Excerpt from Lady’s On The Phone For You by Lucy Byatt.
Essay in Drawing Links Catalogue, published by The Drawing Room on the occasion of Drawing Links exhibition
In the selection of the prefix to her name and in the way in which she persues her work Lady Lucy finds a new language for feminism. She as no qualms about calling herself Lady. There is an irresistable ambiguity for her between the ironic class association and the American slang. ‘HeyLady!’ Her experience of working in London and Bristol is spliced together with her knowledge of post punk, of film and music’s do it yourself culture.
She keeps many plates spinning – always working on several projects, some collaborative and others about her interior life. She balances at ease her belief in collaboration and the characterisation of herself as a self made celebrity or personality. ‘ I’m an enthusiast, a perpetual fan of many things.’
The low on production, high on information values of the fanzine and the cultish comimtment that exists within the world of the comic are an important part of Lady Lucy’s world. She is particularly committed to the hybrid, grass roots mix of politics, music, film, art and literature from which so many such publications emerge. The Riot Girl culture is close to Lucy’s experience, the zine playing a formidable role in the exchange of ideas and experience within what could described as a new cult of feminism.
Lady Lucy is not self – conscious or intent on consciousness raising. In the rendition of her life and loves – she is not setting about to change the world. Which is exactly why she might.
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