Volunteers Required - In Service Salford Museum and Art Gallery 3rd to the 7th July 2017

I need you !
Volunteers needed to help me realise my latest installation/intervention for Salford Museum and Art Gallery. I am creating 226 plates for peace, as part of my WW1 residency. There have been a staggering 226 global conflicts since the war to end all wars and I want to create a commemorative plate for each one.
Please come down and help out , Ill in the SMAG cafe all week, please share far and wide as I have until Mid July to make sure they are all painted and ready for firing....!

I am looking for volunteers to drop in and help decorate the commemorative plates, which will go into service as part of the art installation. No need to book, just pop down and join in. Be great to see you!
Monday 3rd July – Friday 7th July, 10am – 3pm. Free, drop in, no booking required.

Fighting Resistance 2017 - Salford Museum and Art Gallery and Working Class Movement Library 27th July 2017

In Service  1918 - 2017 James Bloomfield

Salford Museum and Art Gallery & Ordsall Hall, Salford | 31st July - 10th November 2017 | Launch 27th July The Working Class Movement Library 6.30 - 9pm

To mark the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele, artist James Bloomfield has been resident at Salford Museum & Art Gallery and the Working Class Movement Library. Delving into this fabulous rich archive, Bloomfield has created a truly special piece of work that engages with the audience directly and asks us to look at our history and the global legacy of the war to end all wars. 

The outcome of this research is the creation of 226 commemorative ceramic plates. The plates reference each conflict and the number of fatalities for that conflict. Instead of being in display cases or on the gallery walls, the plates will be placed into service in the Gallery Cafe, presenting the findings of Bloomfield’s research directly to visitors.

The plates will be used as part of the regular dinner service at Salford Museum & Art Gallery‘s bustling Café and in Ordsall Hall’s coffee shop. The plates will be presented for service on 31 July and later decommissioned on 10 November to coincide with the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele, which runs over these exact dates (3months and 6 days).

“When I started this project I didn’t know where the research would take me, I especially didn’t think I would be hand decorating 226 plates each plate to mark a global conflict since the end of the war to end all wars. I want the work to become part of the domestic, our consciousness to remember those that have been involved in conflict or who still are “ says Bloomfield of the project.

Signalling the launch of In Service, Professor Paul Rogers (Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University) will give a special talk on "New Wars and How to Prevent Them. Giving insight into the three core issues facing the world and our approaches to these issues.

In Service has been funded and/or supported by Arts Council England, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Salford Remembers Fund, Salford Community Leisure and Salford City Council’s programme to commemorate the centenary of World War One, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund .

 

Future Wars and How to Prevent them

Thursday 27th July|6 - 9pm , Working Class Movement Library, Salford

Join us for the launch of this brand new solo exhibition , which will include an introduction to the project and insights into the work from James Bloomfield and a talk from Professor Paul Rogers on "New Wars and How to Prevent Them" For more information on the event, including booking details please visit www.jamesbloomfield.co.uk

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Of Heart and Hand - 2017 James Bloomfield with Darwen Terracotta for the Festival of Making

James Bloomfield and Darwen Terracotta –  "Of heart and hand" - Blackburn Cathedral

A pink slip cast craftsperson’s toolbox alongside eight, monumental sculptural columns provides a poignant and powerful symbol of the camaraderie, trust and friendship of workers at Darwen Terracotta, a company resurrected by employees facing redundancy. Artist, James Bloomfield ‘walked the floor’ to research the breadth of techniques used across the now successful, specialist architectural terracotta and faience business and noted the individualism evident at personal ‘maker stations’ and workbenches, whether the tools being used for that specialism or personal artefacts. In a celebration of the craftsperson’s hand, these functional items have been individually cast to elevate them to objects of designated cultural value, whether a pencil, a spray gun or a sculpting knife. The sculptural cast of a glazed bright pink toolbox alone presents an evocative, permanent document of the friendship of two, inseparable female workers, with the cast objects exhibited at Blackburn Cathedral’s Temple Gallery.

