Year: 2019
Medium: Digital video
Duration: 12m
Artists: filmmaker Antony Barkworth-Knight, musicians Rob Turner, Sam Healey, Conor Miller and digital strategist Rebecca Rae-Evans.

Homage to the Rain is an artist’s film which celebrates rain around the globe and explores how we react to it and how it changes our lives. Including video clips from every world continent, the film was produced via an open call online for contributors to send mobile phone clips of local rainfall.

The short looped film is set to an original score by musicians Rob Turner (of Manchester jazz group Gogo Penguin), Sam Healey and Conor Miller.

“Through the prism of the phenomena of rainfall we will see how people are living around the world in 2019; what are our homes like? What environments do we live in? Our clothes, our culture, our surrounding landscape, our way of life. How is this transformed when it rains?” – Rebecca Rae-Evans, digital strategist for Homage to the Rain.

For more insights to the project, read our guest blog post with Antony Barkworth-Knight here.

Homage to the Rain was co-commissioned for the Collection with Quays Culture. The film premiered at Lightwaves Festival, Salford Quays, in December 2019.

Trailer:

On Saturday 5th December, join University of Salford Curator Lindsay Taylor, and Open Eye Gallery Director Sarah Fisher, at the online Museum 2050 x HEM Symposium.

This year the event focuses on ‘the imperatives and challenges of collaboration’, with two days of presentations and discussions on the topic.

Lindsay and Sarah will discuss collaborative programmes and commissions from over the last 7 years, including the recent Peer to Peer UK/HK.

Saturday 5th December 2020
08.30 UK  / 16.30 China

Find more details below and how to register online at https://museum2050.com/

MUSEUM 2050 x HEM
2020 ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM
CULTURAL ALLIANCES:
THE IMPERATIVES AND CHALLENGES OF COLLABORATION
DEC 5-6, 2020
Online and on site
HE ART MUSEUM (HEM), SHUNDE, GUANGDONG

For the third iteration of Museum 2050’s annual symposium, the platform looks to explore the concept of collaboration, both in its proliferation in recent partnerships amongst museums, particularly in China, and as a centerpiece of creative production. We wish to ask the fundamental question: why collaborate? What is the purpose of these cultural alliances? Whether they are between distinct institutions, artists, professionals, spaces or disciplines, what is gained when we collaborate? What is lost? How can we best foster collaboration? This year, Museum 2050 seeks to broaden the discussion beyond the realm of the Chinese context in order to investigate why museums make the decision to go beyond their walls to forge partnerships, both with other actors in the arts and those in other fields.

Ahead of joining the judging panel for the Sony World Photography Awards, UOS curator Lindsay Taylor takes part in an online Q&A with the organisation.
Visit the World Photo website to read the interview – which includes discussion on our Collection’s approach to collecting as well as thoughts on the future of photography in contemporary art contexts.

The Sony World Photography Awards Open Competition is free to enter and open to all. Artists and photographers are encouraged to submit across a range of categories, from architecture and landscape to street photography and travel images. Find out more and enter here.

Image: © Wu Yue, Untitled from Wuhan Series, 2020. Commissioned by University of Salford Art Collection

November 2020

In Summer 2020, Richard Shields was awarded one of five new micro-commissions, to produce a response to the University of Salford Art Collection. He chose to make a new drawing, part of his ‘Technical Drawing’ series, including Salford-based or Salford-inspired artworks in the permanent collection.

We’re pleased to share that Richard has released the drawing as a limited edition signed & framed print (£80 + P&P) as well as a printed t-shirt in all sizes (£30 + P&P).

Available to purchase directly from the artist via:
Website / Twitter / Instagram

Read more about the commission & drawings here!

Acknowledging disparity is the first step to addressing it, or ignoring it, however Ignoring it usually makes it look worse. 2020
Richard Shields
Pencil on Fabriano Accademia off cut. 7.5 x 29.5 cm

Four exciting new commissions from Salford based artists Jack Brown, Cheddar Gorgeous, Hilary Jack and Lizzie King

The University of Salford Art Collection and Salford Museum & Art Gallery are delighted to announce four new commissions with locally-based contemporary artists for Rediscovering Salford, an exhibition and events programme due to launch in Spring 2021.

Part of a city-wide programme which highlights and celebrates Salford’s green spaces – inspired by the launch of RHS Bridgewater gardens in May 2021 – the exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery will present the new commissions alongside original archive material, photographs, social history objects and historic artworks from the Museum, University, and other collections. Together, they aim to rediscover some of the city’s unique history – and overlooked or forgotten stories – as well as offering new narratives about our local environments.

