On the first of December I attended an exhibition at Bloc Projects and I got talking to an artist who sold his work for 200 quid. An abstract painting and it is quality, I have my own exhibition coming up on the 15th so I thought maybe an abstract piece may be perfect. I took a photo of an old acrylic piece I did and just added some digital paint courtesy of Procreate retitled it drifting into the abstract (which is a line from a Nine Inch Nails song). Posted it on Instagram and got a lot of positive feedback from my art peers so hopefully will get it printed on a bigger scale. I think I will have my piece for the exhibition entitled nine sleeps.
Yes the first track on The Holy Bible is an onslaught which kind of sums up the entire mood of the album in one song. Written by Richey Edwards from the perspective of a prostitute. It samples the 1993 documentary Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and their Johns, by Beeban Kidron, about the prostitution trade.
The song starts off with a sample from the aforementioned documentary “You can buy her, you can buy her. This one’s here, this one’s here, this one’s here and this one’s here Everything’s for sale.”
For sale? Dumb cunt’s same dumb questions. Oh virgins? Listen, all virgins are liars honey. And I don’t know what I’m scared of or what I even enjoy. Dulling, get money, but nothing turns out like you want it to.
And in these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything. For 200 anyone can conceive a God on video. He’s a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock. Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want.
I eat and I dress and I wash and I still can say thank you Puking – shaking – sinking I still stand for old ladies Can’t shout, can’t scream, hurt myself to get pain out.
I ‘T’ them, 24:7, all year long. Purgatory’s circle, drowning here, someone will always say yes. Funny place for the social, for the insects to start caring. Just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.
And in these plagued streets of pity you can buy anything For 200 anyone can conceive a God on video. He’s a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock, Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want If you want.
I eat and I dress and I wash and I can still say thank you Puking – shaking – sinking I still stand for old ladies. Can’t shout, can’t scream, I hurt myself to get pain out Power produces desire, the weak have none. There’s no lust in this coma even for a fifty Solitude, solitude, the 11th commandment.
The only certain thing that is left about me, There’s no part of my body that has not been used. Pity or pain, to show displeasure’s shame, Everyone I’ve loved or hated always seems to leave.
And in these plagued streets of pity, you can buy anything. For 200 anyone can conceive a God on video. He’s a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock, tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want, If you want.
Power produces desire, the weak have none. There’s no lust in this coma even for a fifty. Solitude, solitude, the 11th commandment. Don’t hurt, just obey, lie down, do as they say. May as well be heaven this hell, smells the same. These sunless afternoons I can’t find myself
[Sampled Outro] Two dollars you rub her tits Three dollars you rub her ass Five dollars you can play with her pussy Or you can lick her tits Choice is yours
‘Prostitution of The Self. The majority of your time is spent doing something you hate to get something you don’t need. Everyone has a price to buy themselves out of freedom.’
Richey Edwards
While the word ‘yes’ might naturally be taken as a positive affirmation, it is also a warning shot of complicity and moral resignation. As Bradfield declared in a concert at the London Astoria in December 1994, ‘yes’ is “the least progressive word in the English language.” How are we to fathom such contradictory meanings? This is the work of The Holy Bible – an impossible goal perhaps but one that the album explores with unusual intensity.
In my research for manic Street Preachers I came across Yusuf Sayad who I have to say has researched extensively on this album.
‘“Yes”, for example: we had just read this article about prostitutes in Nottingham and it was written around that… Prostitutes are derided by society as a very low form of human life, but most people do the same thing every day of their lives – they just don’t do it in a sexual way. But in all honesty, the lyrics are about being in a band and prostituting yourself every day. It completely is. There’s one line in there, “There’s not a part of my body that has not been used.” We feel like that really, being in a band – there’s not much left with any purity.’
Nicky Wire
In the modern age, the 10 Commandments have crumbled away. We wanted to reflect how the world’s changed and rewrite the 10 Commandments. It’s not anti-religious as such, it’s just us saying how we think the world has become and how human nature has been destroyed.’
Nicky Wire, interview in kerrang!
