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.

www.nyartsmagazine.com

Follow this link to read an article on the Manchester art scene; featuring Apartment!

David Wilkinson and Beáta Veszely - HÁ

Above: ' Straight from the Heart' by BeataVeszely
Beáta Veszely and David Wilkinson

view by appointment until 2^nd April

Apartment is delighted to present HÁ; an exhibition of work of Hungarian based artists Beáta Veszely and David Wilkinson. Their trip to the U.K has been facilitated by Apartment in conjunction with Castlefield Gallery as part of their Project Space Mentoring Scheme. Their practice is especially relevant to our activities at Apartment as both artists have a history of curatorial projects based in their own homes and the homes of other artists, starting with “Wish You Were Here” in 1994 in Leeds (supported by the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust with Erlend Williamson) and “Wish You Were Here Too” in 1996 in Glasgow, with Charles Esche.

Beáta Veszely and David Wilkinson have collaborated since 1995 as curators, teachers and artists; they have exhibited extensively in the U.K and abroad, while in Hungary they co-direct TIPP, Tihany International Postgraduate Programme a course of study for international artists.’

Beáta Veszely

Hungarian born Beáta Veszely works across media consistently exploring the symbiotic relationship between horse and human through new media, performance, drawing and painting. Her new work focuses on the Hungarian sport of horsearchery. For HÁ Veszely exhibits a series of ink drawings of horse portraits on found art magazines, fashion magazines, and daily newspapers. The simple pen drawings encourage a new reading to the existing printed media, whilst simultaneously experimenting with the interpretation of horsearchery in a contemporary cultural context.

The image above is an installtion shot of 'HA' Drawings'; some of which were framed others were not. The various ages and subject matter of the found magazine pages inform the reading of the work.

David Wilkinson

David Wilkinson was born in the U.K and is now based in Budapest his current practice explores the notion of otherness using video, installation and sculptural intervention. ‘Simple Indifference is not enough; eventually curiosity will break your silence. We need them to renew ourselves, but once renewed our interest wanes, we see them as not us. The place where we encounter them and the place where we are most other is the foreign land. I live in a foreign land, for HA I have made a film and a sculpture to try to convey my home to you the viewer; some history, some people and some places that are familiar to me.’