artist

‘Fuzzy Puzzle’ by Pablo Melchor

“We are not Complicated People. We Don’t Care if we are Behind the Camera or in Front of the Projector”

Pablo Melchor and “Fuzzy Puzzle”:  A Profile – by Jo Rose

Paris born, Manchester bred artist Pablo Melchor’s projection piece, “Fuzzy Puzzle”, marks the NYC closing ceremony of Manchester-based collective Alexandra Art’s third year of the Pankhurst in the Park Festival. It illuminated the walls of the Mothership in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint on September 21st.  Melchor describes “Fuzzy Puzzle” as ‘a prism vision. A Fuzzy collection of memories’ which aims to be ‘subjective and colourful’. As such, the piece holds a strange place for Pablo as an author since it is, as he himself insists, an extension and acknowledgement of his involvement with Alexandra Arts and its branching out beyond Manchester’s frontiers, especially to New York, and Manchester’s cultural scene over more than a half-decade. It embraces its own inherent fragmentation and displacement.
— Jo Rose

This article is now live over at Art 511 Magazine. This piece was commissioned by us for the centenary for UK women’s suffrage [funded by ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND] during the Pankhurst in the Park 2018 season. See Pablo Melchor’s projection piece in full below.

Author’s Bio

 Jo Rose is a writer, musician, promoter, and English Literature Postgraduate based in Manchester, England. He currently works closely with the Alexandra Arts collective, most notably with the Pankhurst in the Park Festival and with the teacher training initiative the “Art as Activism Toolkit”. His principle academic focus has been in ‘modernist’ and ‘late modernist’ literature (most prominently the works of Samuel Beckett and animals in literary works). He has released several records, and has toured extensively throughout the UK and Europe for over a decade, working alone and collaborating with a multitude of other artists. He co-habits with a miserly ex-racing greyhound, Harpo, a relationship he likens to having a deer as a pet.

The Sick Role by Samantha Conlon

Samantha Conlon’s The Sick Role, 2018, is part documentation and part ritualistic photography accompanied with text composing a contemporary portrait of the mundane reality of mental illness. From a new body of work developed in Kuvataideakatemie, Helsinki, The Sick Role interrogates the experience of physical and mental illness in female bodies and the institutionalized gender politics at play within the care systems from which females seek healing. The development of systems of Western Science and Medicine displaced the age-old lineages of female practitioners. Midwives with generations of healing knowledge connected to the kingdom of plants and collective spiritual life were ousted from clinics, if not brutally violated in earlier eras involving mass genocide of women healers. Women in general were made victim of segregation, and limited access to higher education marginalized their work, making it unlawful to practice holistic healing modalities that carry important insight into women’s complex systems.

Read the full article here

This article have now been published on the art511mag.com site and was commissioned by Alexandra Arts for the special print edition of Art 511 Mag celebrating International Women’s Day and the centenary for UK women’s suffrage [funded by ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND] during the Pankhurst in the Park 2018 season.

Or download the full mag here

Sertraline gaze v, 2018

Message from AIR Ekua Bayunu - please share

Hello Park People!

I am just coming to the end of the third official week (of 8) as artist in residence at Alexandra Park! #womenholduphalfthesky

I am immersed in planning the final event on the 9th June. ( and making sculpture, running workshops, interviewing women on video....). I'm having a Walk the Park session on Sunday 13th May to help interested people understand the 9th June and how they might contribute, meeting at Coffee Cranks at 11am. Maybe you fancy coming down and finding out more about it then and understanding it in the context of the whole event? 

Here's some opportunities I’m offering local people, including you and your teams, to get involved in. 

In the Lodge, I will have a small exhibition in the 'conference room', themed around 'Our Mothers' , I will present a cabinet of items, made, found, owned by our mothers or about our mothers. If you have a small thing you could contribute, I’d love to talk to you about it. 

 Sound Artist , Danielle Porter will be making a sound scape of sounds from the park to play alongside the cabinet. She will be popping in to introduce herself this week and talk about how she would like to capture the sounds of your locations within the park.

