International Women’s Day: Lighthouse Heroes

For International Women’s Day 2018, the Lighthouse team have gathered together some of our personal heroes. Here’s our list of the women who have inspired us!

Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874–1927)

Performance artist, poet and sculptor. The first American Dadaist — she wore cakes as hats, spoons as earrings, black lipstick and postage stamps as makeup. She was regularly arrested for showing off her bits. At a time when societal restrictions on female appearance were only starting to soften, she would shave her head, or dye her hair vermillion.

Fierce. Weird. Passionate. Extraordinary. Magnificent.

–Alli

Featured image: Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven in a Costume, Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Little Simz (1994)

“Everyone is capable of doing something, it’s just a matter of finding it and believing in it and expanding on it and taking it from there.”

Simbi Ajikawo has attracted worldwide acclaim for her impressive body of work. She is creating some of the most important music in Britain, experimenting with instrumentals like no other artist. Like many in the early noughties, Simz was writing bars and at age 11, she sees herself as much as a product of her area as she is a “product of arts funding”. This year, she has curated Welcome to Wonderland: The Experience for Rising Festival at Roundhouse, showcasing the very best international talent.

–Elijah.

Photo #REGRAM @simztheperson

Lynne Ramsay (1969)

“I’ve got a reputation for being difficult. It’s bullshit.”

Lynne Ramsay is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk about Kevin and You Were Never Really Here. Tilda Swinton perfectly captures her spirit, saying, “She is one of those rare directors who creates the kind of films that just would not be there if she didn’t make them.”

–Sian

Atsuko Tanaka (1932–2005)

A pioneering Avant-garde artist, best known for her experimental clothing and performances. She joined the Gutai Art Group in 1955. The Gutai motto was ‘Do something that no one before you has done.” Tanaka was influenced by the group’s preoccupations with ideas of chance, time, and space.

Seen here in her most famous work Electric Dress (1956), made from electrical wires and hundreds of light bulbs painted in primary colours, where the traditions of the Japanese kimono meet modern industrial technology.

Experimental. Abstract. Challenging. Powerful.

–Alli.

(Photo courtesy Wiki)

Caroline Lucas (1960)

Regardless of your politics, there’s no denying that Caroline Lucas is a politician like no other. She’s principled, brave and stands up for her community. And luckily for us Brighton folk, she’s ours.

–Kate, Emma, Aleida.

Ursula Franklin (1921–2016)

Materials scientist, pacifist and feminist who amongst many other things, studied technology from pre-industrial crafts to the tools of mass production.

Her lecture series and subsequent book, The Real World of Technology, revealed how the tools we use can control and make us compliant. She had a system of thought that coherently linked systems of production, the futility of violence, and the role of women, which continues to provide a useful explanation of the world today.

–Andrew.

Liv Little (1994)

Liv founded gal-dem while at university after being frustrated with the lack of diversity at her university. The gal-dem team consists of over 70 women of colour, most of whom are based in the UK but with others in countries around the world.

In 2016, to celebrate their first birthday, gal-dem produced the first print edition of the magazine. On 28 October 2016, the collective ran the Friday Late session at the V&A Museum. The session featured an all-female line-up, with activities ranging from a mass twerk workshop to the chance to hear the best female London MCs.

–Kate & Alli.

Photo: #REGRAM @livslittle

Nan Goldin (1953)

Goldin’s powerful photos present an intimate portrait of subcultural lifestyle, blurring the line between private and public moments, that in some ways presage the age of social media — capturing the beauty of drag queens, the horror of AIDS, and children in “an mitigated state of joy.”

–Aleida.

Photo: #REGRAM @nangoldinstudio

Baddiewinkle (1928)

‘Stealing Your Man Since 1928.’

What is not to love about this woman?

–Kizzie & Kate.

Photo: #REGRAM @baddiewinkle

Guerrilla Girls

For more than 30 years, feminist art-punk pioneers, the Guerilla Girls have been protesting against sexism and racism in the art world through a combination of humour, data, bold graphics and a subversive use of public space.

The Guerilla Girls are as relevant and necessary today as they were in the 80s. While their fundamental mission remains the same, they are turning their guerilla marketing on what they describe as the “overemphasis on money as the criterion for success in the art world,” and a growing attitude towards “I can’t make billions of dollars from women artists. So I’ll pick up this young white guy.”

–Aleida.

Photo: David Parry/PA Wire

Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001)

Total electronic music pioneer, and centre of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the early days. For eleven years she created music and sound for almost 200 radio and television programmes. She arranged the Doctor Who theme, but also made incredibly forward-thinking music like sound collage poem Falling, from the 5-piece suite The Dreams (1964), and Circle of Light, Pt. 1.

–David.

