' I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.'



27/11/2014

EXPLORE: The Contemporary art gallery, Chester


Chester's newest gallery is the very picture of success.


Local founder of The Contemporary, Jonathan Shingfield, originally planned to open six pop up galleries in different cities, including Chester - but this all changed when a beautiful townhouse on Watergate Street caught his eye whilst he was out driving one day. 

After that came the six-week-long challenge of stripping back the building and transforming it into a minimalist art space, before finally opening its doors to the public two months ago.  

Now, The Contemporary's three floors are home to over one hundred pieces of art from stunning original paintings and bespoke commissions to limited edition prints.

Jonathan reveals that, while at university, he blew all the money he earned from work placements on art, then just kept on buying. “I started collecting too much. My missus would come home and I’d say: ‘Look! I just bought this, it’s really cool!’ And her reply was: ‘I’m sure it is, but we haven’t got room for the ones you’ve already got’ – which is when I came up with the idea of renting out my collection.” 

This concept took shape a year and a half ago as the art rentals service ‘Hung’, and would go on to form the founding principles of the new gallery, with its pieces now available to rent from as little as £10 per month.

Admission is free, the aim being to encourage people from all walks of life to really engage with modern art. Jonathan hopes to expand and open numerous commercial galleries across the North West, starting with a site in Knutsford, whilst retaining the Chester location as The Contemporary’s flagship site: “we’re going to have loads of originals here, loads of shows, loads of fun.”

“Artists are an absolute pleasure to deal with,” says Jonathan, “they’re so lovely, so accommodating – it’s unbelievable how cool they are.” The collection is currently exhibiting work by internationally renowned British artists – including former Vivienne Westwood designer, Magnus Gjoen – as well as by several local artists, one of whom specifically wishes to remain anonymous so as to gauge what the public really thinks of his work at exhibitions. Chester’s very own answer to Banksy will be creating pieces for a Street Art show at the gallery next year, where graffiti classes will also be on offer.

 “It’s like having kids, isn’t it?” Jonathan confesses when asked if he has any favourite paintings amongst those on display. “It changes all the time. My favourite piece at the moment is a big Michael Jackson painting by Mike Edwards that is covered in kind of diamond dust. It’s the first piece I've commissioned myself though, so I’m biased!”

Starting in 2015, The Contemporary will be holding monthly art shows, starting with an exhibition of work from students at Sir John Deane’s College, and going on to focus on a different featured artist at each event.

 The gallery will also be hosting a special VIP Christmas gathering with mulled wine and mince pies on the 4th December, from which 10% of any sales proceeds will go to the Baby Grow appeal aiming to raise funds to build a new Neonatal Unit at The Countess of Chester hospital.

“Art is getting bigger and better in the city all the time and the more the economy recovers, the more confident people are in art and wanting to invest in it. We are here to show Chester something different and engaging and look forward to exhibiting things it has never seen before.”

To find out more about purchasing/renting art from The Contemporary, to arrange a private tour of the gallery, or to join the guest list for its upcoming Christmas event, call 01244 950553, visit www.thecontemporarychester.com


The Contemporary, 92 Watergate street, Chester, CH1 2LN


Floating Audrey by Pure Evil
Abraham & Isaac by local artist, Jay Hurst
Divine Retributuion by Marcus Gjoen,
former Vivienne Westwood designer


16/11/2014

Ghosts and Grandeur: Exploring the Halls and History of a Liverpool Architectural Gem

The stunning Victorian Gothic Revival masterpiece that is the former Liverpool Seamen's Orphanage stands in stark contrast to the pleasant, sunlit lake at Newsham Park, darkly brooding in silence as the ducks are fed. Built in 1874, it was to house the children of Liverpool's sailors, who often died at sea or were unable to care for the young members of their families.  

My family and I learned last year that my great-great-grandmother spent time in the Orphanage as a little girl and, in a cyclical twist of fate, was to pass away there as an old woman when it later became a psychiatric hospital in the twentieth century. That said, the building holds a special fascination for me, but has been under lock and key since it was left deserted in the early nineties. So, when I learned that its doors were to be opened to the public to showcase student artwork for the first Liverpool Art Festival, I leapt at the chance to explore and photograph it's mysterious interior. 

Supposedly haunted by the ghosts of its former students and mental patients, to wander the corridors of the  Seamen's Orphanage is a chilling experience to say the least. Many of its rooms still contain medical equipment and other unnerving relics of its past, and you would be easily forgiven for thinking you'd somehow walked onto the set of the hit TV show, American Horror Story: Asylum. This place is no work of fiction, however, and the forgotten stories of untold sadness and insanity that must have took place here are all too real. 

