Locating Sylvia Pankhurst

Preview Screenings at Fairfield House, Bath, Standpoint Gallery, Hoxton, Boston University, Kensington.

Fairfield House To celebrate International Women’s day in March, I was delighted to screen my film as a part of a Festival of Sylvia at Fairfield House, Bath. Fairfield House was the perfect venue to begin my tour, as it was the home of Emperor Haile Selassie during his exile in the UK when Mussolini and his fascist army invaded Ethiopia in 1936. The amazing audience was made up of the local Ethiopian community, the Rastafari community, BEMSCA elders and those keen to explore Sylvia Pankhurst’s connection to Ethiopia and her friendship with Haile Selassie. Visitors from further afield included a minister from Jamaica who had made a special trip from London. Sir Christopher Frayling, author and former Rector of the Royal College of Art (RCA) gave a fabulous introduction, calling on research he had done into the history of the RCA, which included Sylvia Pankhurst’s period of study there from 1904-1906.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion, involving Ras Benji, of Fairfield House, and Dr. Raven-Roberts, Chair of the Anglo-Ethiopian Society, Sir Christopher, and myself, discussing Sylvia and the film and also the importance of the invasion of Ethiopia being fully recognised as a key moment in the rise of fascism ahead of the further aggression in Europe.

Standpoint Gallery
It was also an honour to screen my film at Standpoint Gallery, Coronet Street, with a private view screening falling on Election Day, 4th July. Shown on loop for the following 2 days it was exciting to show the film in a gallery environment alongside some of the delicate folded paper cuts outs which artist, Andrea G Artz had created for my film.

Boston University
In September, author Kate Connolly, of Boston University, (London campus), invited me to present the film to students enrolled on the Women’s Social History course. Sylvia’s paintings of working class women, and details of their pay and conditions were of particular interest to the students, as well as her lecture tours of America and Canada in 1911 and 1912.

Notes on Ethiopia & Ethiopian Music

During the process of making Sylvia Pankhurst, artist, Writer, Fighter, I was surprised to learn of Sylvia’s defence of, and love for, Ethiopia - and I have explored this within the film and the film’s soundtrack.

Once Ethiopia was free again, after Italian Fascist occupation, Sylvia was able to advise and assist with reconstruction. In addition to gathering information and publishing on Industry, Education, Transport, and Health, Sylvia also admired and collected information about Ethiopian music and instruments, believing that protection of culture was also essential to successful recovery. She wrote about both religious and secular music in her book, Ethiopia, A Cultural History (published 1955). In her chapter on secular song and story Sylvia details Ethiopian instruments, their construction and their European equivalent. She includes some of the words from “household” songs or “zafan ” produced by women. One such song describes a man as having “trousers of wind and “buttons of hail” to vividly evoke a particularly unreliable man. While this was not so suitable a direction for my film the chapter includes a diverse set of lyrics and notation to represent the humour and challenges faced by everyday life in Ethiopia.

When searching for appropriate music for my film I was introduced to an intriguing collection Ethiopiques, published by Buda Music. Several musicians caught my ear and particularly the work of pianist and composer Emahoy Tsegué -Maryam Guèbrou. Her music is a curious hybrid of western classical with distinctive Ethiopian phrases hidden as surprising gifts to the listener. Emahoy studied music in Europe before returning to Ethiopia. Although she was a gifted musician it became difficult to pursue her career in the direction she desired. She became a reclusive nun, whose sister became a close friend of Sylvia’s. I have included 2 of her tracks in the now complete film, The Homeless Wanderer, and Presentiment.

Emahoy’s archive is represented through the Tsege Mariam Music Foundation that funds music education for underserved children. In 2023, it funded quality music instruments for the music department of a high school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the US it funded one on one piano lessons for twenty eight students for one year. The Foundation is financed from music revenues generated by the Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Publisher. For information about the foundation or to make a donation visit - www.emahoymusicfoundation.org/donate
To purchase music sheets, items with favourite song titles visit - emahoymusicpublisher.com/shop

Sylvia Pankhurst, Artist, Writer, Fighter project in post-production. This mixed media essay film explores what animation and other moving image interventions can bring to an archive. The focus is on Sylvia’s desire to be an artist and her socialist desire to bring beauty to everyday life. Her influences were Walter Crane and William Morris. Sylvia travelled to Venice as a young student to study the mosaics, and later was influenced by the Russian Revolution and its associated images of strong workers engaged in political change. Sylvia published several newspapers to address key issues of her time including opposing the invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini. She was one of the first to recognize the danger of Fascism to the wider world.

Joan is working with editor Vera Simmonds and sound designer Philippe Ciompi to complete the project.
 

Joan has been working with artist Andrea Artz who has folded key photographs of Sylvia Pankhurst as part of Joan’s film-in-progress. Joan is also working with filmmaker Laurie Hill  to visualise some of the archive material from the Sylvia Pankhurst collection held at the IISH in Amsterdam and the Women’s Library at the LSE, London.

Visualising Suffragette Prison Experience through the work of Sylvia Pankhurst.
As part of the commemoration of the Representation of the Peoples Act of 1918 Joan presented a paper Visualising Suffragette Prison Experience through the work of Sylvia Pankhurst at Art and Suffrage, a symposium at London School of Economics. The Women's Library where her project on Sylvia Pankhurst began. The collection is now housed at LSE and they hold many artefacts and sound recordings on which Joan's film is based.
 

Ashworth attended Thinkers of our Time at the British Academy, London. The event discussed Sylvia's creative approach to her campaigns and the contemporary resonances of her work.
 

Ashworth made a presentation of her work on Sylvia Pankhurst to the Faraday Ward Labour Party, Southwark to celebrate International Women’s Day and to explore how some of the suffragists campaigning methods could be adapted for today.
 

Ashworth discussed prison uniform arrows, rubber tubing and cells in her paper Suffragette Prison Experience: accessing archive texts, artefacts and objects and representing and re-enacting through film and animation, at the Women’s History Network Conference 2016, Women’s Material Cultures/Women’s Material Environments, Leeds Trinity University, Leeds UK. www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/events/humanities/womens-history-network-annual-conference-2016

Ashworth’s research using film and animation has been shortlisted for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Anniversary Research in Film Awards for her project How Mermaids Breed. The awards are “designed to recognise the creative and innovative work being undertaken at the interface between research and film by world-leading researchers, practitioners and filmmakers in the UK arts and humanities research community”. The winners will be announced on Thursday 12th November at a special Awards Ceremony at the BFI Southbank. To mark the shortlisting, Ashworth has put together clips from the making of How Mermaids Breed cut to a music track made for the film: vimeo.com/142172205

Sylvia Pankhurst documentary project 2015

Ashworth gave a paper Unfreezing Sylvia Pankhurst at the Women’s History Network Conference: Female Agency, Activism and organisation, September 2015. @AgencyFemale

And a paper Interrogating the Paintings and Texts of Sylvia Pankhurst Using Animation at the Society of Animation Studies Conference, Canterbury in July 2015, sasbeyondtheframe.com @sas2015beyond

Joan Ashworth will be participating in the Sylvia Pankhurst Scholars’ Morning, Tate Britain, Monday 10 March 2014

This Scholars’ Morning, to coincide with the Sylvia Pankhurst display at Tate Britain, will gather together scholars, artists and activists to celebrate Sylvia Pankhurst’s work as artist and campaigner. The morning will be used to explore current debates about the relationship between art and politics. The event has been programmed by the Emily Davison Lodge with Tate Britain