I came across this call out very late in the day, but managed to send a submission along. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to the event. I gather it was a tricky compilation to put together with Journals spread far and wide over the country. As some people didn't even get their designated journal, loose works were requested, that could be inserted into the journals on site. I'm glad to finally see some photos of the event, which you can see here  http://alturnertive.com/100JournalsProject.aspx

Smile: an exhibition that brings back laughter

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM

A presentation, a setting, a reading. 

   4 beer mats and a facsimile pub table present a setting to glimpse at women’s progress with alcohol, through the 20th C,  from ‘protesting liquor prude’ to ‘shameless imprudent drinking hussy’.  Whether tea-total or drunk, women are more harshly judged than men by society.

   The 20th C was marked by women’s  attempt to escape oppression, subjugation and belittlement  by men. At the turn of the century a few women tried to control men and their vile habits by trying to outlaw  liquor. Unfortunately, this backlashed, and  made them look like bad sports, and rather unattractive to men. 

   Later, with new found freedom,  and a realisation that drinking was kinda nice after all they demanded the right to drink alongside men in bars and pubs. But, still on men’s terms, a woman could only enter the pub with a man, or with a group of women. If she went on her own, she was seen as a lush. 

   Later still, a new dawn of women’s lib hit both sides of the Atlantic, and women took to drinking with confidence. It still wasn’t that cool to go out drinking on your own, unless you knew the barman by name, were middle-aged and a bit  scarred emotionally. 

   Now, women everywhere have finally caught up with the opposite sex, and are drinking  with complete abandon: clubbing all night, throwing up in the  toilet, and collapsing in the gutter. Although a woman might end up alone on one of these binges, she probably started out with a man or a bunch of females, as society still has hypocritical views on women and drinking. On the surface women have equal rights to drink themselves to death, but society, and health authorities, still judges them more harshly for it.

  4 beer mats provide a brief reading of 4 stages of women and drink: promoting them on the surface;  elaborating in a facetious way on the reverse side, and covering up the  insidious stain on women’s lives, ingrained in reality.

Beer mats, grey board, book cloth, inkjet printed paper, craft spray, acid free binder’s paste, and pva glues and linen thread.

Leslie Wilson-Rutterford

London        2009

Come along and see some of my artists books alongside other artists and makers at the Summer Community Arts Event, hosted by Core Initiatives, building stronger communities through the arts.

http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee165/leslieworks/One%20

Night%20Stand/?action=view&current=c6030599.pbw

Interesting exhibition at Wimbledon School of Art last Monday evening. A good turn-out of people came to see the first 'One Night Stand', one of a series of 'three teams of curators, three provocations and one space'.'The three curatorial groups are taking turns to deliver a provocation to one another and respond to a given stimulus'. Monday night's response was by 'MA curating students of Sheffield Hallam University exploring the theme of ‘defamiliarization’ in response to Victor Shklovsky’s text ‘Russian Formalist Criticism’. The provocation given to them was to take into account the nature of time-specificity'. http://1nightstands.blogspot.com/

I came across a call out from one of the participants, Diana Ali via the Arts Council newsletter. She was asking for a response to the word 'defamiliarisation'. I looked it up in the dictionary, and was none the wiser about what it meant. so, I made up a new definition: the act of obliterating all witches animals. I made an image to accompany it.

I took my little boy with me and we did the 1 and 1/2 hour journey via tube, to Wimbledon from Kentish Town. The students were friendly, and the exhibition was very good. As an artist who works with text alot, I was interested to see how words would be used in the gallery space. I also wanted to see how my contribution would be incorporated. I found out who Diana was, introduced myself and had a nice conversation with her. We agreed how dynamic it was to invite via the internet, and then integrate various contributors from around the world to make one work. A kind of global creation, which relied alot on openness and trust. I was really glad I made the effort to get there, meeting new people - artists- seeing what they're doing and sharing ideas. 

© Leslie Wilson-Rutterford April 2008