Saturday 21st of May 2011, from 7pm Paper Women take over the Centrespace Gallery (6 Leonard Lane) in Bristol for an evening of sharing memories, stories, laughs and snacks, making, and re-making Paper Women and some good old cultural activism!
Come along and bring: paper, thread, string, wool, glitter, pink , feather boas, a sense of humour and memories and names of women to share, make and re-face Bristol!
email paperwomenbristol@gmail.com for more info
And a BIG THANK YOU to Debi Withers for this!
Clara Campoamor (1888–1972): Anna Jonsson's Seville Sculpture.
Walking through the hot streets of Seville at the weekend, like you do if you're a Paper Woman in need of sun and cerveza, I came across this sculpture.
The 2007 sculpture is by Sevillian based Swedish artist Anna Jonsson (http://www.annajonsson.com/) and celebrates the life and work of Spanish politician, feminist and women’s reformer Clara Campoamor.
Born into a working class Madrid family, Clara began work as a seamstress at 13. She worked to get herself into law school and continued working to support her degree. At the age of 36 she successfully completed her law degree and four years later, 1928 she established the Federation of Women Lawyers.
In 1931, in spite of being unable to vote in the election (because she was a woman!), Clara stood for a seat in the Constituent Assembly. Her staunch, impassioned advocacy of women’s rights met with oppostiton from the conservative religious parties, and the men on the left who felt she was doing disservice to worker’s rights by focussing on women... In spite of all the opposition, Clara secured equal legal status for men and women in the constitution.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Clara fled to Switzerland, fearing her life. She remain there in exile for the rest of her life. She was repatriated only after her death, with her ashes being buried at San Sebastian.
Anna Jonsson’s beautifully intricate sculpture embodies some of the key ideas of Paper Women. Books engraved with “Historia el limbo” (History in Limbo) and “Historia Invisibles” (Invisible Stories), and keys and locks, and Anna and Clara’s names written onto bronzed books—this is the commemorative practice which Paper Women seeks!
Muchas gracias Anna y Clara--- for remembering to us why it is we care and for showing us who to do it!
