Alberta Whittle ‘Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism’

Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism was a research project which included a group exhibition in August — October 2021. It took the history and collections of the Glasgow Women’s Library as a starting point to explore how art and activist production from the 1970s through to the contemporary moment have challenged existing systems of care, support and maintenance, and imagined vital alternatives.

Focusing on the intersections between feminist, LGBTQ+ and decolonial organising, and looking across private life and public infrastructures, Life Support asks: what are the support structures needed to maintain life — including housing, education, physical and mental health care, ecologies, education and food? Who is included and excluded from them? Whittle’s engagement with Life Support follows several intersecting paths. As well as producing a new floor sculpture for display alongside existing works, she collaborated with Ubuntu Women Shelter on a durational project which included a residency at GWL in late 2021.