word of the day:part two | idiosyncrasy

idiosyncrasy .. ɪdɪə(ʊ)ˈsɪŋkrəsi

noun (plural idiosyncrasies)
1:a mode of behaviour or way of thought peculiar to an individual
2:a distinctive or peculiar feature or characteristic of a place or thing
3:a tendency, type of behaviour, mannerism, etc., of a specific person

[Greek idiosunkrsi : idio-, idio- + sunkrsis, mixture, temperament (sun-, syn- + krsis, a mixing; see ker- in Indo-European roots).]

Mark Leckey @ Manchester Art Gallery

2008 Turner Prize Winner, Mark Leckey has been asked to show at the Manchester Art Gallery. He has a four week stint where he performs every Thursday at 18:45 using frequencies to interact with a huge piece of industrial metalwork. This piece of sculpture is quite catherdralesque in it's stature. I was impressed intially with the sculptural piece but then the soundwaves happened.

I didn't attend the first preview but as he is doing four shows, I am able to take in what I missed previously. After a search on youtube, I was able to fathom that he has done this particular exercise a decade ago but that doesn't drag away the monumental aspects of this show.

Sound manipulation and sound collage interests me and I like this kind of minimal but yet wholly captivating spectacle. The interact with the monlith and the giant stack of speakers was quite subtle at times but the vibrations from the floor and the sound coming from gaps within the structure was interesting.

The public who gathered to see the show waited patiently and when time came to se the show, we all wandered solemly to the exhibition space. Some people sat down knowing what was to come and some just stood as waiting for a bus. I paced the room wanting to experience the waves of frequencies to awash me.

On the walls are six large letterpressed posters stating the titles of the four pieces that he is playing each week, I definately want one of those although a copy would suffice. But, I DO want an original pressing, would look great in the living room.

In the next room was his piece ..Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore. This is a looped piece of film collage and sound that records the music and dance culture through the Northern Soul scene up to the Acid House days of the late eighties. It is a stunning piece of work and I watched it three times at the venue. I have also watched it several times after the fact and downloaded the sound piece onto the trusty iPod.

So, after the performance I went to the gallery again to ses the spectacle in a more personal way and on a isolated level. The sound piece was a dubplate of various frequencies as on the night he played with various settings, more like a live concert. My return visit was on a Sunday and with a hungover head, I enjoyed the sounds that transpired and echoed around the room.

timbre one and two

Theses are my photographs of the artwork for the Mansion exhibition. I tries to use the wall and it's other structures as part of the whole concept for the piece. The other photographs failed to encapsulate the other points of interest.

word of the day:part one | experiential

A new series in which I introduce a word of the day..this will be an ongoing process that might or might not fizzle out.

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[experiential]

ex·pe·ri·en·tial (k-spîr-nshl)
adj:
Relating to or derived from experience.
ex·peri·ential·ly adv.
adj:
(Philosophy) Philosophy relating to or derived from experience; empirical
experientially adv

Richard Diebenkorn

When I was studying for my A level Fine Art and Printmaking a few years ago, my old grouchy tutor suggested Richard Diebenkorn and Sean Scully to me. He stated that my painting and collagraphy was in the same vein as these two artists. I soon borrowed a huge book based on the Ocean Park series of paintings by Diebenkorn. Needless to say that I think his work is sublime and has been a huge inspiration to me in my creative work. I admire the abstract within his paintings and find the Ocean Park series very fluid. Some people think that they are out of style but I think this adds to the attraction to me. They remind me are ruins and dereliction but in all, they are paintings of bright sunny California.

Review by pronomo of Evolve | Antwerp Mansion + some of the other work

John Lynch | photo by J Lynch


Emma Hardaker | photo by J Lynch


Roushay Homayoun-Fekri | Photo by J Lynch


Joel Moore


Dan Watson


Sonny J Barker



On Saturday 25th February, MMU Interactive Arts students held {EVOLVE}, a night of art and live music at Manchester’s Antwerp Mansion in aid of their upcoming degree show. P:NM’s Art Monkey, ABIGAIL EVERITT was among the exhibition’s attendees:

Anyone who is a part of the Manchester art scene will tell you that art galleries with four white walls are something of the past. These Manchester Met students really gave their already ‘out there’ artwork a touch of character with their charming choice of venue: Antwerp Mansion.

