Islington Mill

On my recent visit to Salford I was fortunate to meet artist and maker Claire Hignett with a studio at Islington Mill. (See my other separate blog post for more information on Claire's work). She kindly agreed to show me around and tell me more about the Mill.

"Created in 2000, Islington Mill remains a work in progress; an ever-evolving creative space, arts hub and community. Scratch the surface and you’ll find a vibrant and resourceful cross disciplinary creative network; a space where conversations leads to connections, collaboration and co-creation.

Public arts programmes, residencies and galleries sit alongside recording studios, an events space and a Bed and Breakfast facility for artists. Music and visual arts mix with events and exhibitions. More than 50 businesses and 100 artists call the Mill home. More than 15,000 people visit the building every year.

Islington Mill is a celebration of the unconventional; of radical and subversive thinking – it is a place where anything feels possible. The flexibility and fluid structure is a catalyst for creativity, allowing artists, residents and tenants to challenge accepted notions of what arts and culture can do, and who can be involved. The residents treasure their independence to explore and to create; to live and work as freely and creatively as possible, fostering an openness to experiment.

The Mill was built on an ethos of experimentation, creativity and inclusivity that has evolved and clarified over time. More than just a physical venue, there is an attitude and approach that unites people. The organic network they have forged continues to evolve because of the actions of the people who get involved; they community.

Collaboration is valued – within the Mill, the local community, nationally and internationally – and they are an integral part of the area’s regeneration. Attracting and retaining talent is fundamental to what the Mill does – supporting creative entrepreneurs and facilitating the potential and promise they bring. The ethos of participation, community and open space makes Islington Mill a vital ingredient in the urban regeneration mix, both in complementing what’s on offer and generating new possibilities.

The Mill sits between the University of Salford and Manchester city centre, straddling the two cities; simultaneously at the heart of Salford’s creative community and just a 10-minute walk down Chapel Street to Manchester city centre. The studio spaces are situated across the upper floors of the main converted mill – an imposing red brick building constructed around a cobbled central courtyard.



The Mill has a variety of atmospheric, industrial spaces around the complex, including live workspace in the external outbuilding as well as a ground floor venue and gallery space." Claire even took me up to the top floor and showed me the attic. There are exciting plans to develop this space into residency studios.

Whilst walking around the building I met a few other studio holders, including US artist, educator and curator, Stina Puotinen. Stina recently exhibited at Vane Gallery in Newcastle, an exhibition I was hugely excited by and that I blogged about. What a coincidence!

http://www.islingtonmill.com/tenant/stina-puotinen/

http://www.stinapuotinen.com/

http://www.islingtonmill.com/

Visiting Artist - Melanie Manchot

This week's visiting artist was London based Melanie Manchot who works with photography, film, video and installation as part of a performative and participatory practice.

She delivered an excellent presentation, providing a good overview of the development of her work starting with Look At You Loving Me, a series of portraits of her nude mother, and ending with The Gift which is currently being exhibited at Bloomberg SPACE comprising a four-channel video, photography and a set of objects on plinths.



Look At You Loving Me, 2000, Unique Silver Gelatin Prints onto Canvas


Groups + Locations (Moscow)


‘Groups + Locations (Moscow)', is a series of photographs taken at historic sites in and around Moscow. Based on late 19th century group shots, the work refers to a moment when photography played an important role in the Russian people’s comprehension of what their vast lands and its inhabitants looked like.


Neighbours (Berlin), 2006, Six Diptych: Silver Gelatin Print/C-Print


Neighbours (Berlin) is based on a series of six postcards from 1905/06, found in a Berlin antiquarian bookshop when Manchot moved there in 2005. In the original images, a group of people is depicted standing outside the houses where they live and work. On the back of the postcards the exact addresses are given as well as the date of their production. Taking those as instructions for a new set of group portraits Manchot revisited the six locations to see how those sites exist today, one hundred years on, to which extent history has altered the infrastructure and architecture of this city. The artist then invited today’s residents to participate in a new group portrait. The resulting images are a portrait of the changes inscribed in a city, of memory and history as much as of the individuals who have agreed to participate and become part of an image with their neighbours, who most often are strangers to each other as much as to the artist. The work is presented as diptychs of the original postcard and the new photographs.



