A Tall Order! Rochdale Art Gallery in the 1980s

A TALL ORDER!

ROCHDALE ART GALLERY IN THE 1980s

MORGAN, IN A LETTER DATED 16 MARCH 1987

JILL

During the 1980s, Britain was marked by major social and political events including the Falklands War, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, racial tensions and riots in several British cities, the Miners’ Strike, anti-nuclear protests at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camps, and prejudice against LGBQT+ communities in the face of the AIDS crisis and Section 28. All of these were reflected in Rochdale Art Gallery’s exhibition programming, and the gallery became well-known for its engagement with ‘issue-based’ art.

Jill Morgan, Rochdale’s Arts and Exhibitions Officer from 1981 until 1993, with a small team including Bev Bytheway, Sarah Edge, Catherine Gibson, Lubaina Himid, and Maud Sulter, created a space for previously marginalised or excluded artists to present work that expressed their own experiences and concerns. They also presented the gallery’s historic collection in new and critical ways, created opportunities for education and engagement with the local community, and demonstrated the potential for galleries to function as a tool for social change.

Their ground-breaking work is documented and celebrated in this exhibition. It includes many artworks that were exhibited here during the 1980s, alongside works from Rochdale’s permanent collection, as well as recent and newly commissioned work by a younger generation of contemporary artists who are influenced by the cultural and political agendas of the 1980s. Many of the pressing concerns of that turbulent decade remain important and relevant today.

The exhibition has been researched and curated by Derek Horton and Alice Correia, generously supported by a grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and funding from Arts Council England and Friends of Rochdale Art Gallery.

“OUR POLICY IS TO ENCOURAGE NEW AUDIENCES FOR ART, PARTICULARLY WOMEN, BLACK COMMUNITIES, YOUNG PEOPLE, THOSE WITH DISABILITIES, AND TO ENCOURAGE CULTURAL ACTIVITY FOR WORKING CLASS COMMUNITIES. BROADLY, TO CHANGE THE DOMINATION OF ART BY A WHITE MIDDLE CLASS MALE AUDIENCE AND PRODUCER. A TALL ORDER!”

WORK LABOUR AND GALLERY ONE

Under the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher, most of Britain’s nationalised industries were privatised. Over the decade, British Aerospace, British Steel, British Airways, and

British Gas all became private companies. Many people profited from privatisation and the decade saw the rise of the ‘yuppie’: the young, upwardly mobile professional. But while the financial industries thrived, heavy industry was in decline. The National Coal Board resisted privatisation, but the majority of British pits faced closure, leading to the 1984–85 miners’ strike. It was one of the longest and most bitter strikes in labour history.

During this period, Rochdale Art Gallery exhibited artworks and hosted live performances that addressed Britain’s declining industries, particularly local textile manufacturing. Artists were concerned with how working-class histories, and particularly the stories of working women, were recorded. The government’s apparent disregard for workers’ rights, and the lack of support for millions of unemployed people provided the context in which artists addressed what they saw as the exploitation of people in the drive for profit and economic growth. The politics of the 1980s exposed and deepened the divisions in society, between rich and poor, south and north, women and men. In this context of unequal wealth, some artists looked to eighteenth century satirical artists such as William Hogarth and Tim Bobbin, in

order to make statements about contemporary society.

THE 1980s WAS A DECADE OF RADICAL CHANGE IN THE BRITISH INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE AND ECONOMY. DURING THIS PERIOD ROCHDALE ART GALLERY STAGED EXHIBITIONS THAT ENGAGED WITH THE HISTORIES OF WORKING-CLASS LABOUR, WOMEN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH WORK IN AND OUT OF THE HOME, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNREGULATED CAPITALISM.

JASLEEN KAUR, GUT FEELINGS MERI JANN, 2021 Film still. Courtesy of the artist

SARAH EDGE, MINE OR HIS-STORY, 1985

Photograph of performance Courtesy of the artist, photo © Patsy Mullan

PAUL BUTLER, OFFICE, 1987

Charcoal on paper. Collection of Touchstones Rochdale

GALLERY TWO

Landscape paintings make up a significant proportion of Rochdale’s permanent collection, and curators at the gallery presented these artworks analytically. They highlighted, for example, the power relationships that lie behind representations of both British and colonised landscapes: who owns the land we are looking at, and how did they acquire it? What stories are being celebrated in the works, and whose stories have been left out or hidden? Many of the artworks in this room invite us to ask similar questions.

