remember who you are: Shape & Situate: Posters Of Inspirational Women in Europe

Info about the zine

‘Shape & Situate: Posters Of Inspirational Women in Europe’ is a zine made up of posters made by artists and DIY creative people.

The posters feature artwork and information on an inspirational or radical European women of the poster maker’s choosing. The aim has been to highlight the (often hidden) history and lives of radical inspirational women and collectives from Europe, as a way of connecting us with the past and the present through a cultural articulation of these women’s lives.a

Born as a result of an appreciation of radical poster projects from the USA, such as Celebrate People’s History and Inspired Agitators, the zine provides a European perspective of women who have acted in inspirational ways, providing knowledge on - and recognising and celebrating - these radical women’s lives and actions. Women who have acted as organisers, activists, pioneers, educators, or role models, from a wide range of disciplines.

There’s no life that does not contribute to our collective history, yet conventional history books show us that it’s rare for women’s lives to be documented as readily as men’s, especially women in more underground, domestic, or radical spheres. I hate to think that in years to come it’ll only be the ‘elite’ people on the top of the pile who’re remembered, creating a void and mass forgetting of the great work and lives of so many people within our social, cultural and political makeup, communities, and lives. Women such as those who are collected in the zine (and many, many more besides) are important to our collective history, women who have helped shape and situate our lives whether we know it or not.

I wanted to try and make a zine to honour and celebrate and inform others on some of these women. The zine aims to activate feminist cultural memory, to inspire in the present, and to visually bring women’s social and political history to life and into view.

It is important to consider and question just who traditional/hegemonic history ‘remembers’, whom it suppresses, and why this may be. And important too to counter such narrow practice with culturally resistive, artistic and creative, grassroots memorial projects of our own, such as this one

Featuring posters by:

Dimitri Antorka-Pieri (aka jimi gherkin), Rachael House, Zoraida de Torres Burgos, Marylou Anderson, Nina Nijsten, James Clayton, A-K Pirata, Jen Chung, Matthew Evans, Claira Turvey, Red and Nu, Chella Quint, Soya Le Gato, Julia Downes, Seleena Laverne Daye, Verity Hall, Bill Savage, John Bishop, Benjamin L. Cooney, Kathryn Taylor, Leah Mathos, Erica Smith, Melanie Maddison, Michelle Mendonca, Anna Knowles, Peter Willis, Emily Aoibheann, Ed Webb-Ingall, Amy Wright, Cara Corden, Patrick Staff, R Clout, Kathleen Teadrinker, Charlotte Cooper, Cendrine Rovini, Gladys Badhands, James Clayton, John Davison, Jo Harrison, Flo Brooks, Molly Askey-Goldsbury, Sarah Francis, Stephanie Young, Jenny Howe, Red Chidgey, Deborah M. Withers, Siân Williams, Sarah Maple, Ralph Fox, Jay Bernard, Isy Morgenmuffel, Lauren Hutchinson, Cj Reay, Hazel Smoczynska, Holly Casio , Charlotte Young, Sofia Niazi, Charlotte Richardson Andrews, Lucie Russell, Margareta Kern, Benedict Rutherford, Ian Cockburn, Jean McEwan, Ian Pepper, Vic Conway, Laura Simmons, Lindsay Starbuck, Natalie Bradbury, Amber Roguski, Sophie Brown, Peter Driver, Anne-Marie Atkinson, Zelly Restorick, Ada Scarrott, Steph Fletcher, Clare Brown, Cherry Styles, Lady Stardust, SJ Bradley, Clare McCormack, David Shenton, Ele Spinks, Helen Barratt, Hilary McCormack, James Wright, Joanna Britton, Johanna Gustafsson, Laura Cook, Lauren Denitzio, Paul Petard, Robina Doxi, Sabrina Chap, Tamsin Bookey, Will Tapply.

Issues 1-6 have featured posters on/about:

Paula Rego, Olivia Plender, Diane Leather, Louise Bourgeois, Marie Curie, Maya Evans, Boudica, Claude Cahun, Rote Zora, Grace Roe, Pat VT West, Helen Chadwick, The Red Wheelies, Claudia Jones, Liz Naylor, Dolly Wilde, Anais Nin, Anne Boleyn, Dolle Mina, The Anonymous Authors of the Fat Dykes Statement, Jo Spence, Anne Lister, Selina di Girolamo, Ari Up, Poly Styrene, Durbahn/Bildwechsel, Joana Vasconcelos, Angela Carter, Monica Sjoo, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Bunnies On Strike, Louise Michel, Granuaile, Susan Golombok, Nana Mouskouri, Claire Fontaine, The Women of Bletchley Park, Jayaben Desai, Liz Ely, Olave Baden Powel, BJ, Breyer P Orridge, Sophie Blanchard, Stella Vine, Sheila Rowbotham, Florence Nightingale, Grace Darling, Margaret McMillan, Lucy Whitman, Gloria Fuertes, Zorras, Anneke Van Baalen, Elizabeth Fry, Annie Londonderry, Tove Jansson, Artemisia Gentileschi, The Raincoats, Ada Lovelace, Tessa Boffin, Hedy Lamarr, Jane Drew, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Monique Wittig, Madge Gill, Catherine Of Aragon, Bryant & May Matchwomen, Amy Johnson, Marie Duval, Beryl Cook, Virginia Woolf, Beverley Skeggs, No Fit State, Delia Derbyshire, Emilie Claeys, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova/Pussy Riot, Olive Morris, Bobby Baker, Gareth Peirce, Sadie Lee, Charlotte Cooper, Karen Horney, Sue Black, Brenda Greenwood, Barbara Steveni, Anne Frank, Constance Markievicz, Kathe Kollwitz , Kathleen Thomas, Penny Pepper, Dominique Abel, Maria Cobo, Leonora Carrington, Sarah Howcroft, Booan Temple, Ali Smith, Rosalind Franklin, Helen Brook, Olive Shapley, Barbara Jones, Valentina Tereshkova & Helen Sharman, Ellen Malos, Daria, Carol Ann Duffy, Joe Carstairs, Edith Rigby, Mary Lowndes, Margaret Cavendish, C.H.D Grannies, Caroline Herschel, Ethyl McDonald, Jane Standing, Ellen Wilkinson, Annelise Mackintosh, Emily Johns, Rebellious women at the dawn of capitalism, FAM, Lumber Jills, Angela Harrison, Vi Subversa, Vashti Bunyan, Feminists Against Censorship, Angela Burdett-Coutts, Atalanta, Bernadette Devlin, Camilla Batmanghelidjh, Cath Muller, Dorothy Hodgkin, Focus E15, Irmgard Keun, Jenni Diski, Jill Posener, Johanna Kinkel, Judy Marsh, Kate Charlesworth, Kate Genever, Katerina Gogou, Katherine Chidley, Marcel Moore, Marie Louise Berneri, Nina Björk, North Staffs Miner’s Wives Action Group, Princess Hijab, Seleena Daye, The women of Canny Little Library, The Women of Leeds DEC, Tina Modotti, Viktoria Lomasko, Zoe Smith.