The Whitworth Gallery/ Mary Kelly: Projects

I had the pleasure of visiting the Whitworth Gallery for the very first time last month, and loved it.



What a grand building.

Outside are a group of Willows set into concrete upside down. This work is entitled 'Flailing Trees' and is by artist and political activist Gustav Metzger, who intially created it for the city's Peace Garden as part of Manchester International Festival in 2009.



"The piece explores the desperate need for change in the way humans interact with nature, inspired by the destruction of rainforests and the growing threat of climate change."

Not a dissimilar concept to the Ghost Forest display in Oxford that I previously blogged about.

On a side-note, this Biennial festival will return to the city this year, with highlights including a three-week residency from Björk and an intriguing group show at Manchester Art Gallery entitled '11 Rooms' and incorporating the work of artists including John Baldessari, one of my personal favourites.

Our main reason for visiting was to see the Mary Kelly retrospective, having heard brilliant things about it. 

Image by citylife.co.uk

Mary Kelly is an influential feminist American artist and the exhibition at the Whitworth covers four decades of her work. No photography was allowed, which I didn't realise at first, so the images that aren't mine will be credited. In the first room was this incredible house, made of what looked like white perspex with messages cut out of it.

The above image and below image capture the real beauty of the house, and are from the artist's website here - I highly recommend taking a look as the images are brilliant. It is a collaboration with artist Ray Barrie. I wasn't expecting to be able to go inside the house but you could! It was lovely, I want one of my own to have book club meetings in or something. The piece explores themes and experiences of being a woman, and evokes memories and feelings. Being inside the house felt pretty personal.

The room we spent the most time in displayed Post-Partum Document - concerning motherhood, this body of work was first diplayed in the seventies and provoked tabloid outrage because of the inclusion of stained nappies. The exhibition documents her role as a mother to her son, from birth to nursery. I found the nursery ones the most engaging, with the child's writing ability documented and an update from Kelly on finding a suitable school in Hackney.

Mary Kelly

Post-Partum Document: Documentation VI

Pre-writing Alphabet

Exergue and Diary , 1978

(detail)

Perspex unit, white card, resin, slate

1 of the 15 units, 20 x 25.5 cm each

Collection, Arts Council of Great Britain  Image Credit

"Issues relating to the emergence of gender difference and the controversial topic of female fetishism are central to the work. Psychoanalysis, in particular its linguistic reformulation by Jacques Lacan, presents an important reference for this work. The discussion of these insights in consciousness raising groups as well as the collective activism of the women's movement in London in the seventies forms the practical backdrop."

You can click on the above image to zoom in and read the writing. I found the repeated way of recording and documenting the child's progress to be quite depressing at times, but it was really interesting and insightful. The complex emotions about motherhood throughout the display were really engaging and fully explored, making it, in my opinion, the highlight of the exhibition. Despite the ignorant views of the interviewer, she makes some nice points about the work in this interview.
More images of the original show 'Post-Partum Document' in Vienna can be found here including more close ups like the one above.

In no way does my account of the exhibition even begin to sum up Mary Kelly's acheivements, there were 3 other rooms of different bodies of work inspired by the Second World War aswell as the wars in Kosovo and Iraq, these were really thought provoking pieces too, especially the memories of those born around the Second World War which you have to look into a mirror to read...

If you live in the Manchester area and this exhibition intrigues you, I implore you to go, you have until June 12 and more details on the exhibition are here.

Aswell as the Mary Kelly exhibition there were some other brilliant temporary shows including a video in an intensely dark box room entitled Fireworks which screens every half hour from 10am to 4.30pm inclusive. We were intrigued and able to watch it so we did. What ensued was a video six minutes long, of exhilarating yet terrifying fireworks or rather pyrotechnics which were originally rigged up in Liverpool's FACT gallery by duo Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson.

 Image Credit: Whitworth

At times it created the sense of a war zone, and rather than being something beautiful to look at, it was pretty awe-inspiring, in a technical sense. This video will be playing through summer 2011 and more information is on the website here.
 

Here is one of the delightful wallpapers on display as part of the Private Paradise exhibition, which runs until 21st August 2011. On display are huge historic wallpapers and contemporary designs too, exploring our desire to have nature featuring inside the home... they are so pretty. I wish they had created some gift items for the gallery shop to go alongside this.

So yeah, go to the Whitworth when you get the chance, it was my best day out in a good while and all of these exhibitions were free to go and see. They also have a charming little coffee shop in the front of the building! 

ps. I have had a revamp of my twitter recently, I deleted the old one and have a new simpler url here, if you'd like to follow me again feel free, the background image is artwork from my favourite illustration design team: Sukie.