Sodley-on-Sea in Blackpool.

Pieces from the ongoing series Sodley-on-Sea can be seen at five different locations in Blackpool from the 1st of March. Main site is Abingdon Studios which is at 16-20 Abingdon Street Blackpool FY1 1DE and there will be a drink fuelled preview there on the 1st between 6pm and 8pm. There will also be pieces in The Grundy The Library, The Winter Gardens and The Grand Theatre.
It has been organised by Garth Gratrix of Abingdon Studios and Andy Brydon of Curated Place. And has been funded by Arts Council England. 
It can be seen until 7/3/2016.

Sodley-on-Sea Is Showing As Part Of This...........

Sodley-on-Sea has taken on a life of it's own. It's moved on from just being some daft c**t sticking bits of paper together in the back room of a semi in Salford, to being an Arts Council funded project. Funny how things happen.

So not only did it receive funding it's also going to be shown as part of Enlighten Manchester - Festival of Light and Sound Art 2015  at Central Library Manchester this coming December.

If you click on the link it tells you when and how you can book. Although it's free you still need to book. You can also book onto a couple of workshops that I'm doing starting this Saturday (14/11/15) They are not free. 

Group Show 46 F*CKED UP.

 

 Sodley-on-Sea pictures featured in HUMBLE ARTS FOUNDATION, GROUP SHOW F*cked Up. It's the picture Beauty Spot Above Sodley-on-Sea, HERE

Ed Watts Does William Eggleston.

It's about time Manchester Photography did a post about a Manchester photographer. It's Ed Watts I'm referring to. I'm sure a lot of you know him. He's been organising photo related stuff at The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and further afield with gems such as The Alternative Camera Club, Roast Beef and such like for ages.
Here though I'm interested in what he's been up to with his own photography. The above picture, that even the most photographically illiterate provincial council art gallery curator should spot is William Eggleston's 1973 piccy Greenwood Mississippi.
Watts, and I'm going to call him that rather than Ed so that I sound more impartial and professional, has been thinking about this photo for years. I can testify that he has wanted to recreate that space for donkey's. Well thanks to the folk at this years FORMAT Festival he's going to build that ceiling as a life size installation/sculpture and invite others to photograph this iconic scene. I wonder if that room was ever photographed by anyone else? It's so famous a ceiling but it's the only photo I know of the place which is unusual because as we all know photographers love to photograph the same thing over and over again. Just look at that canal/river in Hackney, I'm sick of the fucking sight of it.
Anyway Ed, I mean Watts is going to give all of us photographers the chance to photograph that red ceiling again and again and again and we can flood the internet with shit loads of versions of it so when we next type in Greenwood, Mississippi 1973 we will get the same but different.
As I said in the last post too many photographers call themselves photo artists without doing anything more than point and shoot. Watts is screwing that notion up with this piece.

Not At Arles in Body but........

It's Arles next week, I've never been. My work's been there twice now. First Semi's went to a little fringe show in 2010 and next week Art is Godd is going as part of ROAST BEEF presents. If you are going and you get the chance please go and have a look. It's at 8 Rue Favorin, Place du Forum Arles. It's on between the 1st and 4th July. More details in the previous post.

I've never been to Arles but I have an image in my head and I made the above still life in honour of the inaugural ROAST BEEF presents. As with my other still lifes it's 80% made from images sourced from the web.

Jet Set.

If like me you love to fly around the world and go to the biggest shows and drink the very fizziest Cava, THIS may be of use. I'll meet you by the Holland's pie stall at Art Basel....

Smile.

When no one was looking, we became the most watched country on Earth
Reality TV is about CCTV in Britain.

David Dunnico has documented these 'hoodies' of the 'surveillance society' including the organisations who operate it, companies who sell it and people who oppose it. The exhibition mixes strong graphic, urban images with humour and reaches a surprising conclusion that Big Brother probably isn't watching you - but your supermarket definitely is.

Reality TV: CCTV
24 February 10 - 27 March 10

Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester.

Brilliant.

Ray Lowry Retrospective.

I think that Ray Lowry was probably a little bit more ROCK 'n' ROLL than his namesake old L.S. It's great that he's got THIS retrospective in the city of his birth Salford. Shame it's twelve months after his death but I suppose better late than never. HERE for more of his work.

HA!-HA!Like that old saying about buses all coming at once, I've got two things on starting this weekend. My book "25 Weapons" is going on a bit of a world tour, well the North of England at least. Starting this coming Sunday 25th It will be part of a group show called HA!-HA! that's on at THE DUKES GALLERY (part of THE DUKES THEATRE) Lancaster until November 19th details HERE.

Second up "25 Weapons" has also been selected for the bookfair weekend @ IMPRESSIONS GALLERY Bradford which is on this coming weekend 24th & 25th. I'm going to have to pick opening night at Lancaster or Sunday at the book fair, and my belly and Bradfords reputation for some truly great curry's swung it for me!

