Jo Spence
Only when I got to fifty did I realise I was Cinderella (08), 1984
Artist laminated exhibition panel
32.5 x 32.5 cms
12 12/16 x 12 12/16 ins
Series: 3. Fairy Tales and Photography... or, Another Look at Cinderella (1981-84)
11977
Provenance
Jo Spence Memorial ArchiveRichard Saltoun Gallery, London
Exhibitions
Jo Spence: Review of Work 1950-1985, Camerawork Gallery, London, 1985. Exhibition toured by Cockpit Gallery:Dales Brewery, March - April, 1985,
Ffotogallery, Cardiff, July 1985
Battersea Arts Centre, Sept 1985
Triangle Gallery, Birmingham, October 1985
The Cockpit Gallery, Holborn, London, January 1986
Phototherapy Road Show, Photographers' Gallery, 1985
Missing Persons / Damaged Lives. Jo Spence in collaboration with Rosy Martin, Ya'acov Khan, David Roberts and Tim Sheard, Leeds City Art Galleries, 1991.
Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead: Techniques of Becoming at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, 16 October 2021 - 2 January 2022
Jo Spence : from Fairy Tales to Phototherapy. Photographs from the Hyman Collection, Arnolfini Bristol, (18th May 2020 - 20th June 2021) (this print)
Jo Spence: A Woman’s Place? at Belfast Exposed in Collaboration with the Centre for British Photography. 7th October 2024 – 21st December 2024
Literature
Jo Spence, Putting myself in the picture: A political, personal, and photographic autobiography, 1986 (p.163, illustrated as part of a contact sheet)
One of a set of rare artist-laminated exhibition panels that Jo Spence made in collaboration with Rosy Martin and Terry Dennett. The colour works from this series were made in...
One of a set of rare artist-laminated exhibition panels that Jo Spence made in collaboration with Rosy Martin and Terry Dennett. The colour works from this series were made in collaboration with Rosy Martin and the black and white work in collaboration with Terry Dennett.
Rosy Martin has written of this series of laminated panels: "The individual photos did have their own titles. Jo is using work made in photo-therapy sessions with me in another context - to tell another set of stories."
The present image comes from a series on Chinese Medicine.
Inscribed:
image of me taking control.
Integrating the rebellious with the wise side of me. Diagnosing health by the condition of my tongue... "
In her autobiography "Putting myself in the Picture" Spence illustrates full page the contact sheet that includes this image and writes of this work:
"It felt vulnerable and lonely to be the only person I knew to have opted for traditional Chinese Medicine to treat my cancer. Although available freely in China, it is virtually unknown here. I asked Maggie Murray of the Format photographic agency to document my healthcare. Maggie agreed to provide me with such prints as I needed for my own and exhibition use, so long as the negatives could be lodged at Format and made available to people interested in a view of alternative health care. I found this a very satisfactory arrangement and feel, as a feminist, that women involved in something they feel worthy should approach groups like Format and offer suggestions for new subject matter to be made visible" (p.163)
These laminated panels, from 1984, build from this engagement with Cinderella and also look forward to the centrality of health issues in her later work.
We are grateful to Rosy Martin for her assistance in cataloguing this work.
Rosy Martin has written of this series of laminated panels: "The individual photos did have their own titles. Jo is using work made in photo-therapy sessions with me in another context - to tell another set of stories."
The present image comes from a series on Chinese Medicine.
Inscribed:
image of me taking control.
Integrating the rebellious with the wise side of me. Diagnosing health by the condition of my tongue... "
In her autobiography "Putting myself in the Picture" Spence illustrates full page the contact sheet that includes this image and writes of this work:
"It felt vulnerable and lonely to be the only person I knew to have opted for traditional Chinese Medicine to treat my cancer. Although available freely in China, it is virtually unknown here. I asked Maggie Murray of the Format photographic agency to document my healthcare. Maggie agreed to provide me with such prints as I needed for my own and exhibition use, so long as the negatives could be lodged at Format and made available to people interested in a view of alternative health care. I found this a very satisfactory arrangement and feel, as a feminist, that women involved in something they feel worthy should approach groups like Format and offer suggestions for new subject matter to be made visible" (p.163)
These laminated panels, from 1984, build from this engagement with Cinderella and also look forward to the centrality of health issues in her later work.
We are grateful to Rosy Martin for her assistance in cataloguing this work.