I was excited and apprehensive about the pretentious ensemble which most likely awaited me at an exhibition which promised to, “explore relationships between the gallery and theatre, staging, displacement, reality, illusion and social discord”.

Descending the steps of the Castlefield gallery, I enter the grey concrete space, dimly lit by theatrical red spotlights. It only needs hooks hanging from the ceiling to resemble a horror movie slaughter house. But this macabre setting works to the exhibitions advantage.

The images on display are not in themselves aesthetically pleasing. The pieces of photojournalism Osbaldeston has collected are tenebrous reprints haphazardly collaged with historical dates and philosophical musings, giving the impression of a work in progress. This is the point: that the media we are witness to is constructed and only “a stolen language of reality”. It is posed to the visitor: “doesn’t all media exist to invest our lives with artificial perception and arbitrary value?”

This exhibition is meant to unease rather than inspire. As the audience approaches each image their shadows are cast upon it in the red light, suggesting that the individual in collective society is a part of “the illusion of disturbance” which assists hegemonic power.

The link between the theatre and media, illusion and reality are all valid and important political points but the exhibition loses impact due to its nebulousness. It does not make explicit that the photographs show the 1992LA Riots, the Waco Siege and the first Gulf War’s, ‘highway of death’ and therefore partly excludes the viewer. It is a striking exhibition but somewhat inarticulate and occasionally confused. But why believe everything you read in the media? You’ll have to go and see it for yourself.

Kirsten Ferrari

Out of Time (The Light of Day/ The Action of the Play) is showing at Castlefield Gallery until June 6th.

Photo © Alex Wilkinson-Hughes

From video documenting the last horse-drawn ‘chariot’ driver in Sulaimaniyah, to photographic portraits mocking orientalist paintings of nineteenth-century European artists, many of the works are explorations of the politics of identity, rather than explicit responses to the bloodiness of Iraq’s present and recent past.

The exhibition showcases the work of nineteen artists currently living and working in Iraq – explicitly excluding work from Iraqi artists in diaspora. This decision has its drawbacks, notably the narrow geographical range of the artists represented. Because the majority-Kurdish areas of northern Iraq are less dangerous than the rest of the country, and perhaps because the organisers’ strongest links were in Kurdish areas, fifteen of the artists are from Kirkuk, Sulaimaniyah and Erbil. The remaining four are from Baghdad.

“The majority of the artists do come from Iraqi Kurdistan, and that’s reflective of certain issues across Iraq,” concedes the exhibition’s co-curator, Sarah Perks. “We’re not saying that this is a full representation of all Iraqi art, just that here are nineteen artists living and working in Iraq, this is the art they’re creating at the moment. We’d like people to think a bit more widely and hopefully challenge some of their preconceptions.”

Adalet Garmiany, Perks’ co-curator, is a Kurdish refugee whose organisation, ArtRole, organised the first post-war art festival in Iraq, in Sulaimaniyah in 2009. According to Garmiany, some artists refused to participate in the show because of the mainly British and Kurdish organisers.

Amongst others who have not had their preconceptions challenged are, apparently, the visa applications staff at the British embassies in Amman and Beirut. A number of the featured artists, as well as several Iraqi academics, were invited to attend the recent exhibition opening. All were denied entry to the UK – part of a growing trend attributable to tightened visa regulations which, Perks suggests, could have serious implications for artistic freedom and interaction. “I don’t know why they didn’t give me a visa,” laments Julie Adnan, a photographic artist from Kirkuk.

According to Adnan and colleague Jamal Penjweny, from Sulaimaniyah, Iraqi artists are trying to use the internet to communicate – both abroad and with other artists within the country. But “unfortunately we do not have a good community of artists now in Iraq because most of the good Iraqi artists left Iraq during Saddam’s period and some after Iraq war because of the violence left the country,” says Penjweny.

Contemporary Art Iraq is at Conerhouse until 20 June.

Sarah Irving is a freelance writer based in Manchester.

The suffragettes did so because they could simply not stomach that the men of Manchester were admiring beautiful artwork whilst beautiful, real women were starving themselves for the right to vote.

It seems remarkable that Women Like You, created by Manchester-based artist Charlotte Newson, is the first public artwork to commemorate Emmeline. It echoes the spirit of the suffragette movement, albeit through modern means. The portrait is a photo mosaic made up of 10,000 tiles, each its own portrait of members of the public’s chosen inspirational women. Over the course of a year, Charlotte collected these photos, sent in by men and women from all over the world, and then fed them into a computer program to create the image. The artwork, like Emmeline’s movement, has brought together individuals to make a stirring statement.