Celebration (Cyprus Street)


‘Celebration (Cyprus Street)’ is based on the rich history of public street parties in London’s East End. The film takes the viewer along the street in Bethnal Green, with the focal point being the gathering of the community for a group photograph.

Celebration (Cyprus Street)

To make ‘Celebration’, Manchot worked with the residents of Cyprus Street over a period of six months, collaborating on preparations for the party and inviting active participation in the film. The work engages with the East End as a point of arrival to the capital and to Britain. It acknowledges the waves of migration passing through East London over the last centuries and articulates the current make-up of streets as complex multicultural units.


Tracer

The film tracks the movements of a group of parkour runners as they navigate the route of the Great North Run. The structures and spaces they move through are explored in a physical manner, and a understanding of the architecture and environment is established through their direct interact with it. The film begins and ends with the group of parkourists moving as a swarm, but the main body of the film consists of a number of scenes in which a single parkourist is visible.


Twelve


Twelve is a multi channel video installation exploring the intimate stories, rituals, repetitions and ruptures of lives spent in addiction and recovery.

Over the last two years Manchot has worked in dialogue with twelve people in recent recovery from substance misuse, in rehabilitation communities in Liverpool, Oxford and London. Twelve is directly informed by their personal written and oral testimonies, creative conceptions, and performances within final works.

Single sequences are shot as continuous takes, referencing iconic scenes from the films of Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant, Bela Tarr and Chantal Akerman – a ferry journey across the Mersey, a car wash, the cutting of daisies with small scissors, the obsessive cleaning of a floor – providing the framework for reflections on remembered incidents and states of mind.

www.twelve.org.uk

Melanie spoke of the importance of working closely with the participants in order to develop an understanding and level of trust that was crucial to producing the work. I admire the way that the work does not make a judgement of the people that she works with.

For more information visit http://www.melaniemanchot.net

The Turner Prize - Tramway, Glasgow

During my recent trip to Glasgow I stopped at Tramway to visit The Turner Prize exhibition. The nominees this year are Assemble, Bonnie Camplin, Janice Kerbel and Nicole Wermers. It was the London-based collective known as Assemble that caught my attention, and I was delighted to hear that they were announced winners last night.

The collective, comprising of 18 members, were nominated for their ongoing collaboration with the local community in the Granby Four Streets area of Liverpool.

"The Granby Four Streets are a cluster of terraced houses in Toxteth, Liverpool that were built around 1900 to house artisan workers. Following the Toxteth riots in 1981, the council acquired many of the houses in the area for demolition and redevelopment. Hundreds of people were moved out the area and houses subsequently fell into disrepair.

Local residents consistently fought plans for demolition and battled to save the houses. Over the past 10 years they have cleaned and planted their streets, painted the empty houses, organized a thriving monthly market, founded a Community Land Trust and shown their area in a different light.

 

Assemble worked with the Granby Four Streets CLT and Steinbeck Studios to present a sustainable and incremental vision for the area that builds on the hard work already done by local residents and translates it to the refurbishment of housing, public space and the provision of new work and enterprise opportunities."

For the Turner Prize exhibition Assemble present a life size replica of one of the houses that they are helping the local residents redevelop. The replica house has become a showroom for the products created at the Granby Workshop. Granby Workshop is a social enterprise in Granby that equips local people with experimental manufacturing skills and enables them to create an appealing range of handmade household features designed to replace those items that were removed from the properties during the demolition. These include door knobs, ceramic tiles, fabrics and furniture.

