Four finished back in Feb and Subject to Constant Change finishes tomorrow (24th March) so this post is a bit late for those of you who may like to have seen these exhibits after reading this post and for that I apologise. I hope you'll enjoy reading about them anyway.
Four
This exhibit featured brand new commissions from UK based artists.
The first piece we noticed upon entering the gallery was Nicola Ellis' Peragro (pictured below).
The next thing to catch our eyes was Kate Sully's 'Culture' pieces. These consisted of 3 giant petri dishes- 2 on the walls and 1 on the floor- filled with all sorts of wierd and wonderful things 'growing' out of them. The blurb said-
Kate Sully has created a giant petri dish whose ‘cultures’ – made from printed fabric, wiring and other found objects – suggest organic formations like coral and lichen.
Personally, I think they looked like a Primary school class art project! Two are visible in the picture below. Not my bag of beans at all.
There was also a wardrobe by Liz West. The blurb for this said- Liz West’s colour drenched installation features a never-ending landscape of bright objects encased inside a reclaimed wardrobe. Beams of light will invite you to look inside as they seep out of the wardrobe’s open doors into dark surroundings.
In reality this was an old rickety wardrobe, in a dark corner of the gallery, whose doors were open ever so slightly. When one peeped inside there was lots of bright, neon green paper being reflected by a mirror. It wasn't even that an impressive an optical illusion- it looked very 2D inside that wardrobe! A rather confusing and pointless piece.
The exhibition did, however, feature another high note to go alongside Nicola's paddlestone creature, and that was Tristram Aver's 'The Chase Parts 1- 3'. The blurb for these superb pieces said- Tristram Aver has reinterpreted Richard Ansdell’s 19th century oil painting The Chase using Internet found imagery and cultural and commercial iconography to create an altered view of contemporary Britishness and urban living.
An accurate description at last, these paintings were the best thing in the exhibit.
I honestly could have looked at these all day- I really liked them. They were fantastic- extremely uncomfortable to look at, but at the same time compelling due to the bright colours and dark subject matter. They spoke to me and Chris of civic unrest, anger, political and topical issues and hinted at blood and death, with all that running paint! We both agreed that having one in your living room would probably give you a sense of unease! Art that can do that, that can speak to you, make you see things within it- a message/ theme/ feeling/ atmosphere, make you feel a specific way- that is good art. I hope to see more Tristam Aver in the future.
Subject to Constant Change Rosa Barba
In gallery 2 we were confronted by a multiple projector installation. The noise was incredible. The purpose was to project handwritten scrawls on to the gallery walls, which naturally changed at varying intervals. This piece was supposed to be reminiscent of a musical composition or choir- but it certainly didn't come across like that to me! It felt eerie and ominous. The fragments of text didn't seem to be conveying any particular message (or didn't appear to be doing so to me! they probably were) which served to further give the impression of something unfinished or left in tatters.
Gallery 3 housed Barba's most recent film installation. Well, it housed part of it- the other part being shown at the Turner Contemporary. The part we saw was 12 minutes long and was primarily shot in Manchester, inside the former Methodist mission Albert Hall. There are some external shots too which had been filmed in Kent, notably Margate. The film shows a bunch of people within the Albert Hall (a stunning building, by the way) performing strange, almost ritualistic actions inside the hall (which was in a very derelict state). The group assembled debris from within the building, appeared to be doing 'group' exercises or acting warm up exercises, auctioning off old radio equipment etc. No one spoke directly during the film, all dialogue is was voice over but attributed to different characters featured within the film. It seemed to me as if an apocalypse had occurred and these were some of the survivors, banded together and trying to recreate society amongst themselves. The voice overs talked of sleeping arrangements, as if everyone there was going to be staying and sleeping, and democracy or establishing the 'order of things' as if these had ceased to exist. The shots of an empty Margate theme park and desolate seascape shots only emphasised this feeling of desolation. But I could be totally wrong, that's just how I interpreted the film! Poignantly, the film was shot on one of the last available shipments of Fuji celluloid stock.
If you fancy paying a visit to the Cornerhouse you can plan your trip by using their website http://www.cornerhouse.org. The Cornerhouse is easily accessible from Manchester's Oxford Road rail station or within walking distance of buses and trams that stop at Piccadilly Gardens (the tram will take you all the way to the library- even closer). In fact, you can visit both Manchester City Art Gallery and the Cornerhouse in one afternoon- they are so closely situated together. The Cornerhouse is free to enter and also houses a cafe and art house cinema.
