Show and Tell at the Corner House

This was a free event which I attended at the Cornerhouse which was a lecture where five creators spoke about personal projects. I found it interesting to find out what made creators passionate about art from their personal experiences and how work and leisure can overlap. The first speaker was Lucy Schofield curator of ‘The Bibliotherapy Artist’s Book Library’ where she decided to explore her belief that reading books and engaging with art have huge mental health benefits. Her project started from her love of artistic books and as her collection grew she wanted to inspire other people to write, illustrate and make there own books. She travelled across the UK with around 150 books and swapped and borrowed them to different people interested in reading them. She felt that certain books could make you feel a certain way so therefore made a diary of the titles and a description of how they would work as a remedy for certain people, when they felt a particular negative emotion. In some ways giving them an emotional classification. The main issues which people face and hope to be relieved from when reading one of these books is time, anxiety, their love life and the issues of balancing their work life with their personal life. The project has been on-going for several years and recently Lucy Schofield has yearned to expand the project into other cities and countries. She has began to make strides in achieving this goal by touring with her artist’s book library in a Citroen H Van a distinct vehicle with a heritage of supplying bread and clothes to rural French communities since the 1950’s as mobile shops. The vehicle is really suitable for the campaign as Lucy’s idea consists of people actually sitting in the vehicle and being able to read their ‘prescription’ in a comfy setting, engaging people significantly. I thought this was a really interesting project and one which I felt reflected Lucy’s passion for reading books, libraries and connecting with different people.

The second speaker was Garlon Cheung from the digital agency ‘Reading Room’. He spoke about his passion for motorbike racing and how he incorporated play into his life to inspire his work. He took part in the Anglesey ‘Tracmon’ race which is an 8 hour day of racing, however Cheung explained within five laps of the race he broke down. The team at Reading Room had gone to support the Chief Engineer in the race and even made themselves a pit stop team. When the bike came off the track they worked collaboratively to try and get the vehicle up and running again. Cheung explained that through ‘playing’ it helped the team learn, create and achieve things they wouldn’t have done otherwise, demonstrating that its good to enjoy different experiences. The team at the ‘Reading Room’ came across as fun and exciting and gave a down to earth presentation of their personal project which they enjoy outside of work.

Hannah Leighton-Boyce was a recent MA graduate from The Manchester School of Arts after studying a textile degree. Her work resembles experiences of time and the creation of space. Her work focuses on moments of encounters which represent the unseen thoughts, through the suspension of pauses. She explores the multi sensory responses to a site or space, exploring how to make visible those moments.

 

Matt Kendall, the owner of the agency ‘Retrofuzz’ spoke about his passion for cycling and how he produced some artwork following ‘Bradley Wiggins’ victory in 2012 Dauphine Libere as well as the excitement he’s created for his chances of winning the ‘Tour de France’. The project was something Matt Kendall produced one evening whilst messing around on his computer. He uploaded the image onto Twitter and got a fantastic response so decided to create t-shirts with the design printed on them. The project grew and grew with people requesting other merchandise a car sticker was even made which was seen on the aerial view shots from the helicopter capturing the race.  As it was a personal project all the money Matt Kendall raised went to the Christies Young Oncology Unit. I thought this was a fantastic project and brilliant that all the money raised went to a good cause. It shows the power of social networking and word of mouth.

A photographer named Seba Kurtis produced images which were relevant to his own personal experience of an illegal immigrant. He lived for five years illegally until he married a young girl and was able to stay in the country. He documents people crossing the different boarders of countries, hiding and vehicles and finding other ways in.

Kurtis was recently commissioned by Fotografia Europea Italia, Vita Comune to produce a series of pictures called ‘Thicker Than Water’. The art is inspired by the detention systems that the UK Border Police offices use such as the heartbeat human detector to capture people illegally trying to enter the UK. The focus is on lorries’ chassis, which enter ports in the UK. The lorries contain very sensitive software that detect a human heart rate within 30 seconds of somebody entering the lorry. Kurtis used very long exposures and then scanned the film into a computer. He then pushed the levels up to reveal an image of an immigrant. The metaphor was to detect the non-visible information of the film sheets. In contrast are also some sharper images, which were positioned along side the more abstract ones to show the illegal immigrants that are known to the UK police and are undertaking steps to gain the right documentation to work in the UK.

Seba Kurtis’ presentation was one of my favorites of the day. I studied photography at A-level and felt as though I couldn’t be as creative as I’d like and the reason I didn’t pursue it further, however photographer like Seba Kurtis completely proved that notion wrong and he creates meaning through different exposures and techniques in Photoshop. A really interesting story depicted in an imaginative and truthful way.

Overall I felt ‘Show and Tell’ was an excellent way to get into some of the creative minds currently working in the UK and to understand what helps to inspire them. I thought it was very engaging and it shows how something that can start off as quite small can become a big idea.

 

Raaib Shaws

I visited the new exhibition of Raaib Shaws work at Manchester Art Gallery. When you walk through the entrance, the colour and vibrancy of his work really hits you. His work is intricately detailed and delicately designed to create elaborate works of art. He uses radiant colours, semi- precious stones and a meticulous jewel and enamel techniques used to create hybrid creatures, floral and fauna and populate his images. Reflecting ornate style from Persian miniatures and Kashmiri textiles. Older masters such as Holbein and Bosch inspire them. The images which depict dark violence marry Shaws’ personal history and ancient myths and religious tales from Eastern and Western traditions. One of my personal favourites was his interpretation of the ‘Cheetah And The Stag With Two Indians’ homage to the original creation by George Shubb. Please see the images I took from the exhibition. I’d recommend anyone to go and see it. The detail is exquisite and you could spend hours looking at just one of his creations.