While the faded glory of the place is incredibly compelling, such a beautiful building cannot be left to fall into dilapidation for the sake of the occasional photographer looking for an evocative shot or two. It's encouraging to hear, then, that the current owners, a development agency, are considering plans to transform the majestic space so that it can play host to a multitude of cultural events. I hope that such a change will dispel some of the oppressive shadows of its former uses that still linger within, and let us celebrate and preserve this unique piece of Liverpool's architectural heritage. 

  













27/10/2014

Hangin' On the Telephone: The Anti-Social Reality of Social Tech

Connecting with other people should be easier now than ever, what with us having handheld devices on us most of the time, and access to all sorts of social media imaginable. These things were designed to bring us all together, but the ironic reality is they’ve somehow succeeded in founding a generation of individuals that increasingly spend their time isolated in a bubble of digital distraction, cut off from the world around them and everyone in it.

I recently spotted a young family sat having lunch together – well, when I say “together”, they may as well have been on different continents: The parents (in their late twenties) were sat in silence staring at their phone screens, and their daughter, who was no more than 1 or 2, was sat vacant-eyed and glued to her iPad, just totally switched off from her surroundings.

  Now, I’m not naïve enough to preach that children ought to be kept away from this kind of technology – after all, depriving youngsters of an acquaintance with things like IPads in this day and age will unquestionably disadvantage them in later life – but the time they do spend with it has to be regulated. It is so easy to plonk your little tot in front of a screen for hours on end to keep them quiet, but the more you do so the more you’re risking him or her growing up completely lacking in basic social skills.

Looking around, our modern generation especially seems to have already become worryingly desensitised, with little if any empathy for anyone except ourselves and our own; explore the  furthest end of this spectrum, and you have youngsters that have grown up to be alarmingly hostile towards others and to anything and everything that’s different from them.  Worst of all, we’ve gradually conditioned ourselves to find all this absolutely normal.

Flash forward to a terrifying Orwellian society where mankind has evolved an extra flattened edge to the thumb (ideal for screen swiping) and each of us exists utterly cut off from the other; suspicious, hostile and totally without compassion or consideration. Ok, well maybe the thumb thing is a bit excessive (though you NEVER know), but the rest doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched.

Instead of settling for a vicarious existence through a screen (hey, if you didn’t check in on Facebook, were you ever really there at all..?), why don’t we all set a precedent for the future and make a conscious effort to put down our devices a little more often, go out, and just experience life? Catch up with friends?  Laugh? Try something new? I like my thumbs just the way they are, anyway.


21/07/2014

THEATRE REVIEW: STICKY LABELS, The Lantern Theatre

   Following on from a string of performances at Buxton Fringe festival, the final night of brand new play Sticky Labels by Chester-based playwright Laura Kate Barrow takes place at the Lantern Theatre in Liverpool’s creatively thriving Baltic Triangle quarter.
   After accidentally sleeping with an underage girl who claims to be a university fresher on a night out, Dan is accused of sexual assault and is branded a paedophile by the local press. Though cleared of the charges in court, the label sticks and he is tormented daily. Several years after the incident, he finally musters the courage to date online and meets a young woman, Lucy, who is similarly new to internet dating. They slowly begin to fall for each other, but when Lucy reveals she is a single mother with a teenage daughter, he is plunged into doubt. Will the love and warmth fade from her face, if he reveals his past? Will she label him too?
   Emerging young Director, John Young, who has also recently taken on the role of Resident Director for local writers group Chester Micro Plays, manages to retain a steady sense of movement and structure in a two-man play that could easily be executed too statically. Utilising chairs moved from corner, to centre, to corner again in a tight, square floor space – a visual representation of confinement that reflects the many senses of imprisonment and inescapabilty that a false accusation can create – the pair of actors pace expressively through the interwoven monologue/dialogue performance.
   Actors Annabel Entress and John Dayton give admirable performances as the two lovers that are haunted by a single mistake and the irreversible impact it has on the rest of both their lives.
   With the recent climate of historic sex abuse allegations that have been coming to light recently, the subject matter of Sticky Labels is bold to say the least. Yet, Barrow unflinchingly forces us to address issues that, more often than not, society is too uncomfortable to talk about, with her thematic exploration of prejudice and the devastating consequences that unjustly labelling someone can bring.
A sincerely thought-provoking piece.