The 1980s was a time of major deindustrialisation, particularly in the north of England, and the gallery staged several exhibitions that looked at how these changes affected the landscape. There were exhibitions of sculpture, photography, and performance that focused on issues such as pollution, animal rights, and the decay of industrial buildings. A number of artworks on display in this gallery address the built environment, and consider how buildings, roads, and militarised barriers influence how we move and live in our towns and cities.

Towards the end of the 1980s, Jill Morgan and Lubaina Himid worked on several exhibitions focusing on women artists and their use of still-life and flower painting. Jill suggested that in the early 20th century, women artists used modernist forms to express and assert the changing status of women in society, using nature, flowers, and everyday objects to convey a range of thoughts and emotions. To reflect these ideas, this gallery includes a wall of still-life and flower paintings by modern and contemporary artists to show the ways in which nature images have continued to be used by artists, and how natural motifs can ‘say’ different things at different times.

LAND & OUR ENVIRONMENT

CONCERN ABOUT THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, AND THE WAYS THAT HUMANS INTERACT WITH IT, WAS EVIDENT IN MANY EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS ORGANISED BY ROCHDALE ART GALLERY IN THE 1980s

HAROLD OFFEH, LOUNGING, AFTER TEDDY PENDERGRASS (WYSING GARDEN), 2018 Image courtesy of the artist

VANESSA BELL, INTERIOR, c.1940 Gouache on board. Collection of Touchstones Rochdale

ANNE TALLENTIRE, DO YOU KNOW THIS PLACE, 1990 performance/installation. Courtesy the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. © the artist, photo: Patsy Mullan

GALLERY THREE

ROCHDALE EVERYTHING HEART OF

The gallery was firmly rooted in its community and committed to encouraging access to, and participation in, visual culture for everyone. It provided exhibition opportunities to local artists, facilitated artistic collaborations with local hospitals and industries, and sited art in public spaces, such as Rochdale train station.

In 1982, Rochdale had a photographer-in-residence who built up close relationships with the town’s Asian communities and documented many aspects of their daily lives. Exhibitions about local histories or local communities often coincided with exhibitions by contemporary artists with national or international roots and reputations, making connections and encouraging conversations between them. Many exhibitions also included works from Rochdale’s own historic collection, inviting and challenging audiences to think about familiar artworks in new ways, and to ask questions about their history and relevance.

The gallery also established strong links with local schools, community centres, women’s groups, and other community organisations, taking artists and artworks out into the community, and bringing the community into the gallery to take part in workshops, creative activities, talks and discussion groups.

Every year the gallery invited submissions of work by local artists and craftworkers for a large-scale show called The People’s Art, which became a popular fixture in the exhibition programme. Other exhibitions provided opportunities for the town’s youngest artists including, So You Want To Be An Artist, which featured artists who had studied at Rochdale School of Art, and Art Raang, an exhibition of young Black artists from Rochdale. The gallery had many links with Rochdale School of Art, as well as art colleges in Manchester and Leeds. Several artists who graduated from these Northern art schools were given their first high profile solo exhibitions at Rochdale, helping them establish their future careers.

AT THE

FOR JILL MORGAN AND THE CURATORS WHO WORKED ALONGSIDE HER, IT WAS IMPORTANT THAT ROCHDALE WAS AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING THE ART GALLERY DID.

CHARLES DONALD TAYLOR, THE CONSTRUCTION OF COLLEGE BANK FLATS, ROCHDALE, LANCASHIRE, 1966

Oil on board. Collection of Touchstones Rochdale

DEREK WATSON, A WELL-EARNED REST, 1988

Oil on canvas. Collection of Touchstones Rochdale

BETTY BEAUMONT, CHANGING LANDSCAPES: ART IN AN EXPANDED FIELD, 1989 Exhibition poster, Rochdale Art Gallery Archives

THE ATTITUDES AND IDEAS THAT INFORMED EXHIBITION MAKING AT ROCHDALE ART GALLERY THROUGHOUT THE 1980S WERE BASED IN A COMMITMENT TO ART THAT REFLECTED CURRENT DEBATES IN CULTURE AND SOCIETY.

