colllages @ sao bras gallery.....algarve

here is a new series of collages on canvas....dimensions 20 x 20 cms.......all based on flyposted walls........music flyers........re cycled posters torn from wall of various towns and cities.and the accidental.......juxtaposition and unrelated but possibly related imagery......visual encounters of a narrative kind.........

                                                                    common people

                                                                          fantomas
                    

                                                                          the guru

                                                            good morning mr magritte

                                                                         mirror mirror

                                                                            pop corn

                                                                     possible portrait

                                                                           the clash

                                                                 bajo fondo tango club

manchester free for arts festival 2011 @ vinyl exchange and nexus art cafe

this year i am exhibiting work in two venues vinyl exchange and nexus art cafe both in the northern quarter in manchester....the work @ vinyl ex is based on record sleeves....or should i say...." improbable sleeves"....they will be displayed amongst real sleeves ........the work at nexus is based on shop fronts in the northern quarter.......with some additions....possible posters....and some quirky bits and pieces..........

for more info visit the free for arts site......http://freeforartsfestival.co.uk/

works @ vinyl exchange.........

 

work @ nexus art cafe

 

 

memories triggered by a photograph of my grandfather solomon and uncle sam....

 grandfather solomon and uncle sam........

 i found this little sepia photograph of my grandfather solomon and my uncle sam…….grandad worked as a bleacher in the mills in rochdale and uncle sam was a cabinet maker….i have some of his tools…….they both lived a few doors from each other in arthur street in spotland …,rochdale…….little terraces two up two down… with the wc in the yard…….i distinctly remember a huge iron fireplace in the parlour that had a fire going in summer and winter….due to their ill health the bed was in this room as well….along with a sofa….a grand sideboard……a square table in front of the fire and in the corner a small table with a radio standing on it……a valve radio….you turned it on and then waited for it to warm up….we had sunday tea…… almost every week…….salad….a tin of salmon…..with breadd and butter and a pot of tea………sometimes we had strawberries….my dad used to put sugar on his tomatoes……the skullary was a simple affair….a gas cooker one or two cupboards….and a large shallow sink made of sandstone….with one big brass tap…..cold…….there was a door which led to a small cellar….and the coal hole……..coal was delivered by way of a grate outside the front door…..every week grandma would donkey stone her front door step just like every other hoiusewife….they were proud of their little humble houses…..my grandma was also the “local layer outerer”….whenever anyone died she would go off and wash them…..shave them and generally make them look respectable….outside the front door was a gaslamp….in fact i remember gas lights inside the house when i was very young……when they had a bath the big zinc tub came out and was filled with hot water from the range….there was always a kettle bubbling away for a cuppa…..it always seemed eerie going upstairs…..almost bare rooms….with the odd possession….i played up there quite often……grandad was a quiet man….gentle and softspoken…….he always had his waistcoat on with his watch and chain………uncle sam was married to dinah….they has a son stanley……he worked at a mens outfitters in rochdale at the top of blackwater street……long gone….the  milkman delivered milk in arthur street  on his horse and cart…….you left a jug with a saucer on top " to stop the birds" on the doorstep for your milk…..whenever there was some horsemuck someone would rush out to get it for there tiny garden…….

paul critchley @ gallery oldham.......9 july til 25 september

paul critchley has lived and worked in mainland europe for the past 25 years or more in hollland....spain..barcelona and now italy....close to rome......his work has its roots in realism and surrealism....he is a creator of quirky worlds within worlds.......over the years paul has developed a series of works that explore a mysterious world of secrets and subterfuge....it is akin to de chirico.....landscapes and townscapes peopled or not by enigmatic events....that are often rooted in his own past........doors open into other nether worlds.....many works have movable parts doors ...through the.window is the landscape that you see the real landscape or are we being tricked by the artist......paul is a story teller a narrator....in the tradition of edgar allan poe.......he draws us into his world....what is that telephone doing in a drawer.........who is the voyeur in the cupboard....over the past 5 years or so he has been on working on a major project.....a depiction of his apartment in barcelona..... he is a master of perspective and he manipulates paint in a trompe l oeul manner.....he convinces us of his portrayal of reality....they are not merely photographic representations but an interpretation of his view of reality....they are inhabited by re representations of everyday items and given a new significance in the narrative in which they are shown....there are layers and layers in the works....plots within subplots..............