With ‘Yes’, Manic Street Preachers achieved one of the most astonishing opening songs of any rock music album, collaging both a lyrical and musical style to create a vivid and urgent sound. Taking cues from barbed post-punk, the dynamics of grunge and introducing extreme images, with excerpts from documentary television and newspaper journalism, as well as personal experiences, the aesthetic of The Holy Bible is established. And with references to ‘virgins’, ‘plagued streets’, ‘purgatory’, a ‘commandment’ and a ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ that ‘smell the same’ a world divested of divinity, with a scripture all its own, is made palpable.
Yusuf Sayad
Prostitution is illegal in the U.K. but it still operates and advertises online here is City Sauna with a fetish list:
As you can see from these adverts which are legitimate women are bought and sold as a commodity and men too to a lesser degree. Everything is for sale, desire is purchasing power. The internet has only exacerbated the problem with pornography and instant gratification. Love is only a dopamine hit etc.
Montage of the sex industry, cut up by me
Montage of the sex industry from articles of sex shops in a Sheffield magazine such as La Chambre (swingers club), sex shops and brothels (City Sauna). Images from lingerie magazines, Zenith (repulsion to a transwoman), bondage and a scene from Crash (arousal to car crashes). Text “I am not a client, a customer.” taken from I Daniel Blake film poster. Incidentally there is also a nod to prostitution in that movie when Katie a single mother turns to prostitution to “get by”. A film that is a searing indictment of our dehumanising benefit system and lack of empathy for the individual.
Sex work is still workParadise Lost/ Paradise signage of Sheffield brothel Paradise manipulated with text from Yes.Jobcentre logo digitally manipulated with slogan that appeared at concentration camps obviously drawing on the irony.
This image was inspired by the journey project which was about walking through town and documenting what I saw. My main preoccupation was the sex industry and unemployment two polar opposites that actually thrive off each other. The first building I drew is of the Sheffield job centre a building I know only too well. I used the phrase “the importance of being earnest” a novel by Oscar Wilde which oasis then used as the importance of being idle. I changed it to “the impotence of being idle.” A comment on how the unemployed are viewed and how not working could affect the view of usefulness of an individual (or a collective). Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free) was a sign at concentration camps which in this case was actually literal. People survived by being useful. A good example is from the film Schindler’s List where Oskar Schindler convinces the commandant not to execute the children as their tiny hands can clean inside the bowls in the factory. The sign is over a brothel called Paradise in Sheffield which is a bit ironic as the work provided here doesn’t make the women free but exploited by an industry that placates a man’s insatiable need for sex. I have added Lost to Paradise which is a reference to Milton’s Paradise Lost which in itself concerns itself with the fall of man. There is an attitude that sex work is work and women need to be protected and that women can be empowered working as a stripper exploiting men. Spearmint Rhino in Sheffield is such an establishment (now closed during the pandemic and now a Sports bar). Can a jobcentre pursue these jobs as employment for young women and as a parent would you be concerned or would you be happy they have gained employment? https://www.politics.co.uk/news/2010/08/02/sex-work-ads-banned-from-job-centres/ I was looking for a job is a line from The Smiths “Heaven knows I’m miserable now.” I was looking for a job then I found a job and heaven knows I’m miserable now the lyric goes. Finally a homeless man negotiates his terms and he will work for minimum wage literally beggars can be choosy and showing just how close to poverty the working class can be. https://www.npi.org.uk/blog/income-and-poverty/work-poverty-what-it-what-it-isnt-why-it-matters/
Yes panel digital
Mondrian/red light used in the Yes panel
Really happy with how the Yes panel has turned out and used elements from the Mondrian merged with the dancing girl silhouette the Yes sign from the bank. A quote from Nicky Wire in regards to the song.
I did a crit recently and showed the yes panels, apart from the tutor Yuen the class were all female and one of the criticisms of the image s was that I used a woman to be objectified within the frame of the Mondrian construct. Maybe the context of the song was needed but I took the advice and looked into the male side of prostitution which is kind of alluded to in the lyrics: He’s a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock. “Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want. He’s a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42265838 It is estimated there are as many as 100,000 sex workers across the UK, and about 20% of them are male. Some of these men see their work as a positive choice, but for the most vulnerable it can be little more than a means to survive.
