- Venue
- In Certain Places
- Location
- North West England
In the Shops Now! 30th July -26th August St. John’s Centre, Lancaster Road, Preston.
During July three North West artists were given the opportunity to occupy empty shop units in Preston’s St John’s centre and pursue individual projects with an aim to engage the local population. The results of these residencies are now on show in the centre throughout the month of August and is far from the ‘happy-clappy’ socially engaged art that sometimes creeps in when the public and the art world meet. This is thoughtful contemporary art that is engaging to the public but doesn’t patronise, it has a take it or leave it attitude, but with a ‘we would rather you take it because we would like you to be involved attitude.’
Martin Hamblen
Heuristic
Meaning “serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation. Or encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error.” 1 (Wikipedia)
Definitely when you talk to Martin he does not give a lot away. He wants the audience to make their own minds up about what it is he doing and to join in and discover by means of play.
Martin is playing a ‘nine to fiver’, not in an office but in a shopping centre. Sitting in front of his shop contemplating the act of working, methodically, meditatively wrapping black and yellow hazard tape very neatly around lengths of wood. Once completed, he gets up, walks towards the rear entrance past all the other units and back into the shop through the rear. He is building a tunnel. Or is he?
The more lengths of wood he stacks together the more they are beginning to resemble some sort of dwelling, a tent, or even a burial barrow.
An electric toy digger is inside on the floor, it’s controls accessible to passers-by via the letter box. A small boy kneels down to play with it. Children’s white-boards are placed outside displaying their magnetic alphabets. Signs with slogans and two glowing world globes. A video loop of the ‘Great Escape’ is playing in the background. Steve McQueen is repeatedly throwing his baseball whiling away the days in the ‘cooler’. Again the reference to meditation and the state of mind needed to keep ones sanity while passing great swathes of time. Play turning work or incarceration into something less irksome or potentially less damaging.
A sound track accessed by headphones outside keeps asking the question ‘what’s he building in there? What’s that tune he’s always whistling? We have a right to know?’
Lots of stuff and lots of questions; Work or incarceration? Art or escapism? Tunnel or tent? It all depends on your mind-set. You will have to see it for yourself if you want any answers.
Teresa and Dominique Hodgson-Holt
Red
At first glance the ex-café looks like a mad charity shop specialising in nothing but red clothes. In fact that is what most of the passing shoppers think it is and drop in wanting to buy something. But once inside Theresa & Dominique, themselves immaculately dressed from head to toe in shades of red, invite them to dress up, go for a pre-designated walk around Preston, have a cup of coffee in the market square, and come back. All this sounds pretty simple on the surface but once tried for yourself the whole experience takes on a different slant.
Inside everything is either hung or nailed to the walls creating a gallery of garments and the old food-display-fridge is wittily full of shoes and hats. From amongst these I chose a long silk dress with a ruffle neck, long chiffon scarf matching shoes and a flower in my hair. Now I have to say, I have not bought or worn a dress in nearly ten years so I was already feeling a bit daunted, but once dressed up by the girls I felt lovely and the eye catching red made people stare and I don’t think it was for my winning looks. I set out with another woman and her baby in a pushchair. We had never met before but quickly bonded as suddenly we were now complicit in this performance. We both noticed how people looked at us but rarely said anything. Lots smiled, we were cheering people up. We felt transformed, our discarded uniform of jeans and jumper were drab in comparison. I enjoyed myself and what’s more I went out a few days later and bought myself a dress.
The climax of the event on Saturday 1st August was a gathering of returning participants to create a ‘flash-mob’ of red walkers. Around 25 people marched single-file through the streets and shopping arcades and finally all sat in the square under the coffee vendor’s gazebo. It was at this point that I noticed that we were becoming intimidating and in even larger numbers I am sure would have taken on a more sinister edge.
Theresa and Dominique appear to be taking their lead from the Situationists and this ludic performance has much weightier undertones that carries it far beyond a mere dressing up game.
Leo Fitzmaurice
Archigraph
When I thought Leo’s work had the title, Archigram, I nearly got carried away with ideas of the link with the avant-garde 60’s architectural group of the same name whose futurist works inspired architects Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Future Systems. But it turns out this title is a typo of sorts and should read Archigraph creating a fusion of architecture and graphic design. I suppose one shouldn’t get hung up about titles but I think I prefer the Freudian slip, although this doesn’t in any way alter the quality of the work.
Leo has transformed his shop front and doorway into a multi-coloured Mondrian-esque/De-Stijl inspired stained-glass window with colourful interlocking blocks of vinyl. The effect is stunning when back-lit, which it is at night, and still pretty groovy during the day when the local bingo goers stand in front of it for their fag breaks. The bold graphics alter our perception of the architecture of these bland 60s shop units and Leo himself sees ‘these shop windows as a point at which the the structure of a building dissolves into the design of a brand.” 2 (BS1 Project Birmingham 2008)
I asked the bingo crowd what they thought of it and their response came out positive, they enjoy it and don’t question at all what it is, it is colourful and that is good enough for them. The taxi-rank in front has witnessed it’s full production and one of the local drivers was so impressed watching Leo at work he took a picture to put on his website.
I think the projects have been extremely successful, some obviously engaged the public more than others but since the artworks are still on show who knows how these interventions will continue to change peoples perceptions and brighten the shop-world around them?