The new commissions build on existing partnerships with artist-led spaces Paradise Works and Islington Mill, demonstrating a shared, ongoing commitment to supporting emerging, established and early-career practitioners based in the city. Selected in collaboration with the studios are Hilary Jack and Jack Brown from Paradise Works; and Cheddar Gorgeous and Lizzie King from Islington Mill’s creative community. Working variously across sculpture, installation, video, printmaking, photography, and drag performance, the selected artists exemplify the breadth of practice and talent to be found in Salford’s rich arts ecology. As a legacy of the project, elements of all four new commissions will be acquired into the University’s permanent collection.

Rediscovering Salford is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The wider programme of events, exhibitions and engagement opportunities will be announced later this month.

“We are delighted to be working with Hilary, Cheddar, Jack and Lizzie, and to be collaborating with the University again. Each artist will have a very different approach to the project and we are really excited to see what inspires them. We hope the Rediscovering Salford commissions and exhibition will encourage our visitors to think differently about their local surroundings and green spaces.”
Claire Corrin, Exhibitions Manager, Salford Museum & Art Gallery

“I’m really excited to have the privilege to be taking part in Rediscovering Salford especially as a Salfordian it’s a great opportunity to focus on the beautiful green spaces and their historical, current and cultural significance.”
Lizzie King, Artist & University of Salford Visual Arts graduate (2015)

“We are committed to the development of a thriving cultural ecology in Salford through creating opportunities for artists at all stages of their career.  Both Paradise Works (established 2017) and Islington Mill (established 2000) are key partners for the University – hosting our Graduate Scholarship Scheme and offering further opportunities for our graduates and alumni. 
The evolving partnership with the Museum, and the wider cultural sector in Salford is at the heart of long term strategic plans to develop a cultural quarter in the city.  We very much look forward to working with these artists, and acquiring their work into the Collection”.
Stephanie Fletcher, Assistant Curator, University of Salford Art Collection

About the artists:

Jack Brown, Trinkets (film still), 2018, Video and found objects

Jack Brown works across a range of mediums and methodologies. His work focuses on the ‘overlooked, things that should be given more than a passing glance, moments that would benefit from magnification’. The works he makes are often found, realised, made or placed in the public realm. He also works collaboratively, leading on public realm projects and facilitating artist networks. His practice can be seen as an investigation into ways of making, and how those made objects or moments interact with the world around them.

Jack has exhibited in solo and group shows across the North West, and his work is in a number of private collections in the UK. He has a studio at Paradise Works.

jackbrown.me.uk/

Cheddar Gorgeous, untitled (green/nature/deforestation) (2019)

Cheddar Gorgeous is a drag, boylesque and transformation artist. Their work involves the creation of living spectacles that collage makeup, costume and performance as forms of self-exploration, expression, political action and storytelling. Cheddar has performed in cabarets, festivals and galleries from Hong Kong to California and was also featured on Channel 4’s Drag SOS.

Cheddar worked with Manchester Museum as part of their LGBTQ+ programme, which included a ‘family friendly digital drag show’ Queer Tales: Myths and Monsters (2020), and most recently with Manchester International Festival for their MIF Remote Residency programme during the COVID-19 crisis.

www.instagram.com/cheddar_gorgeous

 

Hilary Jack, No Borders, Mellerstain House 2017, 8 x 9 metre neon. Photo: The Published Image

Hilary Jack works across media in research- based projects, site referential artworks, sculptural installations, and interventions. Her work comments on the politics of place, socio- political issues and the impact of human activities on our planet. The discovery of a found object often triggers ideas for new work, exploring recurring themes within her practice of loss, abandonment, reparation and the human experience.

Hilary has exhibited across the UK and internationally. Her work is in public and private collections and has recently been acquired by The Government Art Collection, Alnoba Sculpture Park USA and Manchester Art Gallery. She is a founder/Director of Paradise Works.

www.hilaryjack.com

Lizzie King, Dust Cloud on Mars, 2016, Chemigram

The narrative of our ‘human centred universe’ is the centre point of Lizzie King’s practice. Her artwork is often inspired by scientific articles and fictional books; and the materials used are often informed by these stories. Lizzie explores the notion that ‘humankind can only see the world through their own eyes’ by creating images of the world around us; using light and the processes of photography and printmaking.

