Posts in Art Archive Category

Venue: Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester, M4 1EU
Launch: Thursday 2 November 2017, 6 – 8pm
Admission: Free

Artists: Lin Ke, MAP Office, Ellen Pau, Dani Ploeger, Unknown Fields, Yang Yongliang.

Whilst the world is increasingly dependent on digital technologies, the physical impact of the electronics we use daily is often ignored. The complex internal structures of a mobile phone or a PC require not only the extraction of natural resources but also thousands of unique parts to be manufactured and disposed of in a cycle of production that enables us to engage in the digital realm. However, as the scale and potentially harmful impact of these processes becomes greater we must ask ourselves what is the social and environmental cost of our consumer desires?

Digital Matters: The Earth Behind the Screen is a group exhibition exploring the relationship between the natural and the technological through artworks produced in Hong Kong and China. The participating artists attempt to interrogate the material foundations of our contemporary digital universe and its related socio-political and environmental concerns.

Curated by Marianna Tsionki, Research Curator, CFCCA and University of Salford.

On Friday 3 November there will be a Digital Matters Symposium held in conjunction with the exhibition.

Artists: Joe Beedles, Joe Burton, Hazel Clegg, Rika Jones, Lizzie King, Willow Rowlands, Cecily Shrimpton, David Taylor, Meg Woods

Opening night: Friday 27 October 2017, 5.30 – 9pm
Public Days: Saturday 28 October, 10am – 6pm and Sunday 29 October, 10am – 5pm
Buy Art Fair & The Manchester Contemporary, Manchester Central Convention Complex, M2 3GX

We are hosting a booth at this year’s The Manchester Contemporary art fair. Independent curator Kwong Lee has selected work from submissions by artists who are alumni of the University of Salford Art Collection and School of Arts & Media Graduate Scholarship Scheme. All work is for sale.

The Manchester Contemporary is the only UK invitational art fair for critically engaged contemporary art outside London and brings art professionals and collectors together with emerging galleries and artists.

The Scholarship Scheme, running since 2014, provides support, mentoring and cash bursaries in the first year after graduation and is developed with Castlefield Gallery and our partners at ArtWork Atelier, Hot Bed Press, Islington Mill and Paradise Works.

For more information please visit The Manchester Contemporary website.

Venue: New Adelphi Theatre, New Adelphi Building, University of Salford, Peel Park Campus, University Road West, M5 4BR
Date: Wednesday 25 October 2017, 1 – 2pm
Admission: Free, booking required

Fresh from representing Scotland at Venice Biennale, Rachel will talk about her work It’s What’s Inside that Counts, a digital film focusing on our dependence on technology.

‘The supermodel-like figurehead of a greed-driven data provider, is stalked by the leader of a band of guerrilla hacktivist rat creatures. Their aim is to disrupt and gorge upon the addictive invisi-juice that powers phones and pocket tablets, gnawing on bandwidth cables like sugar cane, to suck at the sweet nectar within. Above ground, the citizens are infected with a plague like lethargy, becoming zombies who stumble in stained bed clothes in search of ever greater connectivity, totally disconnected from non-virtual reality.’  Taken from Rachel Maclean: Wot u 🙂 about? exhibition guide HOME, Manchester.

Rachel Maclean is a Glasgow-based multi-media artist who creates artificial visions using green-screen technology. In her work she creates fantastical characters (all played by Maclean) and settings to delve into areas of politics, society and identity.  Maclean’s work is characterised by the juxtaposition of the seductive and grotesque – the dark reality seeping from behind the candy-coloured façades.

It’s What’s Inside That Counts (2016), Rachel Maclean, was commissioned in partnership with HOME, University of Salford Art Collection, Artpace, Zabludowicz Collection, Tate, Frieze Film and Channel 4 Random Acts.

Venue: Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Peel Park, Crescent, Salford, M5 4WU
Dates: Wednesday 18 October 2017, 6.30 – 7.30pm ( a bottle bar will be open from 6pm)
Admission: £3 payable at the venue or via Eventbrite (please note: the Eventbrite charge is £3.64)

A talk focusing on the digital and communication themes within the What’s in Store? exhibition.  Danny Morrell will look at artistic explorations of modern technology and how artists such as Rachel Maclean and Thomson & Craighead step into the data stream to see the world in new ways.