Rosa-Johan Uddoh starts off by talking about her exhibition practice makes perfect and is currently showing at Liverpool until 23rd of January. Practice makes perfect is also the name of her first book which should be available hopefully in early 2020.
The Brown Paper Bag Test is a term in African-American oral history to describe a colourist discriminatory practice within the African-American community in the 20th century, in which an individual’s skin tone is compared to the color of a brown paper bag. This test can be traced back to the time of slavery where slave masters kept the lighter-skinned slaves inside. The test was allegedly used to determine what privileges an individual could have; only those with a skin color that matched or was lighter than a brown paper bag were allowed admission or membership privileges. The test was believed by many to be used in the 20th century by many African-American social institutions such as sororities, fraternities and churches.
Situated in the HPO building in Sheffield this exhibition was organised by recent graduate artists some I know quite well and have spoken to them or just seen their work progressing in the studios. These graduates had a difficult situation of exhibiting their work due to the pandemic so this exhibition is a chance to redress that balance in a physical setting.
The HPO canteen is a nice space where students eat and drink and there is a space allocated for exhibitions such as these. I was excited to see this work and I wasn’t disappointed, I picked up a flyer, took some photos and took time to look at all the exhibits.
The first name mentioned in the flyer that accompanies the exhibition is Emily Kempster whose work Description Automatically Generated (with Low Confidence) is an installation work which from the images supplied needs to be in a darkened room.
I went on their website to dig further into the work to find this:
These images give you a feeling of what the artists intent behind how they would exhibit this work. The artwork is very intriguing and makes the viewer want to ascertain the meaning behind the piece. There is a literal transcript of the audio provided projected onto one side of the space and images flitting from one image to another with one thing in common there is a facemask present which never gets mentioned in the audio description which creates a disparity. Confidence is mentioned in the title of this work, can we as viewers be confident of the information we are described to when images contradict. Are the chains that are draped over the coat rail our own mental connections that can trap us in our associations? I’m not too sure but that’s what makes this installation fun for me that level of ambiguity and creating your own version of events (not unlike the audio presenting). the artist may be rolling their eyes at this analysis and I can only apologise if that is the case.
Taken from the flyer: “This work is a visual exploration of the surreal world in which glamorous billionaires exist and the artist’s own relationship to class, utilising visceral and playful sculptural shapes to explore issues surrounding the wealth gap and food poverty, through looking at greed and gluttony with a sense of the absurd.”
The installation is named A pretty shit dinner party and is a short video with narration accompanied by a sculpture, 160x80x72cm
Picture of the sculpture by me.
The sculpture as you can see is really well made I have no idea how it is constructed but the materiality of the sculpture has to be seen in real life.
This is a video that accompanies the piece and has the artist eating the lobster with vulgarity including the use of a hammer. Eating lobsters are a sign of high dining and there are rules on how to eat a lobster and culinary rules that seem to be discarded. The narration depicts a surrealist dining experience that compliments the imagery and the notion of what eating means throughout the strata of class and poverty.
Katia Greenwood
Katia greenwood is an interdisciplinary artist form the North East of England. Greenwood’s work generates an archive to create dialogue around social housing and the working class. “Where Homes would kiss the clouds and the sky” are screenprints and “Making Homes” is a video piece clocking in at 2 minutes and 44 seconds showing Katia constructing cotton Gardens from card commenting on the destruction of these buildings.
I went on Katia’s site which goes into more detail about the archival process and the restoration of either tower blocks or their memories. https://kg_archive.monopiny.com/
‘Where Homes Would Kiss The Clouds and Sky’
I really like these pieces of work and being a Sheffielder I have an affiliation with brutalist architecture as Park Hill flats is visible on our skyline. I also like the idea of utopian style housing etc. that maybe anything but from the likes of J G Ballard’s writings. All these elements strike a chord in me when viewing these artworks and I also admire the practice of screen-printing which isn’t an easy medium but tactile in its approach. Overall I enjoyed looking at the stark beauty of these images under a modernist gaze and even though nostalgic has a futuristic nod to the future.
