Real women/common birds

This paper is personal: ‘here, now, alive, active, subjective' (Williams 1977:128). Doubly inspired by feminism and punk and excited about 'collective' practice, I worked with the See Red poster collective and went on to make films collaboratively, as ‘Wildtrax, including music video with the Poison Girls. In 1980s Britain, oppositional politics meant working against the ideology of the Thatcher government which set out to turn the clock back, putting women, queers, black and Asian people, the disabled, trade unions, the entire working class... firmly back in their places. Thirty-odd years on, I am a working artist and a new power machine, frighteningly similar, but also significantly different, is trying to finish the job in a world where resistance is just a click away on social media, radical chic picked up and worn like a vintage frock and an art world engaged with the signs of resistance… so what now for alternative/DIY culture?

Dr Anne Robinson works with film as an artist educator, currently teaching at Middlesex University. Her art practice is concerned with the perception and politics of temporality. Curatorial projects include: Supernormal Festival and Over Time, She has ongoing engagement with social change and collective practice in art and completed a practice-led PhD in 2012, entitled The Elusive Digital Frame and the Elasticity of Time in Painting.
www.annerobinsonartwork.org

Ref: Williams, R. (1977) Marxism and Literature, Oxford: OUP