Alan Johnston at the Cornerhouse

A chance to hear Alan Johnston talk at the Cornerhouse tomorrow morning, details:

http://www.cornerhouse.org/events/info.aspx?ID=1235&page=0

Some months back Alan completed a new commission on the Irwell Sculpture Trail, which is supported with lots of images and analysis at
www.northernmirror.com

Our Passing Resemblance

The latest exhibition at Bury Museum "Our Passing Resemblance" looks at, among other things, representations of the family. Curated by Alison Green and myself, it features one of my favourite artists, Shaun Pickard. Here pictured. Pickard's inspiration is from Darwin's notebooks. The title/caption reads "Case must be that one generation then should be asmany living as nowTo do this & to have many species in same genus (asis). REQUIRES extinction." This text was added to the drawing in the notebooks at two different dates (indicated by different coloured ink), and is quoted from "Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836-1844"

In Rainbows

Much has been made of the on-line release of Radiohead's latest album "In Rainbows" though I am struck about how little has been made of Radiohead's latest album "In Rainbows". Having now listened to it enough times to be fair to any subtleties, I inclined to the view that its online release is its distinguishing feature. Having been astonished by their live performance in Manchester a few years back and owning all their albums, I am disappointed. It is interesting to compare this release to "Hail to the Thief". The latter was an event. Radiohead were ubiquitous, large sections of the album were broadcast and discussed. The only discussion I have seen in the media is the one about what this form of release means for the music industry. I wonder what the release means musically. Listening to it, my memory goes back to the back road from Castletown in the Isle of Man leading passed the derelict Witch's Mill towards to Port St.Mary which ten year olds walking with their grandparents could never have completed in the dry heat of one of those childhood summers that we all imagine happened. http://www.dankarran.com/photography/isleofman/castletown/

WHENCE ISOLATION’S PERIPHERAL HORIZON IS TO ANYONE ANYWHERE OTHER UNIFORM DIRECTIONS ISOLATED TREES LANDSCAPE AND PASTS LOCATED BRANCH EMBEDDED BRANCH WITHIN THE DISTANT END OF A TREE BLOOD VESSELS BROUGHT INTO CLOSE PROXIMITY SELF-SIMILAR TO ANY PHASED TRANSITION SAYING THIS IDEA THIS THRONE THIS FORTUNE THIS HILL METHINKS THIS OVER-FITTED SPACE LANGUAGE PERPENDICULAR TO TRANSVERSE PLANES OVERCAST WITH FREQUENCY BROADCASTS

Predictions for 2008

It's that time of year when people are supposed to make resolutions and predictions, so here are mine:

I will be working with sound artist/musician, Helmut Lemke, and dancer/choreographer, Ruth Tyson-Jones, on a collaboration with the working title "Gauge Symmetries" - investigating the nature of space and movement (pictured) ; I'll also be writing the follow-up to "50 Heads" called, at the moment, "Portrait". Jean Paul Sartre's fascination with the notion of complete apprehension of an individual has been a preoccupation of mine for years. He wrote:

“the most important project is to show that fundamentally everything can be communicated, that without being God, but simply as a man like any other, one can manage to understand another man perfectly, if one has access to all the necessary elements”.

He pursued this through his mammoth "the Family Idiot" analytical biography of Gustave Flaubert. The concept of understanding an individual completely is politically problematic and philosophically inevitably impossible. It is a project beloved of Government accountants and target setters who have even less capacity to achieve it than a philosopher. But quixotically, I wonder whether it is possible for a poet to get closer to it. The strategy that seems to be forming in this stage of "Portrait" is to approach specific individuals through a relationship of all individuals.

Two other things I can predict with some confidence: in Bury I will curate an exhibition called "Recursive Shadows" with work by Alan Charlton, Ulrich Ruckriem, and Ragna Robertsdottir in May; and in July a drawing exhibition called "The Irony of Flatness" featuring Alan Johnston, Bob Grenier, Marianne Eigenheer, Ulrich Ruckriem, Stefan Gec, Hester Reeve and a new text by me called "Flatness" also to be written.

The final prediction is that I will plan the next TEXT FESTIVAL which will run from May to August 2009. I am inviting submissions for proposals for commissions, exhibitions, publications and performances in the next few weeks. The official announcements will be forthcoming but if your only source of information is this blog, you can email submissions/proposals to t.trehy@bury.gov.uk or post them to Bury Art Gallery.

Happy New Year