Women in Revolt! is an impressively comprehensive survey of art-making during Britain’s second wave of feminism in the 1970s and 1980s. Supported by a wealth of archival material representing various initiatives from poster projects and zines to fetish clubs, it offers a fuller sense of how the movement grew and adapted to the country’s restrictive, but changing socio-political climate.
There are no real highlights in this show because all of it adds a different perspective to the story. Early sections dive straight into women’s inequality in life and work, particularly the formation of the Women’s Liberation Movement, and control over one’s own body under a patriarchy. Of course, the famous Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp is also mentioned, who protested the housing of 96 nuclear missiles in the local Royal Air Force base.
This very quickly moves into discussions of sexual identity. Especially important is the penultimate room examining the impact of Section 28, a British legislation between 1988 and 2003 which stated that local authorities ‘shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality’ or ‘promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. This meant many LGBTQIA+ groups were forced to disband and similar-themed literature banned from libraries. The AIDS epidemic really exacerbated public opinion of queer communities.
A prominent part of this exhibition are the substantial rooms devoted to Black and South Asian feminist art practices, such as the British Black Arts Movement. Generally underrepresented in feminist discourse, these rooms demonstrated how fervently active these communities were in the fight for women’s rights, as well as basic human rights due to systemic racial biases.
This exhibition works very well as a permanent display, which makes it quite a sad thing to know it closes in a week. There’s just so much crucial information in this show that the catalogue is well worth buying.
The good news is that the exhibition will travel to Edinburgh and Manchester well into next year.
Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 runs from 8 November 2023 to 7 April 2024 at Tate Britain, London, https://www.tate.org.uk/
It tours to the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (25 May 2024 – 26 January 2025) and The Whitworth, Manchester (7 March – 24 August 2025)
Nigel Ip 
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