BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.7//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:5568@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London;VALUE=DATE:20191207 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London;VALUE=DATE:20200203 DTSTAMP:20200108T153239Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/williamson-art-gallery-alan-ward -photographs-from-another-place/ SUMMARY:Williamson Art Gallery & Museum: Williamson Art Gallery: Alan Ward - Photographs From Another Place DESCRIPTION:ARTIST ALAN WARD DEVELOPS AND RE-IMAGINES NARRATIVES IN A SERIE S OF RESPONSES TO A FORGOTTEN ARCHIVE.\n\nArtist Alan Ward had no idea tha t buying a set of glass negatives from eBay would lead him to a five-year photographic investigation into a forgotten family archive that included l ocal Wirral engagement and the making of an artist film with a Masonic Lod ge.\n\nPhotographs From Another Place is open from 7th December 2019 un til 2nd February 2020 and\, like all exhibitions at the Williamson\, is  free. We are open Wednesday-Sunday 10am-5pm\, although the gallery will be closed from Sunday 22nd December 2019 until Saturday 4th January 2020. \n\nPhotographs From Another Place unfolds over three related projects:\n \nGallery 1: Place – Alan J Ward\n\nUsing the rediscovered 98-year-old c amera that documented a 1900s lost family archive of glass negatives\, ‘ Place’ is the engagement strand of Photographs from Another Place in G allery 2.\n\nIn early 2019 Alan Ward was granted funding by Arts Council E ngland to take Photographs from Another Place and Sydney’s original c amera to groups on the Wirral who have connections to the stories he had d iscovered in the photographs. It was an engagement planned around a collec tive cultural heritage and inspired by the discovery of the camera three y ears into the research when he met Ruth\, Sydney’s daughter\, still aliv e and well in Devon. Along with that camera there were boxes of unused pho tographic paper and some glass negatives. These were gifted to Ward to see if they were still usable. It seemed a perfect opportunity to use the cam era as a focal point for sharing and discussing the original archive with people directly touched by some of the stories in the collection.\n\nShar ing the Gearing collection with these groups and discussing their relevanc e has produced a series of conversations\, images and encounters that have become a far greater aspect of the overall project than ever imagined. Th e Williamson saw that potential and allocated more space to it\, which has allowed Ward to thoroughly integrate it within the final exhibition plan .\n\nPlace is the result of those encounters.\n\nGallery 2: Photographs from Another Place – Alan J Ward | Simeon J Gearing | Sydney J Gearing\n \nIn 2014 Alan Ward purchased a collection of 1920s glass negatives on a w him\, from an eBay seller in Brighton. There are 230+ in total\, dating fr om c.1914 – c.1950s. Through a few clues offered up in the images and th e original boxes they came in\, he pieced together the beginnings of a sub stantial family history around the images. The key photographer was Sydney Gearing\, the son of Simeon Gearing\, a manager for the Mersey-based Rea tug boat company who lived in Wallasey. Simeon was born in London\, worked in the East Ham docks as a lightnage operative (barge-man)\, married a gi rl from Wortwell\, Norfolk\, and moved to the Wirral to be a manager at a shipping company. Sydney was also born in London but grew up on the Wirral \, and then worked for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board all his life\, a one company man.\n\nAlan Ward was also born in London\, moved to the Nort h-West and his father is a Norfolk boy. Acquiring this collection appears to have been pre-destined.\n\nThrough forensic research and an almost voye uristic obsession with this collection\, Ward has made new photographic wo rk and developed a re-imagined and curated narrative\, bringing Sydney’s photographs back to a gallery he used to visit.\n\nIncluding text collabo rations with writer and poet George Szirtes\, ‘Photographs from Another Place’ is a poetic and personal reflection on the essence of what it is to be human\, exploring family\, loss\, transience and memory.\n\nGallery 3: Some Thoughts on Masonry and Its Degrees – Film running time 19m 15s\ n\nThe film ‘Some Thoughts on Masonry and Its Degrees‘ was conceived as an exploration and evocation of the arcane yet poetic language that sur rounds Masonry. It is part of Photographs from Another Place in response t o a second-hand document purchased on eBay in response to the Gearing fami ly archive research.\n\nThe principle character portrayed in the film\, is the photographer of this archive\, Sydney Gearing\, and the research has reawakened aspects of his significant masonic career on the Wirral\, in tu rn unearthing an address he gave to the long since defunct Merseyside Maso nic Research Society in 1954\, when he held the chair as president.\n\n‘ Some Thoughts on Masonry and Its Degrees’ is that oration\, performed by current Grand Master\, Worshipful Brother Ian Dallinger\, filmed in the s ame Masonic Hall where Sydney Gearing was initiated\, in 1934. Dallinger d elivers a lyrically mysterious and quietly hypnotic oration on the benefit s of the extended ‘symbolic degrees’ of freemasonry that can be obtain ed\, once the degree of Master Mason is achieved.\n\nThe exhibition and lo cal engagement has received funding from an Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant\, with additional financial assistance from The Elephant Tru st and Williamson Art Gallery &\; Museum.\n\nFor more exhibitions at th e Williamson\, check our Exhibitions pages.\n\nTo find out more about Al an Ward\, visit his website http://www.alanjward.co.uk/. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2020/01/two-men-posing.jpg LOCATION:Williamson Art Gallery & Museum\, Slatey Road\, Birkenhead\, Wirra l\, CH43 4UE\, Wirral\, United Kingdom GEO:53.384568;-3.040443 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Slatey Road\, Birkenhead\, Wirral\, CH43 4UE\, Wirral\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Wil liamson Art Gallery & Museum:geo:53.384568,-3.040443 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20191027T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR