Ralph Barker

Image: 'Our Children Are Fighting Too' by Alina Zamanova at The Smallest Gallery in Soho. Photo by Philip Levine.

I think I’m still processing the performance from David Finnigan’s incredible solo show at the Barbican Centre, so I'll start with the emotional aspect while I work through the simultaneous feelings of hope and despair that circle around me as I write.

Out of all of the bodily functions one might associate with her, digestion is what I contemplate most as I stand before Carolee Schneemann’s work. Not the bubbling, caustic throb of organic matter (although plenty of the work on display here teeters this line), but a measured pulse that runs throughout her entire artistic career, transforming and evolving in style that reflects personal and political events in her life.