Liv Winter is a young activist, feminist artist, who usually works in the form of Rap, spoken word, and poetry. She describes herself as a “queer, working-class artist working and living in South London”. Her appearance can be seen to be extreme in the number of tattoos and piercing’s, which may emphasise this to some people, however for me it seems very conformist in an era where tattoos and piercings no longer have any meaning and are just a trend, so in that sense you could say she physically looks like a product of the times however for me it’s everything that is wrong with the times.
She was recently the resident artist at The Royal Standard Gallery & Studios, Liverpool during the summer of 2016 in which she gave talks and performances entitled ‘HOW MUCH ARE THEY PAYING YOU’ which coincided with the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition. “My beef with New Contemporaries is that to ask a recent graduate for £25 just to apply to be in something is disgusting,” she says. “I am so angry about that; £25 is a week’s worth of food. I don’t care what the exposure is.”
This Critique and protest of the New Contemporaries exhibition and the amount of money artists must pay to enter and get paid for their travel costs etc is very brave and refreshing, it’s good to see artists that are also activists getting involved and speaking out about the situation for artists living and working in the UK today.
For me the feminist side and confronting gender, domestic violence and sexuality is not something that relates to my work or personal interest, although I believe in the equality of the sex’s, that men and women should be equal. However the activist side and speaking out against the way companies in the art world treat artists is inspiring.
Bibliography
(https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/a-qa-with-liv-wynter-artist-performer-activist)
Scott Clark Artwork 