The exhibition, Revisualising Women’s Work, is in the Art Lounge at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens (SMWG) until Saturday, January 4.
The exhibition explores the changing nature of women’s work in Sunderland from World War II to the 1960s through historic images from the archives of SMWG and Sunderland Antiquarians Society.
This co-curated exhibition showcases work generated through an ongoing collaborative project with University of Sunderland PHD student Sophie Piper and women artists living and working in Sunderland.
Jennie Lambert, Public Engagement and Learning Manager at SMWG, explained: “Sophie worked with the Older Women Artists Collective (OWAC) on the exhibition. She shared images from our archives, and that of the Antiquarians, and the artwork produced for the exhibition is the women from OWAC’s creative response.
“The images came from factories, potteries, glass-making workshops and other work spaces where women were employed.
“Women have played an instrumental role in Sunderland’s industrial economy, yet their contribution has largely been overlooked by official histories – this exhibition aims to help counteract that, to address the imbalance of the historical narrative.
“It explores the changing nature of women’s work, from the move into male occupations during conscription to their low-skilled, low paid, low status roles in the postwar manufacturing industries.
“The artistic responses from the artists is both interesting and varied – Kath Price for instance was inspired by a staged 1940s photograph of a woman shipyard worker to transform a boilersuit, while Stephanie Smith created a composite drawing based on her own experiences working in a call centre.”