Monday 22 May 2023

What's On Burton at Bideford. Coming soon 'Don’t Look At My Jugs… And Other Stories'

Our artefacts become our stories – episodes of human life, recorded and preserved. They travel through time and they speak in the future. Don’t Look At My Jugs… And Other Stories is a reimagined museum collection of historical artefacts, each telling its own story – each an episode of everyday lived experience for women today.

This exhibition features a collection of carefully crafted vessels, vases, bowls and coins that make direct reference to the female experience, and in particular to the physical, social, professional and domestic injustices encountered on a daily basis. At a cursory glance, none of these objects would look out of place in a traditional museum cabinet, and yet a closer look reveals a very different story. The stories they tell cast light on the real and often disconcerting position that women have in contemporary society.

Ready for analysis, ripe for understanding and raring to speak, the artefacts that Jam Westwood presents in this arresting exhibition, ask us to consider whether modern society really is as progressive or as civilised as many would have us believe. Or is it up to historians of the future to hear the voice of 21st century woman?

Don’t Look At My Jugs… And Other Stories is an exhibition that highlights the importance of giving space to the female voice, and perhaps no where is it more important than inside the institutions that have traditionally been dominated by the masculine and the male gaze.

Queen Jane of Faceburgh © Jam Westwood

The Burton at Bideford. 'Don't Look At My Jugs' -  Photo Pretty Plead © Jam Westwood 

 Pretty Plead © Jam Westwood

Don’t Look At My Jugs… And Other Stories: A collection of reimagined historical artefacts made by Jam Westwood
17th June – 19th September

Open daily | Free entry (donations welcome)


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