HOME Opening - The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

Manchester's newest neighborhood, First Street,  launched into its opening weekend over the last couple of days. HOME was one of the first buildings in the cultural hub to open, with 'The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things' exhibition opening on Friday night. HOME's inaugural exhibition centers around heartbreak and desire. We are all connected through affairs of the heart and 'The Heart Is Deceitful' can speak to each visitor in a very unique way. 

The exhibition is an eclectic collection of art that includes digital video installations, photography, prints and a temporary tattoo vending machine. 'The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things' is a fitting exhibition to open HOME, a touching subject that can be very close to the bone for some people but also incites reminiscence of both happy and bittersweet memories. 

Douglas Coupland's 'Slogans for the 21st Century' seemed to be a particularly popular piece; a large collection of prints shouting out slogans that particularly relate to the 21st Century individual. Most exhibition visitors spent a while drifting in front of the piece reading the slogans that could be humorous one minute and food-for-thought the next. 

Gemma Parker's 'The Tattooed Lady' was also constantly surrounded with admirers. Modeled to reflect a 20th century penny arcade machine, 'The Tattooed Lady' became a tattoo lucky-dip for its admirers; the audience were invited to turn the handle and dispense their tattoo, an attendant was on hand to apply the tattoos instantly (and yes of course I got one!). 

The exhibition opening seemed to be a success with a large attendance and both the cafe and restaurant packed out with excitable visitors. (It's on the list to visit very soon!) The menu is apparently very similar to the original Cornerhouse menu and I have previously had a very nice pizza there so hope is high for HOME's First Floor Cafe Bar. HOME's opening weekend has definitely gone off with a bang and seems set to become a primary cultural location for Manchester's newest neighborhood. 

The Sensory War, Manchester Art Gallery

I have been meaning to visit The Sensory War exhibit at the Manchester Art Gallery for a number of weeks now as I had heard a large number of good reviews an recommendations. Normally I don't venture the busy town center on the weekend but learning that it was the exhibition's last weekend was the push that I needed to get me down to the Manchester Art Gallery on a Saturday afternoon.

I am going to join the ranks and shower the exhibition with praise. It was beautiful and haunting at the same time, covering a large number of genres, periods and conflicts. Each piece was accompanied by detailed text that conveyed the background information of each artwork and how the artist was connected to that particular war. I was particularly touched by images created by victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki; none of the artists were professionals by any means but the images that they created were touching and extremely telling of the horrors of war. 

Visiting The Hepworth Wakefield

Last week I visited The Hepworth Wakefield as part of my Art Gallery and Museum Studies course. As I have iterated before, I am not very fond of contemporary art, it just does not sink in, most of the time I do not see the point; however (and this is a big however) I absolutely loved the Hepworth. I studied Barbara Hepworth briefly at A-level and remember being faintly fond of her work. I liked that the simplicity and curving lines of her pieces are very reminiscent of natural rock formations, albeit rock formations from a strange and alien planet. 

Having only opened in 2011, The Hepworth Wakefield is still very much a new museum and this is reflected in the beautifully modern architecture and flowing, open spaces of the galleries. Upon entering the wide open space of gallery one, I was instantly pulled in by a range of teapots fanned across the floor. It turned out that they were part of an installation piece that included the 3D printer that was printing the teapots live in the gallery. Accompanied by very knowledgeable staff that were keen to share their interest in the piece, we were able to touch the pots and observe the 3D printing at close-quarters. 

The Barbara Hepworth collection itself was quite small for a museum that is dedicated to the artist. The curators have done a great job with what little pieces they had, creating a lovely room in homage to her life (including her tools, drawings and photographs) and a large open space reminiscent of her workshop, dotted here and there with various sculptures and plasters. The architecture of the building does a wonderful job to highlight the simple beauty of her work, with high ceilings, crisp white walls and huge windows that flood the galleries with natural light. 

One highlight of the Hepworth that I strangely enjoyed was the current exhibition of Linda Benglis' work. I had never come across this artist before but I found her work to be very intriguing. Most of it, I just did not understand (the usual distaste in contemporary works came back a few times), but at the same time I thought it to be very aesthetically pleasing and really had to stop myself from reaching out and touching quite a lot of her work. The exhibition was large, larger than expected, and covered a number of rooms. This allowed the visitor to see a range of works from different genres, different media and different stages in the artist's life. It easily explored her travels around the world and demonstrated how the changes in culture had influenced a change in her working practice. 

The Hepworth Wakefield may be a strange place to build a museum such as this (even though it is the artist's home town) and I am slightly disappointed that because of the tricky travel situations, I probably wont be able to get back to the Hepworth any time soon but otherwise it is a lovely little gallery and a definite testament to the life of Barbara Hepworth. 

The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester - Grand Re-opening!

On Saturday I visited the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester for the first day of its grand reopening weekend after being out of action for a £15 million refurbishment. As a Museum studies student and a member of the University of Manchester, it was a very important and exciting event in this year's calendar and has been highly anticipated, especially by the University's AGMS students (Art Gallery & Museum Studies). Having only lived in Manchester since September, I didn't have the fortune to see the gallery before its transformation so I can not successfully give a comparison between the old building and the new. However, what I did find was a beautiful, contemporary space that still held the charm of the original 19th century building while treating the visitor to a modern, open plan gallery. 

Upon entering on Saturday morning, the gallery was already busy and bustling and the staff were obviously excited and eager to help all of the visitors that came through the doors. The new look galleries are spacious, modern and beautiful and highlight The Whitworth's stunning collections. 

I was particularly interested in Cornelia Parker's work, which is the gallery's first major temporary exhibition to mark the reopening. I am the first to admit that I have never been a fan of modern art; I can not often see the beauty in it, (something which bemuses me and annoys my modern-art-loving friends who have to put up with my disappointed sighs) however I found Parker's work to be both fascinating and beautiful. There is a curiosity in her work and often a hidden beauty in the mediums that she uses that I found particularly interesting. I am looking forward to visiting again in order to properly soak in all of her work, as I found the mass of visitors to the gallery that day made it extremely difficult to focus on any one art work for too long. 

With wonderful temporary exhibits alongside beautiful permanent displays, it is no wonder that The Whitworth gained thousands more visitors on its opening weekend than was estimated. I unfortunately couldn't take the crowds after nearly two hours of battling our way around the various rooms and reluctantly retreated to the gardens. However, my next trip is already planned (with part of that plan being to visit the delicious-looking cafe) and I can't wait to soak up all that The Whitworth has to offer!