British artist Jan Morley will be presenting her artist book Pandora’s Book (handmade paper, 23 X 33 X 2 cm) at the GFEST 2011 Visual Arts Exhibition, which is coming up soon in London.
GFEST 2011 Visual Arts Exhibition
Dreamspace Gallery,
1-3 Dufferin Street,
London, EC1Y 8NA, UK
(press buzzer to enter)
Mon 7 Nov – Sat 19 Nov, 2011, 9am to 5:30pm, Sat: 10am to 5pm (Sunday Closed) ENTRY FREE
Mon 7 Nov: Private View: 6 to 8:30pm (by invitation)
Jan Morley explains: “Pandora’s Book is a book made from handmade paper. The cover has had fishnet stockings pressed into the paper which is sewn together and tied with a suspender belt fastener. Inside are 5 pieces of paper each with a quote from a feminist writer. Each piece of paper is illustrated to match the quote. This book was actually made 30 years ago whilst I was at college and before I knew I was a lesbian. What I find fascinating is that a lot of the quotes still hold true today and as a young feminist I agreed wholeheartedly with.”
In Pandora’s Book Jan Morley quotes among others Marge Piercy and Marilyn French:
“there is no difference
between being raped
and being run over by a truck
except that afterward
men ask if you enjoyed it” – Marge Piercy
“and there are so much easier ways to destroy a woman
you don’t have to rape or kill her you don’t even have to beat her
you can just marry her” – Marilyn French
Rape, quote by Marge Piercy from Pandora’s Book by Jan Morley, 1982
Marry her, a quote by Marilyn French from Pandora’s Book by Jan Morley, 1982
About Jan Morley
Today Jan Morley works as a visual artist and a designer for the tableware industry. She runs Liberty Bodies, an online gay and lesbian gift shop, where she sells both her own designs and works of art by other artists. She tells me: “I see Liberty Bodies as a vehicle for celebrating ourselves in our diversity; whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, straight, fat, thin, whatever or whoever you are.”
Jan Morley was also taking part queer art exhibition of GFEST 2010, where her morally corrupting ‘Pussy Mug’ was among the queer art works, which caused controversy and were covered-up by the managers of the exhibition space at the Hampstead Town Hall in order to make the queer art exhibition safe for small children and their parents.
SPLAT, a quote by Marily French from Pandora’s Book by Jan Morley, 1982
Dishes, a quote by Marily French from Pandora’s Book by Jan Morley, 1982
Sexism, a quote by Aspen from Pandora’s Book by Jan Morley, 1982
Related Link
Liberty Bodies, Jan Morley’s online shop
GFEST’s festival site
‘I take some solace in the fact that even the lofty Smithsonian removed a Wojnarowicz piece from their recent Hide/Seek exhibition as my particular piece is based on an earlier work by the same artist, called Untitled (This Kid). I am still flummoxed by the venue’s decision on my piece however. If their intent was not to offend parents with children of three or four, I cannot see what they were concerned about in my piece. It consists of a 400 word essay that would be beyond the reading level of any preschool aged child. And if it wasn’t the text, then what was so offensive about a rainbow coloured boy? I can only assume that it was not about protecting small impressionable children, but some kind of knee-jerk reaction in the venue’s board of management and the child protection officer who decided which works were suitable to be seen by the public. It is very hard not to classify this as an act of homophobia, as the venue thought it necessary to have a child protection officer involved in the process of post selection. It reinforces the idea that all LGBT people are somehow innately dangerous.
‘Partly I wonder if some of it is due to censorship of nudity – I have this said to me a lot at Gay Pride events by Gay parents – that my artwork is not acceptable for their children and certainly the C word is not acceptable anywhere.
- This is what designer and
“GFEST – Gaywise FESTival is a showcase for LGBT / glbt or gay artworks, films and performances working in partnership with a range of London venues that help challenge preconceived notions and also among the hard to reach communities, which Hampstead Town Hall attracts. We opted for exhibiting the work as per the exhibition open times.