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Monday 1st Mar 2010
Ladies and Gentlemen, blankpages is 20! Can you believe it? We've emerged from our teens with bright, hungry eyes, and yours should be too – the treats we have in store for you this month!
Our cover art, from Adam Booth, is an image from Blank Media Collective's second exhibition of the year (and it's only March!) - 'Seeing and Being Seen' at the greenroom in Manchester - showing until 10th April.
Showcased poetry this month is from Adam Hyde, an artist based in Dudley, whose poetry is natural and beguiling, with a wonderful shade of e.e. cummings. Anna Percy chooses the English legend of the Selkie in this month's fiction, an intriguing vehicle for transformational metaphor, and Lisa Denyer shares her utopian magical landscapes in this month's artist's spotlight.
Our roving reporter, Elaine Wilson returns this month reviewing Nine Doors by Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra, who also supply this month's psychotically aching mp3 'Starved Dog'.
On top of all this, blankpages catches up with the brains behind Sixty_six_events, a 24-hour global participatory art happening that challenged the very notions of performance, to share some of their inspirations and footage they have so far received from the event.
Compelling stuff, I'm sure you'll agree!
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Monday 1st Feb 2010
Productofboy / Vicky Miller / Cristina Nualart / Andrew Gilmore / TAPE / Javier Muñoz / Elaine Wilson
Brrrrrrrr! Come in! Leave your umbrella and wellies at the door! Welcome to February's blankpages – your digital blanket of creative warmth.
Our cover art this month is by Productofboy, one of the exhibitors at Blank Media Collective's Neck of the Woods exhibition at Nexus Art Cafe in Manchester. They are a group of artists from Newcastle and Manchester, exploring perceptions of environment and urban space utilising text, video, photography, sound, electronics, installation composition and performance
Andrew Gilmore returns to our pages this month with a short story – a strange journey through a paranoid imaginative landscape, coupled with bespoke illustration from Michael Thorp.
'iFear' by TAPE is this month's mp3 – an up-tempo, hook driven beast of a track that should get your heart racing.
Poetry this month is singularly female - Vicky Miller and Cristina Nualart unabashedly discuss loneliness and PMT, and our spotlight this month features Javier Muñoz, a joyfully eclectic illustrator and artist based in Spain. Alongside his work, he talks to us about inspiration and his creative process.
Blank Media Presents... is previewed by Elaine Wilson, a writer and music blogger based in Liverpool, coupled with an interview with one of the featured bands at February's gig, Klaus Kinski.
All this and more in your monthly cultural companion, blankpages. Check it out!
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Friday 1st Jan 2010
Welcome to a new decade! It's the first blankpages of 2010! Our guest visual designer this month is Michael Thorp, who did some sterling illustration for the last issue, and is back this month to show us his vision for an entire issue. He recently graduated from Coventry University with a degree in Fine Art and Illustration.
Andy Glinka provides our cover art this month – polaroid shots from his series 'This Boy's Life', exploring the effects of adults' choices on a child's life through this most evocative and nostalgic of photographic media.
Salford rock group Samuel Sharp provide this month's mp3 sound companion, and poetry this month comes from John Maher and Karen Lavin, coupled with yet more beautiful illustration.
Our visual art spotlight this month returns with experiments in reflection and landscape by Peter Hiett, and our showcased fiction comes in the form of simple and effective short shorts from Luke Kenyon, who studied Creative Writing at The Bolton Institute, and now resides in Kurume, Southern Japan.
On top of all this, Blank Media Collective's Special Projects Co-ordinator, Petra Hoschtitzky, gives us her account of the Turner Prize exhibition and the recent announcement of the prize's winner. So come on in and start 2010 with a cultural and creative bonanza for you eyes, ears and mind!
Tuesday 1st Dec 2009
This month our magazine is re-imagined by the exemplary Henry Roberts, a Manchester-based graphic designer who we're very lucky to be working with. Our cover artist this month is Mario Sughi, an Italian illustrator, cartoonist and historian, living and working in Dublin. His featured images are just the striking surface of his wide portfolio and experience.
This month's mp3 comes from deep in the woods of Northern Sweden. Oskar Hallbert's minimal melodic music should be a soothing backdrop to your page turning experience. Our showcased poets are JEA Wallace, Nick Iles and Bethan Townsend. Each has an original, different voice and chosen subject matter, but each displays an element of escapism; much needed in this season's plummeting temperatures and supermarket saturated festivities. This month's fiction is a rambling reminiscence from Robert Monroe, his first piece of published fiction, looking at the uncontrollable, unchanging urges of passion through generations' gaps.
