Before we move on to transforming the space back to an artist studio, there’s still a few things about the show we would like to share with you:

Last Friday we had a small event at the gallery: altercation by enne&moffa was performed for the second and last time. We had a small but a lovely crowd to experience the work and the wine with us. I don’t usually repeat a performance so it was an interesting and new experience for me as well. It was lovely to hear the thoughts of our gallery visitors and by the sounds of it, people enjoyed the experience.

So that’s a wrap. Life at the studio will continue as usual. We decided to close the show early due to an expected eviction, but it looks like we get to stay at least a bit longer. Since we never know how long we get to stay and where, we won’t give any promises of the time or location of our next exhibition, but I can promise this: It will happen. Before that though, we are looking forward to our series of public place performances taking place all over Manchester. We’ll keep you posted.

Here are a few pictures from Friday and a documentation video of altercation from the preview. Thank you to SB Cooper Films for the footage.

See the documentation video on Vimeo

Tonight our exhibition Food to the Dogs will open at Tape Modern, 66 Baring Street M12PY. The password is Fancy Nourishment. 

Everything is set up for an art happening! Come down and see what’s what.

Our performances in the opening:
20:30 Enne&Moffa 
21:30 Mutabase

The performance by Enne&Moffa will be repeated on 4.6.2018 and 8.6.2018 at 6pm so even if you can’t make it to the preview you’ll get a second chance to see the work.

I am very excited about this exhibition! It will be the first one we do with our new space, the artists we have lined up are interesting and I love the works we’ll have the privilege to show.

Naturally, we need to keep in mind that we might be evicted at any point. We have plans in place of how to get all the works safely to the next building and how to keep the ball rolling if this would happen. Because of this, we are doing this on a very tight schedule, hoping that we get to stay in this building for the whole duration of the show. Of course, I wish that we could stay for a long time since we have finally got it to run smoothly and I am utterly in love with the space.

But without further a do, let me introduce our artists:

Nicola Ellis
www.nicolaellis.com/context/

Nicola Ellis (b.1987, St Helens) currently lives and works in Manchester. She studied BA hons Fine Art at The University of Central Lancashire and following this, completed an MA in Fine Art at Manchester School of Art. In recent years she has undertaken research projects including Sculpture: A Fabrication(2017), which focused on the mechanics of large scale sculptural commissioning, and Play/Pause: the turbulent history of UK steel (2016). She is currently undertaking an open door residency at ACA and The North Pennines Observatory. She is also doing a placement in manufacturing in order to produce a commission for The National Festival of Making in Blackburn. Her work recently featured in exhibitions including; From A to C, this being B. Caustic Coastal, Salford. Da Vinci Engineered, Zebedees Yard, Hull; It’ll Hold Until It Breaks (solo exhibition), Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough; More room for error (touring solo exhibition), Arcadecardiff, Cardiff, &Model Gallery, Leeds & Bloc Projects, Sheffield; You won’t see that bit anyway (solo exhibition), 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, UK; Head to Head: Nicola Ellis and Aura Satz, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK; Part of the Programme, FAFA Gallery, Helsinki; and Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon. 

Riikka Enne
www.riikkaenne.com

Riikka Enne (b. 1990, Tampere) lives and works in Manchester. She studied her BA in Fine Art in Tampere School of Art (2014) and continued to her MFA in Manchester School of Art (2016). Enne works in sculpture and performance: Her work examines the gap between an individual’s experience and the tensions of society through found objects seen as revealing residue of human life, concentrating on materiality and restrictions. Recently she exhibited in Disponere, 5th Base Gallery, London; Femfest, Tanner Street, London and Pittsburgh Performance Festival (PGHPAF), Pittsburgh; Emergency Break Glass, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester. Most recently her work has been visible as public space performances across Manchester. 

Matt Girling
www.mattgirlingartist.tumblr.com
www.instagram.com/subsurfacepondwater/

Mutabase
www.mutabase.net/
www.mutabase.bandcamp.com/releases

Review by silent radio: “With Strange Friends off the stage, the next act to wow us is Mutabase, she is incredible! I would say she is a performance artist in her own right and she captures the crowd with her haunting voice and impressive songs. She completely owns the stage, and calls herself a “DIY electro punk rocker.” With a few gigs already under her belt it seems today is the biggest one to date which is hard to believe. I can see Cristi becoming a big star and I would buy tickets to her next gig in a heartbeat.”

Sophia Moffa
www.sophiamoffa.com/

Sophia Moffa (b. 1994 Rome) is interested in the relations and tensions between the body, and the socio-political and technological events surrounding society. Initially working intuitively, experimenting and negotiating within her settings and materials, her works question topics surrounding existentialism, the human condition and modern ethics. She mainly works in performance, video and sculpture to materialize the concepts, and has exhibited in the UK, Italy, Singapore and Egypt.

Willow Rowlands
www.willowrowlands.com