Visiting Artist: Mary Oliver 07/04/08

On Monday, we were joined by artist, Mary Oliver. Mary talked about her practice and we discussed work including 'Mother Tongue' in which Mary performed in synchrony with herself as her mother and her three sisters and more recent works like 'Fly me to the Moon' and  'Somewhere between Heaven and Earth'. This was followed by members of the Academy in turn presenting recent work. Much of the days discussion was focused on art education with Mary sharing her experiences of working within University based art education.

Film & Video. Lunch & Dinner.

Last Tuesday saw the first of a month long series of films organised by the Art Academy and G. Leddington taking place at Islington Mill. The focus for the inaugural Film & Video Lunch & Dinner was early experimental film and video anthology. Over the next three Tuesdays (25th, 1st and 8th) we will have more films for you. There will be a program of short films at lunchtime, starting 1pm and lasting one hour and then one or two longer feature length films in the evening starting at 7pm. We will be serving food for the evening screnings from 6.30pm. If you would like to come along or would like details of the films we will be showing, please email: artacademy@islingtonmill.com 

We hope to see you there.

Sheffield Gallery Visits

A group trip across the Pennines for the Art Sheffield festival. While there, we took in shows at Bloc, Sylvester Space, Millenium Galleries, S1 artspace, Yorkshire artspace and Site Gallery. The very welcoming people at Bloc showed us round some of the artist studios there. Andrew, who has lived in Sheffield previously was our tour-guide for the day and took us to some places of interest including some George Fullard sculptures and the Blue Moon cafe. We were accompanied on the trip by some artists from Italy and Romania, Teresa, Gigliola and Madalin who have been staying with us at Islington Mill for the past week while working on a project with Salford University.

14/02/08 Visiting Artist: Philip Davenport

Last Thursday we were joined by poet and artist, Philip Davenport at the Art Academy. Philip gave us an introduction to his work and brought along some examples from a piece of work called 'Imaginary Missing People' to discuss. We first encountered Philips work at Mid-Pennine Gallery when we went on a group visit there for the 'Language and Science' show last year. We had the very strange and enlightening experience of talking with Philip over speaker-phone about his piece of work while we were in the gallery that day. After Philips talk, we each discussed our own individual practice and the collective work we have been doing as a group.

Bristol visit

Last week we went to explore Bristol's Art scene.

We visited Cube, Microplex Cinema and venue which is run by a group of voluntary artists and promoters.

































We also visited Spike Island a place where artists make and exhibit their art. It began its life as an artist led initiative and has now grown into a center for new and innovative art.

At spike island we had the opportunity to visite the student art studio space.

We then headed for the headquarters of the Art organization Plan 9 who were more than happy to show us around their studios in the old police station. They gave us lots of information on their future plans as well as talking to us about their individual projects.

Writing Residency by Anni Rossi & Rollin Hunt

Anni Rossi and Rollin Hunt from Chicago joined the Art Academy for the first month of 2008 to undertake a writing residency here at Islington Mill. This was their first time to record music together. They recorded four songs during their time here, New Years, The Husband, Pamphlet and The Bum. You can listen to them here:

myspace.com/rollinhunt

Rollin and Anni also played a number of gigs while they were here, The Islington Mill Xmas Party on 22nd Dec, The Britons Protection Monthly on 6th Jan and The Klondyke Club on 18th Jan. They also worked on a project with Morry called The Writing Room. Following conversations with Anni and Rollin about their writing process, Morry set up a space at the mill with objects, books, chairs, tables, biscuits, drawing and writing tools. Rollin and Anni spent a period of time talking, relaxing, working and writing in the room. The result of the collaboration is ongoing.

Open Day Monday 14 January

Scientific Exposition by Dr. Adil Mughal

Morry invited Dr. Adil Mughal to give a talk/presentation on the physics of soap bubbles at the Olafur Arnalds gig on Saturday night. Adil presented a lecture entitled, ‘Soap films, surface tension and computation’. He demonstrated how soap film can be used as a type of analogue computer to solve complex problems. The talk referenced the work of Escher as well as many other artists and physicists. This was Adils first experience of presenting work to a non-academic audience. The presentation was followed by a set from Olafur Arnalds who is from Iceland. Liondialer from Manchester also played.

