Issue 26 Sep 2010
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Contents GET IN TOUCH 4 welcomE... 5 COVER ARTist 6 blankverse 18 GIVE YOURSELF A FRESH WAY OF SEEING 24 FEATURE - Stealing Sheep 28 THIS MONTH’S MP3 32 blankpicks 34 Blank Media rECOmMENDS 36 CREDITS 38
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Welcome... As quickly as it arrived, it has come to an end. I could be talking about summer, but really I’m referring to our Poetry Internship undertaken by Lauren Bolger, and you can see the fruits of this labour in the magazine this month. This means that we are now actively looking for a Poetry Editor as well as a Fiction Editor to join the blankpages team, so get in touch if you’d like to get involved in the production of this unique publication. You’ll most likely need to be Manchester-based, but can check the Blank Media Collective website for further details. This month is a bit of a poetry special – as well as Lauren’s work and thoughts on the relationship between poetry and music, I’m extremely pleased to be presenting the work of Manchester’s Poets & Players’ Alicia Stubbersfield. Along with her considered and skillful poetry, she shares some thoughts on poetic technique and how to get somewhere in the arts today. Don’t forget, if you have an event to promote you can email us here at blankpages and we can help spread the word in our Recommends... section. This month also sees the official launch of Blank Media Collective’s 2 year residency curating the wallspace at Greenroom – so get down there on September 9th to see previous blankpages cover artist Mario Sughi launch his first solo show in Manchester. See you there!
blankpages Editor
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Cover Artist Fran Giffard - One of Every Species of Vulture I enjoy drawing things I want to possess. Every drawing depicts an item or creature I would like to have, or an event I would like to see. Each series of drawings represents a collection. By drawing, I am simply feeding my curiosities, needs, and obsessive nature. Each drawing starts as a digital image. I find photographs and research subjects, and then manipulate my findings on the computer, to make the image fit my ideals. The advantage of drawing is that I can make the image look exactly as I want it - I am in control. After processing, I am left with a digital, unconvincing, Photoshop image of no particular distinction, which can be easily reproduced an infinite number of times. However, I draw this computerised image, and turn it into a unique drawing. I use graphite pencils and my technique involves the sole use of short horizontal lines. Each drawing starts at the top left of the page, and finishes at the bottom right. Ironically, this mechanical and obsessive drawing process is quite like that of a printer, producing a line of image
at a time. The final drawing has the look of a traditional wood cut or print, but is graphical and contemporary. The subjects of my drawings range from animals and nature to machinery and structures. I am inspired by odd moments in the natural world, when the ugly seems beautiful, or when the graceful slip-up; when scavenger birds are still and majestic, while beautiful peacocks fight awkwardly in the air. I am inspired by moments when animals disobey the stereotypes we allocate to them. My drawings are always harsh and intense. I love the high contrast between the dark shades of graphite and the white of the paper. I want my drawings to be arresting and have presence. I do not do ethereal. The subjects of my drawings always have a powerful stillness. In the series ‘One of Every Species of Vulture’, there is potential for movement, but most of the time, the birds appear weighty and motionless. The 6
power of the creature comes out in the density of the graphite and the height of contrast, rather than in the positioning of the subject. I usually work in series, applying the same process to each subject I draw. With the Vultures; each bird was positioned in the same manner and each image altered to fit the group. The subjects are uniformly drawn, from top left to bottom right. My processes and drawings follow the same methodical train of thought, from the start to the inevitable end.
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Fran Giffard is a recent graduate of Camberwell College of Art, part of the University of the Arts London, where she studied Ba(Hons) Drawing. As part of an Erasmus exchange, she spent time at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. She graduated from Foundation Art and Design at Maidstone College of Art, part of the University for the Creative Arts. She is based in London and Hong Kong. Fran is always drawing, whether it is her own interests, or challenges set by others. 17
Alicia Stubbersfield
Illustrations by Kevin Bradshaw Alicia Stubbersfield was born in St. Helens, lived in Newton-le-Willows and went to Manchester Metropolitan University when it was a polytechnic. She taught English at Bramhall High during the glory days of Tony Wilson and the Hacienda and lots of the kids were in really good bands – such as World of Twist and Interstella. She moved to Yorkshire, did an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University, lived in Wales and Cheltenham and is now back in the north where she feels she belongs. She lectures in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and loves it. She’s published three collections of poetry, most recently Joking Apart (The Collective Press 2006).
