A Visit to Wardlaw’s Say No! Exhibition

Saying Yes! to Meaningful Change

Is there a better way to spend an afternoon than visiting a museum? The Wardlaw Museum boasts an impressive collection of relics as the University’s past is laid out before you. The new exhibition Say No!, however, cuts through the ephemera, forcing us to face the realities of the UK’s residual culture of prejudice. This provocative collection explores the complicated realities of racism, domestic violence, queerphobia, and sex work, amongst many others aspects of contemporary British life. 

On entering you are faced with a collection of sculptures. An Amazon warrior and a witch by Ellen Lesperance, and a piece entitled My Lady with the Mekle Lippis by Josie Ko satirises the statues of colonisers and slave traders that populate the streets of our most ‘forward-thinking’ cities. Should nostalgia for a sordid past ever be glorified? This is one of the many questions that Say No! forces its visitors to consider.

Behind these striking sculptures, Sweatmother’s short film Pissed Off Trannies: ZAP1 shows a protest held outside the Equalities and Human Rights commission in 2022. During the protest trans activists decorated the doorstep of the EHRC, the organisation responsible for promoting and enforcing equality and non-discrimination laws, with bottles filled with urine. We are reminded of the role of art and performance in the fight for equality. What is palatable is not always right. These trans activists are fighting for their right of recognition: their right to exist.

Matt Sheard, one of the organisers of Say No!, explained the challenges the team faced arranging the exhibition. With such a sensitive subject matter, the organisers took care to “make sure the right language was used” and that “the right perspectives and points of view were put across.” Their sensitivity and effort paid off, and can be seen in every corner of this beautifully modern and expertly curated collection.

I found A Black Footprint is a Beautiful Thing by Alberta Whittle particularly moving. The feature dominates a full wall of the room, exploring the legacies of colonialism through an exploration of the shipworm, the mollusc that now consumes the tall ships sent to colonise the Caribbean. The piece is about survival in the diaspora, about courage in the face of all encompassing erasure. Say No! celebrates those who have stood together against hate and ignorance, as time rages, their identity remains strong or, as Whittle puts it, “resolute against a white background.” The film is a captivating mix of image and written word. “How many are suffocating under the rot of plaster and eugenics?” the screen reads. Whittle’s film asks a pertinent question.

In a university that can feel so cut off from the rest of the world, Say No! reconnects us to the work being done on our doorstep to make society a fair and kind environment to all. This exhibition showcases the capabilities of protest, from the mere act of saying no to organised demonstration. There is power in your refusal.

One can only hope that there will be more exhibitions like Say No! in St Andrews, reminding us that sometimes, the bubble needs bursting.

The exhibition runs from Saturday 25 January to Sunday 11 May 2025. With events for both individuals and families, from film-screenings and weaving workshops to book-clubs, there are so many ways to educate ourselves, spread awareness, and get involved.

Photo by Jonathan Stock