When I first arrived I thought I was on private property. Antwerp’s exterior is completely unassuming, but inside it’s more welcoming than many other exhibition/performance spaces. The house is a piece of art itself, held together by four weathered, over-grown walls with bath tubs of graffiti in its gardens.

Walking through the building, past rooms of live bands and up the stairs to the exhibition space I got my second dose of this artistic dream-house. All of the artists were very welcoming, and half way up the house’s main staircase, one of the artists had chosen to work their art into the house, displaying an animation through a small gap in the wall. This is what I believe bigger galleries really lack in, the ability to make the space part of the art. Things like this are limited to these small but imaginative local shows, which is a huge reason to visit and support them.

In the main area of the exhibition I was pleasantly taken aback by each piece and how each artist had allowed their personality to truly show through their work. Doing an Art degree in Manchester Met myself and seeing the artwork of my fellow students, I would always favour the artists who really captured their own thoughts and feelings of the world within their work. After viewing all of the pieces on show, I felt as though the majority of {EVOLVE}‘s 27 contributors had really explored the depths of their minds, producing some beautiful and creative work which I strongly recommend all Mancunian art lovers to take a look at. I would also like to give a special thank you to contributor, Alex Cussons for personally showing me round the exhibition.

{EVOLVE} really was something else, with fantastic artwork presented in a uniquely charming space. P:NM looks forward to the MMU I.A. final degree show!

Review by Abigail Everitt

review of the Mansion show

At 2pm on a wet Saturday afternoon in February, I found myself hobbling down Rusholme with my art exhibit trying to locate a back street where the Antwerp Mansion is situated. I was hungry, cold and already natty with not enough sleep and ta-dah! I found the venue.

It still looks half derelict, a fact that is sa little trueful and startling evident. My passion is in old and forgotten buildings, dereliction and ruins and so I should love and adore such a location. And yes, I do but the trepidation of such places has the sense of the unknown about them. The pent up emotions of fear and excitment is tantamount to the environment that I have overstepped boundries. Antwerp mansion is such a place, it has become somewhat part of the underbelly of the art and music scene of Manchester and I am surprised in how many of my peers haven't been to this venue before.

The interior hadn't really changed a lot since I last came into the building but when I entered the hall where the pop-up gallery was situated, I was was surprised in the amount of hustle and bustle that was taking place. Most of the artwork was fixed and plinthed and only a small amount of work was needed to finish the wall and floor space. I helped to tidy up the stage, move the sofas to the middle of the room and change a little of the positionings of some work and left the scene.

I came back at 7pm after a bite to eat in the city and began to patrol around the venue. I seem to get a little nervous and embarrassed at such events but with my trusted knitting, I sat down on a sofa and started to knit and drink some scrumpy. Some friends began to turn up and I duly shown then around the exhibition, they gave mixed responses to the artwork that was on show.

At 9pm, I had to work the door and stamp the visitors which was a little bit of a distraction from the proceedings. Earlier, I had a chat with the partner of my tutor at university about the work that I had exhibited and he gave a good response to the piece. He knew the inspirations and contextual backings about the work, we talked a little about Kurt Schwitters and dereliction. I didn't get the chance to speak to my tutor though, as said earlier, I do get a little agitated at such shows.

I was glad that a lot of my uni friends turned up for the event and we had a good old chinwag...my knitting was produced again and a few of the girls started to knit a few rows. It was a little like performance art that justed evolved out of neccessity. It is a little addictive, knitting, a little strange.

Well, the night was fun, I had a giggle, got a little tipsy and had a show at Antwerp Mansion..and survived.

