ARTISTS TALKING

# 21 [14 January 2009]

Risky....

Looking at these works requires a shift of perceptions. Like when you look at an optical illusion.. I keep thinking how they will be in the gallery – certainly Joe and William have been considering this. Both have experience of working in community settings. William has created his construction with the space in mind and will change the configuration of the elements for the gallery. Joe’s piece will be the same and so he’s risking having to re-make if there is damage. But something tells me that the work will survive…When we arrived to reccy last week, there was a wooden sculpture of two birds, carved from an old tree stump. The staff of the centre had put a cordon around it – one of those silver post and thick black cordon tape things they have to heard people through customs had been arranged closely around the sculpture. I do hope they don’t put that around Joe’s work- but then again perhaps it would add something…

# 22 [14 January 2009]

Arriving at the Town Hall I cant believe the amount of equipment and furtniture that Hafsah has single handedly moved from the top floor studio to the sculpture Hall. We set to work creating blackout for the windows. By the time the work is set up the following day I am delighted with the result. Hafsah’s vision of a domestic transformation is complete, though she hasnt been able to try out the completed work till now. As a viewer I am transported to the participants living rooms whilst surrounded by the forefathers and the array of Capitalists with whose money Manchester was built. The range of subjects covered by the talking heads is wide and far reaching. Culture in its richest senses – the experience of all of us mediated by television and our own circumstances in relation to it… Cultural soup for the soul! Plus an old friend of mine, Craig, unbeknown to me has become a participant and his natural TV presence is so engaging and funny that I end up watching for ages. Back to the black out!

Logisticaly this is the trickiest piece to look after – needing to be switched on at 9 and then off and of course the heat generated by all those Tvs is quite significant! All were PT tested, I just hope they don’t fail…..all are old fashioned analogue Tvs and everyone is switching over to digital now so Hafsah had no trouble getting donations as technology and time moves on.

The last work to be installed is Andrew’s board game ‘The Connections” It looks like monopoly with all kinds of detailed and delicate playing pieces precariously balanced. Its shown in Hulme at the Zion Health and Resource centre. Tucked away in a corner of the reception. The game is a bit of a let down and so what you are left with is a slightly impenetrable and confusing but colourful conundrum….

# 23 [2 February 2009]

The exhibition for two weeks in community settings came to and end last weekend.
The time went so quickly that I didn’t have enough chances to stay in all of the venues to see the work in place and gauge how people responded, so I am reliant on feedback coming from the venues and individuals - If anyone did manage to see anything, do let me know - contact me via one-and-all.org.

What I’ve been doing is as I understand it quite different. Its not been about engaging people in the process of making art – so it goes against all the rules of community arts or participatory projects that these venues are familiar with and have come to expect. I didn’t leave a whole lot of information to read about the work – just some basic info about the project and a few lines to explain each artists approach - perhaps the kind of thing you'd find in a gallery. The map/guide had more text and some context. So the idea of an “experiment” was an apt one. How would people respond to a piece of contemporary art appearing in their places (though they are public places too) and importantly how would a contemporary art audience react to the work in those places. The works weren't site specific either. But certainly the sites added something to the work I believe.

What was I trying to do? On the one hand, the aesthetic experience of the places seemed an untapped issue. How did community practice (lets use that term instead of regeneration) actually look and feel. And what would placing these art works in those contexts do to the meaning of the work. And would the work mean anything to the people passing by - do we perhaps do people a dis-credit by assuming they need to be spoonfed their culture? Perhaps people are more sophisticated than some may like to think..

# 24 [2 February 2009]

A mixed bag of people – students, artists, community arts practitioners, curators, academics, community workers and volunteers and one person from the Transport network piled onto community transport minibus, driven by Mark - thanks Mark. They were given a whistle stop tour of the route and the artworks. Architectural critic Phil Griffin was on board to make the journey more entertaining and informative about Manchester’s varied regeneration with added historical and contemporary anecdotes.

Cultural Tourism. Was there any connection between the lives of the people on the bus and the lives of the community centres. Questions were asked about the centres and I know that some people were certainly on the lookout for opportunities to create stronger connections between their own work in the arts or academia and wider society. Perhaps learning about the places would increase their own cultural capital? One passenger from Manchester International Festival had just arrived in Manchester and found the tour a good way to get an overall view of the city – visiting neighbourhoods she’d never have known about otherwise and she told me that taking part in something small and obscure(!) like this was where she would really learn about the city and what artists were doing out there.

Cilla Baines from the long established and very successful Community Arts North West wanted to replicate the idea of a tour, one that would re -visit key sites and places where community arts projects around Manchester have occurred, recognising the historical significance of that area of practice to the city.

At each place, the tour group created more interest in the work itself from passers by. The fact of 15 or so people crowding around the art works drew people over, like a mini version of the art world generally I guess – what are they looking at, it must be something important?. People asked questions about the work – what was it for, what was it about – the usual questions. Particularly in Wythenshawe – a suburb that was built on the principals of a garden city – and detached from the rest of Manchester by the M56 – someone asked – so is this about Wythenshawe? Well not exactly, but then again yes…the people represented on Joe Richardson’s socio-organi-gram of CN4M and it’s environs 2008 may well have an effect in this isolated, yet self contained community and he's showing how they connect with others.

