Exhibition Documenting FMD

Exhibition Documenting FMD
6 – 31 March 2006
Monday – Friday 9.30am – 5.00pm
Holden Gallery, Grosvenor Building, Cavendish Street, Manchester, UK

Metropolitan University Documenting the social, health and envionmental impact of FMD. Works by Chris Chapman, John Darwell, Clive Landen, Nick May, Daro Montag, Alex Moore.

ROUTES: Bus workers' exhibitions, N. Ireland 2002

A social and cultural document about the bus workers and their contribution to the cause of peace and community relations in Northern Ireland.

The ROUTES project recorded the history and experiences of the men and women employed in the region's bus industry over the past 30 years, and gave them an opportunity to communicate their experiences and talk about their contribution to the community, using their own words and images, as part of a major public celebration of the bus workers in the North of Ireland.

A team of photographers (Belfast Exposed), artists (Flaxart Studios), and film makers (Banter Productions) worked with Littoral and with the bus drivers and associated workers over two years (2000 - 2001) to develop the ROUTES project. The ROUTES documentary provides a record of the role of the Transport & General Workers Union and its members in maintaining an essential public service and community lifeline over the past 30 years of conflict in the region. The project is also an investigation of shop-floor approaches to anti-sectarianism in the workplace.

Funding for the project has come from a Lottery Arts Access to the Arts award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, with supporting funds from the Transport & General Workers Union, Translink Plc, and other sponsors.

The ROUTES programme consisted of:

A photographic exhibition, and a publication, about the experiences of bus workers (Ulsterbus and Citybus) and trade union officials in Northern Ireland over the past 30 years. This provided a historical and contemporary record of the contribution made by bus transport workers to the cause of peace, improved community relations, and economic stability in the region.


Educational resource materials and a travelling exhibition based on the bus workers' excellent record of dealing with sectarianism and intimidation in the workplace. Links were forged with bus workers and artists working in situations of conflict in other parts of the world (Israel, Palestine, South Africa, and Kosovo).
Video, digital media and film projects about the bus workers, based on interviews with past and present members of the bus industry (drivers, shop stewards, cleaners, inspectors) about their memories and experiences of working with the bus service and the travelling public over the past 30 years. A web site and collaborative digital art on-line projects were developed by bus workers and artists.
An oral history/audio arts recording project with current and retired bus workers, many of whom have great stories to tell about their experiences of the Troubles, and memories of happier days in the bus service. These provide a valuable record of working peoples' history, and as many interviews as possible were collected for a sound archive devoted to the Northern Ireland bus workers .
A region-wide public celebration of the bus workers of Northern Ireland, consisting of a week of ROUTES exhibitions, public art projects, and educational and conference programmes, in May 2002.

ARTBARNS: AFTER KURT SCHWITTERS 1999

International exhibition in celebration of the Merzbarn project
by Kurt Schwitters in England, 1946/47.

Poster design Nick Fry


ArtBarns Opening Event,
Lentworth House Farm, Abbeystead, July 1999

ArtBarns exhibitions - 24th July - 19th Sept.
Forest of Bowland, Lancashire.

Installations and exhibitions by invited artists in disused farm barns in the Forest of Bowland,Lancashire, as a response to the unfinished Merzbarn project by Kurt Schwitters in Cumbria in the 1940s.
International exhibition in recognition of the life and work of Kurt Schwitters in England. The project took the artistÕs Little Langdale (Cumbria) Merzbarn assemblage as a point of departure for a new pro-gramme of installations in barns in the Forest of Bowland, central Lancashire, created by international artists. The works were also proposed as an artistic and critical intervention into problems in agriculture, aimed at generating public support for the hill farming communities in the North.

Meadow at Swallow Scar Farm, Bowland. Photograph: Derek Curtis

The Forest of Bowland

The Forest of Bowland is an upland region in central Lancashire, a unique complex of mountains, moorlands, river valleys and lowland pastures, located between Lancaster in the north west and Clitheroe in the south east. Traditionally a hill farming and sheep rearing area, it has a relatively small but stable population, distributed in villages and rural hamlets. The landscape and buildings of the region retain a traditional vernacular, with stone-built cottages, farm houses, walls, and barns across the countryside.
The barns in Bowland range from traditional stone buildings located on the remote moorland tops or near villages, to modern concrete and steel framed structures used for wintering sheep. Recently some of the barns have been converted into luxury homes, hi-tec offices or "telecottages", and even into art galleries. The more isolated stone barns are mostly disused, some still containing the original wooden fittings and obsolete farm machinery; others have since fallen down and now function as an integral part of the moorland ecosystem, providing a habitat for animals, birds and and insect life.

Kurt Schwitters and the Merzbarn project

Merzwall installation by Kurt Schwitters, Little Langdale, Cumbria, 1946-48
Kurt Schwitters, one of the leaders of the German Dadaist group, was well known for the extraordinary range of his art works, media, and ideas. He is credited with having pioneered audio art, installation, performance, new typography, as well creating a continuous output of paintings, sculpture and collage.

Schwitters fled to Norway in 1937 to escape from Nazi persecution, and arrived in Britain as a refugee in 1940. He was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man, but was later released and went to live in the Lake District, near Ambleside. From 1947 until his death in 1948 Schwitters worked on what he described as his greatest "lifework", the Merzbarn project.