Interviews. I’ve just completed 10 interviews with a very varied group of women in the Lodge. In the Sky Women’s studio, throughout May, I will continue to interview women about their feelings about voting and other ways we can shape our worlds. Email me for the address if you would like to join us there. We will also be making the sculpture there for Baby Sculpture Play area and the Woodland Walk.

Art Workshops are happening in the park, in the Community Room in The Depot at the bottom of Russell Street on Thursday 3rd May, 17th May and 24th May. 11.30 - 2.30pm.

I am currently looking for acoustic musicians and spoken word artists to perform. I know many of you are multi talented and if you'd enjoy sharing these skills with others in the park on the 9th June, please let me know and please share this invitation across your networks.

Heres some blurb I've put together....

~Womenholduphalfthesky is the name of my residency in Alexandra Arts as part of the Pankhurst in the Park 2018 programme initaited by Alexandra Arts.

The residency launched officially on the 14th April with the support of Global Arts Manchester and will conclude with an interactive celebration event in the park on the 9th June..

The theme of the residency has been an exploration of and a celebration of women taking an active role in shaping our communities, from the home, to the local , national and international.

I would really like to involve as many people as possible in the park on that day.

There will be  exhibition spaces, temporary sculpture in the woodland walk, an acoustic music space, a spoken word space, a planted installation , a baby sculpture play area, workshops......maybe even a table tennis tournament!!!

The idea is for as many creative people as possible living near or with a relationship with the park to come along and participate.

Hope this gives everybody a good insight into some of the things that are happening? Do let me have any questions about the event or any other areas of the residency.

Much Love,

Ekua

EMINENT DOMAIN press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Scotto Mycklebust, 917 697-0844, scotto@scottomycklebust.com; Gia Portfolio, 201 248-6756, gia.portfolio@gmail.com

ART511MAG EMINENT DOMAIN EXHIBITION

OPEN CALL FOR INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST ART

(New York, NY, April 24, 2018) - ART511 Magazine is presenting EMINENT DOMAIN: a 3-day Flash Art Exhibition in the former Robert Miller space in West Chelsea. The exhibition is a curated selection of radical feminist art by female artists, eco-femmes, ghetto brujas, elders, queer/trans artists and other magical gender nomads reclaiming their rightful space in the Art World. The flash exhibition will occur July 12-14, 2018. 

Addressing the white male western canon’s discourse drawing from, exploiting, misrepresenting and objectifying female bodies and the racial/sexual Other, EMINENT DOMAIN occupies a major white box space in the heart of the commercial art world with a militantly utopic “flash flood” of new media, live performance and traditional visual art of every size and stripe, washing away old, derogative archetypes to tell another story about Art, ritual, community and the divine feminine mysteries.

EMINENT DOMAIN opens July 12th for 3 days in Chelsea, concluding with a Women In the Arts Panel comprised of a diverse cross-section of female thought leaders in the International Art World playing the fluid roles of curator, organizer/activist, gallerist, artist and arts administrator.

EMINENT DOMAIN was an impulse seeded by ART511 Magazine’s recent partnership with the Manchester, UK-based Alexandra Arts collective. This Spring, ART511 Magazine and Alexandra Arts teamed up to produce a limited edition 74-page, full-color print commission celebrating International Women’s Day and the centenary for UK women's suffrage (funded by ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND) for the 2018 Pankhurst in the Park season.

The edition is available as a free download online here

EMINENT DOMAIN flash exhibition will be presented Thursday, July 12, 2018: Opening Reception 6-8 p.m. & after Art party from 8-10 p.m. The exhibition will be open to the public Thursday, Friday & Saturday, July 12-14, from 10-6 p.m. ART511 Magazine will host a moderated panel discussion “Women in the Arts” in the afternoon on Saturday, July 14, 2018. 

Artists interested in being considered for this show can submit work or proposals for performance online at ART511MAG.com/submissions.  

We are seeking video, installation, new and mixed media as well as painting and sculptural objects, performance, music, spoken word and new genre time-based pieces. 

