International Women's Day celebration

Happy Wednesday,  

I hope you are enjoying these longer lighter days? The extra light really helps in the studio - it's much easier to judge colours by natural light: 

The subject of this diptych is Dr Isabel Laurence, in her two roles: Analysing PET-CT  scans (left), and in full parenting swing (right). You can watch timelapses and process here on instagram. I am so grateful to Isabel for modelling these 'entire' identities, each world somewhat invisible to the other. 

In her book Invisible Women, Caroline Perez takes a data-driven approach to show that professional women are given (or assume) more pastoral/tutorial care of juniors. And that women who work full-time still typically do the majority of housework and childrearing. Whilst this may be a joyfully taken active choice, weaponised incompetence is often at play. [Do you see this around you? - Ed]

Either way, there are lots of things that can be done to address the imbalance of responsibility, enabling professional women to compete on an equal footing - the first being acceptance (visibility) of the problem.

So... I'm honoured to be exhibiting these oil paintings, and speaking on a panel at the 3rd International Women's Day celebration event hosted by the Worshipful Company of World Traders on 7th March:

Artist and industry leader Chinwe Russell at the 2023 event

"Join us at Goodenough College, London for our remarkable celebration of International Women's Day - looking at Women's In-Visibility.

"The theme is supported by music, art, and poetry from both Livery and Goodenough members, which will be displayed throughout the Main Hall, forming thought provoking, informal talking points while we network.

"A full programme will support our celebrations as the City Liveries and Goodenough Members meld together to tell their stories through art and lively debate."

The event will be the first public outing for this painting "Industry", which was much discussed at my open studio in November (thank you if you were there).

It isn't a typical gallery piece, and hasn't been accepted into any Open Calls (I keep trying). Featuring online safety expert Angela Loveridge, the situation it shows (Working From Anywhere) resonated with the event curators, helped by this wonderful article by Eugenia Anastassiou. Positioning a black middle-aged mother as the central figure is a deliberate intersectional challenge to the stereotype of who 'does' industry. 

I was delighted that the curators also chose to include this painting of Cheryl Hardy. Painted from life as a collaboration that will always be close to my heart, we jointly documented it in the Breast Cancer Art Project. This work addressed Cheryl's feelings about her changed body appearance during her cancer treatment. The challenges of mastectomy and hair loss are particularly exacerbated by society's concepts of femininity. I hope to be able to share my TEDx talk on body image soon. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and the excellent sequel "The Testaments".

Combined with the grim read that is Caroline Criado Perez' stats-rich book "Invisible Women - Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men", they have put me in a suitable frame of mind for International Women's Day.

So, if you anticipate The Worm That Turned or City of Ladies, I trust you can enjoy a dose of equality meanwhile, and support whatever International Women's Day 2024 events are on your radar!
Gxxx

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