Blank Expression
2nd - 15th July, Zion Arts Centre, Hulme, Manchester
Blank Expression is a collection of interesting and thought provoking work displaying an eclectic range of work from painting, photography, video, installation and music. The diversity spans from those artists who are progressing in their career and those who are just starting out. Blank Media aims to support and promote all forms of creativity and all interested practitioners.
Participating Artists
Dean Kelland: Where Am I? – Photography / Text Installation
As a continuation of exploring location and “TV” spaces through script and image Where Am I? made in 2006 provides the viewer with a sequence of images that relates to the opening sequence of the 1969 television programme “The Prisoner”. Made on location in Portmerion, the “re–enactment” of the beach scene has references to cinematic narrative and is counterbalanced with slogans that are taken from the scripts of the show. The slogans are chosen in order to act with resonance outside of the programme in order to address broader themes that relate to the human condition, these are explored through the use of hand–written and mechanised texts that hint at forms of cataloguing and the loss of the individual.
.
Alex Blanch: Untitled - Photography
A collection of photographs depicting images of stasis and change in post industrial Manchester. Looking closely at form, contrast, and contradiction; I have focused on images that might be identified as visually undesirable.
The prints explore unreal representations of their subject and setting without the use of digital manipulation. Instead I chose to shoot on 35mm slide film, cross–processed to create negatives rather than transparencies. The resulting highly saturated colours and grainy finish amplifies the bold, raw nature of the subjects, re–branding them as visually enticing and powerfully iconic symbols.
.
Andrew Devereux: Untitled - Photography
Andrew Devereux uses the medium of Photography to explore his local surroundings, helping him to cope with his ME illness.
.
Scott Hardy: Untitled - Photography
I am showing a selection of work I have made over the last four years both while at university and since leaving in 2004. Though all the pieces are not from the same body of work I have chosen to put them together like this as I believe they all link into one another to show the way I view the world through the camera.
These images are taken both in the home in various places I have lived over the last four years and in the street both in this country and abroad.
A quote that I read in the Guardian recently in an interview with Grace Robertson, she quotes a German photographer by the name of ‘Martin Munkacsi’ saying that “In every action, there is a moment of stillness”. This is something that I try to show in my work, which is why I need some form of life generally people within the frame of pictures producing images which can never be recreated. It is important to me to consider the whole frame at the point of capture to avoid as much cropping and digital enhancement as possible through giving the image quick, but careful and accurate consideration and to compose the shots that can recreate the atmosphere.
.
Simon Mills: Untitled - Photography
Much of my work involves documenting the incidental and abstract, found objects and the beauty of the mundane. These images are taken from a recent trip to Rovaniemi, Finland, right on the edge of the Arctic Circle. Wood is still used as the primary construction material, with most houses at least clad with wooden beams. Despite the harsh conditions, these buildings are often brightly painted, or accessorised with decorative objects. Even functional items, such as sledges or oars, take on an abstract, natural beauty to them in this unique environment.
Amanda King: Untitled - Painting
Palpitations
Irregular breathing
Loss of hearing
Lose colour from your face
Dizziness
Eyes loose their focusAll these are symptoms that can occur when you have a panic attack. I once suffered from panic attacks and over time I have learnt to control them. What concerned me about many panic attacks I had was the imbalance of control; the resistant battle of body and mind. The exterior ‘you’ that people around you encountered is deceptive of the mental struggle of the sufferer. In my painting I wanted to convey this quiet struggle of control. The painting featured in the exhibition is from a series based on panic attacks; each painting symbolising an individual attack.
.
Al Palmer: Untitled - Painting
Untitled (Framework Ochre/Green), Untitled (Framework Blue/Orange) & Untitled (Framework Yellow/Grey)
My paintings are constructions. All forms are built from paint, given structure and support from lines and marks, unified by colour but divided by contrast. The urban aesthetic informs my work, gives it context and place yet doesn’t provide the subject matter which is typically contrasting: restraint and serenity working together yet tearing apart.
Nika Kupyrova: Untitled - Mixed Media Installation
Looking at indoor public sites and office spaces I became interested in what is conceived to be a functional, appropriate, neutral space. Its travesty of comfort; with its carpets, potted plants and decorations, polished into some kind of non-insulting invisibility.