Unusually for a gallery piece, posters of the portrait have been placed on poster sites around the city centre and on the main roads into Manchester. Charlotte Newson, who has produced large amounts of work with outreach groups, wanted to get the attention of non-gallery goers in order to ‘celebrate the extraordinary in the ordinary’. The real portrait, however, is still something to behold: the rich colours she has pieced together are exquisite. Photo mosaics are not new, but this one tells thousands of stories and celebrates Manchester’s most influential woman all at once.

Grace Cahill

Women Like You will be at Manchester Art Gallery until 9 May 2010

Wild Man (2005), a giant nude male sitting on a stool with a startled gaze, is immediately disconcerting and brings into doubt all preconceived notions of scale, begging the question, is he too big or are we too small? In contrast is Spooning Couple (2005), a miniature model of two people in bed. This piece is viewed from above, which introduces another uncomfortable sensation of voyeurism. We are watching this couple at their most intimate and vulnerable, a feeling only added to by the subject’s eerily real-looking skin.

However, once the perfect translucency of the skin has made its impression and every realistic blemish and hair follicle has been marvelled over, a different sense takes hold. The pieces soon become less impressive. The unengaging Mask III (2005) is a perfect example of this: once close scrutiny has ceased and the work is viewed as a whole from a few steps back, a severe sense of its lacklustre sets in.

More interesting than the sculptures themselves is the room adjacent to main exhibition, which charts the development of Muek’s work and ideas. Working models, sketches and facial casts are all present; while photos of the sculptures at various stages of construction adorn the walls. The meticulous process Muek undertakes to reach his degree of hyper-realism is arguably far more fascinating than the finished result.

Muek, who first came to artistic acclaim through the Royal Academy’s Sensation exhibition in 1997, with his work shown together with that of British Artists Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin, clearly shares their sense for vast scale and shock value. His work may display a more impressive degree of detail than that of these Britpop luminaries but certainly carries less of an impact.

Lula Boardman

Showing as part of the ARTIST ROOMS Tour, until April 11th.

Exhibition related events

Making conversation workshops
Wednesdays 10, 17 and 24 February, 1 – 4pm. Free, please book. 0161 235 8888 / magevents@manchester.gov.uk

Curator’s talk
Thursday 18 March, 1 – 1.45pm. Free, please book. 0161 235 8888 / magevents@manchester.gov.uk

Counter culture
A social afternoon of art, music and hyper-realism hosted by the Creative Consultants.
Saturday 20 March, 12 – 5pm. Free. No need to book. Just drop-in.

The collection documents Greg’s relationship with and experiences of his home town, Burnley. The “post-apocalyptic backdrop to a childhood”, as he terms it, is sensitively portrayed through excellent composition and bleak yet poetic subjects. A shabby and hopeless looking “Love Tester” machine, off-set by the un-romantic presentation of Burnley in the other pictures, is playful in its irony.

Another of the exhibition’s stronger images is of a twisting water slide protruding from a concrete building. The frivolous nature of the slide, which takes centre-stage, is contradicted by the looming city tower-blocks on the horizon. The pictures suggests days of lost glory, a nostalgic take on a carefree childhood later overshadowed by the temptations of big bright city lights. The tone of the exhibition is reflective and the body of works an elegy to the urban structures of everyday life. Holland’s style is unmistakeably cinematic and his colour pallet largely focuses on darker shades and highlights unusual contrasts.

A few photos feature more rural settings. In these pastoral landscapes a more traditional subject matter is approached: a field laden with bales of hay bathing underneath a rolling blue sky. Here, however, Holland avoids predictability. The perspective is unusual and the contrast high, adding an element of excitement and immediate freshness that foils the stark, urban pieces well.

The cafe / exhibition space is laid-back and casual, although not entirely suitable for those wishing to scrutinise the images. Those who do will find themselves craning over tables of chattering customers. The café’s bohemian atmosphere creates an interesting contradiction with the honest, urban photography which may be fitting for some and distracting for others. The setting will not, however, mask that Holland’s photographs are engaging, honest and beautifully executed.