Jill Morgan and her team sought to make the gallery a place where both artists and audiences could engage with social and political issues. This often led to an emphasis on artwork that was figurative and representational, rather than abstract or conceptual. Narrative painting, photography, and performance were all important components of the exhibition programme.

Many artists and exhibitions were concerned with depicting history and current events, and questioned the power relations that determine the society we live in. Exhibitions engaged with contemporary conflicts, youth sub-cultures, and often conveyed a consciousness of class politics. Jill and her colleagues consistently supported women artists and curators, and many exhibitions were underpinned by feminist politics. At the same time, Rochdale played a key role in supporting the early careers of Black and South Asian artists. Many of the key figures in what is now broadly known as the ‘British Black Arts Movement’ exhibited at Rochdale from the early-1980s onwards.

Through these priorities, Rochdale Art Gallery created a space for women, working-class, and Black artists to articulate their own experiences and identity. This in turn involved thinking about the gallery’s historic collection in different ways. Exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection were shown alongside contemporary artists’ work, in ways that invited a questioning of gender, class, race and social inequalities.

POWER, IDENTITY, AND REPRESENTATION

VERONICA SLATER, SOUL IDENTIFIED AS FLESH, c.1989

Oil on canvas. Collection of the artist, Courtesy and © the artist, photo: Bernard G Mills 2022

PATSY MULLAN, ACT TWO: STALKER INQUIRY, SEAMUS GREW AND RODDY DOYLE, c.1987 Oil on unstretched canvas, Collection of the artist. Courtesy and © the artist

BHAJAN HUNJAN, PEACOCK FEATHER, 1990, Acrylic on canvas. Collection of the artist. Courtesy and © the artist

WHILE UNDERTAKING RESEARCH FOR THIS EXHIBITION WE WERE STRUCK BY THE CARE AND SUPPORT GIVEN TO ARTISTS BY JILL MORGAN AND HER TEAM. EXHIBITION PLANS WERE CAREFULLY DEVELOPED THROUGH CONVERSATION, AND ARTISTS WERE HELPED AND ENCOURAGED IN THEIR CREATIVE ENDEAVOURS. FOR THE CURRENT EXHIBITION WE WANTED TO HONOUR THESE PRINCIPLES OF CARE AND SUPPORT THROUGH A SERIES OF NEW ARTISTS’ COMMISSIONS, ENABLED BY GRANTS FROM ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND. LUBNA CHOWDHARY, SARAH-JOY FORD, AND JADE MONTSERRAT HAVE BEEN INVITED TO CREATE NEW WORK THAT VARIOUSLY RESPONDS TO THE TOWN OF ROCHDALE, AND THE ARTISTS WHO EXHIBITED AT THE ART GALLERY DURING THE 1980s

THE COMMISSION PROGRAMME HAS ALSO SUPPORTED AN ARCHIVAL RESEARCH PROJECT INVESTIGATING DONALD RODNEY’S IMPORTANT SLIDE-TAPE WORK, CATARACT, 1991.

First exhibited at the gallery Camerawork in London in 1991, Cataract was originally a largescale slide projection of overlapping photographic images each showing segmented parts of four different male faces. In this work, Donald Rodney explored the visual strangeness of police photo-fit images and the distortions that take place in the public representation of black male bodies. The composite images of black male faces prompt us to consider the criminalisation of black men in the press and popular culture. Significantly, this work was a continuation of the ideas that Rodney had explored in his exhibition at Rochdale Art Gallery titled Critical and staged in 1990.

Montserrat, Rainbow Tribe: Affectionate Movement, Self Protest (photograph) 2016.

JADE MONTSERRAT

COMMISSION

JADE MONTSERRAT IS A VISUAL ARTIST WHO WORKS ACROSS THE MEDIA OF PAINTING, PERFORMANCE, FILM, SCULPTURE, INSTALLATION, PRINT AND TEXT. HER WORK IS RESEARCH-LED AND IS CONCERNED WITH THE IMPORTANCE OF RECORDING AND PRESERVING HISTORIES AT THE INTERSECTION OF GENDER, RACE, CLASS, AND COLONIALISM, OFTEN IN THE CONTEXT OF LIFE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES.