The purpose–space is a portal, a theme park. When entering, you get drawn into its system of efficiency, taken on an unavoidable ride though its repertoire of tasks.In my previous projects I was working with found objects, playing on the idea of useful/useless, I became interested in a sense of useful space. The public, institutional space is first of all a space with a use, space that creates an efficient role-play to serve its purpose. What interests me is its machine–like functionality, its multitasking, its request–response relationships.
Jamie Hyde: Untitled - Drawing / Painting
Jamie Hyde takes inspiration from film and television to create ‘film noir’ style images. His work is created from both his memory and his own imagination. The audience are encouraged to read into the images to form their own narrative and understandings.
.
Nadine Patterson: Untitled - Animation / Video / Installation / Photography
After spending time with my grandmother who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, listening to her tell me stories from her childhood, some repeated more than others I began to think about the fragility of life and the memories we hold on to. I decided to create a museum of my life so far, not using my memories but ones from the people who have helped in shaping and creating mine. I wrote asking them to send me items that hold a strong importance in their lives, or are of a particular memory. I used ice as a metaphor for the preserving of the memories, by freezing the items in their own individual cube.
The use of ice and freezing also related to my Erasmus exchange program, which saw me studying in Rovaniemi, sited on the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Finland, for 3 months. Whilst there, I would be living in below zero temperatures, surrounded by frozen rivers and several feet of snow. I focused a lot of my energy in creating a diary of my time there, visually documenting my process of adaptation to the Finnish culture and the extreme climate of Lapland.
The video being shown is a stop motion animation of my work from the past year, detailing my experiences in Manchester and Rovaniemi.
.
Lisa Barry: The Shoe Chronicles – Book
Lisa Barry works with as a visual artist, undertaking community and artist in schools work. She was artist/tutor for a group of adults with mental health issues in 2004 and 2005, and then began to work as artist in schools in Bolton and Rochdale, and more recently St Helens and Liverpool schools and community groups. Projects may be based around traditional or digital photography, painting, drawing, and can be 2D or 3D.
Personal work may be large scale installations involving costume, photography, films and narrative forms, or smaller mixed media pieces. Lisa’s work often explores the different aspects of herself as visual artist, writer, costume designer-maker, dancer, mother, yet maintains a level of ambiguity. The use of text alongside images allows threads of information to run through the visual information. Collaborative work is embraced, as is working alongside teachers to develop mutually as mentors and practicing artists. Previous school based projects have included working with other arts practitioners such as poets, actor/directors, choreographers/dancers and live artists. Lisa’s own creative history is a wide range of arts and crafts, literature and media and has had work published.
.
Gordon Culshaw: the light side 2005 - Video
I am interested in modes of cultural representation and ways in which individuals choose to create their own personal reality by relating themselves to different combinations of cultural artifacts.
The idea that ‘although technology is a tool which does what we want it to do, we can only want what technology can do’, is one that fascinates me. With the breakdown of the subject/object dialectic, we now, wittingly or unwittingly, increasingly rely on technology and the objects it creates as a means to define ourselves as subjects.
the light side (2005)
I see the the light side as being about media representation, looking at how the unknown is so often portrayed as something fearful or evil. It has been said that Science Fiction is a genre which reflects the fears of today rather than providing any kind of informed insight into the future. The ‘Alien’ series, then, can be viewed as a reflection of the West’s fear of the unknown non–West.Just as the horrific and terrifying ‘Alien’ creature becomes quite comical when the added hype of sound effects are removed and an alternative soundtrack inserted, so the fear of the unknown outsider in our society may be considered to be largely a product of the media, which doesn’t impartially reflect society’s fears, but, more often, creates and nourishes them.
Nicholas Newton: Slower Darker - Video
Currently the main focus of my work is the incidental. This is articulated in the approach to researching works and also in strategies of production. Research often concentrates upon elements from the periphery of visual attention with production proceeding by emphasising, manipulating, repositioning, augmenting or imitating certain aspects of the visual or physical architecture.
M Devereux: Skype Gym, Skype Meal, Skype Movie & Skype Studio - Video
My life, my feelings, my experiences and ‘myself’ are always at the core of my work.
The Skype Project is a series of work inspired by my experience of my relocation to London. With Skype, a relatively new form of tele–communication, I am able to carry on life ‘visually’ as usual with my loved ones at a distance. We chat, we dine and we even exercise together with the aids of web–cams and computer screens. Imagine my mother is cooking dinner at home in Hong Kong while I am having lunch here in London. This dislocation of time, space and living patterns aroused my interest to investigate how Skype has affected my behaviour and social relationship. However, it is possible that when one is confronted by a web–cam, self–consciousness may make one pose, act or even pretend. Whether the web–cam is showing the ‘true self’ of a person becomes questionable.