Exhibition dates: Friday 13 October – Friday 10 November 2017
Venue: New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery,  New Adelphi Building, University of Salford, Peel Park Campus, University Road West, M5 4BR
Gallery opening times: Monday – Friday, 10am – 4pm
Admission: Free

Synthesis brings together 5 recent acquisitions for the University of Salford Art Collection and represents the three main collecting priorities: From the North , About the Digital and Chinese Contemporary Art .

Although individually very different, each work reveals some of the hidden concepts or overlooked processes behind how objects and artworks are made. The exhibition also demonstrates our commitment to working in partnership with arts organisations across the North West to support the development of new work by artists.

Manchester based Darren Nixon responds to the idea that an artwork takes on different titles, formations and ‘personas’ when in storage, on display or out on loan.

Alumna of the Graduate Scholarship Programme, Willow Rowlands similarly plays with form and function: questioning the meaning and purpose of materials as they are used, re-used and re-interpreted in different ways.

Hong Kong based artist Kong Chun Hei presents a video of a previously unseen physical performance: a diligently repeated exercise, used to warm up for creating the heavily detailed drawings which form part of his multi-disciplinary practice.

Both Brass Art and Liam Young use laser-scanning technology in innovative ways. The artist collective Brass Art (UK) use Kinect lasers to uncanny effect, exploring the seen and unseen experience of domestic spaces – captured at Sigmund Freud’s’ former London home. Liam Young (UK) uses LIDAR scanning technology to consider how we might evade the ever-increasing electronic gaze of the autonomous city.

Synthesis a poem in response to the exhibition by Dr Scott Thurston

Cigs smoked here, keep living
have a bleed.
Knotted plaits junction,
the fourth finger wants to lift.

I love discipline, new
neural pathways.

Into the unconscious of the
building, root and shoot
in a dark dance.

Launch: Thursday 12 October 2017, 4 – 5.30pm
Venue: New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery,  New Adelphi Building, University of Salford, Peel Park Campus, University Road West, M5 4BR
Admission: Free

Synthesis brings together 5 recent acquisitions for the University of Salford Art Collection and represents the three main collecting priorities: From the North , About the Digital and Chinese Contemporary Art .

Although individually very different, each work reveals some of the hidden concepts or overlooked processes behind how objects and artworks are made. The exhibition also demonstrates our commitment to working in partnership with arts organisations across the North West to support the development of new work by artists.

Manchester based Darren Nixon responds to the idea that an artwork takes on different titles, formations and ‘personas’ when in storage, on display or out on loan.

Alumna of the Graduate Scholarship Programme, Willow Rowlands similarly plays with form and function: questioning the meaning and purpose of materials as they are used, re-used and re-interpreted in different ways.

Hong Kong based artist Kong Chun Hei presents a video of a previously unseen physical performance: a diligently repeated exercise, used to warm up for creating the heavily detailed drawings which form part of his multi-disciplinary practice.

Both Brass Art and Liam Young use laser-scanning technology in innovative ways. The artist collective Brass Art (UK) use Kinect lasers to uncanny effect, exploring the seen and unseen experience of domestic spaces – captured at Sigmund Freud’s’ former London home. Liam Young (UK) uses LIDAR scanning technology to consider how we might evade the ever-increasing electronic gaze of the autonomous city.

Venue: Council Chamber, Old Fire Station, University of Salford, The Crescent, Salford,
Launch: Wednesday 27 September 2017, 4.30 – 6pm
Admission: Free

Artists: Lubna Ali, Claudia Alonso, Dylan Cunningham, Katie Beth Hanley, Jamie Myers, Helena Oliveira, Robyn Parr, Jack Whittaker, Daniel Wiltshire.

What’s Next?  brings together a small selection of two dimensional work from the Visual Art degree shows, 2017.

Organised by the Art Collection Team and lecturers from Visual Arts, this exhibition includes work by eight artists at the start of their professional careers.  As such they have each received a small exhibition fee in line with the national Paying Artists campaign, and support with framing and display where necessary.

The work on display is from their final degree show however, now they have left university, the key question is “What’s Next?” They are all following very different paths: Several have received support through the Art Collection Team/School of Arts & Media Graduate Scholarship Programme; some aim to travel; others are working towards careers as artists, curators, illustrators or educators and one has joined the army.

Artists: Lubna Ali, Claudia Alonso, Dylan Cunningham, Katie Beth Hanley, Jamie Myers, Helena Oliveira, Robyn Parr, Jack Whittaker, Daniel Wiltshire.

What’s Next?  brings together a small selection of two dimensional work from the Visual Art degree shows, 2017.

