Kraak in Northern Quarter, Manchester.

Kraak Gallery.

This is where we are going to hold our exhibition. I checked it out on the internet ..... looks interesting and a large area to fill.....I'm sure when all the Play groups have their work hung, will look good if not great!

Ready and waiting for us to go and hang up our work for Unit
X.

Instructions on how to get to the Kraak Gallery.



16th May 2013..... from 5pm to 9pm.  Be there !!! 

A tutorial last Tuesday....

As Jouer we met up for a tutorial with Hannah in 114 room Chatham Building.
Only three of us there, as Ollie was sick and no news from Jacob !

Looking at each others work.

Discussing the project.

My tags again.

Hannah writing about our project and showing us where we
 are going to display our work in the Northern Quarter of
Manchester. 

A very good tutorial. We all discussed our work in great length. I'm still not sure what I am going to do with these tags.............  Feel like shouting HELP !!!

Working on Unit X

 Trying out different ideas........

These are the colours of the old Manchester Art School.
Blue, black, white and gold. 

Experimenting with hand painted luggage tags.

Realised it would take too long to hand paint
and write the names of 175 people associated with
the art school. So brought some spray paint and
experimenting with that. The results in the
above picture.

The spraying of the paint in the shed !!!

Looking good !!

I like the result of the spray paint has a lovely smooth finish
on the tags.

Some I put together ..... not sure at this stage if I done it right.

A close up of my tags.

The Jouer Presentation.

      We met in room 114 Chatham and there was other Play groups there as well. We sat and watched each group do their presentation which I found interesting listening to their idea's.
 Unfortunately there was only three of our group for the presentation. Leahna was ill and Ollie well, maybe  he was busy !!

First play group's Presentation and very good one too. 

Other groups sat listening to the presentation.

Jacob checking his notes for the presentation.

Jacob's laptop ready for our presentation. 

Another very good presentation.

This is our presentation. Jacob did a film to check what you
 can fit into 175 seconds, and very funny it was.

Safia was next to do her bit and also to cover Leahna's idea's as well.
Again she gave a very good performance. Next my turn ...... they were not very
impressed with my luggage tags I had sprayed with paint!! Anyway after
a lot of discussion a few ideas were put forward for me to think about,
which I will take on board....... I haven't really worked out
what I will do with my tags but I'm sure I will get a good idea soon when I
start putting them together . 

Emily Pankhurst.

 For unit X I have been researching the Alumni of the Manchester art school from 1838 to 2013. While researching this brief I came across Emily Pankhurst had attended Manchester Art School in 1882 and  had studied art. So I thought I would do some artist research on her but unfortunately I cannot find any of her actual art work, but of course she was a very interesting person in her own right. So decided to write about her on my blog.

 The Petticoat Revolution. Gouache on paper.
 20th century. Private collection. Artist unknown.

 Emily Pankhurst.

 Emily Pankhurst campaigning.


 Emily Pankhurst was born in Manchester on July 15, 1858. Emily was born into a family who had tradition for radical politics, and she stepped into that mould becoming passionate campaigner for women's rights to vote.
In 1878, she married Richard Pankhurst, leader barrister, who was at the time 24 years older than her. Richard Pankhurst was a supporter of the women's suffrage movement. Together they had five children his death in 1898 was a shock to Emily. It was after his death that she threw herself into the suffragettes movement forming the Women's Franchise League in 1898. In 1894, she was elected a poor law guardian and she spent time visiting workhouses in Manchester becoming aware of the shocking levels of poverty many faced. Emily Pankhurst had this to say " I thought I have been a suffragist before I became a  Poor Law Guardian but now I began to think about the vote in women's hands not only as a right but as a desperate necessity."
It was in 1903 she formed the more militant Women's Social and Political Union. It was through the political action of the WSPU that the term women's suffragette movement was created. She was a leader of a passionate group of women who were willing to take part in drastic action by being tied to railings, smashing windows and launching demonstrations and in one case one woman threw herself under the Kings horse and died for her beliefs. Emily Pankhurst defended the militant tactics on the grounds that " The condition of our sex is so deplorable that is our duty to break the law in order tocolour tensions to the reasons why we do"
the government and establishment were shocked at the tactics of the women and many were arrested. While in prison they would go on hunger strike and they were force-fed already and released only to be re-arrested when they were in better health which was known as " Cat and mouse". In 1912 Emily Pankhurst was convicted of breaking windows and was sent to Holloway prison. While in prison she went on a hunger strike in protest about the appalling conditions, prisoners were kept in. She describes a time in prison" like a human being in the process of being turned into a wild beast"
In 1918 women over the age of 30 were given the vote by 1928 women were granted equal voting rights with men at 21. However in 1928 Emily Pankhurst fell ill and died.
It is thanks to Emily Pankhurst and her group who enabled us to vote. Today we take it for granted all the freedom us women have and we must always remember the women who campaigned for us.

