Bankley Open Call Manchester October 2016

Here a few choice photographs from the Bankley Open Call 2016 the photographs were taken by Linda Hemmersbach . It was a great exhibition and there was some really strong work on display. The piece next to my Agent Orange work is by Laura Moreton Griffiths more details on her practise here: http://www.lauramoretongriffiths.com/.

The work I submitted was influenced by Reading George Ritzers "The McDonaldisation of Society" and comments on de-forestation and our consumerist society. The Mc Donald's cups are cast in Porcelain and then pit-fired using ancient techniques and reclaimed CHEP lumber pallets.

Visiting the Collection at Salford Museum and Art Gallery with Peter Ogilvie- 6th October

Today I had a meeting at Salford Museum and art Gallery to see Peter Ogilvie the Collections Manager and the gatekeeper to the vaults. I’ll be honest with you I didn’t quite now what to expect when I arrived and was a little anxious about the visit. 

 It took the receptionist around 10 minutes to locate Peter and I thought at first that he had forgotten about the meeting it was only later on that I realised why it had taken so long to track him down. After a warm handshake I was taken down some stairs and the steel safe door was opened with a large bunch of keys . Peter tells me that the museum opened in 1850 and was the first unconditionally free public library,  and didn’t have a collection as such and the collection has just grown over time.

 The first Room as you may expect was racked out with floor to ceiling paintings, from 20^th Century British Moderns to Victorian Portraits in Gilt frames, to a collection of  local Miners paintings given therapeutic art once the pits had closed. Many of the paintings appear in the "Your Paintings “ website (now Artuk)which lists all the paintings in the UK in public collections. Peter tells me that it took them the best part of a year to photograph all of Salfords paintings.

 The next room contained at least as many water colours and works on paper, many from Northern Artists and whole rack of local history paintings containing local scenes and areas of local importance. I didn’t realise but Salford Museum has a remit to take in such works , or objects that have local importance or significance and I suppose this is why it was important for them to secure the Pilkingtons tile Archive.

After this second room I was impressed by the sheer number of paintings, it was only on entering the next section of the collection that I began to feel overwhelmed. A room full of social history objects, industrial objects and machinery, a pair of what looked like ancient“inuit” ski’s, a dolly tub, even a soda stream. This section was populated with objects that have been donated to the museum by the public, objects that are significant to a time in history, this theme carried on to the next huge room floor to ceiling racking contain intriguing archive boxes of costumes, dress uniforms, tri-corn hats, doctors bags, childrens toys.

  This room then spilled out to house another museums collection that closed down in Salford some time ago, lots of childrens toys and games, from the Victorian era right up to the eighties. This room then led on to a furniture room, and then an occupation room where objects are field by the profession, doctor, chemist, carpenter etc. By this point I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things, and the final room was cupboards wall to wall with ceramics, glass and pewter ware.

The collection has over 120,000 items at the last count and this is spread throughout the basement of the whole of the Museum and Art gallery. It was on leaving the collection that realised why it had taken 10 minutes to track Peter down in the labyrinth of History underneath the museum. 

What struck me was the sheer weight of objects and the need to store them as part of our shared history, many of these items will never see the light of day again, catalogued and boxed until somebody takes an interest and asks for a viewing. I wondered if this is just another aspect to our society for hoarding, consumerism and placing value on material objects, but then each object has a story and its truths are just waiting to be unlocked or re-told. I will be visiting again soon to pull out some WW1 era objects that might spark some ideas or take my project down a different path.

 

Thomas Paine - a welcome distraction at the Working Class Movement Library - 29th September

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After a full sunny morning of trawling through archive records at Salford Local History Library  I thought I would treat myself to a visit to the Working Class Movement Library. The weather was turning and the wind was starting to blow a gale as I sat in the grounds of the University.  I crossed Chapel street and rang the bell and received a warm welcome at the library. What I wanted to see was the pamphlet “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine. I had read a little about the corset maker revolutionary and wanted to read for myself the words that sparked such controversy.

