CRY OVER SPILT MILK
Curated by Grace Acton Roberts
Greenbelt Festival - Tank Cafe
28th August - 31st August 2015
Address: Greenbelt Festival, Boughton House, Geddington, Kettering, Northamptonshire NN14 1BJ,
Nearest Station: Kettering
Opening times: Friday: 5pm - 10pm / Saturday: 10am - 11pm / Sunday: 12am - 11pm / Monday: 10am - 6pm
Cry Over Spilt Milk is a mixed media display of works related to the prevalence and prominence of breastfeeding in Western society. The display includes items from Grace Acton Roberts personal collection of breast milk and breastfeeding paraphernalia, as well as spoken word poet, Hollie McNish’s YouTube video, Embarrassed, which went viral on its release back in 2013 and has been viewed over a million times online. Video documentation from visual artist Nicola Canavan’s performance Milk for Manchester’s Hazard festival and a sound piece by artist and curator, Sinéad Bligh called 60 mls.
The topic of breastfeeding in public regularly crops up in the media, just last December, when Louise Burns was breastfeeding in Claridges, she was asked by the establishment to cover up and be more discreet. She then tweeted what had happened and a frenzy of discussion was whipped up in social media and the news, even politicians were asked to give comment. In protest, a group of about 25 mothers decided to breastfeed their babies outside of Claridges. This is not limited to the UK, in May a similar protest was staged in a MacDonald’s in Budapest after a woman was stopped for breast-feeding her baby. In Australia, Elle magazine’s June edition featured new mother Nicole Trunfio. On the subscribers issue Trunfio is pictured breastfeeding her son but the magazines to hit the shelves in supermarkets and newsagents had a fully clothed model holding a sleeping baby. Once again breastfeeding caused as storm on social media. Editor in chief, Justine Cullen defended her decision “yes, it was a commercial decision to run it on subscriber issues only. Magazines are a fantastic platform for being able to bring issues to light and take a stand, but ultimately, this is still a business. It’s still my job to sell magazines.” Cry Over Spilt Milk questions what society deems appropriate and acceptable in the public and private domains. The display opens up discussion about the visibility and normality of breastfeeding and explores how society views the female body and the relationship of mother and child. |
Grace Acton, 19/10/14 13:30, 2014
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Cry Over Spilt Milk: Holly McNish, Embarrassed, 2013,
This has been edited with permission of the artist for viewing within a public space
This has been edited with permission of the artist for viewing within a public space
About the artists
Hollie McNish
Hollie Mc Nish is a UK poet who straddles the boundaries between the literary, poetic and pop scenes. She was UK Slam poetry champion in 2009 and the first poet ever to record and perform at Abbey Road Studios, London in 2013. Hollie has performed in venues as diverse as Glastonbury festival, the Royal Albert Hall, Ronnie Scotts Jazz Bar and had poems appear on Radio 4, XFM, MTV, Channel 4 and BBC 2. She has had poems used in The Economist, Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and Channel 4 Random Acts.
Hollie runs a poetry in education organization Page to Performance. She works with rapper Inja and runs poetry workshops across the UK. She has also worked with schools and youth centres in Belgium, Germany, Australia, France and Portugal, and for the British Council in Latvia and Poland. Although mainly in English, she also writes partially in French and German.
http://holliepoetry.com/
Sinéad Bligh
Sinéad Bligh practices through the media of sound and text (both online and in physical installation), video and performance, often employed through curatorial and artistic collaborations. She has acted as project assistant and editorial assistant on various events, publications and exhibitions at CHELSEA space London and the Cooper Gallery Dundee. Currently she is the Chelsea Arts Club Trust Research Fellow at CHELSEA space for 2014 – 2015, and works as an Archive Assistant and Researcher for the Barry Flanagan archive.
http://sineadbligh.com/
Nicola Canavan
Nicola Canavan is a performance artist based in the North East of England. Her artistic practice, is rooted in action based performance and spans live work, documentations of its products & traces and the re-presentation of these in other forms. Canavan investigates themes around feminism, abjection and ritual with a focus on interpreting or creating experiences in her own body.
She has been performing and showing work nationally and internationally since 2007 within programmes such as Momentum Festival (Brussels), ]performance s p a c e[ (London), Inbetween Time Festival (Bristol), City of Women (Ljubljana) and SPILL National Platform (Ipswich). She has collaborated with Kris Canavan, Predrag Pajdic, Manuel Vason (Double Exposures) and Ernst Fischer and has been awarded the Artsadmin Bursary, the Artists International Development Fund and has been financially supported and mentored by Unlimited, Live Art Development Agency and Pacitti Company.
http://www.nicolacanavan.com/
About the Greenbelt
Greenbelt is an arts, faith and justice festival which was founded in 1974. The festival is for all-ages and multi-disciplinary in its programming. It takes place each August UK Bank Holiday weekend.
Visit Greenbelt's website
Greenbelt is an arts, faith and justice festival which was founded in 1974. The festival is for all-ages and multi-disciplinary in its programming. It takes place each August UK Bank Holiday weekend.
Visit Greenbelt's website