Posts tagged: 2018

Artist: Elliott Flanagan

Title: A piece of something bigger

Year: 2018

Medium: Digital Video

Duration: 7 minutes, 20 seconds

Acquisition info: 
Elliott Flanagan is a poet, writer and artist. He was born in Burnley, a post-industrial town in the North of England. His work explores class, subcultures, and personal and social histories. A period spent playing football, working in sales and holiday repping contrasted with a ‘hidden pursuit’ of art via film, music, television, fashion, and rare gallery visits. His work is an exploration of the sometimes jarring intersection between these co-existing lives, and an ongoing dissection of contemporary masculinity.

‘A piece of something bigger’ explores contemporary masculinity through the prism of package holiday culture. Flanagan looks at the ideas entrenched in the male gender stereotype that saturated his youth – misunderstood and under pressure to ‘conform and perform’. The artist studies a tension from his own experience between one’s own consciousness and social expectations.

‘The traditional form of masculinity and its lack of complexity is subverted, as the viewer is party to glimpses of real honesty in the chaos. The film discusses the camaraderie that exists in relationships between men and the value of the communal experience therein.’

With music by William Brown and Ashley Snook.

Artist: Gwilym Hughes

Title: Salford Faces

Year: 2018

Medium: Giclee Print on Lightbox

Dimensions: H: 130cm W: 90cm D:15cm

Accession Number: US2018-09

Acquisition info:

This work was acquired following the 2018 PRINT UnLtd exhibition, presented at Salford Museum and Art Gallery in partnership with University of Salford Art Collection and Hot Bed Press. Funded by Arts Council England. Hughes was commissioned following selection from an open call for submissions.

Artist: Joey Collins

Title: Gathering of Strangers

Year: 2018

Medium: Screenprint and Graphite

Dimensions: H: 40cm W: 130cm

Accession Number: US2018-11

Acquisition info:

This work was acquired following the 2018 PRINT UnLtd exhibition, presented at Salford Museum and Art Gallery in partnership with University of Salford Art Collection and Hot Bed Press. Funded by Arts Council England. Collins was commissioned following selection from an open call for submissions.

As a starting point for his work for PRINT UnLtd, Collins collected discarded drawings from art supplies shops in Manchester. These drawings are made specifically to ‘try out’ the pens and pencils sold in the shop. In itself, he feels that each of these drawings is its own collaboration; the strips of paper are layered with combined words, squiggles, cartoons, and abstract marks. Collins rescues and recycles these found drawings which he scans, enlarges, edits, separates and exposes onto silk screens and screen-printed. He then works repeatedly into these prints using collage and drawing. Finally, he cuts them into strips, to mirror the original source material, and rearranges the strips into a new piece of work.

Joey Collins is an alumnus of the University of Salford, graduatating from BA Hons Visual Arts in 1997.

Artist: He Xiangyu

Title: Untitled (yellow abstract)

Year: 2018

Medium: Giclee print

Dimensions: tbc

Accession Number: US2019-03

Acquisition info:

Untitled (Yellow Abstract) is part of He Xiangyu’s ongoing Lemon Project, which considers the use, perception and representation of yellow and lemon across 24 countries, including China, Nigeria, New Zealand, Japan and the UK. Through the project, he shows that the etymology of ‘yellow’ and ‘lemon’ are entwined historically across cultures, as well as having symbolism that transcends borders of language, culture and religion. Through a series of yellow abstract paintings and prints, Xiangyu explores how the colour has been used as a symbol of peace, violence, life, and death. Specific examples of use from both East and West include political weapons, border indicators, freedom, liberation, and funeral motifs. For example – yellow was used in the Umbrella and Sunflower movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as having widespread used for representing liberal parties in Europe and South America.

He Xiangyu’s experimental practice can be seen as both a material testing ground and conceptual laboratory that investigates diverse personal, social and political themes. Part of a generation of Chinese artists who grew up during a period of rapid urbanisation he has said that “I’m seeking to adjust and guide people’s perception through the material changes within the object”, using a range of media to reflect on philosophical ideas such as the increasing materialism and obsolescence of our society as well as the effects of the institutionalisation and commercialisation of contemporary art. (Biography: Courtesy White Cube).

Xiangyu studied at Shenyang Normal University in 2008. He has held numerous international group and solo shows, and is represented by White Cube gallery. This print was acquired after Xiangyu’s solo show at CFCCA in 2019.