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Exhibition- Focal Points

Another exhibition, which was being shown at Manchester Art Gallery, called ‘Focal Points’  explored Pop Arts lead in adopting the aesthetics of the everyday, commercial, incorporation of photography as conceptual art in the late 1960s and 70s. Artists produced rough and ready photographs and placed them alongside language as a means of expression. Early artistic movements pioneered the use of photography. I really enjoyed this exhibition as it felt quite intimate, some of the photographs on display were very personal, which really got you emotionally engaged in the exhibit. One of my favourite images was by Richard Billingham from his ‘Rays Of Laughs’ collection published in 1996. The images were taken off his father who was a chronic alcoholic, who never left the house and existed purely on potent homebrew. The photo is a not only tragic, depicting a portrait of poverty shown by his living conditions, but also had comic value because of the odd drunken pose of his farther. It shows you an insight into his dysfunctional family.

An image by Sarah Jones was also very interesting. The image is a full body shot of two adult men. Her photograph allows you to look at someone we don’t know for a long duration of time, which in reality would most probably make you feel uncomfortable and be unacceptable creating an intimacy with the viewer and the image.

Another image which intrigued me was by Nigel Shafran called ‘Seatless Chair’ which shows an image of his father’s empty office. The image leads you to wonder what happened to his father and whether he is dead or alive. The photographer wanted to convey what we leave behind as humans. Shafran explains ‘I wanted it left quite open… I didn’t want to spell out entirely what it meant to me’ I like photographs which allow you to relate to the image in your own personal way.

Ingrid also contributed to the exhibition with ‘Pastoral Interlude No5’ which documented herself as a black British woman exploring the English countryside. In the series of images she uses herself as the subject posing for the camera whilst hiking and fishing. She prints the images in a tinted color effect and then adds accompanying text about black history the stark opposite to the image. Pollard said about her work ‘It’s as if the black experience is only lived within an urban environment. I though I like the Lake District where I wondered lonely as a black face in a sea of white.’

Overall the photography exhibition turned out to be one of my favourites of the day. I personally really enjoy photography which documents personal experiences which is why I’ve discussed these particular images.

Exhibition- Dreams without Frontiers

One thing, which I feel I have learnt over the course of my degree, is to look at other artists work, whether it’s browsing through a book or visiting an exhibition. To see is to be inspired!

I recently took a trip to Manchester and visited the Manchester Art Galley. There I viewed an engaging exhibition called ‘Dreams Without Frontiers’ this consisted of two artists work, the New York artist Kelley Walker and Paris born, but Berlin based ‘Cyprien Gaillard’.  It also contained related work from Andy Warhol, New York studio ‘The Factory’ and references to ‘Panic’ by the Smiths. Both artists reflect Manchester’s influence in their work through the music created in the city during the pop-punk era. They were  inspired by the Buzzcocks first single ‘Through The Fall’, the career and death of Ian Curtis and music from the Smiths. Neither artist had ever visited Manchester before which shows how music from different parts of the world can influence you. This also makes for an interesting exhibition to see how people perceive Manchester to be. In the late 1970s, when people were beginning to feel estranged from politics, local culture and light entertainment, people began to develop an interest in other cities, more specifically New York and Berlin. Ian Curtis was one of these people who had a particular interest in Berlin and also Warsaw which was made popular by David Bowie releasing the song ‘Warszawa’.

In the 1970s, New York was virtually bankrupt but yet was still seen as attractive to artists around the world. The artists involved in ‘Dreams Without Frontiers’ were most probably inspired by films such as Manhattan and Mean Streets as well as music, giving British artwork a sense of New York. Studios such as ‘The Factory’ owned by Andy Warhol gave inspiration to artists and had some sort of mythical status.  Some of the music legends growing up in Manchester had dreams they wanted to fulfill in places like Berlin and New York. The way in which Manchester’s music scene became iconic made way for people living abroad to create music and art which was inspired by Britain. This is really what gives weight to the exhibition.

Kelley Walkers work is complex with multi layered textures being inspired by art history and the visual language of advertising and mass media publications. His work expresses dissemination, sociality and authenticity, built from the different analogue and digital technologies evolving. His work shows his personal interest of record sleeve design and the work of Peter Saville as well as suggesting a link between the song ‘Panic’ and the AIDs panic which was present in the 1980s.

Cyprien Gaillards work is three and a half minutes of film depicting a modern ruin on a New Jersey shoreline, has resonance in this city and worldwide. His film depicts the post-industrial landscapes when warehouses were empty and derelict factories which appeared to conclude the end of the 60s utopian dream.  Juxtaposition these images with the song lyrics of the Smiths ‘Asleep’ single it somewhat seems quite romantic and gives way to a totally different interpretation. The film is like a kaleidoscope of everyday images reflected on window panes, the film could have been produced anywhere. As a viewer you just don’t know a reflection of the late twentieth century urbanism. Manchester’s presence, appearance and spirit is contradicted by its escalating extinction, crushing dreams of it residence in a meeker outlook on its future. Manchester’s buildings also reflect this such as the Piccadilly Plaza and the CIS tower, they resemble the fading dreams of grandness in ready-made society aesthetics on a thousand photo shoots. His work investigates the international legacy that twentieth century iconography has had on the cities dreamers, artists and writers.  Landscapes such as New York, London and Paris continue to inspire people but the exhibition focuses on looking at how the northern Manchester landscape does this too. From the exhibition it became clear that Manchester was more about the people rather than the landscapes. It’s the inhabitants’ characters and passion for their city. It’s the vibrancy of its workaday grit attitude which compels people to be inspired.