14/07/2014

THEATRE REVIEW: THE SECRET GARDEN, Grosvenor Open Air Theatre

‘The flowers are growing – the roots are stirring. That is the Magic.’
A more glorious summer night could not be wished for, as the warm sun starts to descend in the sky, birds whistle all around, and chattering theatre-goers eagerly tuck into their picnic hampers, dreamily waiting for the premiere performance of The Secret Garden at the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre to begin. Now in its fourth year, the theatre company’s Artistic Director, Alex Clifton, couldn’t be happier with the beautiful location of what has to be the finest open air theatre outside of London, quite rightly describing the park as “our very own magic garden.” The last of the sunlight falls, as if directed to do so, onto a William Morris-style tapestry curtain adorned with a golden tree and colourful songbirds. Then, as silence falls, the curtain is parted and the magic of France Hodgson Burnett’s timeless children’s story comes to life.
DSC_5665   The tale follows Mary Lennox, an ill-tempered and haughty little girl living in India during the British Raj, who suddenly finds herself shipped off to England after the death of her cold and distant parents. Ending up in Misselthwaite Manor, the home of her brooding uncle, Archibald Crane, amid the totally alien landscape of the Yorkshire moors, the unlikely heroine is left to her own devices. She begins to explore the house, with its many locked doors, and slowly makes discoveries that will lead her to unravel the mysteries of a secret garden, and in so doing will forever change her life, and those of all the Manor’s inhabitants, for the better.

   By far one of the most standout aspects of the play is the veritable menagerie of wonderful animal puppets designed and directed by the talented Toby Olié. From the menacing dog of Mary’s uncle to the friendly robin that flits through the air and helps her to rediscover the long hidden garden – plus a whole host of other wonderful creatures in between – the rustic and charming puppet cast does not fail to delight as it is animated by actors attired in flat caps and waistcoats, appropriately christened “the Secret Gardeners”. Olié, who not only had to design puppets that could potentially withstand the very worst of the British weather, but also had to make sure that each puppet could be seen by the whole audience and was not being blocked by its puppeteer (a fair challenge in a 360̊ stage space), has succeeded in creating a truly magical and heartwarming display of puppetry.      
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The whole cast – dressed in beautiful period costume designed by Jessica Curtis – provides a strong performance, with many of its members playing a number of different roles, as well as providing musical accompaniment on fiddle, accordion, drum and tin whistle. Actress Jessica Clark effortlessly portrays young Mary’s transformation from sour, “little crab apple” to joyous and kindhearted, little girl. Scenes featuring Yorkshire maid, Martha, (played by Kathryn Delaney) as well as actor Gareth Williams’s gruff gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, are the source of plenty of warm Northern humour. One notably striking scene, with excellent music by Sarah Travis, has characters dancing and chanting a spell to call home the far-wandering Mr Craven, as puppet animals gather excitedly around, and is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the play as a whole.

DSC_5577
   The aesthetic of the performance focuses strongly on the notion of nature’s resurgence, and the secret garden’s rejuvenation closely reflects that of the characters tending to it. Commonplace, man-made objects are whimsically transformed into natural wonders, as ladders become the trunks of trees and delicate lace parasols transform into green foliage and blooming purple flowers. By the second half, as life in the garden stirs once again, a spreading patch of grass appears in the centre of the performance space, as if from nowhere.  By the final act, even a wardrobe has burst open to reveal a dazzling array of flowers emerging from inside.
   The piece emphasises half-explored themes of prejudice within the original story, whether it concerns class, race or gender. The words of Mrs Lennox as she scolds her daughter’s “filthy native” Ayah in India, are repeated by Mary herself when she first meets her new maidservant, Martha, in Yorkshire. These obstacles are later overcome, however, as Mary goes on to befriend Martha and her animal charmer brother, Dickon. The addition into the plot of a modern-thinking, perceptive, female doctor who treats Mr Craven’s spine curvature abroad contrasts starkly against the thoroughly Victorian male doctor back at Misselthwaite Manor, whose supposed treatment of sickly, young invalid Colin Craven is laced with a sinister ulterior motive. In response to Craven’s remarks that she is a truly “remarkable woman”, she assuredly corrects him by explaining that she is, in fact, “a remarkable doctor."
DSC_5691
The Secret Garden is a fabulous adaption of a much-loved classic, that stays true to the original story’s messages of kindness and healing magic within us all, and is sure to be enjoyed by children and big children alike!
   The Grosvenor Open Air Theatre runs until 24th August, and is also currently staging Macbeth and The Comedy of Errors.

For tickets and for more information, visitwww.grosvenorparkoepnairtheatre.co.uk or call 0845 2417868


09/01/2014

CULTURE: CHARLIE CHAPLIN'S STUNNING AND MOVING SPEECH ON HUMANITY


Charlie Chaplin’s beautiful and moving speech on humanity and the fight for a free and united world, from his film The Great Dictator (1940), and with the addition of stirring music by Hans Zimmer from the film Inception (2010).
Utterly stunning. Never have his words rang more true than in these times of oppression, greed, and fear.
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