The Blank Media Collective Exhibitions team took a day trip to AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent in October – you can read about this contemporary art space in this month's feature. All this as well as our usual blankpicks of cultural happenings, and monthly review of Blank Media Presents... at Fuel Café Bar in Manchester.
Sunday 1st Nov 2009
This month is a poetry special! Manchester's queer vegan performance poet, Dominic Berry, treats us to his words, Justin Walsh serves up absurdities and nonsense - and for desert? Poetic treats from John Leyland! And more! Gerry Potter talks exclusively to blankpages in his first interview as himself since ditching his successful alter-ego Chloe Poems.
Music this month comes from Irma Vep, a Welsh born, Manchester based artist fusing a mixture of styles. Stunning guest visual design is provided by Liverpool artist Jack Welsh and our artists' spotlight falls on Phillip Marsden, a comic illustrator and founder of Compromise Comics Enterprise.
Thursday 1st Oct 2009
Featured in this month's issue is the striking collage imagery of <b>Andrew Gilmore</b>. We also have the final installment of our illustrated story series by <b>Joe Booker</b> and our first reader's contribution to blankpicks (by <b>Annette Cookson</b>); a review of 'Ai No Corrida (In The Realm of the Senses)', a controversial 1970's Japanese film recently given a rare screening at Cornerhouse.
We also bring you visual art by <b>Claire Curtin</b>, poetry by <b>Marianne Daniels</b> and <b>Penelope Turnbull</b>, short fiction by <b>Martin Richards</b> and transatlantic music from the <b>Finneyerkes</b>.
Tuesday 1st Sep 2009
This month’s contributors and featured artists include…
Christine Morris / Hollyann Burton / Arthur Chappel / Mothertrucker / artbysara / Joe Booker
We’re delighted to announce the launch of blankpages issue 14! Alongside this month’s fantastic pieces of art, fiction and poetry, we have a review of Jeremy Deller's 'Procession' as part of the Manchester International Festival.
Wednesday 1st Jul 2009
<i>This month's contributors and featured artists include...</i>
<b>Kyle Saxton / Lynn Myint-Maung / The Freezing Fog / Annette Cookson / David Gaffney / Jack Welsh / Joe Booker</b>
We're delighted to announce the launch of blankpages issue 13! Alongside this month's fantastic pieces of art, fiction and poetry, we have a review of and photographs from blankpages issue 12 launch party.
Friday 1st May 2009
<i>This month's contributors and featured artists include...</i>
<b>Charlotte Colegate / Purnima Thaker / Trashed Couture (Sara Li-Chou Han) / Steve O'Connor / Cass Ellis / Kalbakken / Joe Booker / Liz Wroe / The Gatherers / Plank! / The FTSE 100</b>
Did you miss us? We're delighted to announce the launch of blankpages issue 12 with a brand-new look! Alongside this month's fantastic pieces of art, fiction and poetry, we have an interview with fashion guru, Sara Li-Chou Han about her range of 'Trash Couture', turning the cast-offs of yesterday into the essentials of tomorrow. In our new music feature you can take a listen to and find out more about Kalbakken, a band inspired by Norwegian folk music and traditional stories.
In this month's issue of blankpages we’re proud to present <b>Kalbakken</b>, a band inspired musically by Norwegian folk music and lyrically by traditional stories. Making use of elements such as guitar, violin, accordion and percussion and mixing structure and improvisation, they present to a modern audience stories that otherwise might have died. Their songs open a doorway to a world that no-one who hears it can have ever been to - and there’s not many bands you can say that of. We are also delighted to announce that two tracks ('Hvem Kan Segle' & Bonden Og Kraka') of theirs will be available with the new issue.
We have an interview with fashion guru <b>Sara Li-Chou Han</b> and her range of ‘<b>Trash Couture</b>’. This project turns the cast-offs of yesterday into the essentials of tomorrow - and the day after for that matter. In our feature she explains the eco-friendly thinking behind the range, and discusses her influences, her theories on trends, and the ethics of fashion. But it’s not only about words - accompanying the feature are images of her work, and she will also be showing her work at our launch party on May 15th at the Black Lion in Salford.
Sunday 1st Mar 2009
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