Thomas John Mills
The Human Experience Oil and acrylic on canvas, 61cm by 81cm Picture taken by Russell Jones in the venue
Bio in the flyer
Lovely painting of two beings who have this celestial glow about them watching almost in anticipation at some colossal event with balloons up almost rejoicing. An asteroid hitting Earth reminds me of the film Melancholia and that willingness to go back to nature and letting the animals take over the planet.
Steven Woods
Steven Woods is an artists who works with sculpture which as you can see from the photos provided by me he is a very talented individual. The artwork is called chariots of oxidised memories which is made from mixed mediums, steel, foam, acrylic paint and found objects.
Writing that goes alongside the sculpture
I have met Steven numerous times and he is a very smart and pleasant person and his work is really good. He is gaining recognition and has won awards etc. (I checked on his Instagram) I honestly don’t know how he creates these sculptures but they are impressive to say the least.
Molly Pemberton
Snippet from Molly Pemberton’s Instagram
A collection of bus tickets sewn together over a three year period which incorporates the pandemic; a tapestry portraying not just events and news but documenting the albums listened to etc. I was really impressed when I saw this I loved the idea of patiently collating all these tickets to make art out of them and also I have a need to list all the albums I have listened to. I think it is a great visual idea to document these turbulent times by using something so mundane but a part of our everyday lives which is the commute and the daily bus ticket.
Jack Hinson
See through to the greys custom T-shirts on a rail
As you can see from the bio used alongside this work Jack has Asperger’s and is creating awareness of the absolutism that Autism enables. These T-shirts are well designed and a lot of thought has gone into their execution.
Courtenay Bes-Green
Untitled Painting, 140 cm x 140 cm
Really nice, big painting with so much detail and visual imagery where the more you stare at it you notice different things. This is one of the exhibits that benefit mostly by seeing it in person.
Thomas Marriot
Woman on her phone Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 x 3.8cm deep
Thomas has a really good painting technique and his pencil work is extraordinary and he manages to capture the everyday moments in life. This painting is a beautiful moment encapsulated in time of a woman on her phone.
Overall the gallery was excellent and there some artists that aren’t on here Ellie Goodwin photography is excellent but I couldn’t get an angle to take a picture without reflection. Luke Walsh and Gabrielle Holmes were showing work too. There was a mixture of traditional, contemporary, photography, sculpture etc.
I managed to go to this exhibition of John Hoyland whose canvases are really big and I guess his abstract way of painting isn’t for everybody which is fine but I watched a documentary of the guy and he is aware of this and is not pretentious about how his work is perceived. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p025lrcy/arena-six-days-in-september You do need to see his paintings in real life as that sense of scale predicates the sense of urgency and experimentation in his brush strokes and how the paint reacts with the canvas.
John Hoyland bio photographed by me
Elegy (for Terry Frost) 2003 photographed by me
Overall I enjoyed the experience; it is strange to view an artists work ten years after they have passed away and reminds you of the fragility and immortality that art can possess of you. For me personally it emboldens my approach to art and encapsulates my entire being. I literally want to make a mark in the art world to have a legacy that people will be fond of. John Hoyland has achieved that and in having your work exhibited posthumously your spirit lives on.
In 2007 on my lunch break I happened to walk past an exhibition entitled micro sculpture it was situated in The Star building and Willard Wigan was the artist. Luckily my curiosity got the better of me and I walked inside. The artwork was indeed microscopic and you had to look through a microscope to see a sculpture which was in the eye of a needle or at the end of a eyelash. I have never in my life seen anything as amazing as what I saw it beggared belief. https://www.artloungeinternational.com/willard-wigan This extract is taken verbatim from this link and is Willard’s bio:
Born June 1957 in Birmingham, Willard Wigan began his artistic life at a tender age, creating art of such minute proportions that it virtually could not be seen with the naked eye. Art Lounge international has built a huge following in the Leamington and Warwickshire area, we just love the work which always manages to wow our clients in the gallery showroom.
