South, London
Winnie Herbstein
Brace
Jupiter WoodsJupiter Woods is pleased to present Brace, a solo exhibition by artist Winnie Herbstein. Brace expands on Herbstein’s ongoing research into gendered labour and workspaces, including the typically masculine territory of the building site. The project will also continue the artist and Jupiter Woods' mutual research on historical and contemporary forms of feminist organising, addressing these questions in relation to architecture and the formation of space. Cooperatives and groups studied include Matrix Architectural Group, Women in Manual Trades and the Women in Construction course in Glasgow. Herbstein is also actively involved in Slaghammers, a feminist welding collective in Glasgow, which plays a crucial part in the project. Brace draws on material from the archive of Take Root, a women’s self-build group from the 1990’s. Working closely with minutes taken from the group’s meetings, moments have been developed into scenarios and restaged by members of Slaghammers. Layering and sharing experiences of organising, these scenarios will feature in a film newly produced for the exhibition. This will sit alongside The House That Jill Built (1994), a film-documentary produced by the Glasgow Film and Video Workshop on the story of Take Root. Herbstein’s involvement with Slaghammers closely informs the work throughout, with metal support structures collaboratively built and installed to house her film and research. Featuring archival material, sculpture and film, the exhibition will enable past, present and future conversations to inform one another and address modes of building space. With Brace, we wish to further reflect on the way archives can be dealt with and activated, and how histories of organising can be revisited, re-enacted and learnt from.