this is the apartment in bcn....the current show in oldham.is another realisation of the painting as series of rooms containing a juxtaposition of images....from the light switches....to an ironing board.......and a mirrored cupboard with drawers full of telephones........he tells a story that you can try and unravel...or interpret......he collects objects that he paints for the paintings.....they are constructed into a myriad of different shapes....that are the objects.....two cut out chairs connected  by a real telephone cable with a painted telephone....

here are a selection of parts of the oldham show.........

this is a must see show..............

you can see more of pauls work on..........http://www.paulcritchley.com/

manchester city art gallery....11 rooms

the manchester international festival is under way....this event caught our eye........11 rooms....we saw the poster...

on arrival in manchester we went off for a chinese meal in china town...........excited at the prospect of viewing some fascinating work..........when we arrived there were plenty of people milling around....this augured well......in the first room a man seated at a table was swapping stuff with members of the public.....he exchanged some chewing gum for a pen.......cutting edge stuff this.........another room contained a line of people playing at revolving doors......another room " which had a warning on the door" was a man laying in bed reading....then having a pretend wank .........do you remember the poster........by this time i has seen enough....i also saw man doing the limbo in another room.......time to go


"the emperors news clothes are back in fashion"

and this is what the blurb had to say.......

Over the last two Festivals, with the iconoclastic Il Tempo del Postino and the epic Marina Abramović Presents, MIF has established a reputation for commissioning some of the most exciting live art events to be experienced anywhere. 11 Rooms builds on that work, attracting the attention and energy of the international art world to Manchester for the duration of the Festival.

Curators Klaus Biesenbach (MoMA PS1 and MoMA, New York) and Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery, London) bring together 11 of the most interesting artists creating durational encounters to make new and re-imagined work for MIF. Each will explore the ephemeral aspects of art, focusing on an idea or situation that both establishes and erases itself in the same instance, shaping an unmediated experience for the audience in a series of specially-created spaces at Manchester Art Gallery.   

" this is pure art bollocks speak" 

they have invited 11 of the most exciting......................blah....blah.....yawn...... 

adrain searle adds to the mayhem and gobbledegook in his video clip. ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2011/jul/13/11-rooms-manchester-international-festival-video-review?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3486 

NEWS OF THE WORLD....NEWS FLASH...SUNDAY JULY 10..2011....With Regular Updates

"sunk without trace"

" Who is this lurking"

" PR RULES ....OK"

" it takes a worried man to sing a worried song.....what would houdini have done?"

oldham street manchester.....a quirky film.....a promo for gabrielles wish.....

the northern quarter is one of my haunts in manchester...this year i am planning to find a number of venues for the manchester free for arts festival....so far i have secured both vinyl exchange and the nexus art cafe.......others are in the pipeline....whilst thinking about possible imagery for the shows ....i typed into google...videos about oldham street and this was thrown up....one in oldham street and the other off stevenson square....where my bus from rochdale used to arrive...the number 90.....alas no longer.......

i like the surreal quality of the imagery....the lonely rider....with mysterious headgear.....juxtaposed with image and music......the man wandering...........early and late in the day.....peopleless.....adding a dreamlike state .....

collage project with antonio dias

antonio dias and myself are starting a collaborative collage project.......12 canvases....6 each.......this is rocket science.........we each make a start and then exchange canvases....rocket science.........then we do something else and exchange them......no theme...no idea how they will be at the end...if we reach an end.....the exqusiite corpse is alive and well....pretty good for a corpse eh!!!!!
starting like this is a good way in....as the canvases proceed ideas will be suggested....and maybe followed....at the moment they are neither portrait or landscape in format..... neither text or pictorial.....realistic or a......t......upside down or the rightway up.......

                                                  

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