Artist: Liang Yue

Title:  untitled

Year: 2018

Medium: Photograph triptych

Dimensions:

Accession Number: US2018-07a

Acquisition info:

The ‘everyday’ is a focus in Liang Yue’s photographic and video practice. She uses the easy-to-get materials with her acute art talents, keeps seeking, exploring and capturing the daily routines.

A clear clue of her art practice could be witnessed in the works produced during the past fifteen years where the beauty of insignificance is explored.  In these works, Liang keeps simplifying and abandoning the techniques of shooting and editing, challenging the art appreciation which the audience has been used to, as well as the viewers’ retina and eardrum, patience and rationality. Subsequently, Liang further questions the so-called significance and value of art as she treats the meaningless as the ultimate significance of her creation.
Adapted from http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/artists/name/liangyue)

China Dream: This is Shanghai Installation shot at Cunard Building, Liverpool. © Rob Battersby.

In April 2018, Liang Yue undertook a short residency in Liverpool; although this was her first visit to the city, it appeared strangely familiar to her. The Pier Head reminded her of the Bund back in Shanghai, ‘the noise of traffic, running up and down near the dock, and the smells …are redolent of Huangpu River’.

The works made during Liang’s residency featured in the This is Shanghai exhibition (14 July – 7 September 2018) at the Cunard Building, Liverpool. Presented by Culture Liverpool in partnership with Open Eye Gallery, This is Shanghai explored and celebrated the relationship between Liverpool and its twin city in China.  The University of Salford acquired three of Liang’s works, from This is Shanghai. Each of the works focuses upon the River Mersey; in video piece C0018 and Liang’s untitled triptych the River appears tranquil as its delicate fine ripples flicker under the sunset. These ripples from the River are then replicated in the surface of the sandbank where two seagulls are observed in video piece C0011.

Liang Yue graduated from the Shanghai Art Academy in 2001. Recent exhibitions include This is Shanghai, Cunard Building, Liverpool, UK (2018); The 7th edition Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Shenzhen (2017); Intermittent, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing (2016); Easy Going, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen (2014); Liang Yue: The Quiet Rooms, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2013); A Lecture Upon the Shadow, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2012); Numerous, Liang Yue’s Solo Exhibition, Shanghai (2011); Move on Asia, the End of Video Art, Casa Asia-Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (2011); Shanghai Candid: Women In Motion, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, USA (2010); China Power Station – Part IV, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino, Italy (2010); Shanghai Kino, Shanghai Kino, KUNSTHALLE BERN, Switzerland (2009); China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway(2007); China Power Station: Part I., Battersea Power Station, London, UK (2006).

Artist’s website: https://www.liangyuepmstudioproduction.com/
Gallery representing artist: http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/artists/name/liangyue

Commissioned by Liverpool City Council in partnership with University of Salford and Open Eye Gallery, Liang Yue presented her series of works in This is Shanghai exhibition (14 July – 7 September 2018) alongside the Liverpool Biennial 2018.

Artist: Noor Afshan Mirza and Brad Butler

Title: The Scar

Year: 2018

Medium: 3 channel video, installation

Dimensions: Variable

Accession Number: US2018-14

Acquisition info: Co-commission

Weaving together conspiracy, gangster, noir, politics, crash theory, fantasy and reality, The Scar sees four unlikely associates – Yenge, the former beauty queen, state assassin Reis, anxious politician Ağa and chief of police Kaptan – sharing a car, headed along a mysterious road and bound together by power and corruption.

The story unfolds over three films and through Yenge’s narrative, culimating in a powerful and intriguing glimpse at a world breaking free of the patriarchy through a gender revolution.

The Scar is commissioned by FLAMIN Productions through FILM LONDON Artists’ Moving Image Network with funding from Arts Council England in partnership with HOME & no.w.here with support from University of Salford Art Collection, Spectre Productions, Delfina Foundation, Centre national des arts plastiques France, Edith-Russ-Haus Germany, and àngels barcelona.

Artist: Jesse Glazzard

Title: LGBT+ Letters

Year: 2018-19

Medium: Series, Film Photographs accompanied by letters from the subjects.

Dimensions:

Photographs: W: 59.4 cm, H:8 4.1 cm, each accompanied by an A4 letter.