Lizzie graduated with a BA (Hons) Visual Arts at the University of Salford. In 2014, she was awarded a place on the inaugural Graduate Scholarship Programme, run by the University of Salford Art Collection and Castlefield Gallery, and was based at Islington Mill studios.

www.cargocollective.com/lizzieking

Further information:

Launching this autumn, Rediscovering Salford is an ambitious cross-city creative programme that refocuses Salford’s cultural identity through engagement with green spaces. Using the opening of RHS Bridgewater (opening May 2021) as a catalyst, it reframes Salford’s green spaces as ‘cultural spaces’ via a programme of public realm commissions, exhibitions and installations throughout 2021. The main partners are Salford City Council, Salford Museum & Art Gallery, University of Salford Art Collection, RHS Bridgewater, The Lowry and Peel Park.

Salford Museum & Art Gallery exists to collect and preserve Salford’s heritage and art collections, making them available for all through exhibitions, events, education and outreach.
Rediscovering Salford builds on a growing collaboration between Salford Museum & Art Gallery and the University of Salford Art Collection, including exhibitions Print UnLtd (2018), Acquired: a Century of Collecting (2018-19) and Everything I Have Is Yours (2019).

Islington Mill was founded in 2000 and is an artist-led creative space, arts hub and community. Housed in a 5-storey Georgian textile mill, it is home to more than 50 creative businesses and over 100 artists and delivers a programme of public art, residencies, music, events and exhibitions.

Established in 2017, Paradise Works is an artist-led studio community of 35 contemporary visual artists, a project space and gallery in Salford. They host a critically engaged programme of exhibitions and film screenings, showcasing works from new and established artists working nationally and internationally.

The University of Salford Art Collection is an ambitious and growing collection of modern and contemporary art, founded c.1968. The Collection aims to support excellence in teaching, research, community engagement and artist development; and actively acquires new work through a ‘commission to collect’ approach.

Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Exhibition
Ft. over 30 artists based in UK and Hong Kong
Exhibiting from 11 November – 13 December 2020

VISIT: peertopeerexchange.org

To celebrate international cultural exchange between the UK and Hong Kong, the Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Festival will be launching an online exhibition of new and existing digital artwork from UK and Hong Kong based artists from Wed 11 November to Sun 13 December 2020. The exhibition will be free to access and will accompany an online events programme discussing topical themes and issues affecting visual arts sectors across the world.

Peer to Peer: UK/HK is a programme designed to encourage meaningful cultural exchange and to forge enduring partnerships between the UK and Hong Kong’s visual arts sectors. It is led by independent Hong Kong based curator Ying Kwok, University of Salford Art Collection, Open Eye Gallery and Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) and consists of a network of contemporary visual arts organisations across the UK and Hong Kong.

Image: Suki Chan, MEMORY (2019) UHD Video

New Commissions

Five especially commissioned artworks will premiere on Wed 11 November in the Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Exhibition. These works celebrate artists based in the UK and Hong Kong that work with new media and digital platforms. Each of these artists were selected from nominations by UK and Hong Kong visual arts organisations.

The commissions include a co-commission with QUAD, Derby from artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley whose works uses animation, sound, performance and video games to communicate the experiences of being a Black Trans person. Nominated by Peter Bonnell, QUAD, Brathwaite-Shirley’s new work, I can’t remember a time I didn’t need you, 2020, is an interactive digital story in which a mysterious fog takes over a city, changing all within it.

“Throughout history, Black queer and Trans people have been erased from the archives. Because of this it is necessary not only to archive our existence, but also the many creative narratives we have used and continue to use to share our experiences.” Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

The other commissioned artists are Antonio Roberts (nominated by Charlotte Frost, Furtherfield), Hetain Patel (nominated and co-commissioned by Skinder Hundal, New Art Exchange, Nottingham), Lee Kai Chung (nominated by Wang Weiwei, Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) and Sharon Lee Cheuk Wun (nominated by Bess Chan, Hong Kong International Photo Festival).

Commission: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, I cant remember a time i didn’t need you, 2020, interactive story

Existing Artwork

The five commissions will be accompanied by a series of existing artworks, also nominated by visual arts organisations in the UK and Hong Kong. These will include digital videos, animation, interactive media and augmented reality applications.

