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….
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…
Duct Tape or Gaffa Tape – you decide..
I’m in Hurpurhey district centre – B+M stores, Wilkinsons, Mac Donalds, Asda, Subway. A freezing cold day, bitter wind. I rush about from shop to shop and the Primark scandals come back to mind, the cheap goods, the busy shoppers collars up against the bland wind tunnels, out on a Sunday in this rather bleak precinct bring me down to earth. The library seemed like an oasis of enlightenment and education compared to this – and thank goodness for it…. I find a roll of B+M duct tape for £1 which will have to do for now….
text from Joe “aiming to get to the Forum for 4.30 see you there still?”
Now I’m driving down the motorway. Wythenshawe is cut off from the rest of Manchester in that way. Joe told me yesterday that when he’s worked there before he has found people much easier to engage than in the city centre. He says theres a stronger sense of community identity in this self contained place. The precinct is similar to that in Harpurhey – a bleak set of building blocks and big cheap stores.
The Forum is the centre of community facilities . Its like entering a shopping centre, but instead whats on offer are leisure, education and health facilities. Its open late for a Sunday because theres a dancing competition in the public hall. Joe and Jai are here setting up Joe’s work which consists of a set of three gold pasting tables. A long roll of lining paper holds the diagrams that they’ve been perfecting for three days, and on top is a partially unrolled sumptuous red paper roll, as if about to obliterate the lining paper. Kids in sequins with doting parents run through the space, music and applause can be heard from the hall. A few people wander over to puzzle at what we are taking photos of. We find an easel for the interpretation. No title yet for this one though….
Sitting in the centre of the concourse, with the mosaiced floor beneath it and various other art works dotted about in the distance, I actually think this piece works quite well – it almost disappears into the overall setting, but like Jil’s it requires close attention. The security guards are always around to keep an eye on things. Who knows what will happen to such a delicate work. Joe doesn’t hold much hope for it lasting till Thursday and Jai is dreading having to start again on the labour intensive production if it gets grafittied or damaged.
Art – where's it bin?
‘All dun ere, u still cmin down” said the text from William – I reply “can you hang on be there in 20 mins”
Hastily finishing up with Jil at the church, I hot foot it past B of The Bang again through to East Manchester and the modern North City Library. Approaching from a different road this time, I get a proper view of the photo voltaic cels that cover a whole south facing side of the building.
Williams sculptural “monument / water feature”, made with dustbins is sitting like a beacon in the centre of the foyer. The workings are all on view – wires disappear into the ground, there are coloured lights and tinkling water from the umbrella like fountains contained inside the bins. The lids are secured with bungees, colour coded with the lights inside.
Like the stoics they honour, they seem solid, friendly and full of hope. As we are looking at them, a family enter the library; a small girl runs up to one of the bins and extends her arms around it as if to hug it. What a reaction!
As I’m writing now I’m thinking again why the choice of the library was a good one. The library staff have put up the in formation about the building to fit in with our exhibition. It’s a building that creates its own energy – the solar panels etc are all returning energy to the grid and a counter on the wall records how much is being saved. So the work should raise some awareness around the sustainability networks purposes.
A text from Hafsah – “gaffa tape – can u get some?”
placing work in a church…
At St Lukes, where I work anyway, I could print out and mount some interpretation for the venues. The reality of placing one piece of work in each venue is here!
With a set of six paintings, or a dvd on a domestic screen, its one thing. Both these formats fit in well, they are at least a form that the non-arts audience can relate to – and I think the two spaces so far are good.
Jil Moore’s glass triptych is being placed in the church. I found a small old drop leaf table which Jil wanted to use, as people would have to stoop a little to examine the works. The objects are made up of found glass elements; bowls, jars and ornaments which together create a kind of futuristic architectural model. Inside these transparent constructions are found translucent photographs showing images of individuals during the rush hour. In one piece, a small boy with his rucksack is contained in a small glass bubble, floating in water. As condensation gathers in the container a micro climate is formed and the boy is carried around the bowl imperceptibly. The work stands on a mirror tile surface, reflecting the viewer and creating light and reflections. It’s a piece that demands close examination. Yet from the entrance to the church it looks like part of the church furniture – some sort of chalice or over-sized holy water containers sitting together in a cluster, part of some ancient religious ceremony. It was an unexpected result of placing this work here.
Rachel, someone who attends St Lukes Art Project (one of my other projects) liked the work – when I talked about what the idea behind it was, she said “Yeah, its really good – but only some people who might think about things in that way, you know, being part of something bigger, but a lot of people just go to town and do their shopping”
