Note: This section on Silent Health, started late March 2022, is still in development. During 2021-22 three researchers contacted me, asking if I had any information about the show (there was very little available online), so I’ve uploaded scans of press releases and other info below. Please note that the original flyers, press releases, reviews etc. of Silent Health were placed on 22 March 2022 in my archive at the Bishopsgate Institute, and will be catalogued shortly. Some duplicate information has also been deposited at the Women’s Art Library at Goldsmith’s College, University of London.
Background to Silent Health
Early in 1990 I responded to an advert in The Guardian placed by Camerawork Gallery (Roman Road, Bethnal Green, London E2) to apply for a photography/art commission on the theme of women and health. Four artists were commissioned by Camerawork: Claire Collison, Melanie Friend, Janice Howard and Kate Musselwhite. Kate Bush was the curator of the group exhibition; she had also come up with the idea behind it. We had to complete the works in a fairly tight time frame: as far as I remember we had 6 months from start to finish (exhibition opening).
At the time of the catalogue going to press, which was about 2 months before the show opened, I used a working title of Fortysomethings (later this switched to Prime of Life). 13 of the Prime of Life portraits were included (just under half of the 27 portraits eventually produced for the exhibition). The catalogue included six essays as well as sections on each of the artist’s works. The essays were by the following: Jessica Evans, Ludmilla Jordanova, Roberta McGrath, Ursula Huws/Rosy Martin, Jo Spence and Lesley Doyal.
Prime of Life
For my Camerawork application, I put forward a proposal on the menopause: I was angry at the sexism of advertisements all around us at the time (examples placed in my archive at B.I.), in magazines, on billboards, on TV, and the relative invisibility of middle aged and older women in the British media.
I decided to make a portrait project, and in the end produced a billboard-sized work of 24 framed portraits of women, who were friends, acquaintances, or who I got to know through word of mouth, or because I had photographed them before in a different context (eg.I had photographed the consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Wendy Savage, for the New Statesman a couple of years earlier).
I also interviewed four women in the media/health/literary world: Barbara Cartland (author and at the time President of the National Association of Health), Buchi Emecheta (writer), Kailash Puri (author & agony columnist), Anna Raeburn (journalist & broadcaster) and had contrasting quotes from them about the menopause on the wall next to their portraits. I made portraits of all four women except for Barbara Cartland, who wished to supply her own portrait. Longer extracts of recorded interviews, could be heard on headphones alongside the portraits. The interviews and tapes will be placed in my archive at the Bishopsgate.
The grid of 24 portraits can also be viewed (although it’s in black and white, not colour…) in the Yorkshire Post review under the reviews section of this website.
For REVIEWS of the exhibition, please see the Reviews section in the top menu of this website.
Tour Silent Health, was shown at Camerawork 24 October – 20 November 1990, and then toured to the following venues:
Leeds Polytechnic Gallery (4 – 31 March 1991). Edinburgh Stills Gallery, Edinburgh (15 April – 15 May 1991). Carnegie Arts Centre, Cumbria (July – August 1991). Norwich Gallery at Norfolk Institute of Art and Design (September – October 1991). Cambridge Darkroom, Cambridge (2 November 1991 – 5 January 1992). Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery (18 January – 15 February 1992). Bradford Health Promotions Unit (22 February – 3 March 1992). Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool (May – June 1992). The Irish Gallery of Photography, Dublin (Sep – Oct 1992 or maybe 1993).
Press Releases, Flyers etc. Below, I’ve uploaded scans of the original Camerawork press release for the proposed commissions (with a few scribbles…), the Camerawork press release for the show, flyers from the Cambridge Darkroom and Stills Gallery, Edinburgh.. Originals of these and other documents relating to the show tour, will shortly be available to view in my archive in the Bishopsgate Institute. Some duplicate information will also be deposited at the Women’s Art Library at Goldsmith’s College, University of London.
Silent Health, Camerawork Press Release inviting proposals 1990
Silent Health Camerawork press release for exhibition
Silent Health Camerawork Events flyer
Silent Health Cambridge Darkroom flyer
Stills Gallery Edinburgh press release
Silent Health Stills info sheet re event