“Increasingly I want to move away from overtly ‘poetic’ language and, in particular, ‘poetic’ endings...”
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Alicia Stubbersfield is this month's featured poet, so blankpages Editor John Leyland took the opportunity to ask her some burning questions... Your work has a real sense of narrative balance; from that hook of the first line, through the vivid journey at the centre of the poem, to the emotional squeeze at the end. There's a fullness about it. How do you achieve that? And where do you begin? I suppose that the poems I feel are most achieved are ones that follow that structure but I have been trying to do more of that. Mark Doty talks about the poet’s inclination to finish the poem as soon as we have started it and how we should focus on the element we particularly want to gloss over. I really tried to do that with ‘Listening to Ruby Tuesday Again’ and discovered all the stuff about my father which felt quite surprising and important. Poems usually begin with a real event of some kind – a story I want to tell. It might be an odd juxtaposition or something I find ironic. I also want to give a voice to people who might not otherwise be heard, not so much through dramatic
monologue but through my observations while still, I hope, seeing the world from their point of view – but filtered through my reflections. I want the poem to be about them, not me. I want to show the complications of life! How nothing is simple so knee-jerk reactions or black and white responses are missing the point. Increasingly I want to move away from overtly ‘poetic’ language and, in particular, ‘poetic’ endings. Sharon Olds talks about the whole poem being an objective correlative and I’m interested in that idea. My influences these days tend to be American poets who use clear, colloquial language but still achieve that ‘emotional squeeze’ you refer to. I was at Ledbury Poetry Festival at the weekend to hear Billy Collins but was fascinated by Neil Rollinson, another poet I admire, reading his 1996 National Poetry Prize–winning poem and saying that he no longer liked the end of the poem, that he wouldn’t do it like that now – it has a rather ‘poetic’ image of drowned kittens like ‘a starburst’. Peter Sansom’s emphasis on ‘authentic’ poetry is what I’m aiming for. At first I didn’t know what he meant but I do now and look for that sense of reality in my own work and the work of others. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy writing that has a surreal element but I want it rooted in 19
reality of language and situation – mostly… The idea of moving away from "poetic language" is really interesting - what do you think that means for poetry as a whole? I think in part it's some kind of reaction to a self-consciously artificial element in poetry which no longer really interests me. And I think, too, that recycled (or, sometimes, not even very recycled) cliché is what we often end up with. The 'language' school of poets, of course, eschew 'relevance and meaning' and you do see their influence in several writing programmes in the North West - but respected 'alternative' poets like Kelvin Corcoran, Lee Harwood and Barry MacSweeney never bought into that, nor the issues with anything referring to personal experiences. There was a series of readings in Cardiff when I lived in Wales, organised by Peter Finch and called 'Difficult Poets'. Imagine! I went to see Andy Brown read and there was a definite disgruntled air about the audience when he said he didn't think he was a difficult poet at all and that he saw himself as a lyric poet. Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, set up by Michael Laskey and now directed by Naomi Jaffa has always privileged 'accessible' poets - with no lack
of rigour or interest. Quite the reverse.
