The Women’s Unit: Cave Woman

In July 2014 a new project, Artists in Residence for the Women of Glasgow was launched at the Library. The artist Mandy McIntosh, was asked to work at GWL and in Castlemilk.

For the final chapter the project’s mobile, modular way of working shifts physically to Castlemilk and the creation of a new working space entitled The Women’s Unit, a free feminist art space which supports women who have faced male violence and abuse.

Exhibitions

The next exhibition at the Womens Unit, Cave Woman opens to the public at 10 am Monday 11^th of May with a preview on Friday 8^th of May  from 3-5pm. All Welcome. This exhibition features work by Jade Cara McNeill and Susan McDonald  who encountered McIntosh on a project at Say Women and are now further developing their work at the Unit.

The Women’s Unit

The Women’s Unit has evolved around the practical needs of women to be able to creatively express themselves in an inter-generational community of peers who are specialists in male abuse as women who have endured it. The Unit takes its structural beginnings from the tenets of Community Development, a discipline which often parallels socially engaged art practice. In The Women’s Unit women can thrive through access to artistic means of expression, aimed at examining where they are, what they feel and what they have to say right now. This in turn provides visibility to the ongoing issues of male violence against women as women protest it through art.

The residency will culminate in August with an amalgamation of works to date, including graphic design, sketchbooks, film and printwork, objects from the Zero Tolerance archive (housed at GWL) and an acknowledgement of the artist Franki Raffles legacy. There is a significant public art installation at Landressy street and London road, made by McIntosh in collaboration with women. The works include Abuse is Ancient, Compass of Sisterhood and The Women’s Library Hears me Pauline.

McIntosh is also currently developing a short animated documentary of of the first few weeks at the Unit where its unique moods and speeches can be encountered through the artist’s film.

Visit the Women’s Unit

The Unit is open from 10am to 4pm Monday-Wednesday weekly. The address is unit 17b, Castlemilk Arcade, Dougrie Drive, Glasgow, G45 9AA. Telephone: 07519 362 129. We are on Facebook, The Women’s Bridges and @msmandymcintosh tweets regular updates #thewomensunit

Please contact The Women’s Unit if you are a woman who could benefit from creative expression and ongoing contact with others who have faced abuse. Our rolling exhibitions are open to the public but on a daily basis, we are a women only working studio space.

“There is a really strong history of artists presence in Castlemilk, with Castlemilk Women House, The Fringe Gallery, the Video workshop that used to be here, its a unique part of the city to be in. Physically you are very high and can see for miles, the scheme is on the edge of urban Glasgow and that feels significant.

What I was recognising through workshopping with women was that very strong bonds accelerated through group making where women were engrossed in sewing or drawing and talking. Some women felt safe enough to disclose for the first time. This exchange felt like something that needed to be formalised and recognised, by providing a space where peer support and creativity could flourish and it all happened in a very organic way.

What I find enthralling is seeing new work emerge which feels mature, solid and considered, by women with no artistic background, some of them drawing for the first time. At the same time we have young women who’s formal creative learning was disrupted by abuse, causing them to abandon courses. The unit provides a route back to their creative voice.”