 The library assistant showed me into the reading room and then produced the archive box containing the book and some other reading material around the pamphlet. The book that contained the piece was hand bound and incredibly old, I presume it was published on or around the 1870’s , each page was punched through with the original letter press giving each page a textured feel not seen in today's printing. You could feel the mark of the maker and it was akin to reading a handwritten letter. The only problem was that the typeset was unusual in that the capital S looked like a lowercase f. Now this gave the whole reading a twist as many words I had to read twice as I was reading them with a lisp! For example “support” read as “fupport” and “sentiment” as “fentiment” after the first few hundred words or so I got used to it and enjoyed the first half very much.
 
 Thomas Paine is very clever in setting up his audience with an argument that you can all agree on , he then like all great philosophers uses this same premise to de-bunk other taken truths and succeeds in changing your viewpoint as you read. I can see how such a pamphlet stirred minds and created action. In hindsight though I think it would have been great if he had cast his rhetoric to the viewpoint of the Native Americans who at the time were experiencing a ruthless and programmed horrific genocide.

The more I read the more I begin to feel demoralised about the state of the word and the fact that history does repeat itself. The other great book Ive been reading at the moment is “The Silk Roads” by Peter Frankopan a history of the world from the viewpoint of the East. From this it is apparent that the collection of taxes and share capital has always been the great motivator of war and greed of Mankind and that history has been a repeat of conquer and be conquered throughout all of history, from great nations and civilisations, to hordes of Vandals and Mongols, Fascists and Empiricist's, all at the expense of the common man and woman. Many of the earliest writings are mere ledger books about trade and who owes who.

Out of all this came a glimmer of hope as Lynette passed me a leaflet for an up a upcoming convention.

Conscience and Conscription: Resistance to war, Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October 2016. There are a series of talks organised by the abolish war campaign , Cyril Pearce is talking and a whole host of other talks. I followed the trail to the abolish war campaign and found a link to a brilliant talk by a lecturer from Bradford called Professor Paul Rogers : "Future Wars and How to Prevent Them". This talk is in two versions the long one is the most comprehensive and I found it to be totally uplifting and hopeful that people are studying this and looking into how we can effect change. More on this in future musings.

more info on abolish war here : http://www.abolishwar.org.uk/ 

The you tube Paul Rodgers talk is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDg4F769ciw&t=715s

Abraham Lomax, 16,000 experiments - Salford Local History Library 29th September 2016

This morning I took some time to visit Salford Local History Library and have a quick peek at the archival records for the Pilkington Tiles Archive which Duncan McCormick the librarian had kindly dug out for me.

The folder contained some 122 pages each one documenting an object, letter, artwork that forms part of the History of the company. The file was put together by Barry and Angela of the Lancastrian Pottery Society. What struck me most amongst the many correspondence and documents was how similar daily life seemed to be to ours. There were rent and rates demands, insurance documents, share capital and tax returns. Letters from prospective employees, legal demands for slander, magazine cuttings, artwork ideas, and a thousand patent requests. Just reading through the list of documents and objects gave me a real feel for the company and what it achieved. The company was a bit of an anomaly really, creating its own identity outside of Stafford and Stoke the pottery capital of the world. I think this gave it a real unique identity, it was also different for the workers who were used to the satanic mills and coal mines. The pottery was a place of imagination, colour, art and spectacle.

 I highlighted some things that I think will be of interest to the project one of them being the notebooks of Abraham Lomax who was the ceramic chemist left to experiment with glazes and clay bodies. He did some 16,000 experiments over his initial first years with much of his work providing the factory with important discoveries and glaze recipes for years to come.  The other is a book by Franklin Shaw entitled “my Fifty years” which I believe will touch on the the War years.

The Archive and the way it is documented is interesting in itself as life becomes History to be stored and sorted through at a later date. The pressing arguments of the day become a memory or artifact with little relevance apart from the lives it has touched at the and for someone looking for clues for the future.

Tour of Working Class Movement Library - Tuesday 16th August

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For those of you who haven’t been to the Working Class Movement library on Chapel Street I urge you to go for two reasons. Firstly for the brilliant story about how it was formed and how it ended up located across from the University. Secondly to learn something about the history of the working people, your history this is the history of my parents and grandparents and there parents. It also houses some of the best collections of social literature that I have seen. 

I had a great tour of the collection by Lynette Cawthra the manager of the library, I was privileged to spend time in the Thomas Paine room where there is the largest collection of his writings in the UK  a gift from a prominent collector. I have been trying to track down the original pamphlet “Common Sense” for some time now and there it was (this is the pamphlet that was banned as it was so incendiary and sparked the American revolution to throw out the Brits)  I saw rooms and rooms of peace pamphlets, books on socialism, warfare, nuclear disarmament, I could quite easily have sat in any of the rooms and have my reading material for the next 50 years ! 

