OK Mummy! Sampling images from women's magazines, greetings cards and the popular press, Cathy Watkins presents a series of works exploring the representation of women in today's media. Utilising basic materials (predominantly paper, coloured pencils and wall paper paste) her drawings and sculptures surf the 'white noise' of the news agent in an attempt to unravel meaning - or as she says- ''to digest some of the mythologies of our time''.
Employing an aesthetic and various techniques more associated with craft than fine art, Watkins echoes the politically inspired rejection of 'high art' demonstrated by the first wave of feminists in the 1960's and 70's. Fully embracing her love of decoration and repeated pattern, the epic drawing 'OK Mummy' is constructed largely from studies of wrapping paper design interspersed with images from celebrity magazines. Formed of papier mache, the sculpture 'It's a wrap' takes the form and decoration of a traditional Russian doll. Over five foot tall, the moon face of the doll has been replaced by a drawing of a screaming new born baby taken from the now defunct News of the World.
Carefully observed and underwritten with a cool headed objectivity, much of Watkins's work is nevertheless suffused with an Hogarthian wit and compassion. The cluster of drawings comprising'Dog Days' was inspired by the weekly laugh-out-loud portrayals of celebrity women and their pet pooches in OK magazine. Inviting the viewer to share her incredulity, Watkins lovingly renders a selection of portraits from the magazine in delicate pastels and watercolour washes begging the question 'who is the dog?'.
Identifying a personal need to comment on the highly sexualised nature of consumer culture, Watkins provides the latest update in the ebb and flow of a sometimes maligned feminist critique. Approaching her subjects with wit and wisdom she fortifies the viewer to stem the tide of stereotypical narratives in favour of a richer seam.
Exhibition dates:13- 29th February 2012
Showing at: House, 70 Camberwell Church Street , London, SE5 8Q2
Open: Mon- Sat 8.30- 4.30
Contact: cathywatkins@hotmail.co.uk
The WAG’s progress – a contemporary homage to William Hogarth
Posing the question ‘what would Hogarth choose as a subject today?’ artist Cathy Watkins has created a wall-piece entitled The WAG’s Progress. Composed of approximately eighty separate drawings and cut-outs, the installation narrates the WAG’s ‘journey’ from childhood to middle-aged ignominy. Plundering the depths (and shallows) ofa plethora ofpopular publications such as Heat magazine and the red tops, Watkins reveals a nuanced tale of lost innocence and perennial female commodificationas indicative of contemporary society as ‘The Harlot’s Progress’ was to an eighteenth century audience.
Born into a highly sexualised consumer culture, the fictitious WAG embarks on a quest to follow her dream and ‘bag’ a rich man. In true Hogarthian style however, the story is not a happy one. Mercifully free from the perils of the workhouse and the deadly embrace of any number of incurable diseases, the WAG’s dream is never the less short-lived. Succumbing to the inevitable onset of old age, i.e. thirty, she is abandoned by her ‘dream man’ for a younger model. Her ensuing and increasingly desperate attempts to regain her former allure by way of the surgeon’s knife are symptomatic both of the pressures of our age and her personal demise.
Arranged in chronological order, the story unfolds through clusters of carefully rendered drawings and watercolours interspersed with short bursts of text and cartoon-like coloured cut-outs of palm trees, which infuse the tale with a giddy sense of fantasy and a somewhat alarmingly repetitious decoration. At various points the tale is punctuated by studies of Hogarth’s works including details from ‘Marriage a la Mode’ and ‘The Rake’s Progress’ which invite the viewer to contextualise the eclectic mix of current iconography.
The WAG’s Progress provides both a salutary reflection on the nature of ‘progress’ itself and the status of women today. Alluding to the perennial perspicacity of Hogarth’s observations and the relentless commodification of the female sex, Cathy Watkins weaves a multilayered yarn of wit and wisdom resonant with historical perspective and contemporary critique.
An exhibition exploring the sexualisation of childhood featuring Cathy Watkins and Daniel Barnard from 10th - 21st February 2010 at The Redchurch Gallery, Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP.
Subverting gender stereotypes
Linked initially by a mutual fascination with dolls, Cathy Watkins and Daniel Barnard explore the sexualisation of childhood and beyond through a series of 2D and 3D deconstructions featuring Barbie and some of her less celebrated imitators.
Taking centre stage, the fifty year old Barbie faces close scrutiny in a series of anatomical studies by Cathy Watkins. Unable to stand unaided or sit without widely splayed legs, Barbie is pictured in her most frequently adopted posture, a blancing act on all fours with arse up ended. Issues concerning the representation and sexualisation of women in popular culture are developed further in a series of drawings populated by images from the tabloid press and children's colouring books.
'Madonna and child' (mixed media on canvas) develops the theme of consumerism and innocence lost throug a terrifying portrayal of Madonna (the super star) eating a pizza under the watchful gaze of a small girl in high heels. Capturing a moment of pre-language enquiry, the painting 'Navigator' (household emulsion on canvas) features a one year old girl dangling another product in the Mattel range namely 'Ken', blissfully unaware of the symbolic potency of this highly articulated (and very orange) object.
Daniel Barnard,no stranger to Barbie ownership as a child (he bought one as a girl friend for his action man) incorperates dolls as essential components in the construction of his sculptures and assemblages. Displaying a rigerous attention to the subversion of gender stereotypes his personal narratives are layered with multitudinous cultural re-evaluations.
Made at the time of Jade Goody's death - when the tabloids were saturated with the striking contours of her post chemo hair loss - Barnard's 'Burnt out' series feature a selection of doll's heads plucked bald and implanted with dreadlock-like spent matches. Beautifully crafted and formally complex, the tension between the fragility of the charred matchsticks and the rubbery-ness of the dolls cheeks create a powerful sense of material impermanence.
The series of collages forming 'A day out in the sun' subvert the iconic Janet and John childrens books through the insertion of images of 50's glamour girls and examples of contemporary art. Works by Gilbert and George, Lucien Freud and Richard Hamilton provide alternative back drops for activities such as playing ball, eating apples and picking flowers. The learning accented text is alltered to reflect the awkward awakenings of pubescent conciousness.
Mutually exclusive yet conjoined by a shared concern for the increasing (and largely unchallenged) sexualisation of society, Cathy Watkins and Daniel Barnard regale the viewer with their regressive revelry. States of comfort enjoyed in the company of children's favourites are however short lived, the pull of nostalgia failing to stem the sickly tide of consumer driven human commodification and undercurrents of a dangerously sexually exploitative nature.
Exhibition dates: 10th- 21st February 2010
Opening hours: Tuesday- Sunday 10-6pm
Redchurch Gallery, 50 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP.
