Looking In/Looking Out

DECORUM (08.03.2022 - 19.04.2022)
I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR (19.04.2022 - 08.06.2022)

This exhibition features two works, originally presented at Tate Modern, the London Short Film Festival, and the Southbank Centre, London.

“I’ll Be Your Mirror” is an 8-minute 44-second split-screen film with Chuck and her mother, who share fragments of a conversation between them. Together, they confront the question: “What does it mean to be a woman?”

“Decorum” is a 10-minute 33-second three-channel film shown simultaneously on three screens, portraying the unspoken rules of behavior for women in the 21st century.

It was created in collaboration with participants through the intergenerational arts charity Magic Me and artists Sue Mayo and Pooja Sitpura, with music by Verity Standen.

Chuck Blue Lowry is a filmmaker, facilitator, and lecturer. Specializing in art as a social practice, Lowry places a particular focus on intergenerational exchange and storytelling. She is interested in creating work that platforms the voices of those often under- or misrepresented and has collaborated with a wide range of communities in diverse contexts, both nationally and internationally.

Her work has been presented in galleries and festivals including: Tate Modern, the British Film Institute, the Barbican, the Women of the World Festival, the London Short Film Festival, Battersea Arts Centre, Whitechapel Gallery, and Charcoal in Hong Kong.

Both “I’ll Be Your Mirror” and “Decorum” explore questions around ‘acceptable’ behavior for women. The former does so through Lowry’s personal reflections and intimate conversations with her mother, while the latter approaches it through performance and storytelling with a wider group of women from across London. These films ask: Who decides what constitutes ‘good behavior’ for women? What are the rules of how things are, or should be, and do they serve any purpose today? Where do we learn these rules? What do we value? What should we reject?

“Decorum” was funded in 2018 by Arts Council England, the Garfield Weston Foundation, and the Players of the People’s Postcode Lottery. It was developed through the Barbican Guildhall Open Lab scheme.

We also had the opportunity to welcome artist Chuck Blue Lowry to Prishtina for four days, where she participated in the opening of the exhibition on March 8, 2022, and conducted several interviews in connection with the exhibition.