Home Girls: Women Redefining the Domestic Sphere

Join Calvert 22 Foundation and Contemporary Lynx for an evening exploring domesticity, private space, the Internet, and gender with a new generation of women artists, including a panel discussion, moving image artworks and a drinks and music reception, to accompany the exhibition Family Values: Polish Photography Now.

About the evening

With the rise of social media as a platform for self-expression and the growing infringements placed on women’s bodies through social and political policies, how is the domestic sphere changing for women?

For Zofia Rydet, who undertook an enormous feat of photographing all the households in Poland in the latter half of the twentieth century, the family portrait in the interior, private space of the home became the motif of domesticity.

Over 20 years since Rydet’s passing, how do we distinguish between the private and the domestic sphere? How have online platforms become a collective space of resistance for migrants, subversive ageing bodies, and queer sexualities and genders? The subject of domesticity continues to intrigue a new generation of women artists. We invite several creative voices to give us a fresh take on what the domestic space means to them.

Moving image works will be on display throughout the evening by Agata Zbylut, Natalia Dołgowska & Michalina Musielak and Zofia Krawiec.

The panel discussion will be followed by a drinks reception with music by DJ Stav B.

The evening is curated by Maggie Kuzan.

Panel discussion: What does the domestic sphere mean for women today?

Speakers:

Anna Jochymek is a Polish multidisciplinary artist working mostly in performance and site-specific installation. She is a current visiting PhD research student at the Slade School of Art. She will be speaking about her work Invade the Space! (2013), a site-specific performance in which she filled the entirety of her small apartment with approximately one tonne of hay.

Maja A. Ngom is a Polish and Senegalese artist based in London. She is interested in photography’s potential to recreate narratives and often uses archival material to weave in different narratives and myths into her own personal histories. She will be speaking about her MA project Encrusted Island, a photographic study of her grandparents living in Poland retold through the myth of Philemon and Baucis. The project investigates intangible transgenerational family bonds and the sense of domesticity.

Paola Ciarska is a Polish visual artist living in Newcastle. She is known for her intricate miniature paintings of naked women in home interiors. Her recent solo show Cześć, Pani Ciarska took place at the IMT Gallery (12 January – 25 March 2018) and she has exhibited at the London Art Fair 2018.

Moderated by Maggie Kuzan. Maggie is a freelance art writer and curator living and working in London. Working across a variety of fields, she explores the body, gender and sexuality from a feminist phenomenological perspective. In 2014 Maggie joined Contemporary Lynx as a contributing writer and events coordinator. She is the founder of Thinking Flesh, a feminist art platform dedicated to sensory experience.

About DJ Stav B

Stav B is a female, genderqueer artist, creative, pop-up bar owner, entrepreneur, DJ and broadcaster, who has been the queer/dyke scene, part of the scene, and contributor to the scene for a long while now, adding to its essence with events, club nights, art happenings and panels. Direct and uncompromising, she actively campaigns for the survival, expansion and evolution of female-oriented spaces and places, which are fundamental and essential in the whole LGBTQIA umbrella and culture.

About Contemporary Lynx

Contemporary Lynx is an arts organisation and print magazine launched in January 2013 by art historians Dobromiła Błaszczyk and Sylwia Krasoń. Contemporary Lynx was created to encourage an appreciation and understanding of Polish contemporary art by a wide audience. Our goal is to raise awareness of Polish artists’ contribution to the international art scene. In our art magazine and on the website we publish first-hand information about exciting and prestigious art events from around the world. Contemporary Lynx is a springboard for further activities happening beyond the Internet – curatorial projects, art exhibitions, international cultural exchange, research and cross-media art events

Booking terms: pay what you wish

For a limited number of our events, attendees can pay what they wish for admission via Eventbrite. The suggested admission fee is £5. Please follow the booking URL to finalise your order.