Reclaim the Night

Will actually write things here later but for now here's a picture of our amazing banner from Reclaim the Night yesterday.

Project:BABE 'Becoming' Exhibition

I'm submitting some work to project:BABE's 'Becoming' exhibition really soon and they asked me to do the launch poster for it too, here's the first version!

More Reclaim the Night things

I helped to organise a placard making workshop for Reclaim the Night with the beginnings of an MMU Feminist society yesterday. Here are some photos that Hebe took of things we came up with! 

We've started making a huge banner as well which should look marvellous. We also talked about creating a writing wall in the union where people could add their thoughts / experiences of sexual harassment and related issues.

Taboo Exhibition

After the Manchester Art Gallery Zine Fair I decided to investigate the Taboo exhibition being held at 2022NQ by other Interactive Arts students. The premise of the exhibition was to explore the notions of 'taboo' within our culture and the pieces covered a diverse range of topics including  sexuality, mental health, feminism and dreams.

piece in centre by Saffina Bhatti

Although I missed some of the more performance based pieces by being at the Zine Fair, I thought they still retained their intrigue after their initial display and were interesting just as abandoned objects or displays. My favourite pieces were the two sculptural works, coincidentally both dealing with issues of feminism, by Saffina Bhatti and Emily Rusby respectively, and the illustrated narrative by Nat Dunning.

by Emily Rusby

There was also a mostly architectural illustration exhibition being held in the room next door which I really enjoyed. They were taken from practitioners from a variety of disciplines and were mostly by graduates from a number of different universities. My favourite piece on display in this room was the comic by Zac Gorman which had a gorgeous use of colour.

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Manchester Art Gallery Zine Fair

As part of their Thursday Lates season, the Manchester Art Gallery recently hosted a Zine Fair presenting work by a variety of different Manchester based artists and groups.

There was a good amount of people selling their art in a fairly diverse range of styles and it was great to see such a huge turnout. It's also exciting to see zines continue to rise in popularity and visibility and starting to become embraced by such prominent authorities as major galleries.

I ended up spending over my budget but I regret nothing! My favourite stalls were Project:BABE, John Allison, Joe List, Sugar Paper Zine, Young Explorer Zine amongst very many more. Here is a rubbish photo of some of the marvellous zines and comics and things that I bought.

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Bacc For The Future

The English Baccalaureate is a "performance measure which recognises the attainment of GCSEs in selected academic subjects". It was first announced by the government in late 2010 and would mean that attainment is measured by GCSEs at grade A* - C in five areas: English, Maths, Science, Languages, Humanities (either History or Geography).

Bacc for the Future is a campaign to renegotiate these current plans so that the EBacc includes a 'sixth pillar of creative subjects' such as Art, Music and Design & Technology and ultimately to save creativity in schools. Creative subjects need to maintain their place as a core part of the curriculum in order to ensure the health of the future creative sector  and to provide children with a rounded and rewarding education.

The link above provides more information and a shortcut to signing Bacc for the Future's petition.

The First Cut

I recently visited Manchester Art Gallery to see their newest exhibition, The First Cut, a showcase of contemporary papercut  art. 

From the Manchester Art Gallery: 

"31 international artists who cut, sculpt and manipulate paper, transform this humble material into fantastical works of art for our stunning new exhibition.

Wonder at giant sculptures inspired by far away galaxies that spiral from the wall, explore a walk-through forest of paper trees and marvel at miniature worlds that explode from vintage staple boxes or emerge from the page of a book. 

Flocks of birds and butterflies cut from maps appear alongside artworks that feature dark fairytale imagery. Guns and grenades fashioned from paper currency and sinister silhouettes comment on social, political and economic issues."

Wuthering Heights by Su Blackwell

Map of my Entire Life by Rob Ryan, his largest single papercut to date

Wonder Forest by Manabu Hangai

Close up of a gorgeous piece which I forgot to record the title / artist for!

I really enjoyed the exhibition and one of my favourite parts was peering into glass boxes which contained tiny paper mountains. The large scale pieces worked really well in the space and gave a nice contrast and juxtaposition to the smaller pieces.

I also really enjoyed the Clore Interactive Gallery which I believe is a fairly recent addition to the Gallery. We spent most of our time lying in the giant kaleidoscope.

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Site project beginnings

From The Lancashire Witches by  John Gilbert

I started thinking about what I'd like to produce / think about for the Site project by first thinking of things nI've been interested in recently, mainly mythology and basic astronomy. I first looked at some pieces of English folklore to see if there were any I felt I could relate to a space around university. I then decided I'd like to be a bit more specific and looked to see if there was any old myths relating to Manchester but I only managed to find a list of old Lancashire folklore. There were a number of interesting stories such as the trials of the Samlesbury witches and mythical creatures such as the 'Gytrash' (ghostly black dog said to haunt quiet roads in Northern England and mentioned in Jane Eyre). None of these really clicked or made me want to look into them further though. Currently thinking of coming up with my own myths to relate to this project, currently thinking of using either a bench or a tree in All Saints Park but I'll see how things progress as I do some more research.

Harry Potter Studio

On Wednesday I went to the Harry Potter studio tour near London and, although very biased as I'm an unashamedly enormous HP geek, it was absolutely brilliant.

Me and my boyfriend on Hagrid's motorbike awyeah

Although the were lots of parts of the museum that I really enjoyed just in a geeky excited way, some of the sections that most interested me and made me want to create were the Creature Shop and looking at the ridiculously detailed sets and props. (I didn't take any of the following pictures!)

Illustration of the Creature Shop (I'm not sure who by!)

Creature Shop

Friendly faces

After visiting I thought I might like to experiment with making some tactile objects instead of just drawing all the time. When I was in secondary school I wanted to study costume or theatre design at university so maybe it's time to dabble in that side of my practice again. I might have a go at creating a few puppets and sets and having a go at stop-motion. I've been dipping into this book on and off recently too and it has some really exciting ideas in it. 

Also, on a pretty unrelated note, I can't mention going to the Harry Potter studio without including a picture of the Hogwarts model, because OH MY GOD.

It's hard to get a sense of scale from just looking at  a photo but this thing is *huge* and absolutely incredible in its detail. My inner twelve year old was crying with joy when I saw this.

Laura Redburn

I've followed Laura Redburn aka Cardboard Cities on Flickr for ages and there is seemingly no end to how gorgeous her amazing collages are. Her colour schemes make me swoon. You can find loads more of her work here.

March at The Whitworth Gallery

After another afternoon of drawing old buildings around the University of Manchester campus, I dropped by the Whitworth Gallery for the first time in a while to see their newest exhibition, Cotton: Global Threads. 

The pieces I most fell in love with were Lubaina Himid's illustrated kangas. 

(The kanga  is a colourful garment worn by women and occasionally by men throughout Eastern Africa. It is printed cotton fabric, about 1.5m by 1m, often with a border, and a central part which differs in design from the borders. Kangas are usually very colorful and commonly feature a message often in the form of riddles or proverbs.) 

I also managed to catch the last couple of weeks of Dark Matters which was wonderful. My favourite pieces included were Paula Rego's super creepy and totally amazing etchings of famous nursery rhymes.