*Artists are required to provide all tech for video and multimedia works

See the open call hereSUBMIT work for the exhibition @ ART511MAG.com/submissions 

Deadline to Apply: May 24, 2018

For more info contact scotto@scottomycklebust.com

Women Hold Up Half the Sky: A Look at British Artist Ekua Bayunu

Today, April 14th, 2018, marks the launch of the 8-week interdisciplinary, community-oriented project “Women Hold up Half the Sky” led by Ekua Bayunu, this year’s Artist in Residence (AIR) for Alexandra Arts’ “Pankhurst in the Park”. In connection with the launch our partner Art511 Magazine have published on their site an article about Ekua's life and work by NYC based artist Katie Cercone. Alexandra Arts commissioned this for the Pankhurst in the Park centenary edition of Art511 Mag, which is available at our events and as a free download here

Ekua Bayunu just finished mounting her first solo exhibition at Manchester’s Chuck Gallery. Aptly titled Re:Birth, her show centers around a body of sculptural work reflecting women’s power and draws on aesthetic motifs of her African cultural heritage. After receiving a few rave reviews of her show, she was selected in February to be artist-in-residence in Alexandra Park for the final season of Alexandra Arts’ Pankhurst in the Park Program. Recently, I had the opportunity to connect with the artist personally and dive more deeply into her background and the motivations behind her trans-disciplinary, social-justice oriented creative practice - Katie Cercone 

Read the whole article here

Tasha Whittle Commission Announcement

Alexandra Arts are thrilled to announce that interdisciplinary Manchester artist Tasha Whittle will be joining us as a commissioned artist for 2018’s Pankhurst in the Park project.

Tasha Whittle has built a reputation in the Manchester art scene as the founder of Outhouse, an Outdoor Project Space for Public Art, which operates primarily in the city’s Northern Quarter. She is a visual artist and has created the installation of murals, pop up artist shop SWAG, handcrafted homewares, jewellery and clothing, interactive pieces both alone and collaboratively. In Australia she ran an art gallery and studio space in the heart of Melbourne’s creative quarter. Tasha has worked as a VJ and a promoter in the local DIY punk scene of Norfolk before moving to Manchester. 

Whittle’s contribution to the Pankhurst in the Park initiative will involve a visual-sonic performance, performed on “Glyn”, a handmade analogue synthesiser constructed with her collaborative partner Darren Adcock. Together the pair work under as ‘Coatic Sequence’ and currently utilise drawing to manipulate the sound from Glyn. Though many elements are yet to be decided (and this is an openness and element of surprise we heartily welcome!), she will perform with Glyn to manipulate vocals, collaborate with other musicians and possibly even the audience themselves, not to mention the manipulation of sound through the live production of images. It will be a spectacle at once highly technical, whilst also being very physical, dynamic and organic.

Speaking to Tasha, her commitment to music is expressed with such passion it is moving to hear. "I find solace in art and salvation in music" she claims.  It is only recently, however that she has "felt confidence to present this publicly". This shift she attributes partly to the influence of female artist and musician friends in Manchester and Melbourne who have inspired her.  "It's fun to make sounds and work out how something is created" in her collaborative work in Coatic Sequence both members contributions are of equal value and significance. "I'm enjoying including sound into my practice"

Whittle is drawn to the Pankhurst in the Park project in part because of its celebration of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, though she notes women’s struggles with inequality and oppression still persist today.

“The older I get the more I see the inequality of the systems around us, it frustrates me. I am so thankful to all the women before me who fought and pulled women up to the platform where we currently stand. I want to become a part of that climb, to raise ourselves up further than the sky.”

It is a perspective that binds itself well with the ultimate goal of Pankhurst in the Park, to tackle the lack of representation of women in the art world itself by taking an opportunity to joyously celebrate the talent and ingenuity local female artists have to offer.

See Tasha's Artist profile in our centenary edition of NYC based Art 511 Mag here

Happy International Womens Day

Happy International Women’s day and HELLO Pankhurst in the Park centenary magazine edition!