Seizing the opportunity that the Turner Prize presents, the products on show in the workshop are available to pre-order throughout the exhibition. It is hoped that the proceeds will assist in the launch of the business which will live on after the art prize.

To see the full catalogue of products available visit

http://www.granbyworkshop.co.uk/collections/all

Pollokshields Playhouse

While in Glasgow this Saturday I discovered an exciting project with huge potential. Pollokshields Playhouse is, as its name suggests, in Pollokshields, just opposite Tramway. 

It is:

"A place to share new ideas; A place to test new possibilities in your community for the future of your community. A place to celebrate, a place to meet. A place to perform, sing, dance, show, make, talk! It is is a new outdoor venue being build by the community for the community."

This project is being delivered by Pollokshields Community Council with support from a selection of organisations and funding bodies.

You can help to build the Playhouse. 

No experience is necessary. You can drop-in on one of the drop-in days to get involved with basic construction and making. All tools and health and safety equipment will be provided. Sessions will be run by BAXENDALE 

Once the playhouse is built, the community are invited to create the programme. People can come forward with ideas that they can programme in – it can be music, talks, film, performance, or creative workshops. The aim is to develop a programme that reflects the area, that brings people together, that tried out new ideas, and that takes risks.

For more information 

Visit the website: http://www.pollokshieldsplayhouse.com

Email:  letmein@pollokshieldsplayhouse.com

Call: 07827228692

Visit the Facebook Page at Pollokshields Playhouse

Follow @G41Playhouse on Twitter 

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Initiated to generate discussion about the form of public spaces within the community, Pollokshields Playhouse is a grassroots project that seeks to connect people with under-used public space. Through the temporary animation of a redundant and derelict site the project will provide a unique opportunity for testing new possibilities for the future of Pollokshields and Port Eglington."

Pollokshields Playhouse is a work in progress, and is reliant on the involvement of others to help create it.

Go inside and help to build your Playhouse on Wednesdays 12-5pm and on Saturdays 10-4pm.

Streetart by Baxendale, the local community and Recoat

Regular blogger, Frayed at the edges, has alerted me to the revamped shutters outside Tramway, Glasgow.

It is a collaboration between Baxendale, the local community and Recoat.

https://craftyfrayededges.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/streetart-inspired-by-the-turner-prize/

Pidgin Perfect

My previous blog post prompted a number of kind people to get in touch with me and reveal who created the beautiful cable tie intervention in Glasgow Green - Pidgin Perfect.

"Pidgin Perfect is an award winning multi-disciplinary creative studio based in Glasgow. We bring together people, clients and place to help build better communities for everyone.

Pidgin Perfect have a unique multi skilled approach combining participation, research and design that places the community at the heart of our projects.

We believe that meaningful participation, strategic research and socially driven design are interdependent, the best results are achieved when these three elements combine and having fun is a serious part of this process.

Through collaboration, storytelling and a unique understanding of context Pidgin Perfect deliver socially rich outcomes. From installing a temporary cinema in The Barras Market; to developing visual briefs for key projects; designing a theatrical banquet in Venice; or landscaping public green space in Pollokshaws and delivering permanent public realm works; Pidgin Perfect create architecture that truly allows for engaging experiences, building lasting relationships, bringing communities together."

'Speedworks' with PEEK Projects

Through ‘Speed works’ a group of young adults from PEEK Projects designed and created an intervention within the public realm using cable ties; a simple, everyday object.

PEEK works with children and young people aged 5-25 living in the East End of Glasgow and North of Glasgow – giving them the motivation, self-confidence and skills they need to change their lives.

In collaboration with Pidgin Perfect, the group made changes to a small area of the Barras Market, creating an intervention that makes people stop and think during their daily journeys.

The intervention links into the proposal currently being developed by an artist for the nearby Greendyke Square site on London Road which explores similar themes of play, route, context and pace.

This collaboration with PEEK Projects was made possible through the Velocity: ABC Commission. 

For more information please visit http://pidginperfect.tumblr.com