I recognised the work as that of Annie Harrison www.annieharrison.co.uk,  who graduated this year from the Embroidery MA at Manchester School of Art, her recent work has been developed from her involvment with Withington Hospital working with sheets to create site specific installations, Harrison is an artist working outside the common perception of craft.

The Embroidery MA has been challenging the very notion of stitch and it really is a MUST see show during degree show season. I will definatly be bobbing my head into Nexus this week to check out the rest of the show and on the strength of Harrison’s window Installation, I think you should too.

Marcelle Holt

Blank blogger was promised an oatcake for her first visiit to Stoke on trent and, she got one, we lunched at the Potteries museum and art gallery, where we were entertained by the lovely Frank on piano, we lingered for a bit until the oatcakes finally hit the belly and had a look round the excellent AWARD, 27 shortlisted ceramic artists for the BCB Award were on show the work was truly excellent and challenging, we also saw a spitfire.

and if the day could not improve we trekked across town to the Emma Bridgewater potteries, for 2 superb exhibitions Fresh a group exhibition of recent graduates using ceramics and and the stunning Hayon Ceramics from the spanish designer Jaime Hayon, whose work reminds us that clay is still a very relevant in material in contempory design and not just for the pottors studio.

Last Thursday night saw the launch of Ext Inked – A unique art project celebrating Charles Darwin’s 200^th birthday.

Presented in two long rows within the temporary gallery space on Salford’s Chapel Street are 100 drawings, each one depicting a different endangered UK species, ranging from invertabrates such as the Erratic Ant through to mammals (Red Squirrel) and flowers (Artic Mouse Ear). The aim is for a 100 volunteers to become ambassadors for these species, each one permanently tattooed with one of the designs.

It’s been a popular idea, judging by the launch as the venue was packed to bursting point with a long queue to pick up an application form. The drawings are lovely little things, all created by either Jai Redman and Joe Richardson, and  are well-presented in 2 long rows that stretch the length of the space.

If you’re interested in applying, you’d better get in there soon as the selection process is already underway. You can find the complete list of species here but to see the drawings themselves you need to head on over to the gallery as they’re not available online.

For more information, head to the Ext Inked website or you can try the facebook group.

The Fabulous Blank Pages is now out featuring on the cover suface designer and illustrator Mika Nash, some fine short stories and poetry, music and other good stuff from the Blank Pages team. just click on the front cover to sample.

Click the image below to read Issue 15

Soup Kitchen Exhibition Launch

Originally uploaded by Gareth Hacking

The Manchester Soup Kitchen is a cute little joint with fine fare and good looking staff. But enough of Blank blogger on the blag, Friday 11th September saw the launch of Gareth Hacking’s 7th Solo show. Hacking is part of the Blank Media Elite with your’s truly, and also has work up at Kro in Heaton Moor.

Jealous Blank blogger thinks that’s a bit greedy, however Gareth’s abstract photographic work with light and movement, utilising incidents and chance are rightly getting a good airing. Prints of his work are also available to purchase.

Also worth a mention was an appearance from the very cute Carboard kid, Hacking’s well travelled trusty sidekick who likes to show up and show off and has even been up on the Fourth Plinth.

Gareth’s work will be shown at The Soup Kitchen on Spear Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter until 16th October 2009.

Marcelle Holt

Free For Arts Festival

Originally uploaded by Gareth Hacking

Blank Media were present to witness the press launch of Manchester’s Free for Arts Festival. The event packed out with foxy and frequently bespectacled arts folk, offered up a few tasty treats for the up coming festival.

Lauren Bolger kicked off the event with some spoken word, this refreshing little voice with a touch of Manc grime rocked gold shoes and navy socks, her piece ‘Does this rag smell like Chloroform to you?’ captured the essence of a girl about town, splattered with knowingness and naivety, nice work.  Lauren will be taking part in the ‘Say yes to french love’ event, 3rd October 2009 at Service Point, 4 Whitworth Street West, click here for more details http://bit.ly/CEs8k

We were also treated to performances by sound artists Edwyn Butler and Dafydd Jones, whose diverse and challenging works did well to set the tone for an interesting little festival. Sadly Blank blogger had to dive out before the Quizzimodo’s sudden death quiz, (one wine token only lasts only so long people), but she heard it was REALLY hard.

Here are some links to the people mentioned in this blog post, because, well we like to share the (french) love.

Manchester Free for Arts Festival http://bit.ly/gd0Cv

Lauren Bolger’s Does this rag smell like Chloroform to you? http://bit.ly/XhaPg and facebook group http://bit.ly/SgKMF

Edwyn Butler’s blog http://bit.ly/45HS28

Dafydd Jones’s myspace http://bit.ly/8sf6Y

Quizzimodo’s facebook http://bit.ly/F8rbs

Review by Marcelle Holt
Photo by Gareth Hacking

Blank Media Collective rocked up in force to one of the most prestigious preview events in the Manchester arts calendar, stretching our complimentary glass of Cornerhouse vino across three floors packed with new and emerging art.

The Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition takes art out of its educational context and into the ‘real world’, showing the best work by art graduates from around the country. This annual group exhibition attempts to highlight the rising stars of the art world and invites us to think about the current art climate, about what’s hot, what’s relevant and what’s good.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that the majority of the work exhibited is selected from MA programmes at the capital’s art schools with just five artists from the provinces out of the 47 selected getting a look in. Is this the London centric art scene in action or are the art schools outside the capital simply not up to scratch?

Opinion was divided amongst Blank Media Collective members as to which were the exhibition’s stand-out pieces but here’s a selection that definitely deserve a viewing:

Rachel Maclean’s ‘Tae Think Again’ is a bonkers video art piece, a giddily grotesque and engaging spin on Scottish heritage. Such is the democracy of social media, the thing is on YouTube so here goes it:

Martina Lindqvist’s isolated islander photographic works ‘Ragskar Island’ Overheard in front of piece “textbook photograph”. This Blank blogger doesn’t know what that means but she thought it was stunning work, in a kind of oppressive, stifling way. [http://bit.ly/WQcm0]

There is a lot of collage work out there and also a lot of ‘book art’ but Jorge de la Garza’s book 1–4 is smashing, unresolved and disorientating. [http://bit.ly/T3avw]

From this Blank blogger’s perspective it was a reet good show – so good she saw it twice! All in all it was a tasty event, nice to see the Manchester art crowd out in force with some very nicely dressed folk too to add a bit of sparkle.

Do go and see it, it’s on at the Cornerhouse until 25th October 2009 before it moves to Foundation, Club Row, London 10th November to 20th December 2009.

Gareth Hacking is a highly valued, long-standing and active member of Blank Media Collective and we’re pleased to announce that he’ll be exhibiting a selection of prints from his Colour of Light series at Soup Kitchen [Manchester UK] from 11 September until 16 October 2009.

It’s a beautifully haunting collection of abstract photographs combining colour, light and movement and comes highly recommended.

See more of Gareth’s work here.