Processions | Luminate

PROCESSIONS was a UK-wide mass participation artwork that Luminate was part of in 2018 to highlight the ongoing struggle to achieve gender equality.

We were one of 100 organisations invited to take part by public art producer Artichoke. Each organisation commissioned a woman artist to create a banner in collaboration with a local community group. The banners were paraded in each of four UK capital cities in June that year, marking 100 years since the first women were able to vote.

A group of women is marching holding up a banner that reads 'Equality is the soul of liberty' in purple and gold letters

View all of the banners created in Scotland

We commissioned Fiona Hermse to work with Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group. Together they created a banner using spray dye, silk painting, mono printing and embroidery. It depicts the fish wives and herring girls – an important aspect of Dunbar’s heritage.

All of the banners created in Scotland can be viewed online here. They will also be displayed as part of Women Making History, a free, ticketed exhibition at London Scottish House in Westminster, between 2nd June and 11th July 2021. Find out more and book your tickets here.

Equality is the soul of liberty; there is in fact no liberty without it

Frances Wright, 19th Century Scottish abolitionist and feminist

Handprinted images of fish in a net are decorated with sewing thread — Processions Banner close up 2018

A green fish is picked out in embroidery thread — Processions workshop

A group of woman are busy as work creating artwork for a banner — Processions workshop 2018

A woman is decorating fabric that has a printed design of fish on it — Processions workshop 2018

A man adn a woman are sitting at a table creating pom pom decorations — Processions workshop 2018

PROCESSIONS was a UK-wide mass participation artwork to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage, produced by Artichoke and commissioned by 14-18 NOW, based on an idea by Darrell Vydelingum.