How have images shaped, and been shaped by, feminism? Turner Prize Winner Helen Cammock’s work considers how photography and film are implicated in the politics of resistance and protest – asking whose voices are marginalised from history, who speaks on behalf of whom and on what terms. Her 2018 video, The Long Note explores the role of women in the civil rights movement in Derry/Londonderry in 1968 at the beginning of the ‘Troubles’ (1968-98) – a civil war between Republicans, Loyalists, and the British state over whether or not Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK or form a united Ireland. Weaving together contemporary interviews with archive footage, The Long Note examines and challenges the social norms about gender and conflict – reflecting on a society in violent transition at a time both when the peace process is fraught with uncertainty and feminist activism has transformed Northern Ireland in recent years.
Helen Cammock is one of the four awarded artists of the Turner Prize 2019: the artists requested for the prize to be shared as a symbol of solidarity at a time of global political crisis. She was awarded an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 2011, and studied photography at the University of Brighton (2008) as well as sociology at the University of Sussex (1992). Awarded the 2018 Max Mara Prize, she has recently exhibited work at Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge (2020); Turner Contemporary, Margate (2019); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2019); Somerset House, London (2019); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2019); Void, Derry/Londonderry (2018).
Organised by Edwin Coomasaru (The Courtauld) and Rachel Warriner (The Courtauld).