Organised by the Art Collection Team and lecturers from Visual Arts, this exhibition includes work by eight artists at the start of their professional careers.  As such they have each received a small exhibition fee in line with the national Paying Artists campaign, and support with framing and display where necessary.

The work on display is from their final degree show however, now they have left university, the key question is “What’s Next?” They are all following very different paths: Several have received support through the Art Collection Team/School of Arts & Media Graduate Scholarship Programme; some aim to travel; others are working towards careers as artists, curators, illustrators or educators and one has joined the army.

Venue: Council Chamber, Old Fire Station, University of Salford, The Crescent, Salford,
Opening hours: Wednesday 27 September 2017 – Wednesday 4 April 2018. Viewing by appointment only; contact artcollection@salford.ac.uk
Admission: Free

Venue: BALTIC, Gateshead, NE8 3BA
Dates: Thursday 21 – Sunday 24 September 2017
Open daily 10am – 6pm, except Tuesdays: 10.30 – 6pm
Admission: Free

Armageddon is a place in northern Israel that lends its name to the end of the world. A UNESCO World Heritage Site known by its modern name Tel Megiddo, Armageddon is thought to have seen more battles than any other location in the world, and dominated the crossroads of ancient trade and military routes linking Egypt with Mesopotamia.

A hellish sodium-lit environment provides the setting for Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson’s video installation, Song for Armageddon, shot on location at Tel Megiddo and made in collaboration with Israeli composer Ophir Ilzetzki. Over one night, a group of workers endlessly set out and wipe down thousands of chairs to create a large auditorium for an unknown audience, waiting for sunrise.

The artists’ largest production to date, Song for Armageddon engages with Tel Megiddo’s remarkable heritage but also elaborates on historical confusion between place and event. The film loops every 17 minutes, creating a powerful visual and acoustic meditation that culminates with a performance by singer Faye Shapiro.

‘In an age of Trump, Putin and climate change, with globalisation and wars – civil and otherwise – racking the globe, this work is a chance to return to the source of ‘end times’ iconography. Armageddon is a nexus of metaphysics and geopolitics.’ – Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson

Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, born in Barnsley and Macclesfield respectively, work collaboratively between studios in Berlin and Manchester. Working together since 1994, they are fascinated by spectacle and drawn to the ways in which power and authority articulate themselves, their works often combining densely layered visual and acoustic allusions to faith, politics, national identity and the environment.

#SongforArmageddon

Song for Armageddon is a Forma touring production created by Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson in collaboration with Ophir Ilzetzki in 2016-17. Cinematography by Martin Testar. Commissioned by Forma and the University of Salford Art Collection, in association with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Supported by Arts Council England.

Song for Armageddon is an ambitious new video work by Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson which will premiere at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead on Thursday 21 September 2017.

Armageddon is a place in northern Israel that lends its name to the end of the world. A UNESCO World Heritage Site known by its modern name Tel Megiddo, Armageddon is thought to have seen more battles than any other location in the world, and dominated the crossroads of ancient trade and military routes linking Egypt with Mesopotamia.

A hellish sodium-lit environment provides the setting for Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson’s video installation, Song for Armageddon, shot on location at Tel Megiddo and made in collaboration with Israeli composer Ophir Ilzetzki. Over one night, a group of workers endlessly set out and wipe down thousands of chairs to create a large auditorium for an unknown audience, waiting for sunrise.

The artists’ largest production to date, Song for Armageddon engages with Tel Megiddo’s remarkable heritage but also elaborates on historical confusion between place and event. The film loops every 17 minutes, creating a powerful visual and acoustic meditation that culminates with a performance by singer Faye Shapiro.

‘In an age of Trump, Putin and climate change, with globalisation and wars – civil and otherwise – racking the globe, this work is a chance to return to the source of ‘end times’ iconography. Armageddon is a nexus of metaphysics and geopolitics.’ – Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson

Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, born in Barnsley and Macclesfield respectively, work collaboratively between studios in Berlin and Manchester. Working together since 1994, they are fascinated by spectacle and drawn to the ways in which power and authority articulate themselves, their works often combining densely layered visual and acoustic allusions to faith, politics, national identity and the environment.

#SongforArmageddon

Song for Armageddon is a Forma touring production created by Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson in collaboration with Ophir Ilzetzki in 2016-17. Cinematography by Martin Testar. Commissioned by Forma and the University of Salford Art Collection, in association with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Supported by Arts Council England.