The Merzbarn was constructed by Schwitters from found materials in a disused straw barn at Little Langdale in the Lake District. Although unfinished at the time of his death in February 1948, the Merzbarn survived intact until the mid-1960s, when Richard Hamilton and others arranged for its careful dismant-ling and safe storage. One large section of the main wall relief was later reinstalled at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle. It is likely that the Merzbarn relief at the Hatton will undergo restora-tion in 1999. The Merzbarn is still considered one of the key works in the development of 20th century sculpture.

The Merzbarn and the sculpture projects carried out by Schwitters in a building in Norway (the Lysaker Merzbau), and the Merzbau at his apartment in the City of Hanover, have inspired generations of postwar artists, and many leading international artists acknowledge the influence of Schwitters on their work. Artists and critics also point to the contemporary relevance of Schwitters' work and life, in particular his experiences as an anti-Fascist and as an immigrant artist in post-war England. For these and other reasons many artists want to join the ArtBarns project in paying tribute to the memory of this major, but still under-rated, artist of the late twentieth century.

Artists respond to issues in agriculture

Artist David Nash on site in Bowland with ArtBarns project officer Peter Hatton
It is in this context that international artists were commissioned to produce new work for install-ation in farm barns in the Forest of Bowland. The artists were asked to take Kurt Schwiters' Merzbarn concept as a point of departure, and to produce new work in response to the local farming communities, and the vernacular buildings and landscapes of the region. Among the ideas developed for ArtBarns were: an ArtBarns Website; a webcasting project; a photographic project in collaboration with hill farmers; and a wool diversification project.

Participating artists: Toro Adeniran-Kane (Nigeria/UK); Hank Bull & Stephen Garrett (UK/Canada); Simon Cutts (Eire); Chris Drury (UK); Andrew Drummond (N.Z.); Nick Fry, (Manchester); Paul Kenny (Lancs.); Russell Mills and Ian Walton (Cumbria); David Nash (UK); Timm Ulrichs (Germany); Trevor Woodward (Australia).

Field Pattern" textile covering for silage bale, designed by Nick Fry

The Artists and their projects

Toro Adeniran-Kane (Manchester/Nigeria) with Nick Fry (Manchester): Better Life for Rural Women, a traditional mural installation in Watery Gate Farm barn, Chipping (and performances in the barn); and Field Patterns, a textile project creating innovative covers for the straw or silage bales in Bowland.

Toro Adeniran-Kane at Watery Gate Barn, Chipping

Hank Bull (Canada), working with Stephen Garrett (Manchester) on the Virtual Barn. This project consisted of two websites: ArtBarns, and Bowlandnet, and the MerZmuseum WebCast "a global 12 hour Live-Webcast in homage to Kurt Schwitters", running on September 19th 1999 from 11:00 GMT - 23:00 GMT
Using the famous URSONATE as a leitmotif, over 40 artists in 14 locations on 4 conti-nents form a live-network to pay homage to KURT SCHWITTERS. This took the form of a 12 hour on line MerZmuseum containing a wide variety of especially produced live-audio streams, webcams, audiofiles, images and texts. Over the 12 hour of its existence, the shape and content of MerZmuseum changed constantly as artists at different locations took turns in realising their temporary exhibits (live-projects) sometimes making use of each others material, which were placed as 'permanent exhibits' within the 12 hour museum. At some locations a live on site or on air audience participated in the event.
Simon Cutts (Eire): A Riposte for Kurt Schwitters - Two Poems. Neon text installation, a tribute to Kurt Schwitters, in the remote upland farm of Sabden Hall, at Fence
Andrew Drummond (New Zealand): Crossroads, large mixed media installation in Wycoller Aisled Barn, Wycoller Country Park, near Colne. This installation, which made use of a wool insulation material manufactured in New Zealand, and featured sound recordings made in Bowland, was achieved in partnership with the insulation company, Klober.
Chris Drury (UK): Wool Chamber. Installation using wool and dry stone walling, in Buttles Barn at Marshaw Farm near Abbeystead. Farmer Jim Curwen was particularly involved in this project, and through him many links are opening up in Bowland.

Preliminary design by Chris Drury for Wool Chamber

Paul Kenny (Lancashire): A Winter at Fell Barn. Photographic residency based around Fell Barn at Stake House Farm, Oakenclough, and the resulting works exhibited at Maiden Bridge Tithe Barn, near Wray.
Russell Mills & Ian Walton (Cumbria): Still Moves. Installation at Lentworth House Farm barn, Abbeystead.
David Nash (UK): Chapel - Barn - Merz - Bauten. Major retrospective of the artist's work in The Great Barn, Gawthorpe Hall, Padiham.
Timm Ulrichs (Germany). The artist sent in a documented proposal for a year-long project at Wards End barn, Saddle End Farm, Chipping, Fifty-two Weeks, and also made maquettes for a permanent work.

Ruined barn site selected by artist Timm Ulrichs for a permanent sculpture


Design by Timm Ulrichs for a permanent sculpture in Bowland

Trevor Woodward (Western Australia): Fragments of the Past. Mixed media installation at Swallow Scar Out Barn, Slaidburn.

Trevor Woodward at Swallow Scar barn