At a cross-road in the red light district of Auckland NZ, seven black glass figures bend around the corner of a window gallery space. Creating a multi-layered spatial field, they reflect the movement of shoppers and students by day, and sex workers trading at night. The ‘Suffragettes’ are both subject/object and participants in this inner city scene, punctuating space - like a row of exclamation marks or a black picket fence. As pronouns, the figures refer to the C19th activists who fought and won the vote and the right for women to be legally defined as ‘persons’, and uphold a central tenet of human rights: the personal is political, in public space. The triangular formation mimics migrating birds using the slipstream to conserve energy and taking turns leading from the front. As a number One/First, the figures recall New Zealand’s leadership as the first nation to grant women the vote. Conflating gender into an androgynous collective, the ‘Suffragettes’ march as a group, inclusive of every-one. Aligned and organised, they occupy the street front in the present tense.
Gatfield Studio 2016
Corner Window Gallery
Auckland New Zealand
gillgatfield.com/projects/suffragettes/