Skype Gym, Skype Meal, Skype Movie and Skype Studio are parts of the Skype Project in the form of videos that emphasize on the interaction between two communicating parties, and the flow of time and spaces.
.
M Devereux: Presence & Alchemy, 2004-5 – Photography / Animation
Mark Devereux specialises in the use of Camera–less photography, as well as using the camera as a tool to create abstract imagery. Devereux’s work suggests similarities and correspondences with other more representational forms of imagery. Such correspondences evoke thoughts about cosmology and how photography has been used to reveal our universe to us and ideas about the sublime. The theme of Alchemy is significant throughout Devereux’s practice, ranging from the ways in which the work is created to the connotations that it has for the viewer.
This work comes from his recent collection entitled Presence & Alchemy, in which he is aiming to explore the interaction between the participant and the work. Devereux is also interested in the notion of memory and how one’s memory can affect the way in which we view and respond to art.
Yan Kit Wong: Origami birds 2 - Mixed Media Installation
This project is a sequel of my previous art piece “Origami birds 1” showed in Conjunction 06. As I was born in Hong Kong and studied in the UK, the culture bombardment always interests me to investigate the identity and nationality, especially, the relation between myself and the two countries (China and England). I folded 35 origami birds and painted their wings with different messages and colors then I posted them one by one to the UK in their original bird shape from Hong Kong. Their wings were stamped with the date and Hong Kong stamps. It is like a traveler getting through the home office with their passport being stamped.
In this project I invited Miss Cynthia Nip who is without art education background to join in. She was born in the United Kingdom and raised in Hong Kong. Through the collaboration of 2 artists with similar background it helped to further clarify the misery of identity.
.
M Devereux: Merry Union, Roundabout way & Still stirring - Painting
I am interested in paint because it is fluid, plastic and, in many ways, ambiguous. Paint exists as itself and as whatever else it may depict or suggest through the way it is applied on a surface. My paintings focus on the flexibility, playfulness and metaphoric potential of paint. Using this flexibility, I am trying to create a conversation between the strong presence of the material and what the actual application of that material may suggest. In my current work, each painting is made up of layers of paint such that the image is slowly built up from its material. Through varied applications of paint, I am trying to draw an unlikely and perhaps unresolved parallel between many disparate things: paint, writing or calligraphy, blood vessels or other organic structures, stitches, embroidery, loose yarn, maps, biological and geological diagrams. I treat each painting as a playful and quirky world that hovers in–between the organic and the inorganic, microcosms and macrocosms, damage and repair, abstraction and representation. Each of the paintings, like its material, can be pulled apart, flexed and bended in unexpected ways.
David Brinkworth: MAQ (Modern Art Quartet) – Live Music / Performance
My interests lie in public and private space, this has led to a number of performances in sound / installation / and performance around the country. MAQ’s intention is to go into public spaces and create live sound pieces that directly interact and complement the venue and the activities of the moment. These events share similar ground conceptually to Brian Eno and his greatly influential Music for Airports, and is also greatly influenced by the wondrous repetition, and experimentation of many of the German so named krautrock bands of the early 70’s such as Neu, Can, Kraftwerk, Cluster, etc.
The objective at Blank Media’s opening event will be to create music that complements the opening night activities; note MAQ is in fact a quartet of one, however there will be three empty chairs available and a number of assorted instruments, so members of the public will be invited to join in with the quartet if they so wish.
Jamie Hyde: Live Music / Performance
Burn The Archives fuse post–rock, prog and sludge/doom metal into their own unique brand of music, which features moments of quiet calm, soaring vocal harmonies and full–blown epic rock outs, often within the same song. Like the bands who’ve influenced them, they write music with an experimental edge to it, not aiming to write disposable pop songs, but rather music which has some depth and emotion to it. Live they are like a force of nature, putting as much intensity and passion into their performances as they do into writing the songs, and lulling the crowd in with beautiful melodies before building up to gale force crescendos.