“It began when I was five years old, says Willard. I started making houses for ants because I thought they needed somewhere to live. Then I made them shoes and hats. It was a fantasy world I escaped to. That’s how my career as a micro-sculptor began. Notable pieces in the collection are the lords prayer as well as the much sought after last supper. Willard’s micro-sculptures are now so minute that they are only visible through a microscope. Each piece commonly sits within the eye of a needle, or on a pin head. The personal sacrifices involved in creating such wondrous, yet scarcely believable pieces are inconceivable to most. Willard enters a meditative state in which his heartbeat is slowed, allowing him to reduce hand tremors and sculpt between pulse beats. Even the reverberation caused by outside traffic can affect Willard’s work. Consequently, he often works through the night when there is minimal disruption.
Willard’s artwork has been described by many as the eighth wonder of the world. Such accolade resulted in him being honoured by HM. Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE for his services to art, which was presented by HRH. Prince Charles in July 2007. The audiences that attend Willard’s exhibitions are the most diverse of any living artist, with his exhibitions selling out around the world. Such scarcely available pieces have attracted their own demand within certain circles. Owners of Willard’s work now including HRH. Prince Charles, Sir Elton John, Sir Philip Green, Lord Bath, Mike Tyson and Simon Cowell to name but a few. Willard’s latest piece, the Coronation Crown was requested by HRH Queen Elizabeth II in tribute to her celebration to her Diamond Jubilee.
More recently, Willard has undertaken a vast amount of public and motivational speaking engagements for private, multi-conglomerate corporations and charitable organisations. It is little surprise why Willard’s life story is now attracting significant attention from the literary and film industries alike https://www.willardwiganmbe.com/gallery
My path was exhibited at Sheffield Millennium gallery between 20 May to 20 June just after restrictions were lifted for the pandemic. I went there in person as I was on a date at the time wearing face masks.
My Path: Art by People in the Criminal Justice System was the first Koestler Arts exhibition in Yorkshire. Each of the 61 artworks on display was made by someone in prison, a secure hospital, a young offender institution or on probation.
The pieces were chosen from over 300 artworks entered into the 2020 Koestler Awards from Yorkshire. Many of the artworks, therefore, were created during the height of the pandemic in establishments that had 23-hour lockups in place.
Koestler Arts
I found this an emotive experience and possibly the finest exhibition I have seen this year. It’s from a selection of society who may never have known they had this talent if it wasn’t perhaps their circumstances that enabled this to happen.
Examples of the work exhibited:
Cut Off, HM Prison Full Sutton, Portrait, 2020
This Is How It Feels, Clifton House (secure hospital), Silver Award for Painting, 2020
Murmuration, HM Prison Wealstun, First-Time Entrant Award for Watercolour and Gouache, 2020
Time Past
Today is the day Yesterday has gone Tomorrow is the future As yet we have none When the future arrives It will be the past Because time moves so fast There is no “this second” As the next awaits By the time the second arrives It is too late It is the past But will it ever be the last We will not know Until the future Becomes our past
Time past HM Prison Full Sutton Commended award for poem
As you can see the work was enriching and spoke from the heart and their was a sense of pride that these pictures were seen by an audience not just for the persons involved but the curators themselves. This exhibition further ennobled the fact that art is important and is an institution we should be proud of and has redemptive qualities to it.
On Monday 16th of September I met with a friend Michael who I know from attending film quizzes once a month at The Showroom. We both expressed interest in seeing this play about Joy Division at The Leadmill. I have never been to a play at The Leadmill before so I was quite excited to be seeing a play there home to many a drunken night.
The play was fantastic and the acting superb with live music too which has got to be a considerable risk. The play is written by Brian Gorman and directed by Sean Mason and Giles Bastow. I bought a flyer and a copy of the comic book signed by the artist/writer himself.
The play provides an historical context behind the band and talks about the psychogeography of Manchester and the conception of the band. Alan Donohoe as Tony Wilson narrates the story almost like a Granada TV report which if anyone has seen 24 hour party people they will totally understand how that would work. The play was sensitive to its material but also inviting to the audience who are fans of the band and the mythos of Ian Curtis and his tragic suicide.
I loved the entire night it was a marriage of all the arts from live music, live acting, writing, comic books and visual imaging and lighting. a truly unique experience.
Rusty'sArtWerk 