Women in Revolt!

2024

Women in Revolt, 2024, Tate Britain installation view

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My work, Think Pink (booth wank at the NPG), was included in Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970–1990 at Tate Britain, London, 8 Nov 23 – 7 April 24 when it transfers to National Galleries Scotland: Modern, Edinburgh, 25 May 24 – 26 January 25 and then to the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 7 March – 1 June 25.

The exhibition explored issues and events such as: the British Women’s Liberation movement, the fight for legal changes impacting women, maternal and domestic experiences, Rock Against Racism and Punk, Greenham Common and the peace movement, the visibility of Black and South Asian Women Artists, Section 28 and the AIDs pandemic.

I was name-checked in reviews in both The Guardian and The Art Newspaper. ‘We watch artist Liz Rideal’s face in a photo-booth as she records the moment of orgasm. This self-portrait, she said, “is about having control over my auto-portrait while in a state of lack of control”’.
theguardian.com
theartnewspaper.com

The idea of the auto-erotic-auto-portrait seemed to me to be the ultimate in self- portraiture. To set up a conflict between the concept of the controlled self image and disrupt this by recording the physical release of orgasm. These portraits capture my facial expressions in varying states of response to stimulation during the repeated five-second exposures of the photo-booth flash. I wanted to capture the moment of “la petite mort” and see this for myself. This self-portrait is about having control over my auto-portrait whilst in a state of lack of control. Allowing the disruption of orgasmic physical release to be recorded.