Included in the existing artwork exhibition is Hong Kong artist Choi Sai-Ho’s video and sound art work, nominated by Geoff Wong (Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre). Space Within Space (2019) takes an astrological perspective as it imagines the night-time sky from a strange, unpopulated world:

“If there is no civilization, no light pollution, the planet is not like the Earth nowadays, standing at the same location, looking up the starry sky, what does the space look like? Even in another time and space, or multiverse, the Earth may deviate from the current orbit, or it may not exist at all. What does the space sound like?” Choi Sai Ho

London-based artist and film-maker Suki Chan (nominated by Zoe Dunbar, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art) will present her ultra high definition video, MEMORY, 2019. MEMORY will take audiences on a journey between micro and macro perspectives as it considers the contrasts between the expanse of geological time and the brevity of the human life span.

Other artists exhibited include Megan Broadmeadow, Luke Ching Chin Wai, Shezad Dawood, Sarah Eyre, Sarah Friend, Parham Ghalamdar, Rachel Goodyear, Lai Lon Hin, South Ho, Hui Wai Keung, David Lockwood, Elaine Wong and John Wong.

Shane Aspegren, ‘Household Gods’ exhibition installation, 2020

Social Media Residencies

Accompanying the commissions and existing artwork will be a series of social media residencies between UK and Hong Kong based artists taking over the social media accounts of visual arts organisations in the corresponding country.

The first completed residency was with Hong Kong artist Wu Jiaru, nominated by HART in Hong Kong to take over UK gallery Furtherfield’s Instagram channel as an extension of their work currently displayed in HART’s exhibition Household Gods.

Upcoming and ongoing residencies include: Arjun Harrison-Mann, Benjamin Redgrove and Kaiya Waerea with Eaton HK; Shane Aspegren with University of Salford Art Collection; Kashif Nadim Chaudry with CHAT; Chris Paul Daniels with WMA; Raul Hernandez with Open Eye Gallery; Tang Kwok Hin with Milton Keynes Arts Centre and Newlyn Art Gallery & the Exchange; Joey Holder with K11 Art Foundation; Hui Wai-Keung with QUAD Derby; Nisa Khan with Hong Kong International Photo Festival; Alex Chung Po Lun with CFCCA; Shy Bairns Collective with 1983 HK, and Wong Kit Yi with Castlefield Gallery.

Legacy Exhibition and Projects

Finally, Hong Kong based artist and researcher Lee Wing Ki will be taking over Open Eye Gallery’s public window exhibition space from 16 November to the 18 December 2020. Nominated by 1a space, Wing Ki will exhibit his black and white Night Walk (an excerpt) photography project (2019-2020) portraying a seemingly empty Hong Kong cityscape at night.

Meanwhile Tang Kwok Hin’s social media residency with Milton Keynes Arts Centre and Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange will happen after the festival. Having been born and raised in a walled village in Kam Tin, Tang Kwok-hin hopes to explore ideas of place through working with primary school children in both Newlyn and Milton Keynes.

About Peer to Peer: UK/HK

Peer to Peer: UK/HK is a programme designed to encourage meaningful cultural exchange and to forge enduring partnerships between the UK and Hong Kong’s visual arts sectors.

The Festival will include an online exhibition of digital artworks from UK and Hong Kong based artists, alongside a programme of public events and panel talks.

The Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Festival will take place entirely online between 11-14 November 2020 on peertopeerexchange.org with the online exhibition extending to 13 December. The festival is free and open to all.

As part of Peer to Peer UK/HK, we’re pleased to welcome Hong Kong based composer, writer and artist Shane Aspegren for a social media takeover, from 2-7 November on our Instagram page.

Shane’s recent practice has explored analogue, physical and digital formats, and spans installation, sound, sculpture, video and performance. He often explores a cross-discipline and non-dualistic perspective on topics including consciousness, ritual, group dynamics, societal customs, and human response to natural phenomena.

During this residency, Shane will share 2 posts each day of new and recent works, including ‘daily frequency’ sound art works made for meditation & wellness during the pandemic.

Shane was nominated by Festival Director Ying Kwok, with Hong Kong based gallery HART.