For this commission, Jade used photography and film to reflect on themes of diaspora, belonging, racism, trauma, and the North Yorkshire landscapes of her childhood. Her film looks at the ways in which landscapes are inherited, and the role of memory in our perception of the land. Photographs of her remote rural home taken when she was a teenager and young adult are contrasted with new images, made using the camera she first used over twenty years ago and more contemporary recording devices. Responding to some of the 1980s work of the artist and writer, Maud Sulter, Jade has also worked with archival photographs to reflect on the notions of ’here’ and ’there’, to consider the ways that images of former colonies have informed perceptions of ’English’ landscapes.

Donald Rodney (1961-98) was a leading figure in the British Black Art Movement of the 1980s. Since his death in 1998 he has been recognised as one of the most innovative and challenging artists of his generation. His exhibition at Rochdale Art Gallery included a selection of his sketchbooks, pastel drawings on X-rays, and his lightbox, Black Men, Public Enemy, 1990, now in the Arts Council Collection. During his lifetime many of his artworks were lost or destroyed, and due to the often fragile or unstable nature of his materials, those that survive are difficult to exhibit. We were particularly keen that the legacy of the Gallery’s relationship with Rodney was honoured, and by working with his Estate to create a recorded reconstruction of Cataract, we hope to both help conserve his work and make it more accessible to audiences now and in the future.

Jade Montserrat (b.1981) was the recipient of the Stuart Hall Foundation Scholarship supporting her PhD and the development of her work from her Black diasporic perspective in the North of England. Jade’s Rainbow Tribe project, a combination of historical and contemporary manifestations of Black culture from the perspective of the Black Diaspora, is central to the development of her practice. In 2020, Iniva and Manchester Art Gallery commissioned Jade as the first artist for the Future Collect project, with a solo exhibition Constellations: Care and Resistance at Manchester Art Gallery (2020 – 2022). In 2021, Jade participated in a group exhibition An Infinity of Traces at Lisson Gallery and opened a solo exhibition In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens at Bosse & Baum Gallery, London. In 2022, Jade was included in the group exhibition Body Vessel Clay, curated by Dr Jareh Das at Two Temple Place, London, and York Art Gallery.

Jade

COMMISSION LUBNA CHOWDHARY

Lubna Chowdhary grew up in Rochdale and her new ceramic work both reflects on, and builds upon, her childhood memories of the town. Having left their home in Tanzania in 1970, her family settled in Rochdale and established a business in the local textile trade. Chowdhary has recalled the contrasts between the brightly coloured fabrics and the industrial architecture that formed the backdrop to her childhood. For her commission, Chowdhary has reconsidered the spaces that she inhabited as a child and has undertaken research visits to Rochdale and its surrounding areas to address the contemporary landscape of the town. The places and spaces of Rochdale, real and remembered, are rendered abstractly through arrangements of shape and colour to create a sensory experience.

Working in clay and ceramic glazes, wood and industrial materials, throughout her career, Chowdhary has crossed the disciplines of craft, design, sculpture and painting. Her work employs both manufacturing processes and hand-made techniques, to address themes of urbanisation, geography, belonging, and material culture. Many of her works recall maps or cityscapes and encourage audiences to reflect on how they move in and through our built environments.

Lubna Chowdhary received her BA from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1988, and MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1991. In 2017 she was an artist in residence at the V&A Museum, London and her work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Most recently her large-scale exhibition Erratics was staged at MIMA, Middlesbrough (2022) and her work was included in Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art at the Hayward Gallery, London (2022-23). Her work can be found in numerous collections worldwide, including Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Leicester City Museum; and Oldham Art Gallery.

For her commission, Sarah-Joy has made a new textile work in response to the exhibition Real Lemon by the Manchester artist Rachael Field, held at Rochdale Art Gallery in 1991. Rochdale’s exhibition programme throughout the 1980s had included LGBTQ+ artists but Real Lemon was the first to depict specifically lesbian subject matter by a self-identifying lesbian artist. Sarah-Joy has also curated some archival material relating to Rachael Field’s exhibition, and the commission has involved a dialogue between two lesbian artists of different generations who share a celebratory and joyous attitude towards the pleasures and complexities of queer communities.

