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For the Time Being / A Promise of Progress
Todd Hanson: HYPER VICTORIANA |
| Tod Hanson has worked on a variety of public art projects from activist projects with Geenpeace to installations in galleries and clubs. In recent years he has developed is work around an interest in architecture, history, design and industry. To explore a world that is speeding up, overamplified he uses painting on a vast scale to create a world within a world. Using exploding decorative motifs and patterns, he carries the romantic Victorian decoration speeding into the 21st Century. Using the frame of an empty swimming pool, Hanson's swirling fragmenting forms create new scenarios that aim to question the codes and rules of urban space. tod_hanson@hotmail.com |
Ellie Harrison: BATH TIME - web commission Ellie
Harrison, the artist commissioned to create web-based artwork will
be launching her new site at the exhibition in September. The Victoria
Baths, with its growing historical archive seems a perfect vehicle
to demonstrate her ability to employ the inherent qualities of the
World Wide Web to engage its audience. |
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Ellie Harrison
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Bath TimeBath Time is an interactive web-based artwork by Ellie Harrison commissioned by transition (art programme at Victoria Baths) in Manchester. Ellie spent two weeks in residence at Victoria Baths from 5 - 18 June 2004. There she completed preliminary research for the project, exploring the building and delving into the archives held at the Baths office. She also spent time researching and preparing a multi-curricular workshop for local primary school children. The workshop called the Victoria Baths Challenge took place on 30 June 2004 with 24 children from Plymouth Grove Primary School in Manchester. Bath Time brings to life
facts and figures about Victoria Baths and its history. You can
check the time on the Cubicle Clock made from the numbers on the
old changing cubicles. Access the Victoria Baths memory archive
using the Random Memory Generator. Calculate how old you are to
the nearest second and find out how long Victoria Baths had been
open for when you were born. Most importantly, if you are taking
part in the Channel Swimming Challenge then you can obtain your
estimated completion date using the Channel Swimming Challenge Motivator. |
Lizzie Hughes: FLOW |
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Lizzie
Hughes recently featured in The East End Academy Show at The Whitechapel
Gallery and has previously shown work in New Contemporaries (2001).
She takes as the starting point for her work, the time when the
water was finally drained from the building. She follows the route
of the water from the Baths via drains and pipes, rivers and streams
to the sea making interviews with people along the way. This work
contains more than the memory of the baths but raises questions
about our relationship to our most valuable commodity. |
Joanna Karolini: TURKISH BATHS CLEANSING / WORK |
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Joanna
Karolini, a former student of the Manchester Metropolitan University
and recent MFA graduate of the University of Ulster, immerses herself
in the very fabric and atmosphere of the building, recalling ideas
of purification, cleansing, manual work and the transient communities
of immigrant labourers who may have worked in the Baths,. Karolini's
sensitive treatment of the Turkish Baths, leaving barely noticeable
traces of her cleaning and polishing one half of the space, is typical
of her practice while evoking, on this occassion, the almost invisible
presence of those who have to do the "dirty work" so that
others can relax. |
Claudia Pilsl: SIX FEET DEEP |
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Claudia
Pilsl, an Austrian photographer and video artist, takes the popular
"open days" at Victoria Baths as an entry to her subtle
exploration of the use of the spaces by the public. Pilsl records
the layers of past and present uses and the temporary structures
which have appeared, partly for a specific purpose, partly because
of the increasingly derelict state of the building. In concisely
composed images placed close to where they were taken Pilsl attempts
to capture the relationship of individuals to the current building.
As audience we find ourselves in a "double take" as we
pass by, encouraged to look again and again at the nature of the
spaces she has selected. |
Humberto Velez: THE MANCUNIAN WAY |
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Some
of the artists set out from the building on their own journeys of
discovery, only to return with news. The Manchester based filmmaker
and artist Humberto Velez created a "returning local heroes"
style parade with the young people of Longsight and Ardwick; the
neighbours, taking centre stage. Using a double decker bus, a new
song for Victoria Baths, garage and hip-hop and a dance performance,
he staged a "storming" of the space by local people during
The August 1st open day. An installation using the artefacts from
the day to be shown during the main exhibition. More details and
images of this spectacular event can be seen at |
