SUMMER SUMMER FESTIVALS FESTIVALS
GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL ‘I WANT TO GIVE A VOICE
TO THOSE WOMEN’
In literature and philosophy, women have often played second fi ddle to their male counterparts. As part of
Glasgow International, My Bookcase’s Cristina Garriga, Glasgow Women’s Library’s Adele Patrick and German artist Catrine Val are looking to change all that. Laura
Campbell hears about their plans
‘W hen you close your eyes and try to picture a philosopher, what do you see?’ It’s a good question, and one that is central to German artist Catrine Val’s exhibition at Street Level Photoworks as part of Glasgow International 2016. It’s not long before it’s clear what Val is driving at: among the names that immediately spring to mind – Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Locke, Derrida – women are shamefully absent. It’s a strain to produce just one name: Simone de Beauvoir. And she didn’t consider herself to be a philosopher.
Val, who came to contemporary art after years of working in advertising, is i rst and foremost an artist. But she’s also a feminist and mother to three children, the latter being something that forces Val to ‘work like a beast: don’t ask me how much sleep I get at night! It’s ridiculous!’ For Political Letters, the artist has produced three new works to complement 12 from her ongoing project that together shine a light on the contribution of female philosophers and thinkers.
Her large-scale prints that seduce viewers with their glossy otherworldly appeal betray tell-tale signs of her previous career. Each show a costumed protagonist set against a dramatic scene in the natural world that tells something of the philosopher portrayed. Among them is Scottish philosopher Lady Mary Shepherd (1777–1847) dressed in a frothy white wedding dress facing Loch Lomond with her back to the camera. Val explains that she bought the dress in a Glasgow charity shop shortly after arriving in the city. Though theatrical, she strives to charge her work with a sense of authenticity: the dress looks Victorian and its backless corset bares delicate shoulders to the bracing Scottish landscape. Mirroring Val’s concerns about giving a voice to women intellectuals is Speaking Volumes, a collaborative project by My Bookcase (led by founder Cristina Garriga) and Glasgow Women’s Library. The library has long championed the voices of women both past and present, but as the organisation’s long-serving creative development
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