Her recent exhibitions include Looking for Lesbians at One Gallery and Museum, Los Angeles and Archives and Amazons at HOME, Manchester. She participated in the British Textile Biennale, 2021, and in 2022 completed a residency and exhibition at Plas Newydd Historic House and Gardens, Beloved: crafting intimacies with the Ladies of Llangollen. Other commissions include A Terrible Accident,

SARAH JOY FORD

After studying at the University of Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University, Sarah-Joy Ford received a full scholarship for her recently completed PhD, researching quiltmaking as a methodology for revisioning lesbian archival material.

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COMMISSION

a memorial quilt for Islington Mill Heritage Project, Manchester and Beyond the Binary for the permanent collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. She also has extensive experience of community codesign and leading workshops for women, girls, and LGBTQ+ groups in crafting identities, quilting, and banner-making.

LUBNA CHOWDHARY HAS CREATED A NEW CERAMIC WORK IN RESPONSE TO THE NATURAL AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTS OF ROCHDALE.

SARAH-JOY FORD IS AN ARTIST WORKING WITH TEXTILES TO EXPLORE AND CELEBRATE QUEER COMMUNITIES, AND THEIR HISTORIES AND ARCHIVES. HER WORK OFTEN INVOLVES SHADES OF PINK, PASTEL HUES, SATINS, SEQUINS, AND DECADENT SURFACE EMBELLISHMENT, USING BOTH DIGITAL AND TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES THAT INCLUDE QUILTING, DIGITAL EMBROIDERY, DIGITAL PRINT, AND APPLIQUE.

MAZES

THE FIRST EXHIBITION

CURATED BY JILL MORGAN

MONUMENT

SUSAN HILLER

PAUL BUTLER

WHIT WALKS: A PROGRAMME OF PERFORMANCE AND INSTALLATION

SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ARTIST: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS FROM ROCHDALE COLLEGE OF ART 1969–79

DAVID ALKER PAINTINGS

LAURIE ANDERSON

FACE TO THE EAST IN THE NORTH MALCOLM GLOVER, PHOTOGRAPHER-IN-RESIDENCE

ART AND THE LAND PART OF ‘LANDSCAPE’, TEN PARALLEL EXHIBITIONS OF CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN GREATER MANCHESTER

ART WARS

JOHN HYATT

MEANS OF ESCAPE

STEPHEN WILLATS

PANDORA’S BOX

A SHOW OF WOMEN ARTISTS WITH A CATALOGUE EDITED BY GILLIAN CALVERT, MOUSE KATZ, AND JILL MORGAN

RELICS

OUR PAST, OUR STRUGGLE: IMAGES OF WOMEN IN THE LANCASHIRE COALMINES CURATED BY SARAH EDGE

THE ISSUE OF PAINTING SUTAPA BISWAS; MARGARET HARRISON; GLENYS JOHNSON

Financial markets are completely de-regulated and screen-based trading is introduced to the London Stock Exchange by the Conservative government in what became known as the ‘Big Bang’

In local council elections Labour take control in Rochdale

Margaret Thatcher’s government introduces the Housing Act giving tenants the “right to buy” their council houses

13 Black children and young people die in the New Cross house fire, prompting mass demonstrations for racial justice

IRA member Bobby Sands is elected as an MP whilst on hunger strike in the Maze prison and dies a month later aged 27

A Women’s Peace Camp is established to protest the planned siting of US nuclear missiles at Greenham Common air base

The first case of AIDS is diagnosed in the UK

UK unemployment is over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s

The 1980s was an eventful decade in Britain and one that saw political and social changes that still affect us today. These were often reflected in Rochdale Art Gallery’s programming during the 1980s and this timeline shows a few of Rochdale’s important exhibitions and how they coincided with some significant events in the wider world. 1980 1981 1982 1983

Britain declares war on Argentina over the disputed Malvinas/Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic. The war lasts from April until June and results in 255 British and 649 Argentinian deaths, with 777 British and 1,188 Argentines wounded

Margaret Thatcher, prime minister since 1979 wins another General Election by a landslide with a majority of 144 seats

The Conservative government announces £500 million of public spending cuts

The second People’s March for Jobs begins in Glasgow in April and on 5 June tens of thousands of people attend a rally against unemployment in Hyde Park

