AJ Duncan and Séania Strain, both illustrators, have organised a Festive Feminist Pop-Up Market in the Glad Café on Pollokshaws Road on Friday evening.
Seania (left) and AJ have been friends since the pandemic, first meeting on Instagram (Image: Lucy Jackson)The market, which will run from 6pm until 11pm, will feature a range of work from gender non-conforming artists, including paintings, prints, lino, crochet, jewellery, clothing, ceramics and tarot.
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AJ, who graduated from university two years ago with a politics degree, makes art focused on women’s representation – a lot of which carries a political message.
AJ Duncan (Image: Lucy Jackson) AJ has illustrated a second-hand vase which will be available to buy at Friday’s market (Image: Lucy Jackson) She said: “I want people to be able to see themselves in my work, people who are often left out of visual arts – different bodies, disabled folks – at the forefront of everyday scenes of normal art.
“It’s nothing new, the difference is that it’s just normal people.”
Séania is in her final year at Glasgow School of Art studying communication design. Her work is also feminist, focusing on the space women take up in society.
Seania Strain (Image: Lucy Jackson) She told the Glasgow Times: “My work’s about creating a community and a safe space for women, making art accessible and making a network of people.”
Friday’s market is the perfect embodiment of this, as AJ said the market is all about offering variety, as well as providing a feminist space where people can meet like-minded folk.
She said: “It’s different than going around a Christmas market that’s just random bits and bobs. It’s a very specific thing, but it’s something to go and do rather than just having a quick nosey around.”
AJ said that it was important to both her and Séania that the event was accessible to artists – both physically and financially.
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She told the Glasgow Times: “Doing a market for the first time, doing anything where you bring your art, it’s a scary thing to do.”
Artists will be charged between £15 and £25 to rent a table – where other markets may typically charge up to £100 – and the space is also fully wheelchair accessible.
Séania added: “We both come from working class backgrounds, and we’re very aware that within the art scene, a lot of people have money backing them.
“We want to make spaces for artists, women, non-binary people and marginalised people, to crease and sell their work and also meet each other.”
‘Feminism is for everybody’
Although it’s not the first feminist market to appear in the city, the pair highlighted the need for more feminist spaces.
The vendors are all gender non-conforming – including women, non-binary people and trans people.
The artists who will feature at the market include:
AJ told the Glasgow Times: “When you brand something as feminist it can often be read as being quite women centred.
“That excludes this whole other group of people who experience similar struggles.
“We don’t want to lump people together and make them feel like we’re putting this label on them.
AJ’s studio (Image: Lucy Jackson) AJ’s artwork (Image: Lucy Jackson) “It’s not a women’s market, it’s a feminist market – it’s for anybody for believes in feminism. And feminism is for everybody.”
She added that while there are a lot of designated women’s only spaces, there needs to be more and these need to be inclusive of all genders.
AJ continued: “While we’re in a place where [gender non-conforming people] aren’t having these spaces, we’re in it together.
“It’s about solidarity.”
