Idle Women's Work

Latest work

Stadium for the Future
(If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution)

Stadium for the future is both a proposal, provocation and occupation of space. It is a pre-proposal not for another concrete monolith but a stadium to re-imagine environmental recovery and reciprocity, a self-sustaining ecosystem of women's doing, creating, training, playing and manifesting a different world. During and as part of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 football championship in July women from across the UK gathered in fields and underpasses to dance the stadium into existence at site-specific women-only raves.

Take me to the Stadium for the Future

About project

New work and work in progress

Physic Garden Network

A website rooted in a garden, sharing medicinal plant introductions, new digital artwork, learning and friendship. Created through a collaboration with a hundred women throughout 2021 and still evolving.

A screen shot of a page on a website showing an audio control and a photo of a woman wearing large dark glasses

Dazzle - Women on the Water

Nine waterside audio companions made by women using pocket technology offering a moment of belonging to download or stream. Commissioned to compliment a report for Canal and River Trust who invited us to look below the surface and into the realities of life by water for women.

A woman is building a large curved seating area out of stone

Constructing the Physic Garden

A seven year project to create a canal side physic garden with, for and by women in Nelson, Lancashire which began with the purchase of land in 2018 and currently in construction.

large empty beach meets large empty sky, it's raining and in the middle of the scene a wet figure is standing with a large armful of nettles balanced across the back of her shoulders

Petrichor
A case for land

Petrichor is a performative argument expressing the urgency of lost years and women's rightful place on land. Expressed through a body of new projects to recover land and those who love and depend on it.

Linear Park
Recovering Lomeshaye Wharf

Idle Women are expanding their work in Nelson to include the care for, recovery and re-imagining of Lomeshaye Wharf.
This work is in collaboration with the Super Slow Way Linear Park project.

a wooden arrow with a symbol of a witch riding a broom stick

Motherland
Womens' Environment Council

The Women’s Environment Council is a grass-routes network which connects violence against women with the destruction of local trees, wildlife habitats and green space. Changing the landscape through projects, toolkits, information and imagination.

Current work

front of a narrowboat painted in bright dazzle camo

NB Selina Cooper

Selina Cooper is a hand built 55ft motor-less narrow boat conceived, designed and built in collaboration with Humraaz and named after a local suffragist. Launched in Burnley on the Leeds to Liverpool Canal in 2016 to provide a residential and workshop space for Idle Women's inaugural touring project On The Water.

three women wearing matching shirts sing and clap in front of professional microphones

Power Tools

A series of building tutorials for every woman that give instructions on basic DIY tasks like changing a lightbulb, smashing a window, painting a wall and using a drill. Created in St Helens in 2019 through a collaboration with women in refuge the videos which are available on youtube went viral during the lockdown of 20-21.

Graphic Novel

Idle Women on the Water A brick throwin',hijab-wearin', hairy-legged, space takin' odyssey by Candice Purwin tells the story of the Selina Cooper and the Idle Women tour of North West England.

Process/past projects

a large land rover wheel and stripped down chassie surrounded by land rover parts

Helen

From 2016-2019, Idle Women, Heart of Glass and ANU Productions were granted the Arts Council Ambition for Excellence Award to create a major new partnership work in St Helens.
The resultant project, Helen, addressed a deep and radical need to dismantle in order to reveal, expose and rebuild.

a woman balancing her legs up on a giant plant pot surrounded by glitter balls looks upwards

Queer Arts North Showcase -
Leeds Playhouse 2020

Developed in collaboration with musician Sophie Fishwick and performer Jill Raymond in winter 2019 as an early iteration for Petrichor. A performance created for Queer Arts North showcase at Leeds Playhouse featuring a galactic collaboration with playwright Mojisola Adebayo and her character 'Mrs'.

a woman's feet standing in a circle of flour surrounded by marbles

Izhaar

Izhaar is a statement of creative expression through details of our day-to day. Created through a process of workshops in collaboration with Humraaz, Izhaar was a single promenade performance telling pivotal stories through live illustrations. Held in Bangor Street community centre in 2016.