Rachel Jackson

The Art Of Tea
47 Barlow moor Road,
Manchester,
M20 6TW

See here for more of Holland’s work

Mona

In January 2009 Jane Lawson, along with thousands of others, was reading the blog her friend Sharyn Lock was writing from Gaza, at the time under attack from Israeli forces by land, sea and air. Lock had travelled to the besieged territory on board the last of the blockade-breaking Free Gaza Movement ships to land before the Israeli navy started using military force against them. As well as writing deeply moving and often horrific accounts of the effects of the December 2008-January 2009 invasion, Lock was volunteering with the Red Crescent ambulance service.

Lawson, a Manchester-based artist who at the time was experimenting with new techniques after nearly twenty years of working in textile art and design, responded to the images and stories of death and destruction by creating a series of unique prints of some of Gaza’s children.

“All of the children are kids whose photos I saw on Sharyn’s blog,” says Lawson. “I found I wanted to do a piece based on the images of some of the children who had died in Gaza, but I also wanted to do something pointing out that there are many children who are still alive and who will stay alive and we need to think about them too.”

One of the children depicted in the prints Lawson eventually produced is Mona Samouni, who lost dozens of her relatives over four days in which Israeli forces trapped her and her family in two homes, which were then sporadically shelled. Another, Farah al Helou, aged one, slowly bled to death from a stomach wound during the 14 hours her family spent in a ditch by the side of a road, while Israeli soldiers stopped ambulances from reaching them. Her mother breastfed Farah in an effort to comfort her as she died.

Picking which children to feature in the artworks was, Lawson admits, a difficult and sometimes contradictory task. On one hand she wanted to highlight the conditions under which Gaza’s children are forced to grow up. As well as invasions and airstrikes, many face malnutrition because of Israeli restrictions on supplies entering Gaza. Education and healthcare have also been hit by the blockade. “But partly it had to be about which images were suitable visually, the actual quality of the images themselves,” she admits.

Farah

The actual prints were produced using a simple technique of reproducing images from Lock’s blog on an ordinary computer printer, then wetting them and transferring the images onto different types of paper, including cartridge paper, sugar paper and layout card. “Every time you do this it’s different,” says Lawson, “and it’s hard to control what the finished result will be like.”

Even during this process, contradictions emerged between the act of creating a piece of art and the horrific stories which lie behind the pictures. “With the one child who had died, I reversed the colours of the photograph, like an old film negative. It meant that the images underwent two transformations, one when the photo was printed and one when the wetted image was made. The result was a bit of a double-edged thing, because the colours are all blue and turquoise and mauve and they’re quite beautiful. I’m still not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing, because they’re showing something hideous and really upsetting and I’m not sure how good it is to make that beautiful… but they’re very ghostly, very cold colours, so maybe that’s right.”

Fouad

“I got quite excited by the technique I was using,” Lawson continues, “but then every so often I would come back and remember what I was doing. Reading Sharyn’s blog in the comfort of my own home, it’s ridiculous to say I felt like I had no right to get upset, because it’s upsetting and anyone who reads it should get upset because such terrible things happen. But I think most creative people will be aware that there are times when you just get caught up and do your work creatively and that can feel quite strange. To me it felt quite strange and morally questionable at times…”

Lawson is no stranger to treading the fine line between art and politics. She was one of the founders of Ultimate Holding Company (UHC), the radical art collective which in 2003 built a functioning replica of Guantanamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray – complete with prisoners and guards – in Hulme, and in 2009 tattooed a hundred volunteers with endangered British plant and animal species as part of its ExtInked exhibition.

Even during ten years as a knitwear designer for labels like Paul Smith and Duffer of St George, Lawson was interested in sustainability issues. “I tried to develop low impact knitwear using hemp, yarn made from recycled yarn, organic cotton and linen,” she says. But she admits that her efforts met with limited success, “mainly because it was hard to get decent colours at the time, and also because of the cost.”

But, says Lawson, politics remain at the heart of the art she creates. “It needs to come from the heart if you’re going to do anything creative,” she says. “Because of my preoccupations over the last 12 or 15 years of activism that’s always going to be a part of what I do.” And of the series of images of the children of Gaza, which will be sold to raise funds for equipment for Gaza’s paramedics, she says, “I always hoped that some part of this project would be useful for Palestine. I’m very happy for these images to go out into the world.”

Ten framed original prints from Jane Lawson’s series of images of Gazan children will be auctioned in aid of Defend the Rescuers, which raises funds to buy essential protective equipment for paramedics and ambulance crews in Gaza. The sale will take place at the launch of Gaza: Beneath the Bombs, the book based on Sharyn Lock’s writings from Gaza, 29 January at the Green Room.