What did you study at MMU (or rather, the poly..)? And, how important was your Creative Writing MA at Lancaster to where you find yourself now? I studied English & Social & Economic History at Manchester Poly and was taught by Jeffrey Wainwright who was at the beginning of his writing career and I think knowing a living poet probably made a difference! But I didn't start writing until I was an English teacher at Bramhall High and took sixth-formers to Lumb Bank. I began writing poetry on a course tutored by prose writers, Des Hogan (a very poetic Irish writer actually) and Rosalind Belbin, which just shows that your form finds you, I think. The MA at Lancaster was in 1991/92 when there was really only Lancaster and UEA offering MAs. David Craig, who ran the MA, very much left us to our own devices apart from two workshops a week and it was a year of 'being' a writer instead of describing myself as someone who 'used to be a teacher' as I'd given up teaching when we moved to Yorkshire. I was lucky with the group I was with and made good
friends with three novelists! My friendship with Paul Magrs remains a great support and we still talk about writing and reading (and other things!) several times a week. Two things David Craig said have remained important to me: one was after you had read your poem out at the workshop, he would look up and say 'Does anyone get a meaning for this?' which usually sent me into the foetal position but a circle of shaking heads was salutary. Meaning matters to me and I like Billy Collins's description of his poems as being 'hospitable' to the reader. Why not let the reader in? The other thing was Craig's description of the poem's subject matter sometimes being 'off camera'. I like that idea of bringing your subject into focus. To makes sure you write about what you want to write about. Not always easy, however. What part, if any, do you think new/social/digital media can play in the career of an emerging poet/ writer? New media is vital in the career of emerging writers but they have to be careful about the websites they choose. So much rubbish is available online. That whole sense of connection and gaining a wide audience 20
is wonderful from the writer’s point of view but also so much is available to us as readers – American poetry, poets from the past, contemporary poetry. No-one has any excuse for not steeping themselves in contemporary poetry. Having a website – which I don’t and must – allows the writer to develop an identity and to show, through links, who their influences are. A magazine like blankpages takes us through so many experiences and can be more inspirational than written media.
Hearing Voices 10P5 stares at me horrified You hear voices Miss? I explain - not voices exactly, not speaking outside my head but a discussion with myself. What might happen if I do this or that, what my mother would say.
You‘ve made your bed, now… just what we didn’t want to happen, don’t wear white shoes in winter. He’s just a great I am. Steve is anxious, Becky giggles. Mostly they look blank, or bored.
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No, I don’t know why I’m doing this. You’re right, no-one is watching me. I try to imagine my head empty, silent. How I could behave without rehearsals, not knowing what my mother, my granny, 10P5 or you, would think? Not caring.
Listening to Ruby Tuesday again There’s something about that gay light that draws you. you say, and I wonder what that gay light is in your eyes as you look at me and we begin to laugh, holding me in a world no-one else quite understands.
and I’d always known it. My father knew it. Back from Dunkirk and everything else he didn’t talk about, glad I was a girl so I’d never have to go to war. He read Sassoon, gave up Catholicism, died at 42.
It began at eighteen, my first lover took my virginity with the lightest touch, drew me in a 1930s dress, bought me anemones then left with a window-dresser who I shouted at in the street, as if it was his fault.
I was drawn to his light. Everything he told me: The Magic Flying Carpet, Kemal Attaturk, the laws of trespass to explain the sign outside Piglet’s house. We belonged to our world of people who live inside a book.
We were all in love with Bowie then, weren’t we? Swapping our velvet trousers, eyes made up sultry, glitter on our faces so even the most heterosexual of men joined in, knew pretty boys had the most luck.
Liverpool Irish – no-one funnier or more inappropriate, swearing in polite company and there was plenty of that as the solicitor in a small town. He defended the man on the market who sold linen, won him aversion therapy.
I’ve slept with one or two more who wondered what they really fancied – I was gamine, androgynous wanted to be Julie Driscoll or Ruby Tuesday, catching my dreams before they slipped away. Life was unkind
With you now, I feel as light as I did when I was a girl, laughing at something no-one else will think is funny, on the edge of everything possible and dangerous, neither of us chained to a life where nothing is lost.
