top of page

#Rebel Selves

#Rebel Selves explores creative methods that could be used to critique and subvert idealised heteronormative gender expectations in selfies and portraiture through ideas of entanglement, camouflage and parade. The project comprises an installation, self-portraits, collaborative contemporary dance performances and videos, online and IRL workshops and a smartphone app, all of which create performative spaces in which visitors can create queer(ed) selfies that rebel against gender and beauty norms. In a series of IRL workshops, play with gestures wearing installation costumes (top) or make masks (middle) and use them to take selfies in the installation. I also ran online workshops that use a specially developed smartphone app and filters that blend and distort selfies inspired by the installation (bottom). Images were shared on @rebelselves instagram page.

bois of isolation

boi emerged in 2020 as an Instagram-based collaboration between artist and academic, Dawn, and academic and activist geographer, AC. Within a wider project, Making Feminist Spaces, which explored feminist practices of care and survival under pandemic lockdown, boi aimed to create a platform for sharing selfies that queer the gender binary. Using online workshops and conversations, we asked participants to explore whether and how selfies could disrupt dominant visual representations of the gender binary. We asked how queering gender binaries link to the placing and spatial organisation of selfies and whether selfie-taking practices help queer, not only the gender binary, but the very notion of the ‘self’? To allow for a range of gender expressions, we asked for up to four selfies that queer the gender binary during pandemic lockdown. We wanted to defy the idea of a single, coherent identity (required by social media platforms to track users and gather data more effectively) and avoid pairs of images that might infer a gender binary or the ‘before’ and ‘after’ transformation common in advertisements. Contributors were asked to consider why they chose gestures, objects and locations for their selfies and to reflect on their feelings during the process. The first workshop, on 16th February 2021, was attended mainly by students who responded to a call from a university’s LGBTQI research group. The second workshop, on 8th April 2021, was held as part of a conference attended by academics and PhD students in the arts. Selfies were shared on Instagram: @boisofisolation

Recycled Relics

In a series of workshops participants made sculptures using rubbish. The workshops aimed to raise awareness of waste in consumer culture. The workshops explore the ideas behind the Relics series. The sculptures could be fetishes that warn against waste, or totem figures that celebrate the things that are valued by in our society. I professionally photographed the sculptures made by participants. Some of the participants sculptures were shown on posters in Leeds and adverts on Facebook, with support from Leeds Inspired (Leeds City Council) and the Lipmann-Miliband Trust. With permission from the participants sculptures were shared on Instagram (@consumer_relics). Workshops took place at The Stanley and Aubrey Burton Gallery at University of Leeds, The University of Leeds National Saturday Art and Design club, and at the Blyth Gallery at Imperial College London. During the Covid19 pandemic the workshops were adapted to take place online. The workshops attracted participants from the UK, Brooklyn New York, Urbana Illinois, Islamabad, Pulau Pinang Malaysia, Penang Malaysia, New South Wales, Copenhagen, Split, and Rawalpindi Pakistan. The poster featuring artworks by members of the National Saturday Art and Design club was also included in an exhibition in Summerset House, London from 8th – 16th June 2019, as part of the National Art and Design Club summer exhibition. The National Art and Design Club tweeted ‘A highlight for the @UniversityLeeds Art&Design Club this year was working with artist and curator @dawn_woolley to create relic sculptures which Dawn photographed and compiled into a poster to be displayed on advertising boards around the city. #natsatclub @UoLArtsOutreach (https://twitter.com/natsatclub/status/1163377582500241408?s=20,)

Modern Nature

In 2019 I was commissioned by The Hepworth Wakefield and Wakefield Council to produce a building wrap design in response to the Modern Nature exhibition at The Hepworth. I worked with members of the local community, including The Hepworth’s Art Social group (for young people not in education, employment or training) and students from Wakefield Adult Education centre, and adult learners at an WDH Independent Living Scheme in Pontefract to produce a design that references the history and function of the historic Upper Mill building and the development of neighbouring land into a community garden. Through the construction of flower, corn and barley sculptures made out of recycled material such as plastic bags and cardboard boxes, participants considered the blurred boundaries between nature and man-made materials, from the early industrial processes of corn grinding and cultivated landscapes to the impact of consumer culture on the environment today. Simultaneously, the sculptures are objects of nature, high and low culture, and industry. The sculptures were photographed and arranged in a composite design that was printed onto the Upper Mill building wrap. Photographs of the sculptures were also posted on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/consumer_relics/). Denise Jeffery, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Regeneration at Wakefield Council, said: ‘The specially designed building wraps have proven to be an effective method of ensuring the continuing preservation of this important listed building. This new cover will not only continue to protect the watermill but with the addition of this thoughtful and imaginative design, created in part by local communities, will make a positive contribution to the conservation area.’ (https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/wakefield-s-history-to-get-covered-by-artist-1-9808777). Rachel Craddock, Communities Manager at The Hepworth Wakefield said: ‘it is important to acknowledge and preserve the industrial heritage that Wakefield waterfront is steeped in. This project is an excellent opportunity to merge the old with the new. We are extremely grateful to Wakefield Council for providing the funds to allow Dawn to create a cover that is inspiring and lets the creativity of Wakefield be seen.’ (https://www.wakefield.gov.uk/Pages/PR-9068.aspx)

bottom of page