Sketch-O-Matic call for artists
In an age of buy to invest instead of buy what you like, the making of Art has been torn from human hands as mass-multiple prints flood the high street. Instead, the buying of art is seen as rarefied and reserved for a wealthy few. Sketch-O-Matic is a full size photo booth situated in the busy ground floor café-bar at Cornerhouse, Manchester's' international centre for contemporary visual art and film. But where the machinery should be is a tiny, fully equipped artist studio.
You the public are invited to sit inside the booth as if for a photograph and make a donation to an artist through an anonymous slot in return for a self-portrait. Wait five minutes (give or take) and the image will appear in the side wall, accompanied by the warm blast of a travel hairdryer. If you hanker for that still-wet sensation, they may even lick it for you. It could be a pencil drawing, doodle, cartoon, collage or even word-poem. Take it, frame it, consider it. Now you are both patron and muse!
Launching for Art Night on Thursday 24th November until Sunday 4th December 2011. News of additional activity including film screening and Cornerhouse Projects exhibition to follow. Please see booth for timings.
ARTISTS WANTED!
North-West and Manchester based artists are required to join our Sketch-O-Matic rota in one-hour slots. Lunchtime slots (1 - 2pm) and evening slots (6pm - 10pm). We're looking for pencil drawings, pastels, watercolours, illustrators, cartoonists, cubists, doodlers, poets (for word portraits), collage, ink-blot, dried pasta decoupage and just about any zany or straight-laced style you can imagine... as long as it can be dashed off in approximately 5 minutes. There is, I'm afraid, one exception. No caricaturists. We don't want anyone to walk away feeling crappy about themselves because you've managed to exaggerate a slight mole into a volcanic eruption on the scale of Eyjafjallajökull. Please contact bren@cornerhouse.org or via this website if you'd like to take part!
Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention
Miss Suzy P at the NUDE stall
It was a well-attended affair in Victoria Baths, Manchester at the weekend, held within a handsome Victorian swimming palace, now ongoing restoration project and community hub. Both the Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention and FutureEverything Handmade maker fair set up shop to provide a double-whammy, with associated art installations, live performance, screenings and workshops. It’s been a while since I was last in the building and the continuing repairs are looking spectacular.
Zine and print booty
I made the classic mistake of failing to do a full perambulation of the zine stalls, the primary purpose of my trip, before deciding upon what to buy. This meant that I ran out of money by the half-way point, but I still bagged a rich haul of booty in the process. I’m especially pleased with a series of geometric hand-pulled prints from artist Catherine Chialton, the work of local collectives OWT Creative and Ultimate Holding Company, plus the discovery of the waspish and well-written queer zine Pink Mince.
Antony Hall: Physical Oscillators
I sat and chatted with my oldest pal Suzy P (we went to University in Newcastle together, back when Jesus was a lad), who was there to represent her print baby NUDE; an independent magazine she edits with her partner Ian Lowey, covering alt-culture, indie, retro, design, music, comics and a whole lot more besides. I wrote a feature on Lomography for their very first issue. I’m pleased to say she had a great day – check out their exclusive Rachel Ortas Ai Ai creature prints, only a few remaining!
Antony Hall: Physical Oscillators
Over in the Gala Pool, VB Arts hosted an installation by local resident and artist Antony Hall, Physical Oscillators, continuing his research into oscillators to generate sound and visible patterns in a new kinetic artwork. Using the gyroscopic action of motors and fans to create a sensory walkthrough environment reflecting the behavior of small swimming or flying insects, visitors could descend the steps into the dry pool and walk amongst fan assisted blue-blurred pendulums.
Antony Hall: Wave Pendulum
In the antechamber to the café, Wave Pendulum consisted of a series of simple kitchen jars filled with water, lids firmly attached and strung from the ceiling at equal spacing. An invigilator used a plank of wood to push them off in a generous sideswing, following which a morphing waveform emerged that at first appeared ordered, snakelike even, but then increasingly abstracted. It put me in mind of the forthcoming group show Constellations at my new employment, Cornerhouse, which responds to movement, ephemerality and chance, but more on that in another post…
TPYN theatre shots 1 of 3
Charlotte Gould & Hannah Gibson
Charlotte Gould & Hannah Gibson
Laura Barnard
Laura Barnard
TPYN opening night
Image: Paul Greenwood
Some shots of the opening night preview of The People You're Not, which had life mirroring art (at least, the binge-drinking element of our collaborative piece) by breaking venue records for the most bottles of wine consumed at a single gallery opening. Should we be proud? I'll go with yes. Clearly, the lure of free alcohol is magnified in Austerity Britain (TM pending) on a Friday night in January. Like King Canute attempting to hold back the sea, we were deluged. The evening included a live performance from reclusive balladeer and international rock-god Norman Clayture, supported (some might say upstaged), by Imogen Powder on backing vocals and Les Merde on keyboard. Packed? You couldn't run a credit card between butt cheeks, so tightly clenched was the crowd.
Image: Paul Greenwood / left to right: Bren O'Callaghan, Gemma Parker, Hannah Gibson, Laura Barnard, John Powell-Jones, David Bailey.
Image: Paul Greenwood
Image: Paul Greenwood
Image: Paul Greenwood / Norman Clayture
Image: Paul Greenwood / Imogen Powder and Les Merde
Image: Paul Greenwood / Norman Clayture
Image: Paul Greenwood
Image: Paul Greenwood / Les Merde