There is also a great ceramic collection in one of the back rooms, containing many commemorative plates, tankards and jugs, sparking ideas for possible pieces for my WW1 Fighting resistance project. What struck me was the creation of a collection that was formed by two individuals with a passion for books on working class history, and the foresight to protect this. How much of our history is white washed or green washed, hidden from us or re-written to support the ruling classes. This library is a beacon for the common man and a start point for what I believe to be a great adventure.

For more information on the Working Class Movement Library please click here:
http://www.wcml.org.uk/

Arthur Gardiner (CO) my new personal hero - 22nd September 2016

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This morning I managed to grab breakfast at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and find time to finish the book I have been reading on Conscientious Objectors (CO’s) in Huddersfield by Cyril Pearce. It is a truly illuminating book focusing on one communities support and the reasons behind the large proportion of CO’s in that area.

What it made me realise is that at the turn of the century the “workers” were extremely well connected and supported through different organisations, political and religious parties, social clubs, unions and trade guilds, something that I feel that we have lost over the last forty years. The overriding feeling was of the bravery in face of the weight of a nation, peers and propaganda to stand up and say that you would not fight! My new Hero is Arthur Gardiner who point blank refused conscription on the grounds that he did not want to murder a fellow worker in Germany:

“ I am 26 years of age and I work as a wool and cotton dyer. I cannot conscientiously undertake combatant or non combatant military service. For a number of years I have devoted my time and energy, both publicly and privately to the economic and moral uplift of humanity. I am opposed to all forms of militarism. I believe it to be a detriment to the welfare of all nations “

Arthur Gardiner at his tribunal.

The problem being that conscription was brought in with The Military Service Act of 1916 to compel single men between the ages of 18 and 40 to some form of military service. This became law on the 27^th January my birthday! next year I turn 40 and will be celebrating the fact that I will no longer be deemed fit for military service due to my age!...maybe I have to wait till 41? 




more informaton Cyril Pearce and the Pearce register of Conscientious Objectors here :
http://www.1914.org/news/cos/


more information on Arthur Gardiner here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s6fbd

Pilkingtons Lancastrian Pottery Society talk at Salford Museum and Art Gallery 17th September

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On Saturday 17^th September I attended a talk at Salford Museum and Art Gallery about Pilkington Tiles the talk was from Barry and Angela who are from the Lancastrian Pottery Society. The talk centered around the formation of the company from the 4 brothers who owned the coal company and discovered the clay deposits in the Pendleton Fault. Their first thought was to build a brick factory but they found out that the clay was unsuitable for this from an expert who suggested it could be used to create tiles and there was at the time a huge demand for ceramic tiles.

 The story for me got interesting when the brothers approached a Mr. William Burton who was well respected and currently employed at Wedgewood. The brothers courted Burton and he was finally released from Wedgewood in 1891.  William Burton was a Ceramic chemist and came with quite a reputation, he was responsible and sole master of Pilikington tiles, free to hire whomever he wished, many of whom he poached from the many Potteries of Stoke and Stafford, much to other companies disapproval!

 The company grew on this mans vision, his dazzling exhibitions and showmanship and spirit, he was also a great advocate for workers rights and pioneered many of today's practises of health and safety especially with regard ventilation and the use of lead in many of the enamel paints used in the potteries. 

  William Burton also employed many great artists both male and female and fostered an extremely creative and exciting environment to work in one such Artist was John Forsyth who created some beautiful tile pieces and fine examples of lustre ware, he also created the Peace vase that is on display dedicated to the end of the First World War. Forsyth also created an extraordinary vision of 6 massive tile panels celebrating the history of Ceramics that went on display in the Liverpool Museum. This tile piece was one of the only artworks to survive the bombings of WWII.

 Salford Museum and Art Gallery managed to secure the companies Archive when the company sadly went into receivership in 2010 when its overdraft ad loans were called in.  I will be accessing this in the coming weeks and look forward to finding out more about this great local employer and the people who worked there.

More information on the Lancastrian Pottery Society here : http://www.pilkingtons-lancastrian.co.uk/