miss niblock goes to the degree shows...

last weekend was surely one of the busiest in the art tarts calendar for quite some time - whilst i was attending atranspennine08 on friday evening there was also a castlefield preview in full swing as well as the manchester metropolitan art and design degree shows launch night.

the degree shows are always worth a peek - sad as i was to miss the opening night i certainly wasnt going to miss out altogether, so i ventured into the holden gallery and the warren of buildings around the park that make up the art department next day. my favourite companion mr stillingfleet accompanied me and we made a splendid afternoon of it...

interactive arts had some meticulous and gorgeous work this year and as a collection was probably the most consistently impressive - amy davies' ladybird installation has to be a highlight, a whimsical detailed labour of love,

whilst surreally and mindbogglingly wonderful was contanimation by harry shotton and gavin sodo.
next door was the eerily beautiful aural and visual masterpiece wallpaper music by molly macleod, like contanimation obsessive in its attention to detail and atmosphere.

there was a noticeable museological turn across all design courses, with cabinets of curiosity, taxidermied animals, found objects, vintage storage boxes and a plethora of books and bibliographies - books scavanged, books transformed, books metaphorically and physically dissected. mr stillingfleet put it down to the combined might of mark dion's installation at the manchester museum and two brilliant years of the alchemy project!

equally 'just a tiny amount' nick park-style with its intricacy and peculiarity was nadine patterson's series of minute models depicted in action on a multitude of postcard sized films and spookily dismembered and put to bed in a salvaged print block cabinet, that mr s and myself found highly covetable..

moving from building to building and show to show, encountering photography, painting, sculpture, embroidery, ceramics, furniture and jewellary in the boxy 1960's setting of the chatham tower, the high ceilinged spendour of the grosvenor building or its peculiarly spooky cellars is a voyage of discovery, a haphazard journey through the fertile minds of this years newest talent. each year there are themes and ideas that dominate and unexpected delights to savour. just when you think you have a favourite course or a preferred area of interest, something leaps out of leftfield and makes you reassess everything you thought you knew about art, its processes, its ability to infuse all the senses and its impact and influences..

eve bennetts story of birds is a perfect example. on initial examination a quirky study of a ceramic bird, a browse through eve's sketch book and accompanying storyboard reveals a minor tragedy that has become part of her family mythology. a sound recording of the tale behind this beautifully rendered 'murder scene' creates an extra layer of meaning to this highly personal and beguiling installation.

never disappointing, always thought provoking and sometimes sheer genius the degree show is a microcosm of the budding art scene and well worth a visit. degree shows are open to the public, are on every year at institutions all over the country and free of charge...manchester and salford's shows have just finished but there are others to watch out for this year culminating in new designers islington and the fabulous truman brewery showcase on brick lane. dont play safe and wait til these bright young things have become well established -visit a degree show for the sheer vibrant unpredictability. highly recommended...

killing castlefield? journeys through a forgotten urban treasure...

the castlefield basin is the original Mamucium, largest single contributor to the prosperity and growth of manchester, its influence spanning 2 millenia – home of the Roman fort, the world’s first passenger railway station, the Museum of Science & Industry, as well as epicentre of our very own Granada TV!

the transpennine railway was the last element in the economic and industrial infrastructure that gave the region its global importance in the 19th century. the castlefield basin connected the leeds - liverpool canal to this new ‘superhighway’, making the region one of the most densely populated and urbanised places in the world: its network of warehouses, canals and viaducts a vivid palimpsest of the city, its cobbled streets a rich repository of 2000 years of enigmatic lives, escapades and adventures, unknown heroes of the industrial revolution.

until recently hailed as the Jewel of Manchester on the city’s tourist websites, boasting a dedicated Castlefield Visitor Centre and with teams of specialised urban rangers on hand to guide visitors and tend the upkeep of this precious archaeological heritage park, its future seemed secure and bright. bustling with al fresco restaurants, loft apartments in listed warehouses, its own annual carnival and boat rally and a community of narrowboat owners, it was a mini venice or amsterdam, a model for manchester’s cosmopolitan aspirations. now, once again faced with neglect, dereliction and an uncertain future as developers close in and for sale signs proliferate, the shortcomings of similarly acclaimed flagship developments are put under the microscope. the predicament of castlefield is symptomatic of prevailing policies of urban branding and regeneration, effectively taking the cityscape out of the public sphere and into a precarious privatised realm.


for arttranspennine08 i will record my explorations deep into this forgotten treasure - heritage centre, Roman settlement and heart of the transpennine rail-and-waterways, exposing the fragile fortunes of our urban topography on my dedicated blog killing castlefield, an examination of this granddaddy of urban renaissance and success story of the nineties triumphantly designated ‘Britain’s first Urban Heritage Park’.

join me on this journey to explore narratives of the city past and present, interrogating accepted orthodoxies surrounding dominant models of urban renewal. i shall post my photos, my thoughts and itineraries, the things i find out, and the people i meet throughout the length of this summer's exhibition.

follow this link to killing castlefield: http://killingcastlefield.blogspot.com/

artranspennine launch night at manchester's international 3

it’s been a hectic couple of weeks for apartment, the brunswick bluestockings and myself. we each appear to be packing a few months worth of projects into the next 3 weeks…

barely unpacked from our icelandic adventures we have variously been ridiculously busy guiding a group of artist/curators around the berlin art scene and biennale, curating the final stages of the forthcoming artranspennine exhibition, organising an archaeological dig and local history project for a nearby junior school, preparing a psychogeographical walk and writing a paper for next week’s TRIP conference on the pansy project as a de certeauian practice of everyday life http://trip2008.wordpress.com/, and planning a paper / panel discussion for the intersections conference on 7 july in leeds http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/conferences/intersections/.

hopefully we will manage to do justice to all these commitments. hilary and paul have certainly kicked off the challenge with stalwart work in berlin and a fantastic response to artranspennine08…

fresh and grubby from my school dig i managed to get to friday’s preview at the international3 and added my rather too wordy pamphlet to the growing pile of artist’s flyers and ephemera on the table. looking round the gallery i stopped to admire the pencil drawing of the pennine way emblazoned across the whole of one wall rapidly being filled in by participants and was once again struck by the elegant beauty and simplicity of atp08 as a concept.

atp's brief physical incarnation this weekend has been an opportunity to inaugurate and celebrate the exhibition and unite the 60+ simultaneous but locationally separated artworks - a temporary embodiment of its transformed landscape - whilst the projection of the interactive atp08 blog across the opposite wall became a vivid visualisation of the potential and impact of this truly viral experience. from its beginnings as a muscular showcase for regional art institutions, heavily reliant on public funding, artranspennine 08 has transcended gallery dependency and embedded itself into the 'contemporary', the material and metaphorical topography of today's world, requiring only the goodwill, energy and ingenuity of the artistic community to make work that reflects and responds to the everyday and the extraordinary with its myriad challenges and possibilities.

back at the display table i had a little chat with the exhausted duo about the magnitude of the responsibility ahead as it begins to sink in that more than 60 artists have submitted projects and interventions in locations as far apart as liverpool, sheffield and hull, and that the task of processing, publicising and liaising has another 6 weeks to go!

visit atp08 for constant updates, artists of the week and news and reviews as the exhibition unfolds: http://atp08.blogspot.com/