Ruth Jones founded The Agency of Visible Women in 2018. Initially intended as a play on words for a group exhibition, The Agency’s positive impact on its members in its capacity as an artist network resulted in Ruth and Damien Robinson’s determination to explore its potential.
Ruth and Damien conducted research in their home town of Southend, working with the womxn and femmes they know and those they had not yet met. Out of this they created a publication giving voice to their collaborators’ (and their own) experiences within the creative sector.
The resulting publication is “A Snapshot of Southend as a Cultural Environment for Womxn Artists”, a risographed artists’ edition of 50, published by The Old Waterworks. This is presented as a boxed set of 52 cards, with an A4 folded risographed explanatory sheet, card fold, and printed sleeve cover. The pandemic has prevented a physical launch but with the publication’s increased resonance to the current creative environment we have developed it as a digital document.
Covid-19 collides with pre-existing inequalities so that different groups of women will be disproportionately impacted. The majority of artists and creatives were already living precariously with insecure income and low pay; the pandemic has increased this precarity. In an AN survey, 93% of respondents said that they, their practice or career had been affected by the pandemic, with 60% expecting a 50% reduction in income. Therefore womxn creatives are likely to be doubly affected.