Sarah Irving is a freelance writer based in Manchester

The Northern Art Prize, now in its third year, was set up as a Northern version of the Turner Prize, which has faced criticism for focusing on the London art scene. Though pleased with his award, Büchler reflected on the quality of all the shortlisted work and stated, “I really don’t think that we should be put in a position where art is treated as a competitive sport”.

Büchler has been an influential figure around Manchester and some of his other work can currently be seen in “Unresolved” at Castlefield Gallery. Büchler co-curated the exhibition along side Kris Fierens, Gregor Hylla, Ian Rawlinson, Maeve Rendle and Pamela Rosenkranz, whose work is also on display. The exhibition closes this Sunday, 31st Jan.

Francesca Woodman, On Being an Angel # 1, 1977

The pieces are drawn from multiple collections and have been arranged specifically for the Gallery by Patricia Allmer of Manchester Metropolitan University. It is the first major exhibition of Surrealism by women artists to be held in Europe and there are no plans to re-house it elsewhere. This is a rare opportunity to see many works at all, not least together and in context.

Among the 32 artists featured the famous names stand out and not only in publicity materials. Frida Khalo cannot be dismissed as a crowd puller, however, and her self portrait Diego & I (1949), is as stunning as it is familiar. Her lesser known work Still Life with Parrot and Flag (1951) perhaps fits this collection better though, troubling a mundane scene with politically potent suggestion. In an extended selection of video and photography, mediums often overlooked in Surrealist retrospectives, Lee Miller and Francesca Woodman stand out. Lesser known and more recent works are also of note. Josette Exandier’s mixed media sculptures such as La Caresse (1999) are playful, sensual and uncanny. Overall, the selection is ambitious and in many places the display retains the radicalism and sense of shock that would have first surrounded these works. The lighting, layout and colours are all carefully chosen.

Faced with a wide selection of artists, eras and media, Allmer has divided the exhibition into five themes: Portrait / Self Portait; Landscape; Interior; Still Life and Landscape. Unsurprisingly, these bleed into and overlap each other, only emphasising the Surrealist urge to challenge categorisation and the traditionalist expectations of the art world, and beyond.

Notebooks, poems, sketches and letters between Surrealist artists – male and female – are also on display, finally dispelling any idea that these women artists have been token or peripheral to the movement. While other curators have overlooked some of the work shown here, Angels of Anarchy successfully gestures towards a more interesting history and development of the Surrealist movement in which these artists are intrinsic. Fittingly, in the pieces displayed under the banner “Women Artists and Surrealism”, gender, sex, bodies and identity are ever-present and always unstable themes. It suggests that this art has the power to challenges preconceptions, perhaps even of the organisers themselves.

Angels of Anarchy is at Manchester Art Gallery until Sunday 10 Jan.

Entry costs: £6 Adults, £4 Concessions, free to friends of the Gallery.

Siobhan McGuirk

This year’s festival kicked off early with the ‘Trailblazer’ event in September that welcomed Booker-prize winning novelist, poet and critic Margaret Atwood to Manchester where she performed with music to launch her new novel The Year of the Flood. An active environmentalist, feminist, and proponent of the Canadian canon of literature, Atwood has consistently drawn readers with her compelling style.

The festival proper runs from 15 – 25 October, bringing together the international literati. Household-names share the programme with new talent, showcasing northern stars, and exploring the human condition through words and rhetoric.

Novelists and talking heads Martin Amis and Will Self launch the October timetable with what is certain to be a lively discussion on literature and sex, and the complexities of marrying the two, both on and off the page. Whether Amis will find a favourable reception remains to be seen; he has undertaken very little teaching of late in his role of Professor of Creative Writing at Manchester University, and many among both student and academic body have questioned the ethics of a big salary for a big name while less-renowned academics have teaching budgets cut due to funding restraints.

In the same vein, Ruth Padel, was recently brought into the media limelight during the controversy of her nine-day appointment as Oxford University’s prestigious professorship of poetry. Her subject matter for the MLF is far less tawdry; her newest work, Darwin: A Life in Poems.

Many other literary and journalism heavyweights will make speaking appearances including multiple award-winning poet Simon Armitage and television screenwriter Jimmy McGovern, responsible for Cracker and the highly acclaimed The Street.

Feminism and women writers also feature prominently, with speakers including Fay Weldon, Kate Atkinson, Jill Dawson, Kate Mosse, and Joan Bakewell.