So I'm very privileged to think that I am attending the same art school as Emily Pankhurst who changed the way of life for us women.

The only document in Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections for Emily Pankhurst. 

Ossie Clark

Ossie Clark.

Ossie Clark was born  Raymond Clark in Liverpool 9th June 1942. The name Ossie came from when he was evacuated to Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire during the Second World War. Ossie studied at Manchester Art School in 1960. In 1962 Ossie Clark was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London. Where he graduated three years later – the only student to have been awarded a  First Class honours degree. Clark had impressive cutting skills and had the extraordinary productive collaboration with his wife the textile designer Celia Birtwell. He was spotted by Vogue's Marit Allen who printed a picture of Ossie and a model wearing one of his graduation pop art dresses and were photographed by David Bailey( photographer)in 1965.

 Dressing coat 1970. Ossie Clark.
 Celia Birtwell's print "floating Daisy."

Ossie Clark

Twiggy wearing Ossie Clark's outfit.

Wedding dress 1971. Clark said wedding dresses
"the most vital part is the back". Here the back features
dramatic fun pleating falling from a raised waistline.

Ossie Clark  1985.

.

 Dress 1971. This dress
was cleverly pieced together
from two different lengths of fabric,
a small multicoloured floral print and bolder red poppy print. They coil round the figure into continuous strands. Print by Celia Birtwell.

 From the mid 1960s to the mid-1970s Ossie Clark dressed the famous and the fashionable in showstoppers outfits. But since then, Clark's glamorous lifestyle and tragic death in 1996  have overshadowed his importance as a dress designer.

1969

1970   Chiffon dress.

 The back of a wool coat 1970.

 Strawberry embroidered lounge suit
1971

 Snake skin bomber jacket 1967.

 Costings for a outfit 1973 – 74.

Ossie Clark in the 1960s – 1970s one of the most influential dress designers of that time. He made Mick Jagger's stage outfits and Jaggers wife Bianca wore the most extravagant  designs of his.
Ossie Clark's vintage designs are still very sought-after and a lot of them are privately owned.  V&A  had a exhibition showing his designs in 2003. I just wished that I could have gone to see that exhibition because in this 1960s we all wanted a Ossie Clark's dress !

Unit X another meeting.

 By using Facebook we contacted each of the group to arrange a meeting last Tuesday. One of the media boys couldn't attend the meeting and sent a text.  At the meeting there was just the three of us the Leahna, Safia and me. We met up to see how each of us are proceeding with the 175 Manchester Art School brief.

Leahna discussing the brief in the group meeting.

Safia checking our Facebook for messages. 

Me thinking about my part of the brief.

 As usual we had a good meeting and we knew what direction each of us proceeding with. Unfortunately one of the other media guys didn't turn up! But that didn't stop us from discussing the forthcoming exhibition. I think we are fortunate that the three of us communicate and work together easily. Later we had a tutorial to explain what each of us are doing and how we are intermingling our work with each other. So each of us will have something that the others have done to show in the final exhibition.