previews, reviews, interviews, and recommendations with Steve Cooke
MIDWEEK COLUMN WEDNESDAY 24 JULY 2024
Brass Art: rock, quiver and bend at HOME this Summer
Preview by Steve Cooke
This summer HOME Manchester presents rock, quiver and bend, an exhibition of new work by Brass Art, (Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz and Anneke Pettican), bringing together immersive video, sculpture and lens-based media.
The work featured in rock, quiver and bend explores how light transforms materials through the use of analogue, digital and laser-based forms of capture. In this exhibition, light will digitally rake through the house, garden and writing room of Virginia Woolf, it will transform suspended silver landscapes, and illuminate portraits of the artists disguised in cellophane.
‘this voice; this life; this procession’ is a mesmeric video work developed after visiting Woolf’s writing shed at Monk’s House, her last home in Rodmell. Normally closed to the public, Brass Art were permitted access to scan themselves inside this intimate, creative space and its surrounding garden using laser-based technologies, over the course of a single winter’s day. Woolf’s creative writing strategies such as the use of streams of consciousness, atemporality, defamiliarization and her descriptions of fragmented versions of reality, have informed the artists’ approach to creating this film. Focusing on the relationship between space, materials, time and the cinematic, the film is accompanied by an electroacoustic soundscape by composer Annie Mahtani.
The Apparition series is developed from research into pre-cinematic spectacle, using coloured cellophane as a way of “seeing the mundane world” anew and references the Modernist yet distinctly proto-feminist set designs of Florine Stettheimer. The artists disguise themselves with cellophane to create grotesque portrait silhouettes based on pre-cinematic shadow devices.
The sculptural installation the torrent of things grown so familiar brings together Brass Art’s fascination with geology, erratic boulders and meteors, as markers of deep time and space, along with their interest in the transformation of readily available, inexpensive materials such as foil blanket. In these sculptures, the focus shifts between the exterior silver surface of the foil and the illuminated interior worlds which have been created using digitally scanned botanical models.
For HOME Brass Art have produced a new animated text work which floods the front space with a pulse of colour. This work meditates on life, death and the creative impetus, echoing the phrase this voice this life this procession in the vital medium of neon.
Visit: www.brassart.org.uk
Brass Art: rock, quiver and bend runs until Sun 1 Sep 2024 at HOME in the Ground Floor Gallery.
Plan ahead and book your free ticket to attend the exhibition.
Gallery space is open Tue – Sat 12:00 – 20:00 and Sun 12:00 – 18:00.
A varied programme at TLC from a Soprano and Accompanist
Review by Dr Joe Dawson
Soprano Hannah Andrusier is currently studying for a master’s at the Royal Northern College of Music. Prior to this she read French as a choral scholar at Somerville College, Oxford, where she also sang with The Oxford Gargoyles and performed lead roles at The Oxford Playhouse. Her professional work has already included engagements as a singer and actor at the Barbican and Royal Albert Hall, CBSO, LSO and Hallé Orchestras.
Accompanist Tim Kennedy studied music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and is now a freelance musician based in Manchester. As well as being a piano accompanist (including ten years as a staff repetiteur at the RNCM), he also works as a professional singer, vocal coach, and organist.
Their varied programme started with two attractive Shakespeare settings by Madeleine Dring and Amy Beach followed by an operatic excerpt by Menotti. A curious song of a maiden’s woe by Mozart led to a dramatic excerpt from Massenet’s Cendrillon. These established her credentials as a singer-actor and her engaging introductions charmed the audience.
As well as accompanying superbly throughout, Tim played The Lark by Glinka ‘arranged’ by Balakirev, a virtuosic elaboration of a simple Russian song.
From a Russian mood to the USA with Green Finch and Linnet Bird (Sweeney Todd) by Stephen Sondheim in Hannah’s second set on the theme of Nature. From the USA to France with Debussy, Italy with Respighi, Germany with an exquisite Die Nacht by Richard Strauss, and the UK with Love’s Philosophy by Roger Quilter.
