The North quarter of Manchester … another part of Manchester totally changed since my last wander round - probably not that long ago. Quite funkyfied - once only worth going there for Afflecks Palace - now lots of places to check out, including some good record shops.
Urbis had an exhibition of video games which I had to have a look at … 3 pounds in, that would have paid for 30 games of space invaders in myyyy day! But also apart from a fleeting mention of the ZX81 and BBc Micro, the video games were somewhat after my time. I was struck my how small the keyboard for the ZX Spectrum appeared, but then our hands may have been smaller in those days. Not sure what the need to have playable setups of the latest consoles was - wouldn’t it have been better to have games that you can’t see normally? Still I suppose everyone has there own nostalgia region for the machines they owned or played - maybe next time they should fill the whole of Urbis…
On the 2nd floor was an exhibition of modern art largely from New York, but I was more taken with the photography exhibition on the third floor, constructed images of Manchester the lightbox images were especially beautiful. Andrew Paul Brooks constructed the images digitally to make part real and part fictional visions of Manchester locations.
Manchester Art Gallery was sadly between exhibitions, and not a lot going on in there I hadn’t seen - there was a Peter Fraser photograph which reminded me of one of my tutors telling me I must get to see one of his books, but this was now rare, and I never saw. The image didn’t seem like it would be one of his best, still a nice reminder. Also Cornerhouse was between exhibitions - I left quickly in case I started buying lots of expensive magazines from the shop.
Star Trek … difficult to see what they could do to make it interesting after so many years … but this did it! Was excellent, the new actors sufficiently like the old characters to make it plausible … perhaps not Simon Pegg…still…
At the Media Museum - new exhibitions : first on animals - liked the ape pics, great to look at a wall full of different ape characters … was good to see the hyena men photos for real too - just wished they’d shown the whole set, the Don McCullon exhibition was one to go back to … was quite full too … wasn’t too unhappy that it didn’t feature his war photography, a lot of good photos from the UK, and some nice bits of text explaining backgrounds to some images. Was very good.
Saw couple of exhibitions : one at Theatre de la Photographie and the other at Museum of Contemporary Art, both in Nice. The photography exhibition was a french photographer Jean Ferraro. Most of his images were of artists living in the Nice region in the 70’s. There were also some male nudes: Mr Universe etc. A series of a bearded artist friend were probably my favourites, had to walk through a meeting of students/young professionals to see the work in the theatre part which was slightly embarrassing. The museum staff were somewhat hostile.
The museum of contemporary art was built by Nice’s infamous mayor. Later investigated for syphoning funds from the Opera into his bank account. A huge and rather oddly laid out exhibition space. The lower floor had some largely very bad paintings, though a couple were interesting. The centre floor had modern sculpture and mixed media. Some of this was really bad but more were of interest. I liked one of a woman with a small neon heart. There was also some scupltures by an artist who painted all his objects in a shade of deep blue. Alun Williams was probably the worst artist with all his pieces (there were many) having a large red splodge in the foreground. I liked a womans ball dress made from plastic bottles, and also behind it there was a very good painting of a woman in reddish shades. The top floor was mostly dubious also, but again a few interesting pieces were scattered in between. The roof gallery was open and had great views and was good for orientating oneself in the city.
Tried to make Rosie and the Goldbugs at Cockpit … but 3 bands on, first not started till 8.30 on a work night … nooooooooo! Saw first band tho - crazy bunch of space invader kids - like walking into a 80s video arcade room turned up full with guitars and drum machine … mental!
Was heading home by 9.30 tho, sad yes, sensible yes … but then, live to fight another day
Margareta Kern’s exhibition at Impressions was focused on womens clothing. Two separate themes: dresses made by Kern’s mother in the Croatioan-Bosnian village she came from for young women graduating from high school. And a little known tradition for older women from the region to go and buy the clothes they expect to die in. The younger womens dresses were largely influenced by those worn by Western celebrities, made to styles paraded by these media figures. The older womans portraits set in the womens houses with the clothes arranged around them set within traditional decor of the region. The clothes ‘to die for’ I think was the stronger piece, and could have stood on its own, but the younger womens piece made an interesting contrast and its tie to the older womens through similar location made the works link together quite interestingly to give a broader view of contemporary society there.
Bat for Lashes and School of Seven Bells gig … after cancelling PJ Harvey, this one had to be doubly good. Seven Bells were on second last track, I was on first Grolsh … sounding good half way down the pint … the wall of noise was starting to make sense … after the student bar 5 deep experience for the first pint, needed to get a couple in to keep me going for a while - Bat for Lashes had a big crowd, not seen them gigging much outside London before, so had to check em out. Thoughts on going in was they sounded a little like Bjork, but soon the songs were moving away from this into their own space, and they were quite diverse. Natashas trouser suit made up for the lack of glitter and masks, some of the crowd had em tho. There was a kind of homely harpsichord moment with fairy lights on the keyboard and something that looked from a distance like a crib? The big drum though made the biggest impact, turning the songs danceable. Amazing noise. They came across as a new band with a fairly short set? but now into second album - they must have been picking out their best stuff, no filler.
Today, continuing the retrospective site homepage facelift: new feeds for top photography stories (by visits), top images viewed and recent stories from the blog