From where he was living at the time, artist Imran Perretta could see the smoke from the burning buildings. Friends of his were caught up, in various capacities, in the rioting. A Riot in Three Acts, originally installed at Somerset House in London, now recreated for the gallery space at HOME in Manchester, is Perretta’s attempt to grapple with the personal, political and social fallout from the events of that August.

The installation, occupies the entire ground floor gallery. It’s on a good scale for the location – not so small as to appear insignificant, nor so large as to overfill the space: “uncomfortable in a brilliant way,” as Perretta describes it. Each of his skills, as artist, filmmaker and composer, is put to work.

The main visual element is a scenic backdrop of Reeves Corner, location of House of Reeves (a local furniture store, owned by the same family for over a century).

We enter looking at the back of the construction – wooden struts and blank canvas – so that the artifice is immediately apparent, but also the viewer must make the choice to proceed. We have to move towards the installation and around it, in order for the subject to be revealed.

This store survived the riots, but the Reeves family’s other establishment was burnt to the ground. Video of this fire is shown on loop, using Perretta’s Blackberry phone (the sight of a Blackberry with all those lovely buttons all but brought a tear to my eye). There is so much to unpack in this – the transience of “cutting edge” technology; the beginnings of so-called ‘citizen journalism’; accounts that BlackBerry Messenger service was used by looters to organise attacks; the interesting decision of an artist who views himself primarily as a filmmaker to use just this one, tiny moving image.

It is, I think, a wise choice. The point of an installation is to invite the viewer to ‘be here, now.’

Immediately facing the image of House of Reeves is a 3-D recreation of the site of the store that was destroyed (and, despite plans, never rebuilt) – pitted concrete columns, concrete planters with the size and appearance of underground drainage pipes, containing sickly, spindly bushes whose only “leaves” are the detritus of city litter. Walking across the gravel base creates a sound effect to compete with the music (a modern classical quartet, composed by Perretta and performed by members of the Manchester Camerata*). It is one of several significant juxtapositions.

Having arrived at Ai Weiwei’s impressive Sunflower Seeds installation (Tate Modern) just after health and safety had (with good reason) withdrawn permission for visitors to walk on the one hundred million porcelain seeds, it was a relief not to be denied a key auditory aspect of the experience.

The litter and disarray is not overplayed – a can and a bottle here, some cardboard there – and the weeds are Manchester’s very own, handpicked by the artist. What Perretta offers us is less shock and horror, more an enduring sense of puzzlement, regret and lack of resolution.

Three years on from the financial crash of 2008 and with the new coalition government’s austerity measures just beginning to bite, poverty, racial tensions and long-standing grievances with policing all contributed to these riots, although political and press reactions tended to focus on sheer criminality. No Scarman-style inquiry was commissioned. Hence, one feels, the sense of unfinished business and unanswered questions layered through this installation.

The effect is emotionally involving and thought-provoking. How many of us (not just politicians) had all but entirely forgotten these riots (a mere 14 years ago)?

It’s worth reminding yourself about those events in August 2011 (especially at Reeves Corner) prior to visiting A Riot in Three Acts. Allow yourself time to take it all in. As with any worthwhile installation, it’s not to be rushed. Walk, sit, look, listen, and think. Is act three truly completed?

Imran Perretta: A Riot In Three Acts is at Home, Manchester from 22 February to 8 June 2025. The gallery will host live performances of Imran Perretta’s specially commissioned piece for string quartet, A Requiem for the Dispossessed, on Friday 28 February and Wednesday 9 April 2025.

On 10 April the venue is hosting Imran Perretta and Dhanveer Singh Brar in conversation chaired by Rahila Haque.

The post Imran Perretta: A Riot In Three Acts – Review appeared first on Quays Life.

Re:Flect is a ‘please do touch’ interactive experience, curated by Chloe Knights and Ella Boston, to encourage the use of all our senses. 

Ella’s practice centres around story-telling, immersion, play and education; whilst Chloe is a visual artist who uses object interaction and sensory play as a tool of connection and navigation.  They challenged us use their space to be, to feel, to laugh and most, importantly, to play in order to combat over-stimulation.

