My plan yesterday was to visit a couple of places in Mancs city centre before going out to the Lowry for the Jerwood Drawing Prize but having spent half an hour in the Magma shop and other such places there wasn’t time to get to Salford and back.
I finally made it to Will Alsop’s Supercity exhibition at Urbis though (it ends on Sun. May 15th). I was a bit disappointed, having paid £5 I expected a bit more. Perhaps it was because I’d read so much about it and already seen so many of the images in the media. I was also distracted by the large group of design students having a tour of the place. I know I shouldn’t complain, I should be grateful I’m free to go to any gallery at any time but its a pain having to wait for the group to move on before I can see anything and I don’t always want to hear the tour guide’s opinion on everything and I’ve got no chance of getting a go on any interactive stuff!
I went to the Triangle to buy some stuff at Muji and accidentally found a new art shop/gallery called The Art Lounge next door. They have some top artists including Dave White, Temper, Charlotte Latham and Dinah Dufton. Very nice.
At Manchester Art Gallery until May 30th is ‘The Sleep of Reason’ by Stephen Dixon. Quite interesting though I’m not a big fan of ceramics as political statement, especially when its the same old Blair-as-US-poodle, Bush-as-gun-toting-cowboy, etc. etc.
‘Stephen Dixon’s Lavishly decorated ceramics make scathing political commentaries on the world in which we live.
Drawing on rich English satirical tradition from Hogarth to Spitting Image, he creates complex works questioning the ethics of our times. The themes of global politics and the balance of power, monarchy and national identity, environmental destruction and the ‘march of progress’ are explored in Dixon’s powerful works. The exhibition takes its name from Francisco de Goya’s etching on nightmares The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters’