Gore Couture at Junk
Hokulani MamaSwamp Beale / AAE Los Angeles
Abandon Normal Devices Festival and Junk Shop welcomes San Francisco’s infamous horror hostess Peaches Christ/director Joshua Grannell to Manchester for the International Premiere of the (bloody) marvellous horror comedy, All About Evil! This immersive, 4-D floorshow and screening asks that audiences consider attending in their very finest Gore Couture. Taking inspiration from vintage Hollywood B-movies, classic monsters and ray-gun toting alien invaders, fans across the globe have responded by fusing Lady Gaga with Morticia Addams, Leigh Bowery with Beetlejuice.
Damiana Garcia, Christeene Vale / AAE Los Angeles
To aid in your own transformation, Junk are offering exclusive courses in Gore Couture. You will concoct ghoulishly glamorous attire using hellish embellishments, sickly, saturated colours and tremble-inducing textures to create costumes which both captivate and repel, selecting an item from your wardrobe to undergo a horrible transformation. It could be straight out of a vintage movie theatre: you might bring to life an oversized piece of costume jewellery, an exuberant headpiece and opera-length glove set or even a classic faux-fur stole to be worn with your most deadly Little Black Dress.
Ric Ray, Holy McGrail / AAE San Francisco photo by Marcy Cravat
Junk Shop are trailblazers in sustainable fashion. Their city centre branch (in addition to their first boutique on Burton Road in West Didsbury) has been entirely furnished using recycled or reclaimed materials: suspended spindle shelving, a remoulded fairy liquid bottle counter and walk in wardrobe changing rooms are just a few of the features. This approach is in keeping with a business manifesto that pursues green ethics, each store showcasing three unique labels by their own in-house design team (Junk Boutique, Jumble and Label of Love).
Junk Shop
To get your pulse racing and the brain ticking, you may wish to follow one of the staff suggested themes:
Hammer Glamour: think gore-soaked frocks and frills; slashed and trashed lace; shredded, knotted and bound translucent nightgowns; florid ruffles and coagulated fluids.
Manchester Morgue: think dissection; surgical sutures and splices; bulbous and burst organs transplanted and rearranged; convulsing creases and sunken, watery eyes.
The Phantom of the Opera: think matted and splattered faux-fur; stiffened silk; opera glasses; luxurious quilted fabrics; fringing; tantalising tassels and velvet which produces a shudder in the spine.
Junk Shop
Junk Shop
Junk Shop
Junk Shop
This course includes up-cycled materials, free entry to the opening night at Cornerhouse (normal ticket price £15), first option on further tickets plus an exclusive photo session provided by our friends and collaborators, Grimm Up North. It would be helpful if you were to bring along some imagery to guide your co-creators in devising an individual look just for you.
£120.00 / places limited. Two days, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September, 12 - 6pm (12 hours). Call Junk to book on 0161 238 8517.
LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE
A Whore for the Gore
Peaches Christ / image: Jose Guzman Colon
What better date than Friday 13th to reveal the details (with some surprises still withheld) of the International Premiere of All About Evil; the directorial feature debut of cult horror hostess, Gore Couture icon and director Peaches Christ / Joshua Grannell. Appearing at Cornerhouse as part of Abandon Normal Devices (1 - 7 October), tickets will very soon be on sale - and are set to disappear just as quickly! I'm looking for contributors, volunteers and flat-out fabulous audience members, so read all about it, see some advance snapshots, roll the VT and get in touch!
Bubbletastic
image: Rachel McHaffie
Review and picture gallery now up from Scratch 'n Sniff Cinema presents My Beautiful Laundrette. An added bonus was the left-over tequilla, Blue Curacao and vodka. Hic! Limited edition screenprints by poster artist Simon Misra, signed, with an extra signature now on the reverse from actor Gordon Warnecke (who plays Omar in the film) are still available at only £10 plus £2.50 p+p. I'll also throw in a scratch card or two for you to recreate the experience at home!
The Second Coming
The news is now out and the countdown has begun - 9 weeks - until Abandon Normal Devices Festival hosts both the UK debut of Midnight Mass and the International Premiere of the black comedy horror, All About Evil. Directed by Joshua Grannell whose alter-ego the horror hostess Peaches Christ is the star and dripping heart of Midnight Mass, it's a double-whammy for Manchester as we host this lewd, crude, participatory chunk'a B-Movie joy.
I was fortunate to head out to San Francisco earlier this year, home to the show and the cast, where Peaches is revered as a cult (movie) leader. Posters on the Muni system confirmed this! As producer of the event there are already some exciting collaborations lined up, with the first batch of tickets on sale soon.
Save the date - Saturday 2nd October. And if you think you'd like to get involved, then get in touch to become one of The Children of the Popcorn!
Purple Polly
Purple Polly is a proposal submitted to the Summer 2010 round of the Umbro Industries creative grants, who dish out up to 10k each quarter for innovation in Manchester across art, culture, music, fashion and 'other'. Heh. It's quite unlike anything I've attempted to pitch before, but why not ? During the last round I made the shortlist but didn't get invited to interview. I didn't mind - I was fortunate to find a partner to make it happen anyway. This one is a little different. I very definitely need to call in the professionals! More information and a project outline over at the official site where votes and comments (nice ones) will help, but are not essential. Hint.
Unrealised Potential
Unrealised Potential is a collaborative group exhibition instigated by artist/curator Mike Chavez-Dawson. The show aims to explore the creative potential of artists’ unrealised projects, blurring the lines between artist, curator, visitor and producer. Cornerhouse chose to scribble outside the boundaries further by allowing a workshop of volunteers to choose one of the dozens of unformed projects presented as rows of certificated (stamped, gilded and legally pimped) proposals - buying it on their behalf - to be realized over the course of only three days.
Len Horsey & Brian Reed, PLANTA DE ANODIZADO, 2010, image by Daniel Walmsley
I was one such volunteer. The group chose Manchester-based artist Edward Barton, the most flexible and least prescriptive of the lot (some going so far as to list the precise artworks to be curated, or in the case of David Shrigley, an impossible process of construction). Consisting of a single statement: ‘Please improve my work’, the disappointing lack of any great consensual desire to bring a single concept to fruition meant that I was left to tackle a response alone. That said, there was some pretty smart rumination taking place. Let's just say I'm looking forward to the Page 3 Panda.
Still, I’m pleased with the final result. It’s a tiny, disposable response, but the artists’ original brevity and humility warranted a fitting match. Choosing to interpret the work as both statement and paper certificate upon which the words were printed, I gave it form and structural integrity – a cube. What was illustrative now had purpose – a receptacle. And what better role has a box to play than that of a gift, using the remaining scraps from a single sheet. From me to you.
An unexpected outcome was a knee-jerk response in my purchasing the rights to actualize The Worship of Bacchus as re-imagined by comedian, broadcaster and artist Harry Hill. How did that happen? The paperwork says I’ve got two years, but first I need a nap. Then I’ll think about it some more. Then another nap is called for. Followed by a chat in the pub and a bag of cheese and onion crisps. Research, you understand... only this one will be a true group effort. Hit me up.