Overview

Taking the difficulties she found in combining making art with being the mother of two young children (and the endless to-do lists she found herself making) as her starting point, Instone collected numerous prominent and inspiring women's to-do lists and made a number of artworks from her own lists. These are contained in The Pram in the Hall, which also contains an essay by Sacha Craddock on to-do lists. Focusing on how our to-do lists reflect our state of mind, The Pram in the Hall is a meditation on how we spend our time as women (from domestic chores to our work, from food shopping and washing machine repairs to socializing, manicures, children's name tapes, and taking pets to the vet). The project taps into the passage of time itself--each list a suspended moment--and the division of domestic work between men and women. Instone sees lists as intimate and honest portraits that have an unself-conscious beauty from being written only for the writer's eyes--also that lists can be empowering--both in the writing and crossing off. The lists contributed are an inspiring testament to how we fit it all in and a cathartic unburdening. They offer a fascinating and unique insight into the juggling involved in 21st-century life. An incredibly diverse selection of women took part--from the arts, human rights, politics, fashion, finance, medicine, and more. Emma Freud's list includes getting secret-santa gifts, ringing Jason Donovan and writing to Melinda Gates; Fiona Banner's offers an intriguing glimpse into her working practice; and Shami Chakrabarti's has buy cotton wool, get Christmas tree, and re-read Counter Terror-Bill --Helen McCrory's list is unprintable! There is also correspondence about lists. Jilly Cooper writes hers in the middle of the night, Nicole Farhi doesn't write them at all, even for the supermarket, Cherie Blair keeps hers in her head. Other contributors included Baroness Helena Kennedy, Alison Goldfrapp, Bella Freud, Lisa Gunning, Amanda de Cadenet, Susie Bick, Anita Zabludowicz, Emilia Fox, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Professor Parveen Kumar, Lorraine Candy, Bay Garnett, Jo Wood, Kathy Lette, Chantal Joffe, Vanessa Branson, Alice Temperley, Diana Henry, Bianca Jagger, Sadie Frost, Lynne Franks, Thomasina Miers, Cath Kidston, and Laura Bailey.

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9781912591008

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Alice Instone is an English artist who makes paintings concerned with gender and power, drawing attention to the female archetype. These sexually charged paintings express the conviction that painting and making marks on a surface can achieve an intensity of experience like no other medium.

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