STay Bittersweet

Words by Charlotte Hampshaw

A group of womxn and story tellers from all creative mediums, Cherry Galz is a feminist art collective based across the United Kingdom and Germany. Charlotte Hampshaw talks about the beginnings of the collective, why it’s important, and the beauty of sharing their tales as womxn.

United Kingdom and Germany

What is the cherry collective?

“To love in the darkest depths/ so silence will never feel the same” extract from I Used to be Scared a poem by Holly Smith.

WE ARE CHERRY. A feminist arts collective based across the UK and Germany. We’re a group of womxn and feminists, painters, writers, poets, photographers, essayists and artists who began in Cornwall. In the 803 year old Cornish town of Penryn, the Falmouth University of Arts and the University of Exeter share a campus. This has led students of the humanities and zoology to work alongside students of the arts. With wild coasts, forests and tangerine sunsets to boot, Cornwall offers haphazard spaces of creativity where CHERRY began. In our third year, photographer Emily Mort founded the collective and organised and curated our very first events in Falmouth. We became CHERRY GALZ. In bottle-shop basements and balcony bars, our small team exhibited photography and gave speeches to discuss poetry, history, language and feminism in all its forms. When we graduated, many of us moved from Cornwall and the collective expanded as far as Berlin. Our motto is STAY BITTERSWEET – as we stay sweet for all the good things in life but bitter against the patriarchy.

Why is the collective important?

“I’ll be at our secret spot/ counting the moments ‘till you walk round that bend,/smiling with my moonlit tears” extract from Patience a poem by Dani Ferguson

CHERRY has created an ongoing dialogue between all of us, so it always feels as though we are discovering new ideas and perspective; all of our lives vary from coasts to streets, yet we’re meeting in a dynamic space that’s for all of us. We practice a wide range of disciplines from painting to writing, craft and print-making, to essays, theatre and radio, so our collective has acted as a platform for collaboration. We also want to showcase the work of others, so we’re always looking for people to celebrate, we have our CHERRY residents, where artists can take-over our Instagram and have a feature on our website as a collaborator. Our most recent initiative is CHERRY ZEST – a new project/zine led by members Amber Patterson, Amira Umar and Lilly Shickle, the project is open for submissions from everyone; this sort of approach allows us to uncover anecdotes, narratives, pictures which co-exist peacefully in a fast-paced digital world. We have a strong burgeoning sensation that we are just getting started.

How has the collective grown and changed since its beginnings? What have been some struggles in creating cherry?

“Floating through a lightening cloud/ My thoughts are loud and quite profound / Eroding in the ocean now” extract from Montaña Escape a poem by Molly Milton

A pivotal moment for our collective was the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement; although we strongly value intersectional feminism, we realised we had to mobilise our platform more effectively for social justice. On our website we have developed a Learning page dedicated to anti-racist resources, directions to petitions and organisations which protect the communities of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour across the world. The Learning page led to our CHERRY FLOWER LIBRARY, a project proposed by member Hannah Flowers. Many people can’t afford to purchase literature and as a group we have many valuable books to share and so from our selection, we can send books for people to borrow.

“Things that probably shouldn’t have happened. But they did.” words from photographer Maia Pavey

When we began there were four photographers and three writers, now we have over twenty members and we are growing all the time. We launched our website in March 2020 and then shortly after, Covid-19 changed the world with lockdown sweeping across Europe. We were planning events in physical venues but we had to redirect our resources into virtual space. During the time of isolation, as traditional galleries and institutions closed their doors, the internet became an overwhelming stage for images and relentless surveillance as we all sat still. It was a challenge to assess where we belonged in times of fear, but we launched an online group exhibition titled Retrospect a virtual 3D walk-through gallery embedded within our website. The exhibition project has continued with members Maia Pavey and Dylan Thain curating the virtual installations. We have a monthly slot on Source FM, a community radio station in Cornwall, where hosts Tom Stewart and Charlotte Hampshaw discuss life, music and everything in-between. CHERRY is not a physical venue (yet!) so the exhibition and radio projects are great opportunities to ensure that we are as accessible and inclusive as possible.

