Stunning Tribute to Local Suffragette On Show at Town Hall

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Four sided display in glass-enclosed atrium celebrates the life of Lolita Roy

A stunning four sided art installation paying tribute to Lolita Roy, a legendary Hammersmith suffragette, is on show at the entrance to Hammersmith Town Hall.

Hammersmith & Fulham Council and the Tate Collective have staged the display to celebrate Lolita's life and work.

Lolita – who moved to Hammersmith in 1901 from Calcutta – was a prominent figure in the fight for both British and Indian women suffrage.

The new installation in the glass-enclosed atrium in King Street was designed by young artist Susana Gomez Larrañaga (also known as Susi Disorder), pictured above.

The display is a four-sided photographic collage of Lolita, fused with other images associated with the suffragette movement – including the famously slashed Rokeby Venus statue by artist Diego Velazquez and the burnt down Tea Pavilion in Kew Gardens.

Other images include the penny coin which was defaced by the suffragettes with the phrase ‘Votes for Women’ stamped across it and the Brighton Royal Pavilion which was used as a hospital for injured Indian soldiers fighting during WWI for the British cause.

Lolita and other suffragettes raised funds for the healthcare of these wounded Indian troops.

In 1901, suffragette, Lolita, moved to Hammersmith in search of a better education for her six children. One of the six grew up to become Lt Indra Lal Roy, who is one of two local soldiers honoured in a separate display at the Town Hall marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One. You can read more about him here .

She went on to become president of the London Indian Union Society as she campaigned for both Indian and British women to get the vote.

Lolita was involved in the organisation of the Women’s Coronation Procession in 1911, asking for women’s suffrage, just five days before King George V’s coronation and a rare photograph of her at the march features on the display.

"This is one of the only photographs of Lolita campaigning for the women’s vote in the UK," said artist Susana. "There are probably many women and men like her who have done great things in history that we don’t know about. That’s why this exhibition is so important.

" We’re throwing the spotlight on an extraordinary woman who stood up against the injustices of her time. People need to know her story. And you will remember her face by the end of this exhibition. It’s everywhere."

Susana, who was born and raised in Santander, Spain, has been drawing since the age of two.

After gaining a degree in fine arts in Madrid, she came to England to do her masters in printmaking at the Cambridge School of Art before moving to London in 2017 to continue her studies.

Her last exhibition Data Redundancy in Concrete was held at the Tate Britain, where she took over an entire room in the Late at Tate series. She says she used data retrieval, coding and installation to examine the material intricacies of undead data.

Susana is currently teaching creative coding one day a week at the University of Greenwich, where she is doing a PhD in digital arts as she looks into online data as ruins.

You can read more about her work here.

The exhibition is the third in the H&F Presents… series which aims to transform the landscape of the borough through a series of temporary site-specific public exhibitions.

The inaugural work was from acclaimed artist, poet and cultural agitator Robert Montgomery.

The second installation entitled Beacon was created by Saatchi-prize winning artist Nicolas K Feldmeyer. It was made from 396 lengths of string – which laid end-to-end would have span four kilometres.

“It’s great to work alongside the Tate to give one of our past residents, Lolita Roy, the recognition she deserves in helping to win women the right to vote,” said Cllr Andrew Jones, H&F Cabinet Member for the Economy and the Arts.

“This is another step towards making H&F an international beacon for the arts while giving residents from a wide range of backgrounds more opportunities to experience the arts.”

You can find out more about the council's Arts Strategy here.

 

 

November 12, 2018