TERFed Out (of Ceramic Art London, (CAL,) by the Craft Potters Association, (CPA,) and Central St. Martin's, (CSM.)

What Happened - the cancellation itself

I had been booked to give a talk at Ceramic Art London,  (CAL,) the annual flagship event of the Craft Potters Association, (CPA,) of which I am a member. It takes place at Central St. Martin's, (CSM,) part of the University of the Arts, London, (UAL.) 

The original booking, in 2020, had included a plan to display my pots which formed part of a project with women@thewell, a women only service based in Kings Cross, that supports both women in prostitution and those at risk. It also helps them to find ways out. This last part is particularly controversial among students and academics, including senior academics who often call themselves 'sex positive,' or 'sex workers rights activists.' They are neither of these things. Rather they are supporters of the complete decriminalisation and deregulation of the sex trade which is an entirely different thing. 

My talk was about the project with women@thewell. There's a good collection of pictures here from the display at Fore Street Library in Edmonton, London. 

In February 2022, after a two year Covid gap, CAL was in its final stages of preparation. I got a phone call from Toby Brundin, Director of the CPA, to say that the CPA council had decided to cancel the booking: 'In the time since the talk was originally scheduled in 2020, we have been made aware that its inclusion in the programme may cause the event to be disrupted, leading to possible delay or even closure. ' This was the reason given over the phone and later that day by email. 

What we Know and Don't Know

In 2022, I had no indication of who or what was threatening to cause disruption on such a scale that it could delay or close a major three day event. The potter and blogger, Marshall Colman, had a conversation with Brundin some days after my talk was cancelled and was told it was because of my Gender Critical beliefs. He reported this in his blog here. 

Clearly not a single person involved had read either the Forstater Judgement or the Reindorf Report. 

I  also saw a copy of a letter stating that just my presence in the building would be enough to incite a heated protest. I was subsequently told I could not come to the event or enter the building at all. 

The Response

A petition calling for the restoration of my talk and a letter to the CPA signed by 74 members and associates made no difference. The support from other artists and potters was encouraging as were the many messages of sympathy but the CPA and CSM did not shift their position at all. 

Legal Action

I took legal action. The claim was against the CPA for discrimination against my Gender Critical beliefs with a further claim against CSM/UAL.  Levins Solicitors acted for me. Subject Access Requests, (SARs) were sent but to no avail. CSM did respond but their response was so heavily redacted that it revealed little. The CPA's response was to treat the SAR with contempt. We then moved forward to 'orders for disclosure.' These are the basics. 

The Impact

Additional statement added June 25th 2023 - legal action is now concluded. We have reached a settlement. Please see the statement from Levin's who represented me in this case. There is no gagging order so I am now free to say there was no verbal or written threat of any protest from anyone. The organiser at CSM/UAL feared there may be one based on 'past behaviour' among some students. There was absolutely no evidence of any sort to suggest it might happen in this case though. 

Ends. Return to original text from 2022 now fully edited and updated in the light of the result.  

I meanwhile must find a way to continue being an artist knowing that exhibiting in public spaces is almost impossible. 

I know from the legal disclosures that Duncan Hooson, the ceramics lecturer at UAL/CSM who organised the lecture series, was the main protagonist in getting my talk cancelled and me banned from the event. He didn't do it alone, he summoned Prof Jeremy Till, the now ex-head of school, who was eager to support him, and seven more support staff including the Dean. They initially agreed the talk should go ahead with additional security, (for what?) but Hooson made it clear in conversation with Toby Brundin, the CPA director, that he needed to get the lecture cancelled altogether. Brundin then persuaded the CPA Council to vote to cancel my talk. He, together with the chair of the CPA Council, Peter Snowdon, agreed they should tell the council members that the threat was real, even though no evidence could be found. The entire thing came from Duncan Hooson's own over-anxious imagination and his fear of the one of his students in particular. 

