This morning in Ohio, I’m thinking about last Summer in Scotland, specifically this stunning tapestry by Scottish artist Sam Ainsley I saw in Perth.
Ainsley made the tapestry, depicting the Highlands, in 1982, for the foyer of the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation Headquarters (now Aviva UK Insurance Building) and when I went to visit, there had been a flood in the ground floor and the security staff wouldn’t let me in to take a look. However, one of the more generous members of the staff agreed to take my phone and snap a few photos.
Like all of Ainsley’s work, the tapestry stops you in your tracks and blasts you with insistent color, especially the sweeping range of reds. In fact, whenever I have the opportunity to experience Ainsley’s work, I am reminded of the Hugh MacDiarmid poem “Why I Choose Red” that she used as the title for one of her exhibitions – a major solo exhibition in 1987 at the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow (which became the CCA, which now has closed).
Whenever I wear red in these days of endless, urgent protest here in the US (whether my OSU-AAUP tshirt or my Simone Weil tshirt), I am reminded, not only of Ainsely’s work, but also of the role of feminist leadership in the arts and beyond in our world being destroyed by the grandiose bullshit and damage of narcissistic men in power.
I think of AInsley’s work in relation to several artists at documenta 14, whether Tracey Rose’s red columns at EMST or Sanja Ivekovic’s red wall Monument to Revolution at Avdi Square (which was the stage for both the performance Lady R by Sodia Mavragani and the International Antifascist Feminist Front soundfile by poemproducer aka AGF). But also, of course, in relation to the quietly insistent work of her close friend David Harding, who sadly passed earlier this year, his poetry paths and concerts, made in collaboration with fellow Scottish artist Ross Birrell.
In honor of Sam Ainsley’s work and the insistent red of feminist protest, I have changed a pivotal word in MacDiarmid’s poem:
I fight in red for the same reasons
That Garibaldi chose the red shirt
— Because a few women in a field wearing red
Look like many women — if there are ten you will think
There are a hundred; if a hundred
You will believe them a thousand.
And the colour of red dances in the enemy’s rifle sights
And his aim will be bad – But, best reason of all,
A woman in a red shirt can neither hide nor retreat.
I am touched and delighted by your words Richard and that you recognised I would change “men” to “women” in McDairmid’s poem Why I Choose Red which became the title of my exhibition at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow. These are times across the world where opposition to corruption, the rise of fascism and the far right and the horrors of war and genocide must be fought by both men and women. I salute your efforts! Sam x
Thank you for sharing. I love Sam Ainsely’s work – she is a heroine of mine and more people should be aware of her beautiful, bold and thoughtful creations and her impact on and commitment to art.