Gee Vaucher (born 1945 in

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England) is a visual artist.

Biography

Vaucher met her long-lasting creative partner

Penny Rimbaud Penny Lapsang Rimbaud (born Jeremy John Ratter, 1943) is a writer, poet, philosopher, painter, musician and activist. He was a member of the performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and in 1972 was co-founder of the Stonehenge Free Fes ...

in the early 1960s when both were attending the South-East Essex Technical College and School of Art. In 1967, inspired by the film ''

Inn of the Sixth Happiness ''The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'' is a 1958 20th Century Fox film based on the true story of Gladys Aylward, a tenacious British woman, who became a missionary in Republic of China (1912–1949), China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Dire ...

'', they set up the anarchist/

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

open house Dial House in Essex, UK, which has now become firmly established as a 'centre for radical creativity'. In 2016, Vaucher was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

. Vaucher is

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

Works

Her work with

anarcho-punk Anarcho-punk (also known as anarchist punk or peace punk) is ideological subgenre of punk rock that promotes anarchism. Some use the term broadly to refer to any punk music with anarchist lyrical content, which may figure in crust punk, hardcor ...

band

Crass Crass were an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977, who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a way of life, and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the anarcho-punk movement of the punk s ...

was seminal to the '

protest art Protest art is the creative works produced by activists and social movements. It is a traditional means of communication, utilized by a cross section of collectives and the state to inform and persuade citizens. Protest art helps arouse base emot ...

' of the 1980s. Vaucher has always seen her work as a tool for social change, and has expressed her strong anarcho-pacifist and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

views in her paintings and

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

s. Vaucher also uses

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

styles and methods. She continues to design sleeves for

Babel Label Babel Label is a jazz record label founded in 1994 by Oliver Weindling. It released more than 130 recordings in its first 20 years, two of which were nominated for the Mercury Prize. Formation Weindling was a banker in England in the 1980s whe ...

, and also designed the sleeve for The Charlatans' '' Who We Touch'' album. Vaucher has exhibited at the 96 Gillespie gallery in London. In 2007 and 2008 the Jack Hanley Gallery in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and Track 16 in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

ran exhibitions entitled "Gee Vaucher: Introspective", showing a wide selection of Vaucher's work. The day after

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's election victory in November 2016, the British

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

newspaper featured Vaucher's 1989 painting ''Oh America'' on its front page.

Published collections

In the foreword to her first book, a 1999 retrospective collection entitled ''Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist Monsters'',

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads an ...

writes: In her second book, ''Animal Rites: a pictorial study of relationships'', she gives a commentary on the relationship between animals and humans, centered on the quote " All humans are animals, but some animals are more human than others."

Film

Vaucher's film ''Gower Boy'', made in collaboration with pianist

Huw Warren Huw Warren is a Welsh jazz pianist and composer whose work crosses several genres. He is known as co-leader and founder of the jazz quartet Perfect Houseplants. Career Huw Warren was the co-leader and founder of the jazz quartet Perfect Ho ...

, debuted at the 14th

Raindance Film Festival Raindance is an independent film festival and film school that operates in major cities including London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin, and Brussels. The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove t ...

in London in October 2006.

References

Bibliography

* ''Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist Monsters'' - A collection of work by Gee Vaucher (AK Press 1999) * ''Animal Rites: a pictorial study of relationships'' ( Exitstencil Books, 2004)

External links

interview with Gee Vaucher

MOCA documentary on the Art of Dave King and Gee Vaucher

Something From Nothing: The Crass Art Of Gee Vaucher
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaucher, Gee 1945 births Living people People from Dagenham Anarcha-feminists Anarcho-punk musicians English anarchists Crass members Women in punk category:Hippies