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Thanks to John Lynch for the above photographs

The Link..again

As stated earlier, I asked to be placed within the new Link exhibition entitled [Colour Block the Link]. It is a strange exhibition with cut out butterflies, photocopies and a giant penis with a hovering vagina. Phots will come soon enough.

oblique statement-resist

a week later..


original photograph

I saw this word on a poster that was white-washed by Manchester Council, I think it is a very sombre attempt of breaking out from the shackles of authority.

studio tables

Studio Floor-Start of Degree Project

When the Antwerp Mansion/Evolve project coming to an end very soon, the time for the degree show work to start is imminent. I have decided to concentrate on the minutai of details that we tend to ignore and forget. This work is alot similar to the work that I have done previously but I think my practise is dependant on what we consider as notworthy of our attention. The trash in the streets, the road-side markings and accidentals that we see but ignore are all what I have focussed on.

I am interested in the spatial and colourings of of the street, the different types of tarmac and stone, broken street flags and paving and the colouration of whatever nature has on the efect of corrosion etc.

I am going to take photographs and make pencil drwaings quite intensely, I suppose, at this time and see whatever outcome will give fruit. I am intending to make two large collages made from wood and metal and incorporate neon signage within it though..I am intent on doing this for the final show.

new collage-scanner

A new collage of the two new road-side markings as an exercise in scanner/printer collage..

lino cut artists to research

Dunes IV

Waterfall
Angela Newberry..Australian/English printmaker from Kent. Studied at the RCA.

I chose this artist because I think her work is simplistic and not too clean. I admire the minimal aspects of the two prints above and think the boldness in not adding too much detail is refreshing.

mansion house-revealed..Feniscowles Hall

This house was built in the Georgian era by the Feilden family who bought the land from the Ainsworth family. Both families were influential within the constrains of Blackburn and they have streets named after them. The hall was passed from other families when the Feilden family moved away, the hall started it's decline soon after 1911.

The hall then became a place for functions etc..it also became a place to visit in the spring and summer and to have afternoon teas. This was in about 1930 and further research is needed for more information. As you can see from the photographs, my analysis of the chapel is quite wrong but iwithout prior knowledge, speculation is left to roll.

There is supposed to be a ghost that haunts the grounds called Pepper's Ghost which is intriguing. I still don't know what happened to the building and it's sudden decline though. In 1930 it was still being used as a visitor's centre as stated above and the dereliction is a totality.

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Thanks go to blackburnlad for the images that I have used for this post.

After some discourse with blackburnlad I have been able to fathom that the house was built too close to the rivers and through industrial and organic contaminents, the air became polluted and the house then became inhabitable. Due to tax avoidance, the last owners decided to remove the roofs and this in turn started the decline. It's a shame though, the building was beautiful and would've been a boon to the area.

In some twist of fate, this house has become a natural ruin within a landscaped area in total reversal of the manufactured ruins of the 19th century where landowners created ruins after their soirees into Italy and Greece when on the grand tours.

{evolve} @ antwerp mansion

Antwerp Mansion

As I am going to exhibit within Antwerp Mansions in Manchester this weekend, I decided to make a visit to this rough and ready venue that is located within Rusholme in Manchester. It is a venue for live music and art and is in reality, a disused mansion house that is getting ready for demolishing. Some guy has bought it and is wanting it to be used for art and music. It is very dilapidated and needs a lot of help. It has a cult following and probably looks better at night.

The exhibition is called {evolve} and is for the benefit of the Interactive Arts degree classes really, we have fiver live acts playing through the night which should be good. I am quite intrigued and also a very trepidatious about this project because of the location and possible problems that may arise. There are quite a lot of us there so we may have safety in numbers..

The white painted rectangle in the upper photograph is where I am going to place my assemblage. I am working with light and this will enhance the overall lighting. I have asked to be placed he due to the placement of the white rectangle and because I didn't want my piece to become lost within the ballroom.