Martha Webster

Martha Webster presents ‘There is NOTHING on this wall’. Martha is preoccupied with words and their meanings. Her work explores the complexity of learnt language and the changing experience of vocabulary. For this show Martha has explored the word ‘NOTHING’ and its meaning. By placing the word ‘NOTHING’ on the left hand living room wall in very small white vinyl, Martha highlights the interplay between the meaning of a word and its physical existence.

(Vinyl lettering supplied and installed by Cherry Tenneson)

News

Paul Harfleet and Hilary Jack have just returned from New York where they both participated in the Conflux Festival a contemporary exploration of psychogeography this fascinating collection of "International artists, Technologists, urban adventurers and the public" worked across New York. Paul took The Pansy Project and Hilary 'Make do and Mend'; each of them made site specific works based in Williamsburg where the festival was based. Alot of artist-led activity is going on in the area, a favourite gallery was Pierogi; the current show being an interesting take on 911. To find out more about the festival click here and visit Glowlab to find out more on psychogeography. Back in Manchester, Apartment is getting ready for the next show; Contents May Vary previews next week, more information below.

O T / CHERRY TENNESON

Apartment presents O T an exhibition marking the end of Cherry Tenneson’s residency at Apartment. Tenneson has concentrated on the signs installed by the council in the communal areas of the tower block. By appropriating the format of the signs, and subtly altering the content and context, Tenneson comments on the audience’s experience and appearance of municipal authority. The augmented signs will be visible throughout the building by residents and visitors to Apartment; who will also have access to work shown in the flat.

Preview – Thursday 13th July 6pm-8pm
The preview of OT (shown above) was very well attended, thanks to all who came and helped make it a lovely evening. Do contact us if you'd like to see the show
.14th July - 31st August / view by appointment:
apartmentmanchester@hotmail.co.uk
Paul Harfleet = 07870 244 153
Hilary Jack = 07957 398 451

"The work made for this show was inspired by the disappearance of two letters from the block’s main entrance sign which has resulted in the building gaining a new name. The remaining signs throughout the tower block have now been corrected to display its new name."

Cherry Tenneson

The image above shows the sign Cherry made with the 'new name' at the doorway , below the sign placed in the pinboard, for more images go to Cherry's blog: www.cherrytenneson.blogspot.com

Tower Block Tour

During this years Architecture Week, Apartment took part in The Institute of Urban Dreaming’s, collaboration with CUBE, where invited members of the public attended a tour of Manchester residential tower blocks. Artists John van Aitken and Jane Brake lead the tour on behalf of the Institute of Urban Dreaming, offering their own unique perspective on the history, present and future of the tower block. Just a few of the many highlights of the day included Thorn Court in Salford, with a beautifully kept communal garden, Stretford Tower in Stretford with fabulous views of Manchester, a new development in Collyhurst by Urban Splash, and ‘How to live in a Tower Block’ by Maureen Ward; an invaluable pamphlet with handy hints on tower block etiquette. Each participant was given a Polaroid camera to document the day an example of which is shown above. The day culminated at Apartment where selected Polaroids where then presented to the group. There are some useful links below for more information on tower blocks and architecture week.

www.architectureweek.com
www.sustainingtowers.org
www.3towers.co.uk
www.c20society.org.uk
www.cube.org.uk
www.webelongeverywhere.co.uk

The above picture shows Megan; one of the participants looking through the selected polaroids from the tour which were shown at Apartment at the end of the day. (Photograph Adam Murray).

News

Despite there currently being no show on at Apartment It's been a very busy time. We recently attended the NAN-NANA event in Nottingham; each artist-led organisation gave a presentation; Apartment presented 'Tea and Sympathy', we served tea and biscuits to each participant (Left,Paul Harfleet serving tea to Candice Jacobs from Stand Assembly). The main objective of the weekend was to create 'new adventures in networking', for more information on this event follow this link. In other news; Apartment is mentioned briefly in this months 'Museums Journal' (right) the article called 'Home Truths' explores the concept of living in a museum, exploring in this case Adam Nankervis and his museumMAN project. We're also featured in 'The Critical Friend' (full article below) a lovely 'fanzine' written and edited by Alex Michon and Olly Beck for more information follow this link The Critical Friend

The Critical Friend

"So here we are in Manchester in the early evening dusk in the 60's tower block home of the artist Paul Harfleet which doubles as the Apartment gallery. We are looking at the work of the Hungarian artist Beata Veszely. Simple pen drawings of horse archery superimposed onto found art and fashion magazine pages. Horse-archery was the national sport of pre-communist era Hungary. Of Course I am nosily looking around the (very tidy) flat thinking about the chaos of my own back home which doubles as my studio. 'How do you manage it?' I ask Paul. 'well I'm used to it now' he says, 'and anyway it's an appointment basis so I can plan when I show people around. As we sit in the flat/gallery in the ever growing darkness, up in the skies surrounded by a vista of cranes of Manchester's great 'march forward' of neo-yuppie flat building, we watch the twinkling lights from the cars zooming by in the road below, the scene unfolds into an interesting whole with each part adding to the mix. There is a melancholic wistfulness, in these simple lovingly drawn horses and archers, floating like ghosts from another century onto these self important magazine pages. There is the whiff of lost socialist utopias, the sheer romanticism of Eastern European history all mixed up in a Judy Garland Mickey Rooneyesq 'lets put the show on right here in our barn' idealism. Liked it."

Alex Michon
Taken from Spring 2006 issue of 'The Critical Friend'
for more on this show follow this link

Compartment

Surface Gallery recently invited Paul Harfleet and HIlary Jack to curate a show that would explore the position of Surface Gallery in the context of the British Art Show 06 and it's arrival in Nottingham. Everyone on the gallery's mailing list was invited to submit one work that would be no taller than 100cm. The show is on til May 11th. 64 artists took part in the show, a huge variety of work painted a complex picture of Surface gallery's position in Nottingham. One of the most exciting works was Tomas Chaffe's 'Get over it' pictured below. For more information visit Surface Gallery and Compartment.