For Pankhurst in the Park 2018 we have teamed up with online publication and NYC based Art 511 Mag and commissioned a limited edition printed copy of the mag.

Curated between Alexandra Arts and Art 511 Mag, this special print edition features a host of inspirational contributors to whom we owe huge debt of thanks – Scotto Mycklebust, Katie Cerone, Gia Portfolio, Christopher Booth, Pablo Melchor, Marilyn Minter, Anna FC Smith, Melanie Bonajo, Go Push Pops, Laura Weyl , ULTRACULTURAL OTHERS, Samantha Conlon/ Bunny Collective, High Prieztezz or Nah, Sol Kjøk, Claire Zakiewicz, Ekua Bayunu, Elisa Garcia de la Huerta, Lauren Velvick, Hannah Leighton Boyce, Ruth Barker, Castlefield Gallery, Helen Wewoira, Naomi Kashiwagi, NARCISSISTER and Tasha Whittle.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we are heading down to the exhibition launch for Hannah Leighton Boyce and Ruth Barker at the Castlefield Gallery. To find out more about the artists’ research, and their residencies with Glasgow Women’s Library and the University of Salford. For the Art 511 Mag centenary edition we commissioned local artist and writer Lauren Velvick to write about the exhibition. Inside you will also find an interview of Helen Wewoira, Director of Castlefield Gallery.

Download it here or flick through the online copy below.

Pankhurst in the Park 2018

OPEN CALL FOR RADICAL CREATIVES!

Our New York sitas Go Push Pop has started a micro-residency and we would like to give their open call a massive shout out. Please share the Urban Mystery Skool love....

ULTRACULTURAL OTHERS: Urban Mystery Skool

A micro-residency and wellness Immersive in NYC Hosted by High Prieztezz Or Nah & UNDAKOVA w/ Go! Push Pops & Rotating Guest Faculty A MYSTICAL SELF-STUDY AND WELLNESS IMMERSIVE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY CREATIVES, POST-STUDIO ARTISTS, YUNG SHAMANS, URBAN MONKS, QUEERS, BUDDHA BITCHES, PUNK/ECO/HIP HOP FEMINISTS, RAP NINJAS AND RADICAL OTHERS. LIVE AND LEARN IN MANHATTAN'S LES FOR 1 MONTH. EMBARK ON A PERSONALIZED MYSTICAL COURSE OF SELF-STUDY WORKING SIDE BY SIDE WITH SOME OF NEW YORK CITY'S MOST RADICAL CREATIVES. A BORROWED BIKE, FREE ADMISSION TO BI-MONTHLY WELLNESS EVENTS, SACRED GATHERINGS AND A CSA FARM SHARE ARE JUST SOME OF THE ADDITIONAL PERKS.
Application is LIVE!

http://ultraculturalothers.ontrapages.com/

Email ultraculturalothers@gmail.com for more details

Deadline: Ongoing

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instragram @ultraculturalothers

Facebook @ultraculturalothers

Twitter @ultraculturalX

 

Lasso of Truth NYC

Pop Amazon's Legacy Fatale Leads The March during NYC 21st Suffragette Festival

Pankhurst in the Park 2016 - Legacy Fatale commission ‘Lasso of Truth’ was performed at Grace Exhibition Centre in Brooklyn, 7th May 2016, the same day as our Alexandra Park Spring Showdown. Katie Cercone was there, writing for Whitehot Magazine, read the review here

To kick off the event at Grace Space May 7th, modern-day Amazons Legacy Fatale and company will begin with a spirited march from Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick to Grace Exhibition Space. Recently back from Manchester, while in the UK the group performed a new work celebrating suffragette herstory for Alexandra Arts’s annual Wonder Woman festival. The Wonder Woman festival is part of the larger, comprehensive initiative of Manchester-based artist Lotte Karlsen to enact community art in Alexandra Park, turf upon which the suffragettes led some of their very first riots and rallies. Legacy Fatale will continue this thread in their work for the NYC-based sister project 21st Suffragettes. 
— Katie Cercone, WhiteHot Magazine