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Relatives’ Group Straight-backed National Health chairs in a circle upstairs, downstairs, the A.A. meeting we don’t see or hear about. Relatives take their places again, ready to exchange weekly stories of anger, fear, our tales of their mad deceit. The young woman hesitates at the door but comes in, begins to explain how her fiancé promised never to drink again, how the odd sherry couldn’t do any harm, could it, and how she’d change him when they married. We lean forwards, Mary whose husband was morbidly jealous, who had four children under five and was pregnant, Sandy, whose husband was a binge-drinker going away for days at a time, coming home with roses, promises. The same promises Ian’s wife made each time she stopped the whisky, before she began again. We lean forward and say No. No. Don’t even think about it. Mary strokes her belly’s curve. Get out while you can. The girl looks at her tiny solitaire, twiddles it on her finger. I love him. she says and silence spikes our tongues.
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GIVE YOURSELF A FRESH WAY OF SEEING Poetry and music are two separate entities and for many of us we rarely consider them together. Music collectors become all ‘ahhh sunflower!’ when it comes to vinyl shrines, CD lagoons and little cassette tape ornaments; yet ask them to show you their poetry and they won’t because they don’t want to be associated with it. Music has more of a social legitimacy because vice works very well with it; no-one wants to go back to yours and read Gertrude Stein. However, the line ‘Would you like to go upstairs and listen to the Beatles?’ has a multitude of affection instigating properties. Music has the magnetising effect, just look at the way young butterflies flock to male guitarists, or try not to flock to male guitarists. It’s very difficult. In the same way it is to understand Gertrude Stein. Either way, it’s all very simple - you just have to abandon any preoccupations, stay innocent and try to look upon each thing afresh.
The relationship between poetry and music equals vision By Lauren Bolger Illustrations by Kevin Bradshaw
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The thing that links poetry and music is vision. The reason behind why we write is a void and the more we write poetry or perform our music the more we are trying to reach into this space and touch something sacred. Our body decides how to spend its own energy and in order to charge our body we create our own imaginative fuel. As human beings we are like a fire, overuse of the imagination/vice (too much fuel) can burn you out and stop you moving forward whereas, not enough stimulation (not enough fuel) doesn’t generate heat, leaving you cold and unfulfilled. These examples both share the stopping effect and the challenge is to keep moving with your vision. Belief in Latin means ‘to hope’ and belief is the closest debate that we have regarding our own personal visions. A set mind is the best weapon against people who are just circulating around the topic of hope, which is why we should leave it open. We are all circulating around hope and a set mind is just a dreamer who went wrong. In the same way people who believe in religion are just hoping it will work out for them. The title of the band The Beatles refers maybe to beat vision, and beat writings
come from a sensation of feeling crushed or down-beaten by society. This is probably a very sweeping statement but I feel all the tracks I’ve ever listened to by The Beatles are paradoxical; evoking the innocence and joys and rushes, with the experience and the drone and the melancholy longings. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are both very different however both share this ability to take the dark sentiments of poetry and package it as pop music. Their imaginations represent the marriage of no hope and hope. Poetic examples are the Surrealists and the Romantics, in particular William Blake who made his Songs of Innocence and Experience for the page and for musical performance and because I mentioned her before, Gertrude Stein, who used words just for their sound qualities and played around with the set context of words, bringing emotional sense to the nonsense of her lines. We all seem to need the comfort of knowing what poetry and lyrics mean; we could say it lies within the music or the poetic voice that accompanies the words on the page, or the reading of words off a page, and I guess the way we might answer 26
this is to be aware that we are not going to enjoy everything we see and hear yet we should respect it. For as long as we respect (and by respect I don’t mean love or hate that’s your perogative) then we are not categorising people into art-groups, everyone is equal and often multi-practising in all forms of expression. If anything we should weigh what we see not in labels but, in vision. Like is it imaginative?
The snow Religious girls speak on the stairs I guess the star I’m to meet is due dear Long males fall up the stairs bumping into Godly girls. To taste heaven is a winter it runs around the block. Littering the alleyways where we sit and the sky out-span me. All the people are certain of what little Snow does tell, but I say she showed me the afternoon she heard the Fiddler he froze me out.
