Ani and Laurie came up to London to visit, so together with Rosa we headed to the House of Illustration to see the new comic exhibition exclusively displaying work by women, which is always a big plus. Ashamedly (as two illustrators) Ani and I had never been to the House of Illustration before, but this exhibition and the Shōjo manga exhibition coming up in March has helped to peak my interest at least!
A vitrine in the first room covered the earlier examples from the 18th and 19th century, starting with cartoons and individual strips or series published in newspapers and magazines, the earliest being Corporal Perpendicular by Mary Darly in 1775. From there, the rest of the room jumps to women working in the early 20th century. The range goes from Reina Bull's erotic comic series The Adventures of Delia in mail order publishing to Marcia Snyder's 'white jungle babe' Camilla. Highlight of the room has to be a page by Tove Jansson of the series The Moomins, and it was interesting to see her drawings in person rather than the coloured printed version. Her notes and captions are also super cute. I also loved Charlotte Salomon's leben oder theater which beautifully combines painterly illustrations with text without using any kind of grid structure. It was a good way of showing that any kind of narrative could be constituted as a comic. Definitely inspired me to think about making a comic...
The next room is completely covered with cases of pages and had lots of copies of books to spend your time browsing. We all spent a long time going through each one. Beginning with the underground counter culture from the mid-1960s, they had examples from Trina Robbins and Barbara 'Willy' Mendes. I enjoyed the frankness of these comics in comparison to the previous room, and it was clear there had been a turn towards a personal, feminist discourse. Lynda Barry's Girls and Boys showed how comics are a format that opens a connection between the artist and the reader. Rosa and I had a good time chuckling at the dialogue.
I also really want to read Returning Home by Cat O'Neil about being mixed race and going 'home' to Hong Kong. The themes of mixed identity rings quite clearly with how I feel about having grown up in the UK, and yet feeling like I need a connection with my ethnic history. I'd really like to explore something about identity and Hong Kong in a project at some point in the future, some of which I'll be looking at in this second essay that I've started researching. I've ordered that now too, so it's been a super spendy week on books, so I've got a lot of reading to do... but at least it will be a break from academic texts.
So if I haven't made it clear already, this exhibition is well worth going to, and I feel like I will probably go again (even if my V&A staff card doesn't work, I'd pay again!!!). It really has spurred me to really go for studying graphic narrative for my dissertation. I've been thinking about looking at mangas by female illustrator/writers, so its clear that I'm still interested in stories through images and objects...so much so I think it would be good training to think about drawing a comic again, even if it's something simple to start off with...
So, to conclude with a reminder for myself, Nadine Redlich's Ambient Comics are a fantastic example of how a very simple idea makes for an incredibly witty and entertaining read. Never underestimate the mundane and everyday!
The best thing about this exhibition is that it is a fantastic showcase of work by women who are using comics to investigate some incredibly difficult issues. There are some intense works surrounding war, identity, love, fantasy, mental health and just everyday life which has always been there, but it is wonderful to see it proudly representing women in what is commonly seen as a male dominated world. It's fantastic to see so much hard work by women celebrated by being exhibited together. Go see it, buy their books, because they are beautiful, challenging and amazing to see in the flesh! I'm definitely looking forward to becoming a reader of comics.
