We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who came along to the Hackney Flashers Exposed event at Chats Palace, which marked the fortieth anniversary of the group beginning to work together as a collective. Around 80 people attended and had a lively discussion about current and past activism and creativity.
Hackney Flasher’s members Maggie Murray, Michael Ann Mullen, Julia Vellacott, Sally Greenhill, Liz Heron and Jini Rawlings spoke about their experiences of working as a collective in the 1970s. The members of the collective spoke about the controversy in the collective about displaying their agitprop work in an art establishment institution (the Hayward Gallery) as part of a major exhibition in 1979.
A slideshow provided a rare opportunity for the audience to see images made by the collective.
There were many contributions from those who attended, who shared their own experiences of campaigning and combining activism with, art, propaganda and photography. There was much discussion about where movements against sexism and for social change are going now and a sense that more needs to be done to bring together the experience of those from different generations. Some of those present included representatives of Spare Rib magazine collective, Feminist Review Collective, Sheba Feminist Publishers, Virago, Format Photographers. There were also photographers such as Melanie Friend, Jenny Matthews and Pam Isherwood.
Also at the event were representatives from the current groups ODL (LGBT+ over 50s group in Camden), WAD (Women Against Discrimination), Justice for Domestic Workers, Showroom Gallery, Women and Health in Camden, the Tate Archive, the Belfast Feminist Network, and Women’s Grid online resource. We would like to thank Peter, Asya and Gary from Chats Palace for enabling the event to take place as part of the Photomonth festival in East London and ensuring it ran so smoothly.
Hackney Flashers 