Sorrow walks back home it’s free and it’s grey It looses one umbrella love to find another Bloom inside a taxi, I kind of paid. Hello, to the Dancer You see Snow climbs the stairs They all wore I guess red shoes round here I scuffed mine when running when out of love.
To taste you has no reason I count roses my friend I pick several up just past my feet for Snow to fall all down my chest again you see To slowly sink is everything I wish I was even there but I’m not I’m half upstairs I said to Snow just to meet his ends I think your litter is heaven sent. Lauren Bolger
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Stealing Sheep Article By Elaine Wilson Photography by ‘O B S C E N I C’ Wistful, magical, playful and joyful with a hint of melancholy. This is how I would describe Stealing Sheep’s new EP, What if the lights went out. The launch, at Liverpool’s View Two Gallery, was like a musical feast in a Parisian cafe, rich as venison, sweet as caramel and no escargot in sight. The first of the support acts was Ödland; imaginative and experimental, their combined multimedia and live performance created a strange Alice in Wonderlandish, circus-like atmosphere, playing violins, the piano and toys. Whether singing in French or English, they were compelling, and simply adorable to watch. It was like being in Amelie. Next up, Dead Belgian. Singing the songs of Jacques Brel, they brought a new energy to Brel’s songs, making them their own. A friend once suggested I see them, claiming they will make me smile and she wasn’t wrong. They took me away from the small venue in Mathew Street to the aforementioned Parisian cafe. After this delightful dish of sound, Stealing Sheep rounded off the evening like a delicious
Crème Brûlée. Hailing from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, and described by Lauren Laverne on her BBC Radio 6 show as her favourite ex-students from LIPA, Stealing Sheep are apparently the ones to look out for, and it’s not hard to see why. Although playing live, they sound as good as their recorded tracks, the vocals pitch perfect and not a single note dropped. Shoot the Ducks to Win, the lead song from their EP and this month’s mp3, is eerie and dreamlike, a lullaby of sweetness not reserved for children. Hole in the Water is bittersweet and melancholic yet manages to be jaunty, as if no matter how hard things can be, they can demonstrate a positive outlook to life. Sleep, is warm and cosy like a log cabin and a roaring fire at the end of a cold hard day. Despite their perfect sound there is room for spontaneity and change, even an hour before they are due to perform. The most notable thing about Stealing Sheep and at the gig in particular is the feeling of warmth and intimacy they radiate. It could be the smallness of View Two’s space or the fact that Stealing Sheep themselves are very welcoming, sitting amongst the audience members whilst the other acts were on and greeting people at the door. I only worry that one day they’ll become too big to play such 28
intimate gigs as this. Afterwards, I caught up with Stealing Sheep to talk about how they formed their unique music, who they’re influenced by and what that saw was all about. How would you describe your music to a new listener? Bird song in your headphones Your performance at the View Two Gallery incorporated a multimedia element, is this something you do as an extension of your music or as a side project? We’ve started working with a Liverpool based project called Obscenic ‘Music Adventures... filmed’ we’re hoping for massive collaborations next year making documentaries and music videos, we definitely want the visual element to be a bigger thing in the future and think it’s really interesting to incorporate visuals into the live set with animations, projections and strange little décor props, I suppose you’d say it’s an extension of the music, it definitely enhances the listening experience!
