I am an interdisciplinary ideas-based visual artist, living and working in Manchester. It’s a real privilege to be a part of the Women’s Words project exploring contemporary women’s lived experience through text-based visual art.

My own varied art practice includes collage, photography, short films, book works and installation but whatever the medium it’s all about accumulation, politics and play; text (both found and created) recurs throughout. After graduating in sculpture I went on to study for a masters in gender politics in order to better understand the social context of my own art practice.

I now work as a freelance arts facilitator with all ages throughout the North West and am Resident Visual Artist at Manchester’s children’s arts centre Z-arts. Working on Women’s Words is genuinely exciting for me as it combines three of my passions – contemporary art, facilitation and feminism.

I’ll be working with a group of women from Inspiring Change, a fantastic programme led by Shelter supporting people with a variety of complex needs including a history of drug and alcohol use, mental health or emotional well-being issues, accommodation problems and offending. Inspiring Change aims to break down barriers that can prevent people from leading fulfilling lives.

Work in Progress – Words for Women Workshop

My own art practice is very much a way of navigating an overwhelming world through observing, gathering, connecting, playing, representing and observing again. I can’t wait to meet the women in my group, and work with them to think about their own experiences through practical making.

Through a series of workshops we will be working with textiles, text and printmaking referencing the suffragettes’ Votes for Women rosettes as well as their use of form-spoiling as resistance and critique. We’ll experiment with re-purposing and embellishing bureaucratic forms (relevant to the each woman’s individual circumstances) to create highly personal works of art.

If you’ve not submitted your story yet, remember the date for the submission deadline is 24th November!  If you can’t get to a Manchester Public Library to hand in your story, you can email your writing to womenswords@thepankhurstcentre.org.uk right up to midnight.

You don’t have to use the PDF attachment on our site, you can just email it as a word document or as part of the email, whichever is easiest. Just include your contact details.