On Thursday morning I received an email from some admin/student girl from my course...Interactive Arts stating that a new exhibition was opening at the second Mooch gallery in Manchester. This was is situated in the Northern Quarter alongside Oldham Road. This was a show by Faunagraphic and Rocket01, a collective from Sheffield who specialises in Fine Art/Graffiti located in old derelict places such as factories, offices, cinema, et-cetera.
I gather the email/msg come to us because I have devised a Facebook page under the moniker of [dereliction duty collective]. It's a page dedicated to crumbling architecture, dereliction and decay in general. I have a project in mind regarding this environment, some are in a state of symbiosis but, I am finally coming to the near end...
So, I trotted off to Manchester on Friday evening and after stalking my way through the Northern Quarter, actually found the gallery. To be honest, I wasn't really taken with the work I did see on the walls. With the description I read in the MSG, it would be rough and tactile and raw, these pieces were very nice. I tried to find the bar and found that no alcohol present, only fizzy pop. They had some printing guys making and selling [for one night only], screen-printed teeshirts. I wanted one but, they weren't able to do one that I wanted...they didn't have red ink or something.
Past the tee-shirts I went and then saw the artwork that made my trip over to MCR worthwhile, the image above. They did three off these and this one is my favourite. Like, I said above, they find derelict sites and spray site-specific artwork, photograph them and when the times come, they are erased as the buildings come down. I really like this concept and after looking and thinking about what I was seeing, I bumped into one half of the collective, Roket01, and generally, gave him an interview.
We talked about the grey area and legalish information and the process of creation of their artworks. the selection and recon mission of the location, the set-ups and final output. I told him about my plans and projects and the fact that I'm going to curate an exhibition about graffiti and dereliction and also the fact that I wanna do it in a derelict site with site-specific sculpture and performance. He was eager with what I was saying and in turn I got some really good advice and information from him.
There is a collective in Germany called WWW.IBUg-ART.DE. This group are guying near Reelane, Germany who are given a space by their local council and allowed to have a three-day art festival involving street art, graffiti and all within derelict sites. I've already been on the website and really want to go this August...I just need some bodies to come with me... They are doing exactly what I want to do n I have retained this Roket01 guy as a FCBK contact and hopefully I can do something with his collective and the IBUg people.
After a week and a bit off from doing any artwork, I have returned to the painting I started a couple of months back. It's based on the derelict theme and thoughts on site-based work and also paintings by Sean Caherty and Pollock. I am only using two-three colours, Black, White and a little Re. This is my favourite colour selection, a little green at times but only briefly. The paintings are small scale at the moment, I think they are A2. I could see these Rothko-cathederalesque in size.
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