Free gig to raise money for the Art Academy and Medicins Sans Frontieres

Music was provided by John Peel favourites, the legendary Nightingales and the one and only Hotpants Romance.

Friday saw the Night School project in the club space at Islington Mill really kick off with the first of many art works happening live on the night. Andrew ran a stall selling written words. Morry projected the song title and artist name of the song being played by the live DJ or band as it happened, and invited people to join in with this. Craig designed a poster. Laura made donations boxes and flyers on found leaves.

Thanks to everyone who came and made the night a great success.. we made a lot of money for charity!

Tuesday 20th-Sunday 25th November – Cauliflower planting on the Greenwich Peninsula

The Art Academy went to London to help artist Kerry Morrison with a project on the Greenwich peninsular. Kerry was very helpful when we were setting up the academy and the invitation to help her in London was an opportunity to repay the favour and see a piece of her work develop. The project involved building an allotment of cauliflowers as a memorial to the cauliflower farm and allotments that used to exist on the Greenwich peninsular years ago. The allotment also served as a statement about local produce. Craig, Laura, Lowri and Louie worked alongside local people to help build the allotment and plant most of the cauliflowers. Maria helped Kerry plant the remaining cauliflowers, guerrilla style, around the Greenwich peninsular. The experience was enjoyable for all and we look forward to the cauliflower cheese gala in the spring. More information is available about the project at www.100cauliflowers.com

Visit to Gropiusstadt, Berlin

Group visit to the flat at Gropiusstadt, Berlin where the Pilotprojekt is based to meet with Uwe Jonas who runs the project. The flat is on the 10th floor of a block designed in the shape of a horse-shoe. The design allows for a view of almost all of the other balconies in the block from any one. Gropiusstadt appears green, leafy and well maintained. Many of the residents have moved here from less desirable inner-city areas.

We visited some art galleries on our last day in Berlin with Ingo Gerken. Near Alexander Platz there is a small network of streets with thousands of independent galleries that are showing new work from established and emerging artists, artists from Berlin and around the world. There is so much art packed into a small place.

Berlin Research Trip

Visit to the Gallerie im Kornerpark, Neukolln, Berlin for a show of work from the Pilotprojekt residency program in Gropiusstadt, Berlin. Pilotprojekt is a year-round residency program in a highrise flat in an area of Berlin called Gropiusstadt. Artists live and work for 1 –2 weeks at a time in the flat and the surrounding areas. A book, detailing the works produced or proposed is published at the end of each year. The project has been running since 2002. Gropiusstadt is a post-war overspill town on the outskirts of Berlin. The masterplan for the area was designed by Walter Gropius but due to severehousing shortage in the post-war period, his plans were substantially altered.

Nightschool: An Artschool as a Nightclub

Nightschool is a new project by Islington Mill Art Academy that will see the group take up residence in the club space on the ground floor of Islington Mill in Salford.

The group will be responsible for the day to day running of the club and the events that happen there as well as using it as their working and project space. They will have free reign to change, adapt and alter the space according to their working practices.

The project presents an interesting opportunity to reappraise the methods in which The Art Academy functions and the participants are keen to see how their current working practices adapt to this new and unlikely environment. Similarly, they will be interested to see how their interventions will affect the use of the space as a nightclub and events space.

In addition to this, the group are tasked with implementing effective working and organisational systems for the club, which will be handed over to the next managers of the space at the end of this project.

The club space at Islington MIll has provided a free and accessible space for a wide variety of events in the past two years and this project promises to open another exciting chapter in its future development.

Who Wants Yesterdays News?

Andrew handed out yesterdays MEN newspaper in St Annes Square. He collected the papers the day before from people handing them out around Manchester city centre. He handed them out from 1.30 - 3.30 pm, at which point he was approached by 3 staff from the MEN and two police officers and threatened with an £80 fine.

Two week residency..

By the artist and curator of 'West Germany,' a live music and art space in Berlin, Ingo Gerken.

Islington Mill Art Academy is founded.

A six week introductory course begins.

Two week residency by artists Martin Vincent and Sapna Argarwal begins.

Talk by artist and Senior Lecturer at MMU, Andrea Zapp

Second Summer Art Academy begins.

A five week Summer course continuing work with Helmut Lemke and Kerry Morrison.

The informal Summer art academy at Islington Mill begins.

A two week course working alongside artists, Helmut Lemke and Kerry Morrison.