Burn The Archives are:
Kurt Torevell: Vocals
Andreas Friberg: Guitar, vocals and keys
Matt Freeman: Guitar
Jamie Hyde: Bass
David Morris: Drums
M Devereux: Live Music / Performance
Sax and Bass duo Urban Spiral put its own spin on contemporary jazz, incorporating instrumental effects with a hint of gadgetry.
This innovative and unique duo are constantly pushing boundaries by creating original works and performances, as well as re-working and adapting tunes to suit their original style. This collaboration bring a fresh approach to the sax and bass line–up performing with energy and intuition.
Karen Boulton: Life is full of obstacles - Mixed Media Installation
My practice revolves around a mixture of artefacts and installations many built to be site–specific. A considerable amount of the work is conceived either in its actuality or in the materials used to construct it, to fail in its actuality. They are designed to fail to some extent or other and are often made to challenge myself as the artist either by physically being too demanding or conceptually questioning myself as an artist. Much of the work is intended to be unobvious, it should be encountered within the gallery or installation space, when the work is found it should lead to questions of authenticity or to be examined as part of the buildings fabric and questioned as to its purpose. A shift in reality, unanswered questions should be evoked and answers unfound.
.
Paul Cox: Harmony Discord - Mixed Media Installation
Humans have broken many links with the natural world. The notion of linear time, a socially constructed phenomenon, obliterates the natural rhythms of cyclical time, which have existed since creation. We live in a ‘24/7’ world dictated by the atomic clock, yet our bodies honed by over three million years of evolution, beat to an older rhythm.
Electricity turns our nights into days, central heating our winters into summers; and our sleeping and working patterns are no longer governed by the sun. Cyclical time maintains the recurring patterns of daily, monthly and annual rhythm; the ebb and flow of liquids, from ocean tides to menstrual cycles in females is regulated by lunar phases; and breeding and migratory patterns in organic life are synchronised by seasonal trends.
This fragile union between all–life is becoming increasingly disrupted by human interference; as if bent on some triumph over nature’s laws, we could ever expect to live a more harmonious existence. For how much longer can the devastating ramifications such unwholesome meddling be abated?
In this instance the harp is no longer permitted to respond to a naturally occurring wind–source, but rather it is enslaved, like humans, within a sterile and artificially regulated system; pre–conceived and structured by the designs of our own manufacture.
Seeking to engage with these concerns, Harmony/Discord attempts to illustrate the growing conflict between nature and man.
.
M Devereux: Going Nowhere - Painting
Movies are much more interesting than real life. Each frame is meticulously considered, arranged and lit to look appealing; a soundtrack is used to emphasise emotions; and the narrative always reaches some form of conclusion. The monotonous normality of everyday life with its boredom, chores and trivial anxieties is removed, leaving only the critical moments of interest. In real life it is not always clear what is important. We are faced with a chaotic abundance of repetition, unnecessary plot lines and characters that disappear abruptly. Movies have a coherence that I find very attractive and comforting. My work can be seen as an attempt to mirror this process where the chaos of everyday life is controlled and pinned down onto a motionless canvas.
The images that I paint utilise the conventions of cinematography to present ‘staged’, fictitious scenes where time has been stopped and extended. These frozen moments are deliberately ambiguous, inviting the viewer to inject their own emotions, motivations and narrative context into the scene, thereby avoiding limiting interpretation. In the painting ‘Going Nowhere’ I have hinted at specific conventions from the ‘Horror’ film genre to create an eerie undertone to the piece.
Mario Chejab: Free Range 2006 & Slaughter Hause 2006 - Photography
I’ve been living on planet Earth for about 29 years and ever since I was born I’ve been collecting information and gaining experience specially and naturally for surviving, and nothing has ever intrigued me more than the living process itself and as protagonist of this natural phenomenon I have decided to spend my time here contemplating life and I have found art as the better tool for this exploration, art is an instrument that allows me to explore and at the same time leave evidence of my findings and my research. I compare my practice to the one of an astronaut. I am all the time discovering places, stories and meanwhile as a human being I react to stimulation. My art is a response to the environment, to the politics, my personal life and every thing that affects me in one way or another. As an artist I have sharpen my senses and my skills to make artworks out of my reactions. My art works are exaggerations of my thoughts, exaggerations of the reality and exaggerations of life itself.
Anne Guest: don’t stop now & dog tale no.3 - Video
Anne Guest works with video installations, text installations and photography. She is concerned with the temporal and ephemeral aspects of natural phenomena such as light and wind and their subsequent effects such as shadows, reflections and movement.
