Wednesday, May 19, 2021

The show must go on

Much of the focus this week has been on food and drink establishments reopening their indoor spaces for customers, and understandably so, but museums and galleries are also among those places now able to welcome back visitors for the first time since before Christmas. While some found innovative ways of putting on shows even when their doors were closed, the vast majority were forced to press pause on existing exhibitions until restrictions eased.

So it's a very happy reopening day for Side Gallery in Newcastle, for instance, where Tom Stoddart's exhibition Extraordinary Women is once more available to view in person. Now set to remain on display until 26th June, the show gathers together a selection of images taken around the world by Stoddart, a native of the North East, in his capacity as a roving photojournalist. The common theme is women showing exceptional resilience in adversity - or, in his terms, "who face up to the odds".

The photo entitled Siege Of Sarajevo is particularly remarkable: a woman in dress, heels and pearls staring defiantly at a camouflaged, gun-wielding soldier, against a backdrop of stacked sandbags. Her refusal to be a victim of circumstance is striking.

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