Sophy Rickett and Rut Blees Luxemburg's 1990s photographic series revisited in London exhibition and publication

Sophy Rickett and Rut Blees Luxemburg's collaborative photographic works from the mid-1990s are currently featured in a dual exhibition at Cob Gallery in London, running through 27 September 2025. Rickett's series "Pissing Women" (1995) presents black-and-white portraits of the artists urinating against symbolic London locations, including a City office block, a Silvertown satellite listening station, and the MI6 headquarters near Vauxhall Bridge. Both artists worked in London's financial district in 1994, exploring the urban environment after hours while dressed in formal office attire. Rickett's work has been newly published in a book alongside essays, with the exhibition serving as a companion to this release. Blees Luxemburg's series "Chance Encounters" (1995) employs a stylized color palette for street photography that captures playful interactions in corporate London, described by the artist as 'cosplaying' invented personas. The works critique specific macho structures of the service economy and security state, rather than serving as simple emblems of female empowerment. These photographs reflect Situationist influences and address themes of personal autonomy in a surveilled city, with contemporary relevance as mass surveillance has expanded since the 1990s. The exhibition coincides with current nostalgia for the 1990s period, though the artists' nuanced approaches differ from both Britart sensationalism and contemporary slogan-feminism.