 Outside the Cathedral in a new public square, eight columns will reference many of the company’s most successful projects, reaching up to 2 metres tall and bringing 32 people into the casting process. The powerful structures, created using technology introduced at the company in 2010, but pioneered by Italian Ceramic Artist, Nino Caruso in the 1970’s, inspire contemplation on Darwen Terracotta’s history, a story of people rising together. For the artist, it is a story that reflects Blackburn’s history of workforce rebellion and protest, evoking the story of 1817 ‘Blanketeers March’ and their demands of rights for weavers against mechanisation.

www.darwenterracotta.com / www.jamesbloomfield.co.uk

Photogrpahs courtesy of Richard Tymon http://richardtymon.com/http://richardtymon.com/

Darwen Terracotta residency short film by Wash Design Studio

JAMES BLOOMFIELD AND DARWEN TERRACOTTA from Wash Design Studio on Vimeo.

Here is a short film made by Andy Walmsley of Wash design Studio for my recent residency at Darwen Terracotta for The National Festival of Making in collaboration with Decopublique, Hemingwaydesign and Super Slow Way. Its a minute long but gives a real insight into the project.

The National Festival of Making - Residency with Darwen Terracotta

I am  pleased to announce my participation in the ground breaking ‘Art In Manufacturing’ project. As part of the first ever National Festival of Making, supported by arts commissioners Super Slow Way and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, exciting new art will roll off the production lines of factories in Pennine Lancashire as nine, specially commissioned artists negotiate heavy machinery, industrial production techniques and up to 160 years of making heritage. I will be working with the fabulous Darwen Terracotta to create a piece of artwork in collaboration with their highly skilled workforce.  More info to follow.

Exchanging their studios for the hot houses of modern manufacturing, the artists will enjoy an unprecedented level of access to staff, machinery, company archives and materials at the nine partnering manufacturers, all located around Pennine Lancashire in North West England. Art In Manufacturing not only seeks to develop the ideas of artists in unfamiliar environments and create engaging and accessible new work, but also encourage investigation into Britain’s manufacturing heritage, specifically that of Lancashire, with direct engagement from staff members in each participating company.

The resulting artworks and performances will be revealed as part of the National Festival of Making, appearing in the town centre of Blackburn, Lancashire.

Developed by a new Festival of Making Community Interest Company - a collaborative venture involving designer, Wayne Hemingway MBE, festival producers, Deco Publique and creative place-making social enterprise, Placeshakers the festival is a FREE family festival happening just an hour away from Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool. The festival programme, encompassing cultural events, markets and workshops, promises to be a vibrant celebration of British making, where people of all ages will see, hear, taste and take part in things they’ll encounter nowhere else.

Art In Manufacturing at The National Festival of Making

Sat 6 – Sun 7 May 2017

FREE

Blackburn, Lancashire (Various Town Centre Locations)

For updates about the festival programme and information on how to get involved visit www.festivalofmaking.co.uk and sign up to the mailing list. News and opportunities will also be posted on Twitter at www.twitter.com/festofmaking and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/festofmaking.

Fighting Resistance Meeting with SMAG and WCML

Last week saw my research period come to a close and the presentation of my ideas to the team at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and the Working Class movement library. It was a great meeting with everyone interested in the process I had undertaken over the last 6 months. From researching Pilkingtons Tiles and learning about the infamous William Burton to visiting the amazing collection at SMAG and WCML.

I talked about my fascination with the idea for a Refuge and the possibilities of recreating one in the gallery setting and of my visit to Lindesfarne and Holy Island to document the refuges there. I really like the idea of offering refuge or sanctuary in these times we we live in.  Other ideas included the transmitting through radio waves the names of the 16,000 conscientious objectors and the creation of a set of Commemorative plates marking each global conflict since the end of the First World War of which there have been 226.

The idea that excites me most and ties in with my practice in the strongest way is the commemorative plates, it links in with the Pilkingtons Collection and Archive situated at the Gallery, it ties in with my current obsession of conflict and ceramics and then there will be a perfomative aspect of the presentation of the plates by having them used in the cafe at SMAG and Ordsall Hall as part of the regular service.

I am know in the process of creating 226 commemorative plates! watch this space