Introspective is Gee Vaucher’s first major institutional show in the UK, and spans the artist’s career of more than forty years. It charts Vaucher’s journey from local activity to international ambition, from domestic concerns to world politics, and from healing the planet to healing the mind. Including collage, photography, photomontage, painting, sculpture, film, performance, typography, sound and installation, the imagery she creates ranges from the absurd and often comical to the harrowing. Her message spans the political and the personal, the environmental and the humanitarian. She left New York after another piece was rejected, opting to join Crass full-time as a visual artist. These days, Vaucher says, her work is less overtly satirical: “But to me, art is politics, with a small ‘p’. It’s still just as political, but it’s much more domestic. I’m always very interested in the psychology of people.” Her own journal International Anthem ran from 1977 to 1984 and subverted ideas of aspiration and traditional gender roles, using images from popular magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Own and highlighting that most aspiration was in fact synonymous with capitalism and consumerism. Marketing strategies disguised as values. Women in Revolt! is supported by the Women in Revolt! Exhibition Supporters Circle, Tate International Council, Tate Patrons and Tate Members.

Finally, when the latest edition of The Crassical Collection is spread out before you, how does it compare with the work you are doing today? Like many students, college was where Vaucher first became involved in activism. But perhaps not the kind of campaigning you'd associate with students nowadays – in fact she fought to spend more time working. "It was my life," says Vaucher. "The college shut at 6pm and I fought to keep it open until 10pm then fought to keep it open at the weekends – which it did." Rebecca Binns’ new book on the influential punk artist Gee Vaucher goes beyond her association with Crass to examine the political and ethical framework that she used to create her intricate and confronting pieces. In terms of her artistry, the time spent at art school and dedication to craft ensures her skill is evident in all that she does. This is explored in depth throughout the book as much as politics are. Whilst many anarcho-punk graphics of the 1980s were poorly executed in regard to skill level, sometimes deliberately so as a political semiotic choice, Vaucher’s artwork is expertly drawn and photorealistic in nature. Much of her work looks like collage, even though it is actually hand-drawn. The political artist Peter Kennard comments that when he was Head of Photography at the Royal College of Art, (RCA), he would present students with Vaucher’s work as “fine examples of photomontage”, (p67), only to realise several years later after seeing some of her original artwork that they were in fact drawings. Illustrations for Ace of Diamonds, 1974, by Gee Vaucher The medium was both necessity and message. So many of these artists could not get their work shown anywhere, or were forced to work from home. They used slides, which could be posted round Britain and projected on any scale. They wove, embroidered and knitted. Rita McGurn’s trio of women, lovely and lifesize, hanging out on a crocheted rug, are themselves a work of crochet using whatever scraps of wool she could come by.

No number Crass - "Sheep Farming In the Falklands" 7" (Initially released as flexi, later as 121984/3) As far as collage goes, I first started having a go when I was living and working in New York and having to meet very tight deadlines. I was doing fine painting even then, which is what the jobs wanted, but it was impossible to deliver on time even if I worked all night. So, reconsidering my attitude to collage, which to me had always felt like cheating, I decided that the only way I was going to get the work done, was to ‘cheat’. My first effort was a combination of painting with bits of collage. It was a small piece for The New York Times due in the next morning. I’d grabbed some magazines off the street and had a great time experimenting and then, worried that it might not be accepted, and they used it with no questions asked! The exhibition title comes from Eve Figes’s 1970 text Patriarchal Attitudes: The Case for Women in Revolt.

It was a drawing by Steve Ignorant. It came about because, at the time, we were practically the only band letting skinheads into gigs. As always, once inside, they tried to dominate a space at the front of the stage, and find a break in the music so they could Sieg Heil. There was never any fighting, just their arm-swinging dance to intimidate and always waiting for the chance to chant. My experience of the skinheads was mainly friendly. It seemed that most of them liked the way skins dressed better than the way punks did, so joined that gang. I certainly never felt they were seriously right wing at the time, they were just a pain in the arse at gigs, but welcome. Featuring contributions by Alice Correia, Zuzanna Flaskova, Rachel Garfield, Juliet Jacques, Dorothy Price, Lucy Reynolds, Ash Reid, Amy Tobin and Linsey Young.

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As always when starting a new piece of work for a record cover, I had to have the words first. From these and conversations, I would get an idea of how to illustrate and design the cover. I never really had a clear idea to work to, one image would immediately come into mind, then I would play around with adding certain elements. In the end, I always relied on a feeling, and that it was saying what I wanted it to say, even if I did not know what that was exactly. Getting a new idea together for the cover always took much longer than the actual painting. The cover photo of Stations Of The Crass shows a wall at Bond Street tube station in London covered with Crass related graffiti. In 1978, this was considered to be just a form of vandalism, but today it could probably be viewed, quite rightly, as a piece of street art. What are your feelings about today’s street art and how effective do you think it is as a way of communicating a specific message or cause? The label also put out three editions of Bullshit Detector, compilations of demos and rough recordings that had been sent to the band which they felt represented the DIY punk ethic.

It’s strange isn’t it? I really don’t like this piece much, I like elements of it, but I think it’s too over worked, too much crammed in and, for me, confusing. This piece is not a collage but one of the biggest painted pieces, just a few bits of collage on the ground which I couldn’t be arsed to paint. As to a celebration piece, I never saw it like that. As I’ve said I always worked on a new album knowing what the words and the overall feeling was that we were trying to put over. That was always the thing that guided me towards how to illustrate the project and it wasn’t telling me to make this a celebratory piece. It’s always so interesting to me how people can view my work so differently. In the foreword to her first book, a 1999 retrospective collection entitled Crass Art and Other Pre Post-Modernist Monsters, Ian Dury writes:As I opened cupboards and drawers it was like finding friends I hadn’t seen for years,” saysVaucher of selecting pieces for the show. “Finding old sketchbooks was interesting, as wasfinding projects I thought I had finished.” Bee Gees record review, Rolling Stone, 1977, gouache &collage, 240 x 230 mm We thought it was a great statement, the Pistols’ statement. Because what was happening in England at the time was just diabolical. And being older made a lot of difference”. Punk was a visual as well as audio artform with the aesthetic and associated art being a large part of its revolutionary impact and rebellious appeal. A lot has been said about the fashion; the posters and flyers; the Jamie-Reid designs; the Vivienne Westwood clothes etc. But a key part of this visual history is the work of an artist who defined punk’s protest art in the 1970s and 80s- Gee Vaucher. Yes. Life drawing, portraits, family, life on the streets, etc. There's a self portrait from 1962 in the show.

Well, I love a lot of graffiti, it rightly gives people a space to voice and view their opinions, realisations etc. Of course, not all of it will be to one’s liking, especially those that cross the line into hate and discrimination. But you have to let it all go into the mix and let the people work it out, either by covering it up or adding a comment.Well, as flags go, some I like and are inclusive, but most are for nations; exclusive and consequently edging towards nationalism and all the negative things that that can mean. Mostly when people think of flags their only thought is of that flag representing a country, a movement, but they rarely have an idea of the blood and oppression they can represent. I’ve actually thought about painting out the Crass flag on the Feeding album cover, I don’t really like it, I find it a bit odd and unnecessary. No, I don’t think so at all. You just have to look deeper, think deeper, if you are to bypass the obvious and get the message home. Creativity, as you know, is about invention, thinking outside the box, yours or society’s. There is much more than there has ever been to use out there. The challenge is yours to choose how, as always.