10am – 8pm, 19th November, 2016
The Photographers’ Gallery
A symposium bringing together different generations of artists, cultural theorists and activists to look at feminist issues in art practice.
A deliberate departure from the conference format, Elephants in the Room took a more participatory and less hierarchical approach through offering a series of break-out discussion groups, a communal lunch and a collage-making area.
Workshop facilitators selected and focused discussions on individual works within the Feminist Avant Garde of the 1970s exhibition as starting points to connect Feminism, art history and reflections on contemporary experience, art practice and politics. Facilitators for discussions included: Othello De’Souza-Hartley, Susan Kelly, Anthony Luvera, Lara Perry (University of Brighton), Sarah Pucill (University of Westminster), Gill Scott (University of Brighton), Gisela Torres, and Alice Wroe (@herstory_uk).
Discussions led into a key note lecture by Hilary Robinson (Middlesex University), reflecting on feminist practices in the 1970s, as well as issues raised during the day. This was followed by a plenary session. The evening concluded with a pay bar and informal discussions.