Their Encore piece, a jazzy, boozy soliloquy about the morning after the night before, made the most of Hannah’s considerable acting ability, characterisation and communication of fine detail and humour. A delightful way to end a sometimes moving, sometimes joyful but always enjoyable recital.
The Queen’s Award-winning Toad Lane Concerts are every Wednesday at 12.30pm at the Grade 1 listed church of St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ. Entrance fee is £6. Contact 01706 648872 for further information.
RECOMMENDED
Wednesday 24 July 2024
Rochdale Photographic Society
Tonight's session - Q3 competition - Judge Harry Emmett CPAGB.
We meet every Wednesday at Rochdale Unitarian Church, starting at 7.30pm prompt (doors open from 7.15pm). The door is kept locked so please ring the bell on arrival.
If you would like to see the club for yourself and meet our members, you are welcome to attend as our guest for up to 3 weeks before committing to membership. Annual subscription is £36 for single or £46 for joint membership.
A weekly room fee of £2.50 is also payable on arrival at the meeting. Refreshments are 50p.
Visit the link below for a full 2024 syllabus.
£2.50 for room fee
Doors open 7.15pm, 7.30pm start
Rochdale Unitarian Church, Clover Street, Rochdale OL12 6TP
Wednesday 24 July 2024
Toad Lane Concerts - Rochdale's Weekly Music at Lunchtime
This week we have a Toad Lane Concert Party.
The concert series has been held at St Mary’s since 2001 and was granted the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2020… during the pandemic!
Running every Wednesday, Music at Lunchtime is a weekly live classical music concert series that has been going since the 1960s. The sessions were initially run at the old Rochdale Art Gallery by the local authority, but since May 2001 have been run by volunteer-enthusiasts and artistic director, Dr Joe Dawson.
£6
Phone: Dr Joe Dawson 01706 648872
Doors open 12noon, concert starts 12.30pm - 1.30pm
St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane/St Mary's Gate, Rochdale OL16 1DZ
Thursday 25 July 2024 - Saturday 27 July 2024
Visit Fireground Museum
Join us at Fireground this week to discover Greater Manchester's firefighting story.
Fire museum attractions are on show inside the museum including our collection of historic firefighting artefacts from the 18th century to present day, plus home-made refreshments in the new Fireground Café, and souvenirs from our fantastic new gift shop! We have a wide choice ranging from toddler to collector.
Fireground is open to visitors on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10am - 4pm.
Under 4s are free, Children (aged 4-15) and Concessions £5, Adults £7 and Family (4 people) £20.
Phone: Fireground 01706 341219
Fireground, Maclure Road, Rochdale OL11 1DN
Friday 26 July 2024
Big Girls Don't Cry
It’s time to hang on to what we got and celebrate the iconic sounds of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.
Come out tonight as we take you to a place where the moon shines bright and we dance the night away, taking you back in time with Big Girls Don’t Cry.
During the 60s and 70s number one hits Sherry, December 1963 (Oh What a Night), Walk Like a Man, Rag Doll and Big Girls Don’t Cry helped propel the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli to super stardom.
Oh, what a night it will be! It’s the time, it’s the place, it’s the motion.
: Tickets from £28
Phone: Middleton Arena 0300 303 8633
7.30pm
Middleton Arena, LCpl Joel Halliwell VC Way, Middleton, M24 1AG
Saturday 27 July 2024
La Voix – The Red Ambition Tour
Direct from the West End come and see the UK’s best drag queen.
Britain’s Funniest Red Head is swinging into town with her most ambitious show yet!
‘When I grow up, I want to be La Voix’ – Dawn French
This brand-new show promises an evening like no other, with huge live vocals, a live band and side-splitting comedy.
La Voix brings fans and first timers a unique evening of entertainment in the company of a true legend, guaranteed to bring audiences to their feet with music and laughter.
La Voix’s shows are not to be missed!
Tickets from £25
Phone: Middleton Arena 0300 303 8633
7.30pm
Middleton Arena, LCpl Joel Halliwell VC Way, Middleton M24 1AG
celebrating creative arts and artists - an oasis of positivity supporting individual and community wellbeing.
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