#PeertoPeerUK/HK

“After spending the past few years navigating my various practices towards areas of the analog/physical, this year has been interesting in terms of a forced adaptation back towards the digital. In hono/u/r of that (as well as with a small offering of counterbalance towards the inevitably chaotic week of global media that lies ahead) I will mainly be sharing some images, sounds, words, documentation, and links to recent attempts of blurring lines between my various creative practices and a specific thread of interest / ongoing investigation of #frequencies and #sound and it’s effects on the human mind and physical body. Also, each day I’ll be re-sharing a link to the @dailyfreq#soundmeditation recordings that I began posting during our first quarantine in Hong Kong. Stay tuned…”
– Shane Aspegren

Also online: UK artist Chris Paul Daniels social media takeover with WMA HK

As part of the international artist exchange, we’ve nominated Salford/Manchester based artist Chris Paul Daniels to undertake a social media residency with the Hong Kong arts organisation WMA. Chris, who has a studio at Paradise Works in Salford, will be sharing recent work on the page from now until 13th November.

Follow WMA_HK on Instagram for updates, and visit the Peer to Peer UK/HK website for further info on the full programme of residencies, commissions and talks during November 2020.

We are inviting expressions of interest from photographers or artists using photography based in the North West of England* to undertake a residency with Energy House, the world’s first full sized, two-bedroom, brick built terraced house constructed inside an environmentally controllable chamber. The successful photographer/artist will make new work which explores positive solutions to the climate crisis.

This work will contribute to LOOK Photo Biennial 2022 which has a focus on Climate Change. Across this programme, Open Eye Gallery hope to work with some of the complexities of this agenda, recognising that many people feel impotent in the face of mainstream ‘disaster focused’ media coverage and that this has a negative effect on public engagement with positive change. This pilot residency is an exciting opportunity for a photographer to creatively explore a solution focused and visually rich environment – Energy House – to make new work and to collaborate with specialist staff.

The images produced will also be acquired by the University of Salford Art Collection.

To express interest, please supply:

– A short statement explaining your interest in this opportunity and what you might like
to achieve (no more than 500 words)
– Your CV/ link to your biography
– Up to four images that might support your application

Please read the full description here before applying.

*Location: This opportunity is aimed at artists who are based in and around the North West, or are in reasonable travelling distance to Salford. Artists based further afield, with own arrangements to stay locally during the project where necessary (within all the latest Covid guidance), are also eligible to apply. The fee is all inclusive.

Please email to Natalie Meer: natalie@openeye.org.uk
by midnight Friday 20 November 2020

We will endeavour to contact all applicants by 27 November 2020

Museum of Liverpool digital screens, 28th October – 11th November

We are delighted to share new work by Liverpool-based artist Kiara Mohamed, co-commissioned this Summer with Open Eye Gallery as part of our #covidcommissions programme How Will We Remember.

Photo and video series The Lives We Lead spans from the first lockdown and throughout the summer. It captures video calls between Kiara as he catches up with Black and brown people with what was happening in their lives, but also globally. It captured moments of our shared humanity, specifically in the way COVID has impacted on our lives and the global uprising of Black Lives Matter.

The first images are now on display on the digital screen at Museum of Liverpool, from 28th October – 11th November 2020.

The series will be acquired into our permanent collection, and exhibited in Salford during 2021.

Image: From the series The Lives We Lead, Kiara Mohamed

Registration is now open for the Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Festival, taking place 11-14 November 2020.

Free and open to all, join Peer to Peer UK/HK for a programme of international panel events with UK and Hong Kong based artists, curators and galleries to discuss vital and topical themes affecting visual arts across the world.

The event is led by the University of Salford Art Collection, Open Eye Gallery, and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, and curated by independent curator Ying Kwok. The panels will include the University of Salford’s own Richard Fitton (Lecturer in Energy Efficiency) on the climate crisis, and Stephanie Fletcher (Assistant Curator, Art Collection) on archives & collections. University Curator Lindsay Taylor is leading the Festival, and will host the welcome and closing sessions.

Also speaking on a range of topics are artists & curators from Furtherfield (UK), Wellcome Collection (UK), Castlefield Gallery (UK) and HART (HK), Asia Art Archive (HK) and Hong Kong International Photo Festival (HK) – see below or visit the Peer to Peer UK/HK website for full listings.

Alongside the programme of panel events, there will also be an online exhibition of digital artwork including existing artworks and 5 brand new commissions from artists based in the UK and Hong Kong.

The Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Festival will take place entirely online between 11-14 November 2020, and is free and open to all.

Visit the website now to book your place: peertopeerexchange.org.

Image: Sharon Lee Cheuk Wun, Same River Twice, (2020), Gelatine-silver prints, 6-channel video, 6 sets of moving images uploaded on google map, courtesy of the artist

Peer to Peer UK/HK: Festival programme