Context: Talking To Women by Nell Dunn
Wine, warm light and relaxed bodies spilling secrets: the methodology Nell Dunn used when writing and interviewing for her book Talking to Women.
Reading Dunn’s book feels like you are eavesdropping a private conversation: ‘often rambling and sometimes boring—before some shard of wisdom or bizarre revelation surges up out of nowhere (Biggs, 2017). These conversations took place before the second wave of feminism, and although the language often feels dated the conversations feel hopeful for a feminist future.
Pauline Boty, colourec pencil on paper, 25x25cm, 2023
This book carves a space for women voices, “Its interviewees admit and repeat both desire and difficulty in just, well, talking.” (Ellen, 2018). This is significant as while the conversations in the book seem to flow, it becomes apparent how the women find talking in a wider world context more challenging.
One observational criticism of Talking to Women is that the women she interviews are white, heterosexual, aged between 20 and 30 and appear to have a liberal mindset. Women such as artist Pauline Boty and writer Ann Berg. (Dunn, 2018) Despite this, several of the women make homophobic comments and speak with an upsetting preoccupation with men. This demographic isn’t presenting an intersectional view of women in London.
My own practice could also be open to this same criticism as the women I work with are largely white, between the ages of 25 and 35, London based and whom I know personally. A stark difference between the women I interviewed and Dunn’s is that all of my women are unmarried, childless, and are part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
I used Dunn’s writing as a starting point, cherry picking questions from the text that I felt would encourage my network to spill their inner thoughts and feelings, questions on sex, jealousy, sexuality, money, work and futuristic childcare. I encouraged the women I worked with to be as open as they felt comfortable, weary of the privilege I was being granted.
I used the recording of these women’s interviews to create sound pieces with voices overlapping. Each sound piece corresponds to a painting of the woman. This method of overlapping voices is a reinvention of Lucy Reynolds, ‘A Feminist Chorus’, Glasgow Women’s Library 2014. ‘At the all-women event, the mass of voices speaking out provided a moment of humour, as the different timbres, speeds and volume level produced an atonal soundscape’ (Grant, 2022, P90).
Bibliography
Barbara. E, The Guardian, Talking to Women by Nell Dunn: a welcome reissue of a radical work, 2018, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/24/talking-to-women-nell-dunn-review Accessed: 08/03/23
Dunn, N. (2018) Talking to Women, London: Silver Press.
Grant, C. (2022) A Time Of One’s Own, Durham, North Carolina, United States :Duke University Press.
Hodgson. J, The New Statesman, (2018) Available at: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2018/10/nell-dunn-talking-to-women-reissued-review) Accessed: 04/03/23
Horne, V. A Time of One’s Own, Burlington Contemporary, (2022) Available at:
https://contemporary.burlington.org.uk/reviews/reviews/a-time-of-ones-own
Accessed 27/04/23
Lucy Reynolds, ‘A Feminist Chorus’, Glasgow Women’s Library 2014.