Hannah Wilke: Sculpture 1960s – ‘80s, Alison Jacques

2013 was branded by some as the year that feminism returned to the mainstream. Galvanised by social media and good academics, young feminists today have been looking back to the 1960s 'second wave' feminists who coined the memorable slogan 'the personal is political' (i.e. there is a politics behind how we use and own our bodies). This makes Alison Jacques' 2014 solo show of feminist sculptor and performance artist Hannah Wilke incredibly timely.

Wilke remains a controversial artist of this moment, who used her own body as a site of political contestation. She was heavily criticised for doing so. In her Starification Object Series, she marked out points on her body with tiny vulvas made of spat out chewing gum and posed provocatively, mimicking photographs of pin-up girls. This show will feature her clay sculptures resembling vaginas that she began making in the early 60s and which gained iconic status amongst those who Wilke has inspired. Made variously from latex, bronze, terracotta, porcelain (glazed and unglazed), chewing gum, and washing machine lint (that she jokingly said she'd collected while doing Claes Oldenburg's washing for ten years) Wilke repetitively produced hundreds over two decades, each one slightly different.

Wilke has divided opinion among both critics and fellow feminists. Some say her work is narcissistic, others say it's brave. Amongst all this, the beauty of her sculptures is often overlooked. They show a real sensitivity to the formal qualities of the material. Many appear to be constructed with minimum effort, coming together partly as a result of her hands manipulating the clay, and partly from the clay collapsing into itself. Don’t miss the opportunity to see first hand these visceral works that have sparked so much debate as well as the opportunity to join this debate yourself (if you if want to).