The final of the Commonword and Manchester Literature Festival prize, celebrating six new novelists, will see the winner announced during the event. The MLF also provides a forum for audience expression, through a series of workshops designed to help writers develop their art, from the surreal to the dramatic, a number of children’s events and Superheroes of Slam, and a speakeasy space for poetic and dramatic performance, wordplay and song.

www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Catherine McGuirk

After the Manchester International Festival came along to take a chunk out of the City Council arts budget, many feared slightly ‘lesser’ festivals would suffer. Yet flyer stands are spilling their contents into the floors of bars and cultural institutions across the city. Perhaps the opposite has occurred? New and inventive arts celebrations have sprung up, and this month share the city-wide stage with established events such as the Manchester Comedy and Food and Drink Festivals.

The latter of these two seems to have lost its grounding and packing out already-successful restaurants seems to be the order of the day. Gone are the free taster menu sessions and the £5 wine tastings of previous years. Celebrities are rife but ‘celebrations’ of food are largely absent, or available only to the wealthy. The once lustrous MFDF Awards shortlists uncomfortably overlap with those venues offering special deals inside the brochure. It leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth.

Comedy Festival organisers have taken a back to basics approach. They know that big name shows will sell out and advertising is at a minimum. Did you know it was on? No. Are there things worth catching? Hmm. Some. Richard Herring’s controversial, Guardian-baiting show Hitler’s Moustache stands out. Again, though, the line ups are so familiar that the Festival suffix is barely warranted. Largely established acts are playing mostly established venues, which is a regular occurrence here anyway. And, yet again, high prices will be a barrier to many.

So, what are we left with? Stand up, take a bow and do a wheelie, because these new pretenders demand our attention and support: The Free For Arts Festival and I Bike MCR Mini-Fest. The are bringing entertainment to the masses with inventiveness to spare.

Free For Arts Festival

Now – October 9th

Various venues. See here for more details.

Free Entry!

Already underway, this new addition to Manchester’s bursting arts scene is doing things differently and very innovatively indeed. The festival is split into Exhibitions and Events but both strands are equally dedicated to previewing the most up-and-coming elements of the city’s arty scenes. The work should be taken seriously, of course, but the organisers are clearly aiming to have some fun. It’s about time too – there’s no reason the arts can’t be laughed along and partied with, right?! Instead of heading to a regular night out, stick your head into a Free For Arts event and discover the talents of the city’s more hidden performers. They promise a good time. At this price especially, you won’t be disappointed.

Events:

Mon 5th, 8pm at Odd Bar: Live Soap Opera

Tues 6th, 8pm at Odder Bar: Quizimodo Arty Pub Quiz Special

Wed 7th, 8pm at Odd Bar: Mini Cine Picture Show (best international short film weirdness)

Thur 8th, 9pm at Mint Lounge: Gesamped, a night of sound art. Beats and bleeps, rhythms and rhymes, noises and nonsense.

Fri 9th 8pm at Bar Centro: Closing party. Live bands headlined by the Tigers that Talked.

Exhibitions

Far too many to list. See website for details of installations; photography; painting and graffiti in, on and around unexpected city centre locations.

I Bike MCR Mini-Festival

Now – Sunday 11th October

Various venues. See www.ibikemcr.org.uk or email info@ibikemcr.org.uk for more details.

Free Entry!

I Bike MCR is a grassroots community group of cyclists who have been organising events since 2006. They aim to cater to everyone using pedal power, regardless of age, background or ability. The events lined up for the festival are designed to be as accessible as possible.

Organiser Nes Brierley explains: “In the same way that the bicycle enables people from all backgrounds to move around the city, we aim for things to be free by using community spaces and materials that are donated to us.”

I Bike MCR run events throughout the year, from weekly and monthly bike rides to film screenings, and host a month long festival in March-April. This Mini Fest is designed as a precursor to particularly encourage just-arrived students to get on their bikes. There’s far more on offer than there’s space for here, so see the website for details. Whatever your experience of cycling, it’s definitely a good time to saddle up.

Timetable Highlights

Introduction to Bicycle Polo (Sat 10th, 3pm) stands out for sporty types.

Bicycle Film Screening (Mon 5th, 7.30pm) for those looking to chill out.

Moonlight Ride (Sat 10th 8pm) for those romantics out there.

Bike History Tour of Manchester (Tues 6th, 5.30pm) for those looking for an educational experience.

Instructor-led Morning Commute (daily) from Fallowfield to the University along with

Cycle Confidence training (Wed 7th 12pm) are on hand for those getting started.