In an age of austerity, Virginia Woolf's words still ring true under the spotlights of Milkwood Gallery's latest exhibition Make Room. Yes, an artist simply must have 'a room of one's own' but it's certainly practical if you're paying the rent in Roath. With a budding arts community on the door step, this collective have found an artist's safe haven. Make Room houses a collection of thought provoking work and is determined to make space for the female artist, whether it's on canvas, collage or the pages of a book.
With Woolf's craft in mind, featured artist Claire Kennedy chooses to bind abandoned books with something other than words, exploring it instead as a sculptural object. Bold typography and fearless quotes encourage the viewer to keep turning the object's pages. It seems that no place will simply make room for you, as Kennedy explores the misconception that travelling will answer all of life's questions in her second piece 'I Still Feel Lost.'
A nomadic existence may not answer questions but poses them, particularly in Mari Gordon's documentary photography of her trip to Zambia. A school girl stands in the shadows of her fruit stall, peering into the intrusive lens. By focusing on place, such as the oranges lining the stall below a block of blue sky, the viewer considers the subject making something purposeful out of that space.
Perhaps the most promising aspect of the exhibition though, is the artists who make room for alternative notions of femininity. The sumptuously soft pastel colours of Emily Steven's Ladies and Roses capture the fairytale of a bottle lined dressing table with soft strokes and a gilded frame. Edel Cronin instead strips away aesthetically pleasing fashion photography by contrasting it with kitchen sinks exposing the flip sides of the conventional female, as a sexual and domestic object. If an artist is to have a 'room of one's own', surely it's the perfect space to create new perspectives.
Make Room also made room the imagination in A Pegged Woman, made of paper, ribbons and primary colours with princess curls and stripy knee high socks, conjured up by Amelia Johnstone. A self confessed Orlando-like creature, Johnstone echoes Woolf's influence once again. 'A room of one's own' has made space for a celebration of contemporary women artists working in a diverse range of media. Put simply, it has made room for something wonderful in a quiet corner of Lochaber Street.
Kirsty Allen is an english literature undergraduate at Cardiff University and arts editor of culture publication Quench Magazine.
