, text and collage, she attempts to resist formulas and aesthetic continuity. She is particularly interested in exploring the possibilities offered by site specificity to link the micro politics of the exhibition space/institution to the macro politics of the wider world. The visual language she employs is influenced by the context that she is responding to.
Since graduating from Central Saint Martins and Chelsea College of Art and Design, Kiran has had the opportunity to develop her practice through various contexts such as international residencies, commissions and collaborations, as well as exhibit in shows including Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2006 (Rochelle School London and The Coach Shed Liverpool), Intrude 366 (Zendai MOMA, Shanghai), Journeys With No Return, (Akbank Istanbul Biennal Parallel Event, Rochelle School London, Galerie Kurt-Kurt Berlin), Frictive Familiarities, (Biografteantern Rio, Stockholm).
---------------
INTHEWINDOW is an exhibition programme taking place solely in the unique window exhibiting space of AirSpace Gallery. Seen daily by hundreds of passers-by, works in this window are commissioned largely through open calls for emerging practitioners, and for artists wishing to test and experiment with new works.