At any rate Joe’s piece may have had more relevance than the chainsaw carved tree trunk of two birds on a log that it had replaced  two weeks earlier – and despite a few cracks in one of the fragile gold leafed pasting tables, where presumably someone had leaned a little too hard on the work, no further damage was reported to any of the works. And unlike the carved log, we didn’t put a cordon around anything!

# 25 [15 February 2009]

Trying to get everyone together is quite a task. Everyone is busy all the time, myself included. Friday evening I got a big piece of cheese and some bread and set up a laptop with the photos taken by Shaw&Shaw and an interesting piece of writing that has come my way about the I dont know about community networks etc show…..(more please!) As I made the tea, the texts and calls started to roll in as it seems for various reasons that Friday 13th was jinxed and so the meeting ended up between just Jil and I - which was fine. We talked about collective consciousness and what that might mean and whether individuals are enabled by some overall natural support mechanism, whether we influence that through democracy…or if its out of our control. I managed to get through most of the cheese myself!
I had a lovely exchange of e.mails on Friday with Jo Lewington, still in India, who had come up with a title for her work “Father on the right, Mother on the left” which gives a whole new layer to the work, a film made with workers in a factory.
As the works begin to gather a life around them, – they’ve been seen and commented upon which changes in a way some of the understanding of it, I am trying to think again about the practicality of the works coming together and what will it all say then. Here the ideas within the project are emerging . Something is taking shape, the relationship between the works – and the individual pieces – Trying to think is the operative word - I feel like I'm on  a steep curve - like I should be on top of it, but something else keeps unfolding - I love it. Time to think however,is at a premium at the moment.
Yesterday, to clear the mind I tried to go sailing at the  Debdale club (run by the local council just in case you suddenly got the wrong image) – but the lake is still frozen, with bits of old cars and planks on it and it has a big fence around it so that no one drowns.

# 26 [23 February 2009]

this is how it feels!!

# 27 [23 February 2009]

this is how it feels!!

# 28 [2 April 2009]

Its Here! 

The show is here…..
Apologies for not updating this blog for ages…I Hope you can get along and see it !
Its all happening NOW… TODAY the show opens tonight 6-9pm... along with 5 other big shows in Manchester, so hopefully the audience wont be too drunk by the time they arrive at Castlefield!! – the sun is shining, spring is here and I’m feeling apprehensive. In the gallery there’s no hiding..

Putting the work into a gallery has been a fascinating process – whilst carrying in my mind all the practicalities of the community based show and the issues we dealt with there, the set of challenges in the gallery is altogether different – obviously!

The luxury of working at Castlefield, with a great technician to help with things, with enthusiastic volunteers and supportive yet challenging curators - it has been a new and exhilerating experience! Most of my projects have been non-gallery based, where people may not have time or be be all that bothered about your work. The Luxury of spending all afternoon positioning lights, weighing things up, discussions about placement of things, trying it out for several days….and playing with the ideas with other artists has been good. I’m learning all the time..and one of the big things I ve learnt is that you dont really know the work till its all there together and how it works - if it works- as a group show. So now it’s a show and what will it say?…..more soon
 

# 29 [8 April 2009]

get over yourself!! 

I think I have now got over myself! After the wonderful summer’s evening enthusiastic reception the exhibition received at the opening last Thursday and the fact that I had so much support from Castlefield Gallery staff making everything run so smoothly (as I keep saying, as a freelance curator one gets used to DIY) I’m now thinking about the exhibition again.

Certainly, standing back and looking at the work, in a formal way, was really exciting part of the curating process – and it’s the nature of the gallery space that this becomes so much more important – if not the main consideration.
The viewpoint in relation to the space, the positioning of works in relation to each other…. There are practicalities – like light, wall conditions, new build of walls and electrics to consider as well as the purely aesthetic considerations and making sense of the ideas in the show.
 

# 30 [8 April 2009]

the show - part1

Actually, one of the best things was that all these factors, for myself at least, began to create a new physical and emotional narrative in the exhibition. Starting upstairs in a light-hearted spirit with Wilson’s games, set out on three makeshift tables, complete with un-reformed community centre chairs (direct from St Lukes). The brightly coloured and intriguing boards invite play, puzzling over instructions, and for those in the know, laughter! Its like a new toy at Christmas that didn’t quite live up to expectation and all the bits end up on the floor as you abandon it for something more satisfying….On the wall the map of the community based show is preserved on the ubiquitous community exhibition material of choice, foamboard, hinting at the previous life of these works.

A lone painting hanging in the corner of the space, overhanging the balcony, shows a gable end and a glimpse of New East Manchester. Grennan & Sperandio’s first painting shows its blank face and invites you to peer over the balcony, down to Joe Richardson’s sweep of red wallpaper and its partner, the “lining paper of regeneration”, laid out on its golden pasting tables.