The exhibition centres around the premise that often we are overwhelmed with the business of modern life and many of us don’t get the chance to interact with materials or creative activities from day to day.  By bringing together familiar objects, colour, light and texture, the exhibition aims to create a sensory environment that encourages contemplation where people can rediscover their inner child.

The installations make us use all our senses; a large area of colourful balloons, bean bags, and toys in the centre of the room is a favourite for the kids attending.  The adults prefer to walk around the edges, exploring the vessels that produce aromatic mists, illuminated with different lights, or the closed boxes, encouraging you to put your hand in to feel what’s inside.  There are mirrors and beads hanging from the ceiling, to capture changes in the lighting, and even small sand pits which challenge you to enjoy the feel of sand running through your fingers.

As children, we have the ability to engage in creative activity without second thought.  When we become adults, our creativity becomes self-conscious as it is influenced by both our own and society’s value of art and play.  This is very apparent in the room, while the children are having a great time playing with the toys and balloons – completely oblivious to anyone else, the adults seem almost reluctant to ‘have a go’.

The quote provided on the wall really does ring true:
“We all have the gift of creativity, When you let go of the illusion of control and open to learning, your unique gifts of creativity will flow through you” – Margret Paul.

The exhibition is good, but with such a large room, I felt that there could have been a lot more in there. The premise was excellent, the kids certainly loved it, but with a few more installations, I think that it would have worked much better.

Re:flect is a free exhibition at Waterside, Sale from 19-27 July 2019 as part of 10-day festival, Refract.

Claire Gaydon explores the pros and cons of digitial sharing at Re:fract 19.

The post Re:fract 19 opens at Waterside with Re:flect interactive exhibition appeared first on Quays Life.

Lynch’s festival residency includes his first major UK exhibition, My Head is Disconnected, the biggest ever exhibition of visual art by David Lynch in the UK, a practice he has been developing over five decades.

Before becoming an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, Lynch trained as a painter at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and has gone on to produce a prolific body of work across painting, sculpture, photography and drawing.

The visual art of David Lynch is key to understanding his creative universe; this exhibition focuses on his impressive wall-based works, the majority of which have never been seen before in the UK.

Four (4) Heads Came Out on Wednesday features a figurative apparition with multiple floating, circling heads, wailing upon a lonely hillside, a house or home in the rear-ground, earth and sky mingling in a brewing storm of Lynchian menace.

The limited-edition print was produced in the Parisian workshop of Item éditions, where Lynch has created medium and large-format black-and-white lithographs for many decades in keeping with his typical themes: loneliness, love, eroticism, dreams, and death.

The exclusive edition of 100 prints have each been personally signed by the artist. Priced at £425 each, prints of Four (4) Heads Came Out on Wednesday go on sale to the public at noon on Thursday 4 July 2019 (with MIF and HOME Members able to purchase from noon on Wednesday 3 July 2019).

Purchasers will be invited to a private preview of exhibition My Head is Disconnected on Friday 5 July 2019. And all profits from the sales will go to HOME to help fund future exhibitions

My Head is Disconnected is at HOME Manchester from 6 July – 29 September 2019.

Read more about Lynch’s film, music and discussion events running as part of MIF19.

The post David Lynch limited edition print available to MIF19 festival-goers appeared first on Quays Life.

At that time, it was part of a pre-auction display at Sotheby’s, where it was sold for £282,000 – then a record price for one of Lowry’s works.

Before its private sale in 1996, Lowry had exhibited the painting publicly only once, at an exhibition in London in 1939.

Now it is going under the hammer again at Sotheby’s on 18 June 2019, and this time is expected to fetch in the region of £1.2m.

Ahead of the auction, for five days only, The Lowry Gallery at Salford Quays is showing the painting alongside its free exhibition LS Lowry: The Art & The Artist.