The legal disclosures reveal some truly unedifying plotting and shows the extent to which academic and support staff at UAL have lost control of their own PR. Cancelling my lecture and banning me was an exercise in appeasement in order to make a public statement to a particular audience - the gender lobby - which, in reality is small and is not inherently powerful. It's powerful only if allowed to be and if that power is facilitated by others - others who, perhaps, intend to benefit in some way from bestowing such favour. It is a perfect example of public scapegoating. 

Press coverage

The press coverage was positive and helpful, from my point of view. You can read Ewan Somerville's piece for the Telegraph here, The Daily Mail's here, along with this piece in Unherd by Julie Bindel and this by Jo Bartosch in Spiked. Jo Bartosch also wrote an excellent piece, The Silencing of Feminist Artists in Spiked in 2019. 

Target

This kind of process can be repeated anywhere now - in any public space or private gallery showing my work or that of any other feminist artist. Activists have even succeeded in getting feminist artists removed from commercial selling sites such as Shopify, Etsy and even Stripe - one of the most common payment systems. As my earlier post on this subject shows, this is not the first time it has happened to me. I have become a target now - probably since 2019 although my cancelling history goes back to 2010. Even someone at Cardiff School of Art raised questions about my coming as a guest to the 2022 degree show - enough to require a meeting and an over-ruling by the Dean. My recent talk at Tate Modern has also had repercussions and I had a planned exhibition cancelled at Burgh House in Hampstead. 

Moving on and a Call for Action

This is not an easy environment to work in. Now I know what did happen, that is clearer still. The artworld as a whole cannot move forward from this impasse without proper conversations, still less a small discipline like ceramics. The fear, anxiety, the look-the-other-way silence and, above all, the studied ignorance has to end. This is where ostracisation starts - with silence, then exclusion. The Forstater Judgement sets out, clearly and unequivocally, that both Gender Critical beliefs and Gender Ideology are 'worthy of respect in a democratic society.' BOTH of them. Not just one. Art worldists need to get a grip on this. 

Art galleries and museums must learn to live within the law and democratic norms. The current situation, in which the artworld resembles a de facto state within a state, with its own laws and customs, is intolerable and cannot continue. Curators, gallerists and Museum staff must learn to work with differences of opinion and learn to deal with conflicting opinions, including those that some may find uncomfortable or offensive. 

Postscript

CAL has now been permanently removed from UAL/CSM. To date, to my knowledge, the CPA have not found an alternative venue for this event which is vitally important to potters. The head of school resigned and has been replaced. And Grayson Perry, - the 'fearless' according to Garth Clark and others - and Chancellor of UAL, still refuses to 'stand with JR Rowling,' because 'that's a hot button issue and I'm not going there.' Clear indication that he is, in fact a TERF but a cowardly one. Think what could follow if he just summoned up the required courage to say what he really thinks, for once.   

The Ballad of Sister Bergdorf, 2018

A Pilgrim vase - about 30 x 30 cm approx

Some Background 

The Ballad of Sister Bergdorf grew out my observation that an unholy coupling had occurred between religion and politics. 'Art discourse' was one of its most obnoxious offspring. I have discussed 'cultural appropriation,' since the 1980s, theorised 'appropriately,' particularly on ceramics, since the 1990s, debated with feminists on transgender politics, among other things, since the late 1990s, and argued with transactivists since the early 2000s. I've held forth on social media - mostly on Facebook -  about all of it since 2010. I have even been described as a 'veteran of the culture wars,' by the writer Jo Bartosch so, if that doesn't convince you that I am familiar with this territory, nothing will. It took some time to find my satirical voice - or at least to find a way to express it on pots - but the jugs that I started making in 2015 gave vent to the first collection of work that deals directly with the increasing madness of politics. Looking back now, I can see the satire clearly enough in Nightwalker, (2014,) and there are probably hints before that. 