John Davies @ Cube

Image copyright John Davies

Exhibitions in Manchester by Great British Landscape photographers seem to be like buses you know the wait all year for one............ Just as Jem Southam at The Lowry gets set to close, (22/3 so you've still got a couple of days) "The British Landscape" by John Davies is set to open on the 20th March (preview tomorrow 19th 6pm til 9pm free wine, I'm not sure that bits true I'm just guessing, you know nice and warm in plastic glasses.........) at The Cube, Portland Street Manchester 20th March until 4thMay (I'm going to forgo the wine and schmoozing and go on a wet Tuesday afternoon so I can enjoy his work in peace........)

Cities On The Edge.

Image copyright John Davies

"Cities On The Edge" is an exhibition which is currently on at Contemporary Urban Centre (CUC), 41 - 45 Greenland Street, Liverpool L1 0BS until 18th December.

It is curated by and features work by British landscape photographer John Davies. It looks in part at relationships between Liverpool and five other European port cities, and also features the work of Gabriele Basilico, Ali Taptik, Philippe Conti, Wojtek Wilczyk and Sandy Volz . Here for the website:http://www.novasscarman.org/contemporary-urban-centres/north-west/

"Reality Hack" by Andrew Paul Brooks.

Andrew Paul Brooks latest show "Reality Hack" is now open at Urbis. http://www.urbis.org.uk/page.asp?id=3282 It explores parts of Manchester not normally seen, produced in his own unique style. Well worth a visit, on till May. Here for more images: http://www.andrewbrooksphotography.com/image.php?ID=726

Yet Another Exhibition From Nexus!

www.nexusartcafe.com

John Bulmer

On top of meeting the "Mod Father" I also went along to an exhibition of photographs by John Bulmer at The Royal Exchange Theatre. http://www.royalexchangetheatre.co.uk/page.aspx Some really interesting images shot in and around Manchester dating from the early 70's surprisingly in colour. Now I know John worked for national newspapers but I can't find anything about him online, which is a shame as he must have been a real pioneer shooting colour documentary work in those days. If you can, go and see his work, and if you know of any sites with his work on or more about him please let me know.

Emory Douglas

Image by Emory Douglas

Tying in with yesterdays post is the work of Emory Douglas http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Emory_Art/Emory_Art_index.html and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_Douglas Who is due to have his first UK show here in Manchester in October. It's on from 30th October at Urbis, http://www.urbis.org.uk/page.asp?id=3248 so a bit of a wait, but as I know how much preparation has gone into it I'm sure it'll be worth it. Until then here's a taster on Youtube.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeirCcxxBSQ&NR=1 & Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1KBcv0etuA&feature=related

Anna Fox @ Impression Gallery

Image copyright Anna Fox



Anna Fox http://www.annafox.co.uk/ Currently has a retrospective of her work at Impressions Gallery, Bradford until 7th September. http://www.impressions-gallery.com/exhibitions/exhibition.php?id=20

Pieter Hugo @ OpenEye Gallery

I've already featured the work of Pieter Hugo before on the blog http://www.pieterhugo.com/ I love his work, so it's with great excitement that I can tell you that he's got an exhibition of his work at Liverpool's OpenEye Gallery. It starts on 30th May until 5th July. from the OpenEye blurb "Self-taught photographer and film-maker Hugo makes documentary projects in locations around the world but has a particular interest in developing countries. This exhibition focuses on three bodies of work, all of which use portraiture to call into question our understanding of who we are and how we see others." MORE HERE: http://www.openeye.org.uk/future.asp

Unpopular Culture.

Image copyright Eric Great Rex

something beautifully English about being a transvestite artist, good god no not me. I'm referring to Grayson Perry. I love his work, again very English and now he's been given the pick of "The Arts Council Collection" from which to curate a show. Featuring photography from amongst others Martin Parr. More Here: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts/hayward-touring/current/unpopular-culture Starting off at Bex-Hill-On-Sea it will be at The Harris Museum, Preston between 19 July & 14 September. It's been said that Morrissey would not look out of place at this show.............

Central Station Retrospective @ Richard Goodall.

Grand Central, the group of artist's behind much of the "Madchester" look, are having a retrospective at The Richard Goodall Gallery.http://www.richardgoodallgallery.com/contemporaryart/p42/Central-Station-Retrospective-May-2008/pages.html?CDpath=_3 starting with a private view on May 15th and opening on 16th May. www.richardgoodallgallery.com for more.

New Martin O'Neill Book & Exhibition.

Image copyright Martin O'Neill

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c2_B_cWK_M and then imagine being a young photographer and being at Joy Division's 1979 Bowden Vale gig. Well Martin O'Neill was, and at The Smith's etc etc. A teenager in the 70's/ 80's with a camera and a mission, fixing times from our lifetime in classic B/W, "yes my boy" I was a youth myself then and how fucking cool was it........ A little too young (13 in 1979) but wrote joy division on the stripes of my Adidas (All Day I Dream About Sex) school bag in "biro" along with "Have a break have a kwik krap" Grew a "wedge" and formed an attitude. Martin O'Neill's book "Don't Miss This" and forthcoming exhibitions I hope will take me back......... Now where's me "Second Image" jeans & me purple KIO's............ http://www.zyworld.com/sugarbeach/Hot_News!.htm