Frances Phoenix

Frances Phoenix (née Budden) (1950–2017) was an Australian feminist artist known for needlework and poster designs. Phoenix contributed to the Women's Art Movement groups in both Sydney and Adelaide, as well as multiple community art projects.[1][2]

Frances Phoenix
Born
Frances Budden

1950
Died2017 (aged 66–67)
MovementWomen's Art Movement

With Marie McMahon, she was a founding member of the Women's Domestic Needlework Group and contributed to Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1974–1979).[3] She continued to study and practice art for the rest of her life. Her needlework and poster designs are held in national collections.

Early life

Phoenix was born in 1950. She originally studied to become a teacher at the National Art School and Alexander Mackie Teacher’s College, Sydney.[4]

Career

In 1974, she joined Australia's first Women's Art Movement, based in Sydney.[4] Around this time, Phoenix began experimentations with domestic needlework, generating central core imagery, Australiana and activist slogans in stitch.[4] With Marie McMahon, Phoenix began a doily archive, researching the history of women's needlework and running women's needlework classes at the Tin Sheds art collective in the grounds of Sydney University.[5]

With Joan Grounds, Bernadette Krone, Kathy Letray, Patricia McDonald, Noela Taylor, and Loretta Vieceli, McMahon and Phoenix formed the Women's Domestic Needlework collection, preparing the archive for a touring exhibition, beginning at Watters Gallery, Sydney.[6] The group supplemented the exhibition with research in Lip, two publications: The D'oyley Show: An Exhibition of Women’s Domestic Fancywork [7] and Work for Dainty Fingers [6] and a series of 10 screenprinted posters.[8] With Marie McMahon, Phoenix travelled to the United States of America to contribute needlework skills to Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1974–79). Phoenix' account of the experience is detailed in her publication Our story/Herstory? Working on Judy Chicago's Dinner Party.[9] While in Sydney, Phoenix was also a founding member of Matilda Graphics and the local feminist arts publication F/Arts.

In the early 1980s, Phoenix joined the Adelaide Women's Art Movement. She spearheaded multiple community art projects including Double our Numbers and The Alchemists' Teaparty. She continued to study throughout her life, completing a masters degree in visual art on The critical corpse : re-(inter)preting the abject dead animal in visual art at the University of South Australia.[10]

Works
  • Queen of Spades (previously known as Kunda), 1975, doily mounted on board
  • No Goddesses | No Mistresses, no goddesses no mistresses (anarcho-feminism), 1978, insert for a ‘Dinner Party’ runner: red embroidery cotton on white commercial doily, 29.7 x 21 cm
  • Grow your own grassroots defiance against the capitalist plot: Victory, 1981, four-colour screen printed poster

Exhibitions
  • Unfinished Business, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2018
  • The D'Oyley Show, Watters Gallery and touring in Port Kembla, Nowra, Broken Hill, Orange, Bathurst, Maitland, Armidale, Lismore, 1979

References
  1. Mayhew, Louise. ""Frances Phoenix: feminist and artist" in Jessie Street National Women's Library newsletter" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 March 2018.
  2. "Women's Art Movement: Summary record 1974-1986". State Library of South Australia. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  3. "'Women who toiled' poster by the Womens Domestic Needlework Group". collection.maas.museum. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  4. Australia, The University of Western. "Jude Adams". Outskirts. University of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  5. Therese., Kenyon (1995). Under a hot tin roof : art, passion, and politics at the Tin Sheds Art Workshop. Tin Sheds Art Workshop., Power Institute of Fine Arts. Sydney: State Library of New South Wales Press. ISBN 9780730589334. OCLC 36180987.
  6. The D'oyley show : an exhibition of women's domestic fancywork. Sydney: D'oyley Publications. 1979. ISBN 9780959579512. OCLC 27622188.
  7. Women's Domestic Needlework Group (1979). Work for Dainty Fingers. D'Oyley Publications.
  8. "'Women who toiled' poster by the Womens Domestic Needlework Group". Archived from the original on 11 March 2018.
  9. Phoenix, Frances (1982). Our story/ herstory?: working on Judy Chicago's 'Dinner party'. Phoenix Publications.
  10. Phoenix, Frances. The critical corpse : re-(inter)preting the abject dead animal in visual art.


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