About the politics

When politics walked through the looking glass and the Labour Party appointed Munroe Bergdorf, a transwoman, as their advisor on 'LGBT' issues, it was time to respond. Bergdorf isn't gay. Transgender isn't gay - it isn't about who you love, it's about how you see yourself. Bergdorf has had vast amounts of radical and cosmetic surgery to make her body resemble an idealised, porn-woman. 'She' lives as she imagines a woman might, but she is not female - or as we used to say, 'a woman.' Her sex is male, consistent with being what we used to call 'a man.' Nonetheless she - yes I do use that term for her because I've grown used to it and do not wish to have my pronouns policed by purists any more than I do by transactivists - she opines on feminism, shamelessly lecturing women on how to do feminism better, and is now lecturing anyone who will listen on the matter of menstrual periods. This is someone who grew up a boy and has never had a period in her life. This is where we find ourselves: MtF transexual women claiming to have experiential knowledge of menstruation simply because they call themselves women and choose to ignore the fact they are biologically male. Their notion of sex (the noun not the verb,) is that it is based on faith - like religion - not on biological material reality. Put simply, Transactivists and their institutions, Stonewall and many others, have conflated sex and gender and sought to impose their beliefs on the entire population. Volumes of analysis has been written on this, so I will not add more. The redoubtable Allison Bailey, from LGB Alliance, covers most of the main points in her statement which was redacted from her crowdjustice page - as if to prove the very point the statement makes - but reproduced with permission by A Woman's Place UK.  A good ten volumes would now be required to cover all the issues adequately, and this is just a blog post, but it should make my own position clear. This piece I wrote for 'Howie's Corner,' for International Women's Day, may clarify some further issues if needed. 

About the pot

The Ballad of Sister Bergdorf is only the beginning. There will have to be more because the madness has spun right out of control but, at the time I made this, I was still finding a way to convert words like these into pots. I chose a pilgrim flask form because it has religious connotations. I also like the simple binary of the shape it has front and a back, or it can do, and it has its ceramic roots in Renaissance Maiolica which featured religious imagery, mythology and, on occasion, political satire.

I also set myself the challenge of using buzz words from academia and art-talk just for hell of it. Look out for the following: 

misgender - as in 'you misgendered me.' This means speaking to or about a transperson using the wrong pronoun - an offence for which women have lost their jobs and their livelihoods and for which some have been investigated by police. 

Othering -  a process of creating difference and distance between groups of people. I like this term and find it one the more useful ideas couched in language that academia has provided in the last thirty years or so. 

Cultural Appropriation - the assertion that a cultural artefact, performance, or custom belongs to a specific culture and is appropriated by another - often with a socio-political or geopolitical dimension that disadvantages the 'owner' or presumed originator of the culture. It is characterised by exponents as theft from a subjugated culture or people by a dominant or more powerful culture or nation. This one is a political and cultural minefield and is fundamentally dependent on Nationalist politics to operate. As such, it is inherently flawed since has become part of the most treasured political tools of people who regard themselves as anti-Imperialist. While anti-Imperialism and Nationalism certainly do go together, Nationalism cannot work with anti-racism and proponents of the ideology of cultural appropriation, for the most part, think of themselves as vehemently anti-racist - and often are, passionately so. Hence the minefield. 

Here is the text in full as it is written on the pot pictured above. 

The Ballad of Sister Bergdorf

Her novitiate completed,

Miss Gender Ring-Munroe

Bade farewell to the Convent sisters

Of St. Simpering-le-Beau

To the land of Eternal Doublethink

Our pious pilgrim was bound

Where Our Lady of Perpetual Othering’s

Shrine, in the woods, by a river, was found.

She hadn’t been long on the road

Only a mile from Doublethink Station

When Lo! She beheld the Sepulchre

Of Cultural Appropriation.

The stone had been rolled away

And there appeared Our Lady of Other,

Miss Gender was struck

By the light – What the Fuck!

I’m not a nun,

I’m a monk!

I’m a Brother!