NOT OUR CLASS
Jo Spence, Revisualization, from the series Remodeling Photo History, 1982
Copyright Jo Spence Memorial Archive
Studio Voltaire is pleased to announce Not Our Class, a new programme of education and participatory projects that through research and practice will take the work of Jo Spence as a starting point for investigating the legacy and potentials of her work in relation to contemporary culture and life.
Through a series of commissions, offsite projects, workshops, public events and reading groups situated both within Studio Voltaire’s neighbourhood and contemporary art discourse the programme will explore the new turn towards education and participation within contemporary art practice.
Jo Spence (1934 – 1992) was a key figure on the UK photographic scene from the mid seventies and crucial in debates on photography and the critique of representation. Her work engaged with a range of photographic genres, from documentary to Phototherapy. Through her own artistic practice and teaching, which are very closely linked, she rigorously explored complex issues of class, gender, health and the body, combining personal experience, political understanding and critical theory. The work produced near the end of her life dealt directly with her experience of having cancer and the treatment she received by the medical establishment.
The programme will include new commissions by artists Emma Hedditch, Marysia Lewandowska and Rehana Zaman, working with The Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Lambeth Women’s Project, Intoart, King’s College Hospital and Body & Soul. Further information of these and other events will be announced soon, along with details for the UK’s first major solo presentation of work by Jo Spence since her death in 1992, the exhibition will take place across two venues, Studio Voltaire and SPACE in summer 2012.
For more information please contact louise@studiovoltaire.org
Not Our Class is supported by Bloomberg and by the National lottery through Arts Council England.
The exhibition is made in partnership with The Jo Spence Memorial Archive and is supported by The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