A miners’ strike begins after the Thatcher government announces the closure of most of Britain’s remaining coal pits

The satirical TV puppet show ‘Spitting Image’ is premiered

The Provisional IRA attempts to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing

WHY COVER UP IF THERE’S NOTHING TO HIDE? STEVE BELL

SONIA BOYCE

STRIP AIDS

80 COMIC ARTISTS IN A CHARITY EXHIBITION RUN BY LONDON LIGHTHOUSE, THE UK’S FIRST RESIDENTIAL AND DAYCARE CENTRE FOR AIDS PATIENTS NEW ROBES FOR MASHULAN LUBAINA HIMID; MAUD SULTER

MAKING SENSE

GLENNIS BRIERLEY; RHIANNON OWENS; CHRISTINE ROTHWELL; NOREEN WHITE

In the world’s worst nuclear disaster a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR explodes, immediately killing 31 people and with radioactive contamination reaching the rest of Europe

Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative party secure a third consecutive term in office with a majority of 102 seats

One person a day in Britain is reported to be dying of AIDS

Nurses throughout the UK strike for higher pay and more funding for the NHS

ONCE UPON A TIME

SU ANDI; LIN TANG; ALDITH VENAIR; FIONA WALKER (BLACK ARTS ALLIANCE)

DEPICTING HISTORY FOR TODAY ALONG THE LINES OF RESISTANCE

CHANGING LANDSCAPES: ART IN AN EXPANDED FIELD, BETTY BEAUMONT

ZABAT: PORTRAIT OF A FAMILY TREE MAUD SULTER

CRITICAL DONALD RODNEY

A SONGBIRD AMONG THE IMAGE MAKERS: THE GRACIE FIELDS LIVE ARTS COMMISSIONS

PUSHING BACK THE BOUNDARIES CLAUDETTE JOHNSON

ART RAANG: YOUNG BLACK ARTISTS FROM ROCHDALE

STEP INTO THE ARENA: NOTES ON BLACK MASCULINITY AND THE CONTEST OF TERRITORY, KEITH PIPER

REAL LEMON RACHAEL

FIELD

THE FORTUNE TELLER KAREN KNORR; OLIVIER RICHON; LORNA SIMPSON, CURATED BY MAUD SULTER

A government report reveals that up to 50,000 people in Britain are HIV positive. The first World Aids Day is held on 1 December

The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issues a fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie on charges of blasphemy

After demonstrations across Eastern Europe, the Berlin wall falls, marking the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union

Up to a quarter of a million people march in London to protest at the introduction of the Poll Tax

Margaret Thatcher resigns as leader of the Conservative Party and is replaced by John Major

The Gulf war begins as the RAF joins Allied aircraft in bombing raids on Iraq

British scientist Tim Berners-Lee introduces the World Wide Web and the first web browser, and creates the first ever website

Twelve European nations, including the UK sign the Treaty on European Union, known as the Maastricht Treaty, establishing the European Union (the EU)

TRIPLE TRANSFORMATIONS

SISTER SEVENPERFORMANCES IN VARIOUS PARTS OF ROCHDALE

JUGINDER LAMBA ART FOR THE BUNKER

TERRY ATKINSON

Rioting motivated by racial tensions breaks out in Handsworth, Birmingham, with 35 people injured and 2 killed

Live Aid, a multi-venue fundraising music concert to support people suffering due to the famine in Ethiopia is staged on 13 July

LOOKING INTO THE EYES OF FLOWERS:

WOMEN ARTISTS, FLOWER PAINTING; MODERNISM

REVENGE

LUBAINA HIMID

In the General Election the Conservative Party, led by John Major, is re-elected for a fourth consecutive term

Gotong royong, meaning working together, voluntarily helping each other in practical ways within a community, often where no official support is available, is a term shared across the Malay Archipelago. It has now been adapted in the form of a radical DIY approach to cultural change amongst artists. This exhibition could also be said to be a collective, social and cultural project, engaging artists, curators, writers, designers, technicians, cultural workers, set in the communities of Rochdale. The story of this project is one of working together in bringing hidden histories to the fore, crossing borders, celebrating diversity, making connections between art, objects, politics, and peoples’ lives.

It is a great tribute to Rochdale Art Gallery and Touchstones that so many artists, researchers and curators have willingly supported the project and in many cases contributed to its development.

