This work explores the themes of violence, civil disobedience and surveillance. Serious themes, but interactions with the piece are playful. The soundscape – generated by the hammer blows of visitors – is a distorted montage of warped versions of our glorious misogynistic popular culture.
Short film (1m44) of interactions with the piece by visitors to ‘Deeds not Words’, Grosvenor Gallery, Manchester 2018.
Visitors’ hammer blows smash the virtual glass facade of equality in our society, revealing an audio collage of dark, comical and sinister reflections of (and on) popular culture. The hidden arm of state control or the invisible hand of market forces; our behaviour and our beliefs are controlled more than we realise. Hit back at the arm of restraint!
Evelyn’s story
In 1913 Lillian Forrester and Evelyn Manesta were arrested for damaging valuable paintings at the Manchester Art Gallery. The suffragettes smashed the glass of 13 pictures as part of a co-ordinated day of actions organised by the movement in protest at the sentencing of Emmeline Pankhurst to three years’ imprisonment.
Evelyn Manesta was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment for her direct action, during which time she was photographed without her consent. The image was used to identify her and track her movements after her release. As she (like many suffragettes) was not compliant with this process, the only way for the Home Office to obtain the image was for a prison warden to restrain her. Presumably she struggled, and the warden put his arm around her neck. She kept her eyes closed and her expression seems defiant. Prior to publication the restraining arm was carefully painted out of the image in a very early example of image manipulation. Her image was also stretched to hide this doctoring. The original photograph, with the restraining arm in clear sight, has only been discovered in recent years.
So some glass was broken. No paintings were damaged. Would we talk about it one hundred years later if leaflets had been handed out? Was this a violent act? Reactions to violence depend on whether the act is perpetrated by a dominant or a subjugated group.