Book Launch and Exhibition - Architects, Angels, Activists and the City of Bath, 1765-1965
Architects, Angels, Activists and the City of Bath, 1765-1965 is a unique contribution to the architectural and social history of Bath, England. Approaching the world-renowned heritage of Bath with the methods of the architectural historian and the site-specific interventions of the contemporary artist, author Dr Cynthia Imogen Hammond looks beyond and behind Bath's strategic marshaling of its past. As the author demonstrates, wealthy patrons, sex workers, symbols of idealized femininity, and Edwardian feminist activists all made powerful spatial interventions in Bath's built environment. Yet little of that impact is known, much less recognized in the city's public history.
This book presents the ways in which women of all classes shaped the buildings and landscapes of one of England's most architecturally significant cities. But this book is also an intervention into Bath's public memory; in it, the author describes how her site-specific works of art were strategic means to bring her archival findings to a broader public.
Through both art and research, an interdisciplinary approach to the city, Hammond aims to transform as well as critique the urban image of Bath. At once a performative literature, an extensively researched history, and a feminist guide to the city, Architects, Angels, Activists engages with current struggles over urban signification in Bath and beyond.
Dr Hammond will give an illustrated public talk about and brief reading from her book, followed by questions. The talk will be followed by a vernissage for the exhibition, "Suffragettes in Bath: Activism in an Edwardian Arboretum." This exhibition will present rare images of Edwardian suffragettes and the commemorative landscape design they created in Bath prior to World War I. A well-illustrated, 40-page catalogue, prepared by Dr Hammond and photographic curator Dan Brown, will be available at this event.
Montreal, Quebec - 7 March 2012
Lecture - Leacock Building
Room 232, 3:00-4:30pm
Vernissage - McGill University
Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies
3487 Peel St, 2nd floor
5:00-7:00 pm
(Metro: Peel)
The launch of Architects, Angels, Activists and the City of Bath, 1765-1965 will take place in the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, McGill University. The launch will be accompanied by a small exhibition of photographic material discussed in the book, in the second-floor seminar room. Hammond's book and catalogue will be available, along with a small selection of recent titles of interest to feminist architectural historians/spatial theorists.
Montreal, Quebec - 7 March 2012
Book launch - IGSF, McGill University
3487 rue Peel, 2nd floor, Montreal
5 pm
(Metro: Peel)
About the author - Dr Cynthia Imogen Hammond teaches architectural history in the Department of Art History, Concordia University, Montreal. In addition to publishing on gender, architecture, public space, and landscapes, Hammond maintains a studio practice and has recently co-founded the art/design firm, pouf! art + architecture.
Additional information
These events are free and open to the public.