Bren O'Callaghan » installation

Sketch-O-Matic call for artists

bren — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:56:32 +0000

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

bren — Sun, 15 May 2011 12:53:07 +0000

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 3 of 3

bren — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:29:50 +0000

Gemma Parker

John Powell-Jones

TPYN theatre shots 2 of 3

bren — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:43:22 +0000

Simon Misra

David Bailey

TPYN theatre shots 1 of 3

bren — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:19:57 +0000

Charlotte Gould & Hannah Gibson

Laura Barnard

TPYN opening night

bren — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:33:36 +0000

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 / Norman Clayture

Image: Paul Greenwood / Imogen Powder and Les Merde

Image: Paul Greenwood / Norman Clayture

Image: Paul Greenwood

Image: Paul Greenwood / Les Merde

TPYN animated trailer

bren — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:41:41 +0000

The People You're Not - at Cornerhouse from Cornerhouse on Vimeo.

Fab animated trailer from the excellent folk at Design By Day for my group show opening next week. Feeling the pressure when the marketing is as good as this! I'll be giving an interview before it opens alongside Harry Hill with Kirsty Laing on BBC Radio 4's Front Row arts and culture programme. I'd better keep a dictionary handy and some big words, just in case I should dry up. Zeitgeist! Sequential! Baudelaire!

Courtney Love & George Best

bren — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 11:46:39 +0000

It's 'Orf with their heads' at the Fête Champêtre, or The Battle of B.O.G.O.F. as a countryside picnic laced with liquid stimulants results in a mash-up between Mary Poppins and Withnail and I. Headless and famously thirsty celebrities including Courtney Love and George Best drool from atop plinths as their bodies continue carousing with the local wildlife, courtesy of Simon Misra. That makes six theatrical tableaux for you to visit at the forthcoming exhibition, The People You're Not. Chin-chin!

Elizabeth Taylor & Rock Hudson

bren — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:57:23 +0000

Charlotte Gould

Ever dined out and spotted someone from the telly shoving bolognese down their gullet? You won't believe your luck when you cast your eyes over the restaurant depicted in Mission to the Hindoos, or Pilgrims of the Porcelain Throne, because no fewer than THIRTEEN camera-shy types have gathered to raise (and sink) their glasses. From Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' to Rock Hudson, Charlotte Gould and Hannah Gibson are busy in preparation for our launch on Friday 28th January.

Amy Winehouse & Paul Gascoigne

bren — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:23:43 +0000

The all-you-can-quaff buffet of celebrity boozers continues, with today's glimpse of David Bailey's efforts for Harlequinade, or Rita, Sue and Herpes Too. Classic Pantomime roles from the Commedia dell'arte are transferred to a messy night out on the Great British High Street. Here we see Paul Gascoigne as a gormless Pierrot accompanied by Amy Winehouse as a less than demure Columbine. David runs the fabmazing Good Grief! zine emporium at Soup Kitchen and can be found perched in the window drawing this very project! Go tap on the glass and freak him out!