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The three of you work extremely well together, has your musical chemistry evolved over time or was it there from the beginning? We have been playing together for years now. We started off as solo artists and then we collaborated in Becky’s band Hapytap, which was a totally different vibe with live electronics, dub step style bass lines and noisy math rock style drums. It’s where we first found our vocal styles matched. We worked together in a band called Kovacs after that, this was Megan’s project at university and it was very different again, along the same lines as Beirut and Sufjan Stevens, this is where we experimented with crazy harmonies, strange arrangements and different synths, towards the end of our degree at LIPA we collaborated in a harp orchestra and experimented with some recordings for various projects together. Our musical style evolved during that first summer after graduating when we dabbled in some little gigs at mellomello our local raggle taggle jazz café. Here we got our first taste of Stealing Sheep’s folky ditty like tunes and we followed this path since then because we enjoyed the carefree light enough to travel
approach less people and instruments made touring loads easier and our friendships also helped everything evolve! Has attending LIPA changed you as musicians? LIPA was a great place to meet lots of really inspirational people. For example we got the opportunity to work with Rachael Gladwin (who plays harp on our new EP), she’s since played with Nitin Sawhney and La Symphonie Mécanique. There are really good producers, studios, management students, costume designers, artists and session players to collaborate with, it’s a great launch pad in that place. Musically you’re challenged more than most places because you’re surrounded by music brains and creative minds, it makes you try harder to stand out and you bounce off other people’s ideas too! ‘That Was Long Ago’ and ‘Hole in the Water’ were described at the gig as being about a Great Grandmother becoming a lesbian and an unhappy job situation, do all your songs come from personal experience? Absolutely, it’s what makes music powerful. All the songs have stories behind them, it’s 30
just we’re too shy to tell the audience when we play live. Hole in the water is on our new EP and we think it’s a really strong that we hope will relate to lots of people who share the same experience. The song refers to the difficulty Megan has experienced with her family when she told them she was a lesbian. It’s important that other people can share these kinds of experiences and music is a good way of getting to a lot of people who might have the same problems. Your songs use a range of unusual instruments; the saw, accordion, a kazoo etc. There’s an element of risk taking in using unconventional methods, how do you know it will sound right? That’s the most exciting part of music when you play live, you don’t know if it will sound right and sometimes it doesn’t J spontaneity is fuel for the heart and gives every show more excitement. We introduced the saw player ‘the bees Niece’ an hour before the show, this made everything more improvised even on a song we had been playing three times a week for the last 2 years, the sparkle came back to the song. Also using different instruments each time we play gives the audience something new and interesting to see and hear.
Your support acts Ödland and Dead Belgian complimented your set beautifully, was it a conscious decision to give the evening a European feel? The whole show came about because I found out Ödland were touring the UK. Then we tied it in with our EP launch (since it was around the same time). Then Dead Belgian is just one of our favourite bands in Liverpool so we just had to put them on! It wasn’t deliberate it just shows our taste is partial to a bit of that Parisian artistic musical-mess that these bands create when they play live. As you all come from different countries, does this influence the direction your music takes? The main influences for our music come from the place and time we are in now. What is next for Stealing Sheep?
rock band Emily and the Faves. We want to make a Vinyl for the New Year and want to get some new influences in. We’re also keen to work with drummer/percussionist/folkywriter Lucy of Long Finger Bandits and Sing for your Super. We are really interested in making music for films too so we’re going to have a few months writing and recording especially for that. We’re mainly interested in making as much music we can and touring as much as possible. Becky says “I’d like to get on tour with Beth jeans Houghton or Joanna Newsom, they’re awesome!” Stealing Sheep will next be playing Gabby Young and Other Animals @ UnConvention at Salford Sacred Trinity Church on 1st October. And if you can’t wait until then, What if the lights went out is available in stores + on itunes from the Red Deer Club label or you can check out their MySpace. http://www.myspace.com/stealingsheep www.reddeerclub.co.uk http://www.myspace.com/odlandmusic http://www.myspace.com/deadbelgianpjb
We recently signed with indie label Red Deer Club and we’ve been talking with them about new tours and records. We think it would be interesting to work with some new musicians for example songwriter and guitarist Emily Lansley from Liverpool based psychedelic 60’s 31
“One for the master, one for the dame, and...
(THIS MONTH’S MP3)
SteALing Sheep Shoot The Ducks to Win
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...for the little boy who lives down the lane.”