Photo: Khaosworks

Nella Larsen (1891–1964)

A year after marrying Elmer Imes (the second African American who received a PHD in Physics) Larsen published her first short stories. She became active in Harlem’s literary and arts community and wrote and published Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) — both complex depictions of race, sexuality and gender. In 1930, she was the first black woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative writing. Sadly, struggling with depression, Larsen stopped writing and disappeared from literary circles. Despite this, her works have been the subject of numerous academic studies, and she is now widely lauded “not only the premier novelist of the Harlem Renaissance but also an important figure in American modernism”.

Vehement. Exceptional. Curious. Challenging

–Alli.

Suzanne Ciani (1946)

One of the real innovators with regard to synthesis in sound design. She studied computer generated music at Berkeley in the 70s, where she met Don Buchla (a true synth legend) and much of her work was using Buchla synths. She used synthesisers to produce sounds that were not easily recordable (or weren’t at the time) the most famous of which was the sound of a Coca-Cola being poured (here’s a bit about how she got that gig).

Ciani could be considered one of the real experts in Buchla/West-Coast synthesis, of which there are few, at least until relatively recently.

–David.

Photo: copyright unknown

Mania Akbari (1974)

An Iranian filmmaker, actress, artist and writer whose works mostly deal with themes of sexual identity, women, marriage, abortion, infidelity and lesbianism. Her style, unlike the long tradition of melodrama in Iranian cinema, is rooted in modern visual arts and styles. Akbari, because of the themes discussed in her films and her opposition to censorship, is considered as one of the most controversial filmmakers in Iran. As an actress, she is probably best known for her role on Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten.

–Sian.

Esther Brunstein (1928–1994)

My grandma was a holocaust survivor (as was my grandpa) and she was in the Lodz ghetto, then Auschwitz, then a labour camp (Waldeslust), then Belsen where she was found on the edge of death with typhus by the liberating American army. Almost all her family were killed by the Nazis. She came to the UK (via Sweden) and met my Grandpa in the Yiddish Theatre in the East End. It was only much later that she talked about her experiences, during the late 80s and into the 90s when the far right started rising again in the UK. She spoke at many Anti Nazi League rallies, spoke to many many classes of schoolchildren, and even spoke at the UN. She was heavily involved in the campaign to create an International Holocaust Memorial Day. She was a really, really amazing woman.. and she was also really funny and I miss her a lot. Here’s her story in her words and here’s her obituary in The Guardian.

–David.

Lubaina Himid (1954)

“When you list the women of colour up for [the Turner Prize] for all those years, in the early stages of their careers, when it would have been useful. It’s a disgrace, really.” — I-D Vice

Lubaina Himid is a visual artist, who works across medias including paintings, prints, drawings and installations, often incorporating found objects into her practice. Much of Himid’s work serves to write the black subject into the span of art history — challenging institutional invisibility — she does so through techniques such as reimagining classic paintings, with depictions of black figures in the place of white. Himid’s work acts as a celebration of the people of the African diaspora, and communicates the lives and stories of people of colour where they might otherwise be overlooked. In 2017 Lubaina became the first black woman to win the Turner prize. In an interview with i-D in their Spring 2018 issue Lubaina stated that she isn’t proud to be the first black woman to win the Turner Prize, she thinks it’s a disgrace someone didn’t win earlier. Lubaina is the Professor of Contemporary Art at University of Central Lancashire. In May Lubaina will be one of the commissioned artists creating work for @awomansplaceuk at Knole in Kent. The show will highlight the progression towards equality through the stories of the women who have contributed to the spirit & history of Knole.

–Jamila

Photo: @maxwelltomlinson. The Radical Issue, no. 351, Spring 2018

Carol Kaye (1935)

The most-recorded bassist in history, with upwards of 10,000 sessions, mainly as part of LA’s The Wrecking Crew. She’s played on an astounding number of hit records by artists including The Beach Boys, Nancy Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Glen Campbell, Ike and Tina Turner, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Righteous Brothers. And. so. many. more.

–Kate.

Photo by David Zaworski.

Deborah ‘Debris’ Stevenson

Poet, performer, dancer, and teacher, Debris uses music, movement, lyrics and poetry in her work and has garnered attention around the world. She explores the intersectional and the unexpected by carefully deconstructing issues within race, sexuality, mental health and subculture music genres. She was educated through the evolution of grime in the late 2000’s and discovered poetry at the age of 16 at London’s Roundhouse, realising words enabled her to navigate her dyslexia. Speaking at Lighthouse’s first Open Session in October 2017, she explained how “Grime inspired a generation to commit their lives to words.” This year, she has been co-commissioned by Royal Court Theatre and 14–18 NOW to produce a new work due to showcase later this year in the Autumn.

Bright. Bold. Fearless. Courageous. Generous.

–Alli.

Photo by Quetzal Maucchi

Poly Styrene, X-Ray Specs (1957–2011)

“Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard

“But I say…

“Oh Bondage! Up yours!”

