Outside the Circle: new exhibition inspired by Dundee's female activists

Installation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, DundeeInstallation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee
Installation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee | Cooper Gallery, University of Dundee
Outside the Circle is a wide-ranging exhibition drawing on the radical female history of “She Town”, writes Sophia Yadong Hao

Dundee, a city famous for the three Js – Jute, Jam and Journalism – has another much more evocative claim to fame, heckling; the art and craft of speaking loud and proud to whoever thinks they are “in charge”.

A speciality as Dundonian as marmalade, heckling has roots in the 19th century. In that age of steam and empire, when Dundee was bustling with jute mills, women workers outnumbered men by three to one. This glaring disparity had one very economic and unjust cause; women could be paid less. Driven by this wage inequality, the women of Dundee took and shook up their voices and bequeathed their city another, more illustrious name that reverberates pitch perfect today; She Town.

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Installation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, DundeeInstallation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee
Installation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee | Cooper Gallery, University of Dundee

Channelling the spirit of this proud moniker in all its glorious furiousness, Outside the Circle, our new exhibition at the Cooper Gallery at the University of Dundee, brings She Town’s proud history of radical women into dialogue with the voices and ideas of feminist and queer movements and those fighting oppression and injustice all around the world.

At the forefront of Dundee’s enviable crowd of radical activists are two very important women whose stories are included in the exhibition: Ethel Moorehead and Mary Brooksbank. In the details of their lives, Brooksbank and Moorehead give the name She Town its depth and emotional power.

Born in a slum in 1897 and working in a Dundee mill by age 12, Brooksbank is today internationally known for her folk songs and her steadfast commitment to the Labour movement - for Dundee activists she is an icon of social justice and equality.

Moorhead, an artist and activist in the Suffragette movement, gained notoriety by trying to egg Winston Churchill in 1910. Churchill was also the target of Mary Malony who famously rang a bell every time he tried to speak during the Dundee election of 1908, but it was Ethel who was imprisoned for smashing windows, arson and assault. Going on hunger strike, Ethel suffered the infamous distinction of being the first suffragette to be force-fed in Scotland.

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Outside the Circle follows the lead of these two women, who are emblematic of Dundee’s radical activist history and of “She Town”. The exhibition also takes inspiration from Audre Lorde, an African-American writer and poet. Renowned for her poetry, feminist and civil rights activism, Lorde just like Brooksbank and Moorhead, dedicated her life to confronting different forms of injustice.

Focussing on freedom and collective action, Outside the Circle is one chapter of a long-term exhibition and public events project at Cooper Gallery called The Ignorant Art School. Since its launch in 2021 with an exhibition and event programme featuring Glaswegian artist Ruth Ewan, the Ignorant Art School has challenged what art education is and who it serves. So far, thousands of students and other participants from Scotland and beyond have taken part and we are looking forward to having many more engaging in this new exhibition and the themes it addresses, and for those living nearby and further afield to learn more about Brooksbank, Moorhead and others.

Installation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, DundeeInstallation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee
Installation view of Outside the Circle at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee | Cooper Gallery / University of Dundee

The exhibition is full of the creative and rebellious attitudes of artists that have empowered social change for the greater good. Highlights include work by Maud Sulter, a Scottish-Ghanaian artist who persuasively repurposes the conventions of Victorian portraiture into a provocative and visually stunning celebration of the cultural accomplishments of Black women. Sulter’s work is also the subject of a major Tramway exhibition this year.

We also have the luminous colours of Sam Ainsley’s vivid prints and a newly commissioned film by Anne-Marie Copestake, made in collaboration with Ainsley. An inspirational figure at Glasgow School of Art, Ainsley is lauded for empowering female art students.

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We also have on display a large-scale painting by world renowned filmmaker and gay rights activist Derek Jarman, Act Up (1992) from his “slogan” painting series. In addition, capturing the passion and rage of Jarman’s political voice, the exhibition includes photographs and videos of his involvement in the queer rights direct action group OutRage! in the 1990s. Scotland has Jarman across the board this season, with his first solo presentation since the 1990s also taking place at The Hunterian in Glasgow this Autumn.

These are just three of over 30 artists and ten collectives in a dazzling spectrum of artists, activists, collectives, writers, and thinkers which Outside the Circle has brought together, many of which have never been seen before in Scotland.

But Outside the Circle is more than an exhibition. From now until February next year we will be hosting a Sit-in Curriculum featuring “classes” exploring the themes and questions raised and displayed in the rich array of archives, artworks, manifestos and writings that form the life blood of the exhibition.

To mark the conclusion of Outside the Circle, we will also be hosting a special event with artists, activists, culture workers, educators, musicians, performers, students, researchers, writers, and feminist and LGBTQ+ communities in Scotland and from around the world. So keep your diary clear for 1 February, come to our 12-hour Acting Up event and raise your consciousness with performances, music, storytelling, street theatre, screenings, and workshops. We look forward to meeting you in “She-Town” this winter.

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Sophia Yadong Hao is director and principal curator at the Cooper Gallery, University of Dundee.

Outside the Circle runs until 1 February 2025, see https://www.dundee.ac.uk/events/ignorant-art-school-sit-4-outside-circle

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