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Spencer Tunick at The Big Chill Article by Michelle Kerwin Photography by Marc Sethi
Last month 700 people got naked in the name of art at the Big Chill Festival in Ledbury, Michelle Kerwin was one of the participants, and gives us an account of her experiences below. For more testimonials, you can visit thespencertunickexperience.org “Five years ago I would never have dreamt of doing such a thing, being too self conscious of an over-hanging flap of skin from losing over 5 stone in weight, combined with stretch marks and self harm scars meant I hated my body. However during the past 5 years I have come to not only love my body and am comfortable in it, but to treat each scar and stretch mark as a memory. Combined with my tattoos and piercings I view it as an amazing thing. The whole experience was amazing! Whilst making our way into the very secret location (behind the main stage!!) someone asked us what we were doing that he wasn’t, so we told him it was a secret and he told us “fuck you and your secrets then!” Once sat on the hill with the other participants I shared a joint with my friends and nervous excitement kicked in. Standing up and taking all my clothes off did not feel strange, even though this was my first
display of nudity in public, and suddenly it felt as though this was perfectly natural, and the painting of bodies was a lot of fun! Once we all had our body paint on, Spencer began to give us instructions including ‘not to touch another colour’. There was a lot of hilarity; different colours chasing each other up and down the hill, standing in front of the press, and feeling how the group dynamics settled. The blues were the trouble makers, the pinks and yellows laughing amongst themselves and the black painted people seemed to take on a ninja style leadership approach. singing the colours of the rainbow and ‘True Colours’ shining through was the moment we all seemed to realise we were taking part in something remarkable. Spencer directed us into various positions, with great humour and patience. Although we as a group did some spontaneous things which I hope added to 34
his artistic vision for the final piece. Lying on the floor with my feet over someone’s shoulders, I could feel his heart beating through my calf. My head was resting on someone else’s thigh, and it felt as if the entire group was one, breathing together. The early morning Sunday sun warmed us and I felt so relaxed I could have easily fallen asleep. It all seemed to be over too quickly, and part of the experience was sitting on the hill with everyone being reluctant to get dressed again, myself and my friends opted for just underwear; the looks we got from other festival-goers as we walked through the site and sitting eating breakfast were incredible! There was a mix of confusion, wondering what they had missed out on, what had we all been doing?? Three of us opted to not have showers and partied to Norman Jay still in pink, outside in the ‘festival world’ we spotted many other colours, and people who had showered came and spoke to us; one person said ‘Hi! I’m a former black person!’ There was a sense of rivalry amongst the colours whilst the groups were together, but once amongst non painted people we became a minority group with a secret!. A wonderful experience and I cant wait to see the final product.”
If you have a cultural experience you’d like to share in blankpicks, you can email us editor@blankmediacollective.org
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Contacting the World Exhibition 7 June - 25 September All day, Free Celebration of the return of our pioneering international young persons theatre festival project with a building wide exhibition of some of the pivotal moments from previous Contact The World festivals. http://www.contact-theatre.org/ Jamie Hewlett’s Under Water Colours 3 September - 25 September All day, Free Jamie Hewlett’s enchanting Under Water Colours makes its Manchester debut this September. The artist behind Gorillaz, Tank Girl and Monkey created this tender large scale collection after a trip with Oxfam to Bangladesh. http://www.contact-theatre.org/ Heritage Open Days 9 september - 12 September Various venues across the Northwest, National festival celebrating architecture and culture that opens the doors of fascinating places that are normally closed to the public for one weekend only. Venues include the Salford Lads Club (take note Mozzer fans), the Port of Liverpool Building, Lancaster Castle and many more. http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/
ADVENTURES IN KENSAL GREEN 10 September - 22 September Dissenters’ Chapel Gallery, Kensal Green Cemetery, London. A show of recent paintings from Sean Worrall.. Opening night view, Thursday 9th September, 6.30pm - 10pm. A collection of a recent paintings birthed in Kensal Green, www.kensalgreen.co.uk RECORDERS Rafael Lozano-Hemmer 11 September - 09 January Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Mexican-Canadian electronic artist who produces large-scale interactive installations using robotics, projections and other devices, to create dynamic kinetic art works. As an international Biennial circuit favourite, his new commission for Manchester Art Gallery is bound to attract much critical attention. http://www.manchestergalleries.org/ Electronic Exchange EP Launch Party 16 September The Nook, Chorlton, Manchester. An EP release launch party featuring the duo’s debut live show. The night is a collaboration with the wonderful Mind on Fire Collective.
