For my 50th birthday, my ‘work fam’ gave me the best present I’ve ever received (don’t tell my other family), which is this picture by the graphic artist Margaret Calvert. She and Jock Kinneir redid all the British road signs – one of the most important graphic-design projects in the UK.
She’s in her eighties now – a total legend. There’s a beauty to the graphics on the road and a humour (‘slippery when wet’!). This is a version of her ‘men at work’ sign where she painted in the trousers to be a skirt, playfully making it ‘women at work’.
We did a show [in 2015] called ‘Diversion’ based around Calvert’s graphics, so I got to know her through that project. It was a big show, with the models walking on a catwalk like a motorway. At the end we had a 100-strong male voice choir, all in hi-vis, singing Pilgrim’s Chorus [by Richard Wagner], rewritten as The Handbag Chorus.
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It was this beautiful, powerful moment. Whenever you do those shows, there’s so much attention, love, choreography. The team that goes through it with you... it’s an amazing bond.
It was such a loving, clever gift; a momento of something we all did together and also special because Margaret’s a really inspiring British woman, an unsung hero. I don’t ignore it like you do when you get used to a piece of art or furniture; it’s a constant joy, bold and strong.
But it’s also that thing of ‘go girl’ – there’s an element of that; it gives me strength. As a ‘woman at work’, it has been a journey of standing up on my own and not being scared to lead, so it’s a nice reminder of that. anyahindmarch.com