Accession Number:

Acquisition info:

Jesse’s own coming-out at secondary school was fraught with the fear, and harsh reality, of violent backlash. But it was also hampered by what Glazzard saw as a complete lack of queer visibility. He had simply no experience of how to become queer. Glazzard’s first cultural experience of queer romance was of a single ‘chaste, lesbian kiss’ on the popular soap opera EastEnders at the age of 9.

While LGBTQI representation in popular culture has improved, Glazzard describes still seeing many stale stereotypes, which this photographic work seeks to rectify. LGBT+ Letters is an attempt at providing, through portraits and texts, queer aesthetics for people who find themselves without meaningful representation in the world. In the photography series, Glazzard demonstrates a lack of self-indulgence rather a strong belief in accommodating to his subjects’ individualities, and ultimately to build trust, capture intimacy, educate and inform.

The LGBT+ Letters series was gifted to the Collection at the culmination of the artists time on the Art Collection’s Graduate Scholarship Programme, run in partnership with Castlefield Gallery.

Portraits:

Letters:

Artist: Craig Easton

Title: Awais, 16, Nelson, Lancashire

Year: 2018

Medium:  Digital Photograph

Dimensions: H: 138cm W: 112cm

Accession Number: US2018-17B

Acquisition info: part of the wider project ‘SIXTEEN’ which explores the hopes, dreams, ambitions and fears of sixteen year olds from all walks of life all around the UK. As with much of Easton’s work it is rooted in social documentary and ties in with other projects looking at notions of meritocracy, social mobility and how we organise society.

SIXTEEN evolved into a group project and touring exhibition when Easton invited a number of leading contemporary photographers around the UK to contribute works from different regions. His own interests were in the Scottish Islands and in the post-industrial communities of the north of England, where this work was made.

The major touring exhibition launched at the New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery, University of Salford, in 2019 – before touring across the North West and to FORMAT19, Derby. Read more here.

Artist: Craig Easton

Title: Maizi, 16, Runcorn, Cheshire

Year: 2018

Medium:  Digital Photograph

Dimensions: H: 138cm W: 112cm

Accession Number: US2018-17A

Acquisition info: part of the wider project ‘SIXTEEN’ which explores the hopes, dreams, ambitions and fears of sixteen year olds from all walks of life all around the UK. As with much of Easton’s work it is rooted in social documentary and ties in with other projects looking at notions of meritocracy, social mobility and how we organise society.

SIXTEEN evolved into a group project and touring exhibition when Easton invited a number of leading contemporary photographers around the UK to contribute works from different regions. His own interests were in the Scottish Islands and in the post-industrial communities of the north of England, where this work was made.

The major touring exhibition launched at the New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery, University of Salford, in 2019 – before touring across the North West and to FORMAT19, Derby. Read more here.

Artist: Ruth Barker

Title: If this is the last thing that I say

Year: 2018

Medium: Performance, textile rug, sound, photographs

Dimensions: Variable

Accession Number: US2018-03 (a-f)

Acquisition info: A co-commissioned with Castlefield Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection. With special thanks to Clarendon Road Primary School. Part of a wider series of works.

The central figure in If this is the last thing that I say is an ambiguous ‘pulley- woman’, a (ready-made) clothes pulley standing in for Barker’s absence. Alongside other works, this becomes a way for Barker to talk about her own mortality and an anxiety around motherhood, illness, physical vulnerability. Brutal world politics, and the economic conditions of contemporary Britain are, Barker feels, rapidly coalescing to render her publicly mute.

If this is the last thing that I say will come together through an assemblage of spoken word and sound, and will include wall based fabric works, and sculptural objects. A black fabric performance costume hung up to dry alongside an incomplete papier mâché female torso – suggesting nothing more than an ineffectual Winged Victory, while a ‘rug’ depicting a child’s drawing of the face of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar.

Children from Salford’s Clarendon Road Primary School will be recorded performing a sonic meditation inspired by the founder of “Deep Listening”, the late Pauline Oliveros, in the University of Salford’s Anechoic Chamber (a room designed to absorb all sound, rendering the room completely silent). The audio recording will be accompanied by the sound of Barker’s own breath works, infant babble, and performed monologue.

The rug work will be made using specialist production techniques at the University of Salford’s fibre workshop with artist assistant Alena Donely.

Keywords: Performance, Women Artists, Socially Engaged, Textiles, The Body, Sound 

Ruth Barker, If this is the last thing that I say (scripts), 2018. All Images Courtesy of the Artist.