What have been the joys?

“Our plants wither monthly/ and we rekindle ourselves from the rot”
An extract from The Extended Self a poem by Amber Patterson

The joy of CHERRY is that we are story-tellers; it sounds simple but it’s quite an empowering truth to remember. We connect moments and continue to write, capture and ignite our tales.

Emily Mort’s photography captures the intimacy of movement, objectivity and light throughout endless rooms; Amber Patterson’s candid poetry speaks to spring, the female form, leaky bodies in the breath of summer; Niamh Hejsak documents exposures of shimmering water, gathering the tranquillity of plants and earth; Marianna Ostrowska’s gritty illustrations reveal smoke, dark glamour and bones; Dani Ferguson is a film-maker and poet whose poems speak to connection, affirmation and moonlight; Molly Milton’s paintings and poetry reveal the buoyancy of flesh and necromancy, all things existential; Asha Wilson’s illustrations are soft yet brazen all at once, her characters blend with their colour palette; Maia Pavey experiments with the process of photography, her images developed in wine, old chemicals for curated mystery; Eva Mannan is a writer and poet with a vivacious yet vulnerable energy which grips perception and ripples reflection; Hannah Flowers is an essayist with words that are wise to speak to classical and contemporary times; Dylan Thain’s photography is a window, a depiction of nostalgia and the bluest of skies; Kristen Hughes focuses on portraiture, the fabric of skin and the expressions of spirits in summer sunshine; Madelaine Gadd’s chic illustrations form stylistic lines and impressions radiating charm; Maisie Hammond, an avid reader of books, with work inspired by her favourite authors page after page; Lilly Shickle is a zine maker who creates art with kindness in mind; Emily Harrison is an unapologetic theatrical performer, protesting the patriarchy one performance at a time! Amira Umar is a writer and editor, who inscribes her work with love and her words are sonnets to the soul; Molly Shields is a writer and musician, her stories are unexpected, punchy and always hold a pinch of comedy; Charlotte Hampshaw is a poet and collagist, writing letters to surreal points of view; Hope Gwilliam and Becky Rawlins are the craft-makers of Hopefully Made creating mindful work which celebrates mother earth; Holly Smith writes from her honest heart to every inch of experience and wilderness; so we stay bittersweet.

I would love to hear some memorable events or stories

“Tainting the rogue red passions to a distasteful green/seething through the cracks, I welcome its festering shine with open arms,”
An extract from EMPTY a poem by Eva Maria Mannan

We’ve had so many incredible moments, it’s strange because a lot of them have been virtual because of lockdown! Our first events in Cornwall were particularly amazing as it was CHERRY’S first step into the world. At the first CHERRY event one of our speakers, Molly Shields, addressed our female identifying audience “I want to talk about some things you do that you didn’t realise were fucked up…I know that some of us will say the exact same thing” we wrote these ideas down on pieces of paper. In her speech she read some answers - they were poignant because we all felt the same and we reflected how we as womxn have been conditioned to exist in the world.

The room fell still. We could all relate to these things but we knew there was power in our conversations and we were building a space which celebrated our value. It’s essential to acknowledge our growth, this dialogue concerning our daily lives has since become a movement which is striving to meet the injustices of the world with feminist glory. We are ferocious, loving, determined and we will not stop.

“Looking into the depths of mines/of sulphur, porous./our bodies adorned/ old, withered, pristine/ we stand bold in the slick of metal and jean/ and we drip, drip gold.” An extract from Jeans a poem by Charlotte Hampshaw

What's next for Cherry Galz?

The only plan we have is to continue growing, learning and collaborating. We are always on the move and are always searching for new opportunities. So please, check out our incredible members on cherrygalz.org, subscribe to our newsletter, listen to our radio show, rent a book from our library, submit for a residency, walk through a 3D exhibition, read (and submit to) ZEST, browse our shop, educate yourself on our learning page and know that we love you wherever you are. Don’t hesitate to get in contact with us because we love and value your story, and most importantly: STAY BITTERSWEET.

Love from CHERRY xxx