“This exceptional painting is both a ‘classic’ Lowry, depicting the hard life of the industrial cities at the turn of the 20th century, and also quite rare in its depiction of a cricket match, even though cricket has always been very much part of Manchester life,” says Simon Hucker, senior specialist for modern and post-war British art at Sotheby’s.

“Coinciding with the run-up to the Cricket World Cup in June, this special exhibition in Lowry’s beloved Salford is a fantastic opportunity for art lovers and cricket fans alike to see a different element of Lowry’s world-view.”

The display at The Lowry kick-starts a summer of cricket in Greater Manchester – as neighbouring Emirates Old Trafford gets set to host fixtures as part of the ICC Cricket World Cup in June and July.

It also comes among a new buzz about Lowry’s life ahead of the release of a new film this summer, Mrs Lowry & Son. The film starring Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave, depicts the relationship between Lowry (Spall) and his mother Elizabeth (Redgrave) with whom the artist lived until her death in 1939, when Lowry was 52-years-old.

A Cricket Match, is available to view at The Lowry arts centre until 5pm on Monday 27 May 2019 in its free LS Lowry: The Art & The Artist exhibition. Open Sun-Fri, 11am-5pm; and Sat, 10am-5pm.

County Durham centenary celebrations for mining artist Norman Cornish.

The post Rare Lowry painting on display for a limited five days appeared first on Quays Life.

Maggie shared her ideas with her husband, Charles Jencks and her former oncology nurse Laura Lee, who is now Chief Executive for the charity which grew from those early discussions, Maggie’s.

The first Maggie’s Centre opened in 1996 in Edinburgh. There are now 22 Maggie’s centres across the country, offering people the practical and emotional support needed to cope with the challenges that living with and beyond cancer brings, delivered by qualified professionals within a space that enables them to meet other people who understand what it means to be living with cancer too.

Photographer Zoë Law has been an avid supporter of Maggie’s for many years and with personal experiences of cancer within her own family it felt a natural fit for her to work with Maggie’s on a photographic project which placed people living with cancer at its heart.

Over the course of a year, Zoë invited people living with cancer to her London studio to take part in a photoshoot with their family and friends. All of those who took part have been supported by Maggie’s across the UK through their different cancer experiences.

 “This project was one if the hardest things I’ve undertaken because it was so important to me to show each person’s strength and move the focus away from their cancer. For the portraits to share how cancer does not define them, nor has it taken away their essence,” says Zoë. 

“The people who came to my studio taught me a great deal. Primarily that a cancer diagnosis isn’t the end but a way of looking at life differently. What the subjects of these portraits said is that cancer had given them time. Time to live in the moment, time to appreciate the everyday and time to tell friends and family how much they are loved”.

The photographs were originally taken to mark the 21st birthday of
Maggie’s in 2017, and were curated into an exhibition called, LIFE by Ab Rogers Design. LIFE was launched at Christie’s in London the same year and opens at The Lowry, Salford Quays in May.

Zoë adds: “I called the project LIFE because the sense that came from the photographs was that cancer does not make you look at death but at the life you are living.”

Life – A photographic exhibition by Zoë Law is at The Lowry in Salford from Saturday 11 May – Sunday 9 June 2019.

Limited edition LIFE books were produced to accompany the exhibition and are available to buy online, with all proceeds going to Maggie’s. For more details about the work of Maggie’s visit www.maggiescentres.org

Read about County Durham’s Centenary celebrations for mining artist Norman Cornish.

The post ‘Cancer does not make you look at death but at the life you are living,’ Zoë Law appeared first on Quays Life.

In his younger days Lowry was an admirer of this 19th century group of artists and later became a collector of their work.

The exhibition, Lowry & The Pre-Raphaelites, features works of two of Lowry’s favourite artists, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, as well as works by Edward Burne-Jones and Lowry himself.

From well-known classics to pictures rarely displayed in public, this exhibition, curated by Claire Stewart, includes works formerly owned by LS Lowry alongside some of his favourite pictures held in public and private collections.

Here Claire shares her five ‘must see’ artworks on display: 

The post Five must see art works in Lowry & The Pre-Raphaelites exhibition appeared first on Quays Life.