CURATOR BIOGRAPHIES

Alice Correia is an art historian. Her research examines late twentieth-century British art, with a specific focus on artists of African, Caribbean, and South Asian heritage. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Decolonising Arts Institute, University of the Arts, London. She has previously worked at Tate Britain, Government Art Collection and the universities of Sussex and Salford. In 2017 she was a mid-career Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for the Study of British Art, where she initiated her on-going research project, Articulating British Asian Art Histories. She edited the anthology, What is Black Art? Writings on artists of African, Asian and Caribbean Heritage in Britain, 1981-1989, published by Penguin Classics in September 2022.

ALICE CORREIA

MORGAN JILL

From the sound of women’s clogs running across now empty wood mill floors, to the scent of lemons, this exhibition evokes so many memories for me. Perhaps you too can hear the echoes of the past, now calling to the future.

If the phrase ‘A tall order’ was relevant to our ambitions for cultural change in the 1980s, then it may have even more resonance now in the wake of the failure of neoliberal economics and its disastrous, divisive social consequences, so deeply felt in Rochdale as well as across the world.

It is both heartening and hopeful to see the continuing resilience, creativity, influence and success of so many of the artists who have participated in the project and also the achievement of Touchstones in pioneering programmes that dare to support challenging contemporary art within a community. I hope you will find the exhibition thought-provoking, exciting and moving. It is a space for us to be able to reflect, talk about, plot and re-imagine our shared futures.

DEREK HORTON

Derek Horton had an early career in community-based arts education, working on adventure playgrounds and community arts projects since the late-1970s. Later he spent many years teaching art in higher education and was Director of Research at Leeds Metropolitan University’s School of Contemporary Art and Graphic Design until 2008. He writes about art and occasionally about music as a regular contributor of scholarly texts, artist interviews and exhibition reviews to various books and art magazines, and also writes poetry. He cofounded the online magazines, ‘/seconds’ and ‘Soanyway’, which he currently co-edits. He was part of the three-person collective running &Model gallery in Leeds from 2013 to 2017 and has been Visiting Professor at the School of Art, Birmingham City University, UK.

Jill Morgan

JILL MORGAN WAS THE EXHIBITIONS OFFICER FOR ROCHDALE ART GALLERY FROM 1980 TO 1993. THESE ARE HER THOUGHTS ON THE EXHIBITION.

EXHIBITING ARTISTS:

Alina Akbar Alison Marchant Anne Tallentire

Anthony Caro Azraa Motala Benjamin Edwin Slinger Betty Beaumont Bhajan Hunjan Catherine Hill Catherine McWilliams Charles Donald Taylor Chila Kumari Burman Claudette Johnson David Alker David Nash Derek Watson Donald Rodney Eva Francis Frances Hodgkins Frederick Goodall George Ainscow Gerald Festus Kelly Gerard de Rose Gill Calvert Glenys Johnson Gluck Graham Latimer Haadiyah Hussain Hannah Maybank Harold Offeh Heather Howard Ian Todd Ingrid Pollard

Jacqueline Morreau Jade Montserrat Jai Chuhan James McBey Jamie Holman Jasleen Kaur Jennifer Wong Jessie Etchells Joanne Pearson John Davies John Hyatt Joy Gregory Juginder Lamba Julie Brogden Karen Knorr Keith Piper Lancelot Myles Glasson Lesley Sanderson Leslie Hakim Dowek Lois Williams Lubaina Himid Lubna Chowdhary Malcolm Glover Maria Chevska Maud Sulter Michelle Williams Gamaker Nina Hamnett Noreen White Patricia Haughton Patsy Mullan Paul Butler Paul Graham Pete Clarke Pogus Caesar Rachael Field Raksha Patel Rita Keegan Sarah Edge

Sarah-Joy Ford Shezad Dawood Sister Seven (Monica Ross, Evelyn Silver, Shirley Cameron) Sonia Boyce Stephen Frederick Stephen Willats Steve Bell Susan Hiller Sutapa Biswas Tem Powell Terry Atkinson Tim Bobbin Tony Smart Valerie Bracken Vanessa Bell Veronica Slater Will Setchell William Hogarth

With generous funding from Friends of Rochdale Art Gallery