–Kate.

Miss Van — Vanessa Alice (1973)

Starting out as a street artist in the male-dominated 90s scene in Toulouse, she was really a pioneer for young female graffiti artists. She is one of the first women to have penetrated this world in a meaningful way and remains one of the most successful and internationally recognised street artists with her work blurring the lines between graffiti and fine art.

–Sian.

Photo by Julie Morize

Anita Corbin

As a 22-year old photographer in the early 1980s, Anita Corbin’s Visible Girls series captured a generation of female mods, punks, skinheads, rastas, young lesbians and rockers, at a time when photos of subcultures was almost entirely dominated by men. Corbin has recently revisited the series, finding and re-photographing the friends, sisters and lovers from the original series. Her current project, First Women, is a collection of 100 portraits that capture women in the UK who were ‘first’ in their field of achievement.

–Kate.

Photo: #REGRAM @ visible_girls

Khadija Saye (1992 -2017)

Khadija Saye was a photographer and visual artist, working around topics of identity, home and space. The image shown is taken from her series of self-portraits, Dwelling: in this space we breathe, through which Saye uses wet plate collodion tintypes to explore the migration of traditional Gambian spiritual practices and the deep rooted urge to find solace within a higher power. The series was displayed in last year’s Diaspora Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennale. Khadija sadly passed away in the Grenfell Tower fire in on 14 June 2017. At 24 years old she left behind a legacy of work which should be remembered as a testament to the young artist’s great talent. Her work is currently on display at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.

–Jamila.

Photo: Khadija Saye, from Dwelling: in this space we breathe, 2016

Nancy Huston (1953)

Canadian-born novelist and essayist who writes primarily in French and translates her own works into English. Huston’s writing explores themes of identity, belongingness and self-exile. A self-translator, Huston has almost turned the practise into a genre in and of itself, and her body of work is a continuous, evolving dialogue between multiple linguistic and cultural selves.

Her books were pretty much the ‘chorus’ to my adolescence and early adulthood!

–Sian.

Claude Cahun (1894–1954)

Born Lucy Schwob, was a Jewish-French photographer, sculptor and writer. She adopted the gender-ambiguous name Claude Cahun in 1917 and is best known for her self-portraits, in which she assumes a variety of personas. Her work was both political and personal, and often undermined traditional concepts of static gender roles. She once explained: “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”

–Sian & Alli.

Photo: Detail from self portrait (Jersey Heritage Collection).

Georgia O’Keefe (1887–1986)

While perhaps an obvious one, her exhibition at Tate Modern in 2016 made me realise how male-centric my understanding and experiences of art had been, and that started a change in my thinking about the exhibitions I went to, the books I read and the records I bought and listened to.

On top of that she’s a fascinating woman, and just an inspiration for pure unapologetic single-mindedness.

–Kate.

Photo Michael A. Vaccaro Studios

Dolly Parton (1946)

For forging a career on her own terms. For looking exactly how she wants to look. For being an incredible business woman. For opening Dollywood in her native Tennessee to help provide jobs. For giving away 100 million books to kids. Oh yeah, and for releasing 43 studio albums AND writing Jolene.

–Kate & Emma.

Photo: #REGRAM @dollyparton

Ana Mendieta (1948–1985)

Performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist. In her all-too-brief yet prolific life, she produced some extraordinary work focussing on themes of life, death, the body, and being a woman. She said: “Art is a material act of culture, but its greatest value is its spiritual role, and that influences society, because it’s the greatest contribution to the intellectual and moral development of humanity that can be made.” In 1985, she married Carl Andre and died 9 months later — she and Andre had argued and she fell 34 storeys to her death. She was 36.

Rebellious. Powerful. Spirited. Remarkable.

–Alli.

Photo Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York Ana Mendieta’s “Documentation of an untitled work,” 1972.

Bryony Kimmings (1981)

Provocator, feminist, performance artist and activist. Inspired by the taboos, stigmas, anomalies and social injustices around her, Bryony makes mind-blowing artworks that provoke change. She explores womanhood, strength through adversity and being a mother.

–Emma.

Marianne Brandt (1893–1983)

Painter, sculptor, photographer and designer.

The first woman to join Bauhaus’s metal workshop at a time when most women were settled in the weaving rooms, she recalls how unwelcome she was made to feel by her peers “[They] expressed their displeasure by giving me all sorts of dull and dreary work. How many little hemispheres did I most patiently hammer out of brittle new silver, thinking that was the way it had to be, and all beginnings are hard.” However, within four years she succeeded Lázló Moholy-Nagy as Head of the workshop while also producing a series of radically simple designs which we later to become icons of the Bauhaus aesthetic.

Determined. Radical. Exceptional. Independent.

–Alli.

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All images used for illustrative purposes only.