The work uses semantic ambiguities to explore perceptions of ‘ordinary’ and ‘familiar’ that are encountered in the everyday.
‘don’t stop now’ is a video of a series of text on the surface of water reflect various ambiguous states of desire. The text comes and goes, concealing and revealing itself. The title suggests that it is only during intense moments of desire that we truly live in the present, never wanting ‘now’ to become past or future. ‘dog tale no.3’ is a short humorous video exploring ambiguous wordplay and surrealism.
.
George Hardy: Daily Drawings – Drawing / Installation
Plain A4 sheets of paper are the fundamental, raw material for passing information. The pen and ink drawings are to act as a direct, spontaneous media for the expression of ideas. A person will ‘doodle’ on a piece of paper when speaking on the phone to keep their hands busy. The daily drawings are created in the same manner and are drawn, as an artists’ reflex action to the horror of an empty page. The accumulation of these pictures, are to illustrate the obsessive–compulsive manner in which they were created.
There is no set ‘theme’ for daily drawings, just a motivation to create a picture. Often taking the form of a satirical cartoon or social comment for the viewers’ enjoyment, they are breaking the surface from a cartoonist background. This is the objective, simply to amuse the viewer — a positive response, which is an important aspect within the nature of this work. Time taken is for the love of the process but this work is not precious, the artwork belongs to the viewer, not the artist.
.
Madeline Richardson: Broken Trophies – Mixed Media Installation
I am endeavouring to connect two ideals together, the masculine and the feminine. These ideals were a part of my personal life and also part of society, which was present in the 1960’s and also during my ambitions as a young individual at that time.
I choose to investigate the use of a certain masculine possession, the motorcycle, considered by man to be the subject of his masculinity and prowess. The question of identity and the involvement of gender issues, are incorporated as a significant subject.
To subvert the idea from masculine to feminine created a uniform construction, which dominated the idea from a male point of view to that of my own female utopia.
The visionary aspect of this ideal became an obsessive and passionate pathway to thoughts and decisions about each delicate piece. These pieces represent life and the fulfilment of my own traditional methods and the concepts of femininity; the balance between what is considered male and female art.
The connotations of this work can be identified as a distinct female experience, relating to the equality of both sexes. I am interested in the reaction of the viewer, both the female and the male audience and the their ideals of what is considered to be “art”
.
Matthew Hammond: British Landmarks – Photography / Installation
Matthew Hammond is an artist living and working in Edinburgh.
British Landmarks revisits sites that are both harrowing and banal, sites that are ingrained in the British national conscious.
News and the mass media could be described as a form of social tourism, where the audience discover a version of Britain through their television screen, in newspapers and magazines.
The series was made with disposable cameras, visiting that place you’ve always seen on the TV, creating snapshots that no longer remove the subject matter from daily life as the visual codes of the mass media do. British Landmarks, closer to us than any ideal Heritage site, appear mundane and awkwardly familiar.
http://www.britishlandmarks.net / http://www.matthewhammond.net / .
M Devereux: ars memoriae - Photography
“Art of Memory (ars memoriae in Latin), or the method of loci, can be traced back to the middle ages. It is a method of recollection, which was generally used in the middle ages to recall speeches. To utilise this method, one creates ‘memory palaces’, or an imaginary room or location. The person stores personal objects in this room in order for them to relate to a meaning. When the object is seen physically or recalled in the mind’s eye, the memory is also recollected.”
This month, I will be leaving the home I have lived in all my life to become a grown-up (and to pay rent). The documentary-style images of my bedroom — my home, explore the meaning of memory and the significance of inanimate and mundane objects which together create a biography or an ‘ars memoriae’ of my life at Oakbank Avenue from 1984 to 2007.
Eleni Angelou: 1344 – Mixed Media Installation
My work is usually been dependent on my personal circumstances, and in this case I am living abroad and dependent on someone else to present my work. I have approached this situation by providing the materials, sponge blocks, but no instructions on how these are to be presented or constructed. This is comparable to handing to someone paints, brushes a blank canvas and instructing them to ‘begin’. Each person brings their own interpretation to any piece of art as we all defined by a unique set of circumstances. I wanted to examine the relationship between the idea, the placing, the finished object and the interpretation.
This is a playful attempt to blur the boundaries between the Artist, Curator and the audience.
Subscribe
Socialise