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Liverpool Biennial 18 September - 28 November Various venues, Liverpool One of the world’s biggest contemporary art jamborees outside Venice, the Biennial is living proof of Liverpool’s seemingly insatiable appetite for contemporary art. The always intriguing shows are staged all over the city – in galleries, museums, studios, and on the streets – and aim to introduce new audiences to the latest up-and-coming artists and contemporary art trends. http://www.biennial.com/ SEDITION 18 September - 28 November Tullie House, Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle. An uprising of Cumbrian contemporary artists. There is a wealth of artists in Cumbria producing vibrant, challenging and high-quality work across all media. Despite these artists having, in many instances, international reputations, their work has all-too-often had limited exposure in this region. www.tulliehouse.co.uk GIG - MARRY ANOTHER 20 September Sound Control, Manchester www.myspace.com/marryanother
To include your event in next month’s issue email editor@blankmediacollective.org with your event title, location, date, time and a short description (100 words).
Mario Sughi
A New Sense of Emptiness greenroom, Manchester www.blankmediacollective.org/ anewsenseofemptiness
10 September 23 October 2010 Public Preview: 9 September, 6-9pm Free entry
Girls and the City, Mario Sughi © nerosunero 2008
THE DROWNING WORLD: DAN DAVIS, MICHELLE MCKEOWN, TERRY SHAVE runs till 2 October AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, In 1962 J. G. Ballard wrote the book The Drowned World, wherein he explored a particular post-apocalyptical scenario and ideas of chaos brought on by the consequences of solar radiation and melting icecaps. Nature takes over, once again, and the world returns to a more primitive state of existence. The protagonist eventually embraces this new natural order but wrestles with the devolutionary position he finds himself in, this sharply contrasts with the determination to retain power and control by other characters. The actions of others eventually persuade the protagonist to find unity with a more organic landscape. After all, you don’t know tranquillity without knowing chaos.
A New Sense of Emptiness presents work from Mario Sughi’s current collection. Sughi’s practice is a clever fusion of fashion illustration and satirical comics. The images may seem simplistic in their style but contain cryptic elements. Whilst having a drink at the bar, you can be drawn into Sughi’s glamorous world where they may notice absurdities such as a missing shoe or a piece of floating furniture in these enticing illustrations. I love the sense of mystique that Mario Sughi captures with his illustrations. There always seems to be a simmering storyline brewing below the surface of the frame. (Lostateminor.org, AUS, March 2008)
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Blank Media Collective Team: Director: Mark Devereux Financial Administrator: Martin Dale Development Coordinators: Dwight Clarke & Annette Cookson Communications Coordinators: Stephanie Graham & Dan English Information Manager: Sylvia Coates Website designer: Simon Mills Exhibition Coordinators: Jamie Hyde, Marcelle Holt, Claire Curtin, Rachael Farmer & Taneesha Ahmed Live Music Coordinator: Iain Goodyear Official Photographer: Gareth Hacking
blankpages Team: Editor: John Leyland Music Editor: Dan Bridgwood-Hill Editorial Assistant: Corinna Iredale Visual Editors / Designers: Henry Roberts & Michael Thorp Guest illustrator : Kevin Bradshaw
In next month’s blankpages... Poetry from Dave Weaver and Katie Keys and a report and review from Manchester Art Gallery’s new exhibition: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Recorders
Blank Media is kindly supported by Lazy Daises
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