The Australians Are Coming (to Bury)

Over the next week/month Bury celebrates Australian contemporary art. On Saturday afternoon (yes, I know it's an odd time), two shows - one an installation  Illuminating configurations : re forming the line; edges, splats and cuts by Irene Barberis and (curated by Irene) a survey of contemporary Australian drawing featuring 100 works. I'm very excited to see Irene again, we first met in Tokyo back in 2006 and it's always a pleasure to see her and her work. (some of you might have seen her installation in Bury alongside Mike Parr in 2011). 
Both shows run to 13 August. The Contemporary Australian Drawing has organically evolved from six previous exhibitions around the world, from Chicago and Rome to Dubai. The participating artists were asked for a visual response to two texts on writing/drawing, taken from essays by Serge Tisseron and Michel Butor, “All Writing is Drawing’, and ‘the Space of Writing, what is that?’.  

All artists were supplied with a standard size and weight paper. The thoughtful and enthusiastic response of all artists concerned has resulted in this extensive exploration and examination of the themes, ‘All writing is Drawing’ and ‘the Space of Writing'. 

The Australian intervention in the Sculpture Centre is Jayne Dyer working in collaboration with Wayne Warren. Funnily enough I met Jayne in Beijing through an introduction from Irene Barberis, and we immediately got on very well. She has shown in Bury before - you might remember her piece in the Text Festival.

Last Thing previews on 17 June, inspired by Paul Auster's 'In the Country of Last Things'; the book presents a world where architecture and space constantly vanish, preventing individuals from building their own identity relative to the space they inhabit. An arena where matter is scarce and what is available is regurgitated until it becomes unrecognizable or depleted. 'Last things' documents fictional spaces about to disappear. 

Three great shows not to be missed. 

The End of Poetry

I wrote The End of Poetry in October 2010 in Tampere, Finland. On my return to Manchester I was then buried in the planning and preparation of the 2011 Text Festival and after that went straight into setting up the international projects (most notably in China); so I didn't have time to think about poetry. Thanks to patience and persuasion of Irene Barberis at the Metasenta in Melbourne, with some editing the poems have made it to print. The book will be available via Metasenta shortly, but I have a supply now. 


It is a collection which opens with a return to the 'heads' form I used in 50 Heads, followed by my response to Luigi Nono's opera Intolleranza (seen from the grim position we find ourselves in the collapse of capitalism) and then a sequence of 23 poems mirroring the tormented and treacherous last days of Louis Althusser counting down to his murder of Hélène Rytman. In the imperative spirit of stepping outside his/its intense enclosure, the book finishes with an unconnected short poem written in China in October 2011 called "Beijing".

Asia Triennial Manchester

The projects are coming thick and fast at the moment; immediately after the re-launch of the Irwell Sculpture Trail, we go into the Manchester Asia Triennial. To coincide, Bury Art Museum presents its second 5 Places manifestation, with guest curator Australian Irene Barberis programming UK based photographer Dinu Li (first picture) alongside Tam Wei Ping (picture 2 and 3).

There is an interesting dialogue between the two artists' presentations: Tam Wei Ping's Pilgrim's Journey series questions whether all the places are the same; and where the boundary, identity and praxis to ascertain location and cultural identity rests. Dinu Li has four works from his series documenting the possessions of Chinese illegal immigrants in Liverpool.

Events this week

The Other Room
Wednesday 2 February 7pm @ The Old Abbey Inn, 61 Pencroft Way, Manchester,
M15 6AY (Manchester Science Park)
www.otherroom.org

JOSEPH WALTON (aka JOW LINDSAY), POSIE RIDER & STEPHEN EMMERSON
Joseph Walton (aka Jow Lindsay) is a poet, fiction writer, and editor of Sad Press.
Posie Rider is author of the chapbook tristanundisolde from Arthur Shilling Press (2010) and, City Break Weekend Girl forthcoming from Critical Documents (2011).
Stephen Emmerson’s poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and journals including Jacket, Great Works, Cake, Poetry Salzburg Review, Freaklung, Sunfish and Department and Poems found at the scene of a murder (Zim Zalla, 2010).

Islington Mill James St, Salford, M3 5HW
– Thursday 3 February 6pm
Irene Barberis, Australian artist and curator will deliver a talk about her work as part of the “Say Something Series”.

Counting Backwards is a series of text-sound-performance events. It takes place on the first Thursday of alternate months at Fuel Cafe Bar in Withington. The fifth evening in the series takes place on Thursday 3 February 2011 at 7.30pm with performances from Philip Davenport, James Davies, Juxtavoices, and Helen Shanahan.

Irene Barberis and 5 Places

Irene Barberis arrived in Manchester yesterday for a two week residency at Bury Art Gallery. Melbourne-based Irene and I have begun work on various projects, of which this project is the first part of an international curatorial collaboration called 5 Places. The concept of 5 Places proceeds from the notion of mobility, unpredictability and interchangeability brought about in networks challenged through curatorial and artist dialogue. As the name suggests there will be shows in 5 international venues around the world. The next show will also be in Bury in October as part of the Manchester Asia Triennial, but after that shows are planned in Hong Kong, Melbourne, New York, and one other to be confirmed.

http://www.irenebarberis.com/home.html


Showing alongside Irene's installation is Mike Parr's video project "Breathless", here he is talking about it.