A Revolution: Part I

My first solo exhibition was last November at the Nucleus Gallery in Chatham. As I'd only been taking my art seriously for a year I was worried I'd been  ambitious to attempt to fill a gallery. (OK, it's easy to fill it, just with what? For a while I was very keen on the idea of just throwing all my sketches and scraps of paper into a heap in the middle and calling it 'Incineration).

I'd originally wanted to call it 'Piss like a Princess'. An childhood friend of mine was brought up by her mother to believe that all bodily functions were disgusting. The mother used to stand outside the bathroom door, listening to check her daughter didn't wee too loudly. If she could hear tinkling she'd shout 'Don't piss like a peasant, piss like a princess' at her. There's a whole conceptual show in that.

Well, one day I'll get back to that idea but I was sidetracked by my obsession with the French Revolution. Years ago I read Hilary Mantel's novel 'A Place of Greater Safety' which really obsessed me for a while (to paraphrase my favourite quotation from it - 'Marat has escaped from the building disguised as a human being' ). Then I came across Marge Piercy's novel 'City of Darkness, City of Light' which is about five women who played important roles within the revolution and yet are forgotten.

This novel was the real starting point for my show - the role of women in revolution. The role of women in the Arab Spring movements seemed so close to that of those French women from two centuries before. I started painting and without realising it, this became the theme of my show.