We Want the Moon

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Screen prints on fabric and paper, and mixed media, dimensions variable

Exhibited in Repeat Patterns at Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, 4 March – 15 October 2023.

'Equal pay is not enough. We want the moon' comes from a placard for the campaign for equal pay in 1971 made by the feminist activist and historian Sheila Rowbotham. The slogan is reproduced here over 50 years later on a series of hand-dyed and screen-printed textile banners paired with illustrations of the moon's phases.

The textile works sit alongside wooden structures displaying a series of screen prints on paper. Images and text in these works are drawn from archival research into various campaigns for women's equality and excerpts of text from interviews undertaken with women involved in the 2018 equal pay dispute with Glasgow City Council. Amidst a current wave of industrial action by workers across the UK fighting for fair pay and conditions, the additional struggle for women's equality continues.

Special thanks to Sheila Rowbotham for the generous permission to reproduce the slogan from her placard.

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark

Image © Ruth Clark