Raw Material

Exhibition Opening

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:31:00 +0000

Tuesday night saw the opening of Raw Material at the Airspace Gallery, the final installment in the Place Space Identity Programme of 2007-2008 and closure to our work on the project. Thanks to all those who came, we truly appreciated your support and hope to see you again soon. Entertainment was provided by DJs Steve Boulton & James Moulden and friend and poet George Chopping. A big thanks also to Airspace's David Bethell, Andy Branscombe & Glen Stoker for all their help in putting the show together. Finally, we want to thank Susan and Hilary at B Arts for managing the programme and to Kathy James at Arts Council England West Midland for making it all happen. If you'd like to keep up to date with our other projects you can visit our website or simply get in touch. Thanks for watching!

A great time was had by all.

The thinking behind our process

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:21:00 +0000

When asked by B Arts and Arts Council England to collate and edit the final book documenting the PSI programme, we came up with a list of questions we wanted to ask the artists involved. The purpose was to gain insight into their process and the themes that informed their work. As participants in the programme, it was only fair we asked ourselves those same questions and our responses are posted below. All artists' responses were printed on the reverse side of the Raw Material book poster jacket, and we'll also be publishing them here soon.

Can you tell us about your creative practice, your process, and what you produced for your PSI commission?

We work mainly with portrait and landscape photography. Our commission was to document and represent the PSI programme and to produce our own body of work responding to North Staffordshire. Producing our own series has been very different to the relatively straightforward process of documenting events. The former can be much more about communicating our own impressions of a place with some degree of poetic license.

Our process relies a great deal on the coincidences and accidents that result from wandering around and bumping into people and places. In those encounters, we’ll often share an intense if fleeting moment with the subjects of our photographs and aim to produce an image that reflects that encounter.

Left: Katie, "I want to be a hairdresser or something when I'm older. I'm into all that stuff."

What themes did you explore in researching and producing your work?
Initially, we believed the idea of ‘intervention’ was something that could hold our own work and our documentation of PSI activities together. It’s a term that can be used to describe the work of regeneration officers and artists in the public realm and we wondered if this could be represented in any way. We were also interested in the language used by them and that in each of the discourses lies this idea of a public. Artists, the public, and regeneration officers seemed like a good framework with which to structure the work. The more we talked to people and matched their stories to the landscape, the more the theme of fragility and rawness emerged. In the end, our work was really about matching the raw nature of the landscape with the emotional landscapes we were encountering.

How would you describe the identity of North Staffordshire and in particular that of the six towns?

Our views on the North Staffordshire landscape are that it shares the wounds and crises wrought on all post-industrial towns and cities. As the need to brand and market cities becomes prevalent, there’s this urge to find a unique selling point to a place. But working the way we do, almost every door we go through leads us into new cultural terrain which only highlights the complex identities of any one place. Any unique identity of the six towns we came across often seemed rooted in historical ideals or territorial mindsets rather than in anything we could directly see.

How have the social and physical landscapes of North Staffordshire influenced your work and your process?
Our immediate impressions of Stoke-on-Trent were of a landscape marked by countless open scars. To documentary photographers, this is well-trodden ground so we were conscious of trying to stay away from that and instead explore the idea of a fragile porcelain-like beauty; as visible in the personalities we met as in the landscapes we saw.

Are there any surprises or accidents that you've come across that have informed your work and your process?

There were two main surprises. In January 2008, we saw The Wizard of Oz at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle under Lyme to photograph the characters on the theatre grounds. We were struck by the relevance of the story to regeneration and to the artistic process and had our own epiphany watching the epiphanies of the characters as their quest to reach the Emerald City results in an unexpected twist. Then, near the end of shooting in March, we visited Hanley Baptist Church by chance and met Trevor and Anne who somehow manage to feed scores of homeless people every Thursday evening. Talking to them and spending an evening with those who use the Church brought home an altogether different perspective on the significance of the scarred landscape.

When making artwork, who do you make it for?
Photography is such a universal medium that we would of course want our work to be read by all. But there are different languages of photography and we try to steer away from clichés as much as we can. It was fascinating for example to watch photographers from the local newspaper setting up scenes with PSI artists and participants. It highlighted to us just how constructed the language of photography is and also how conservative it can be. In that context, we hope our work can stretch people’s understandings rather than reflect what they already know to reinforce stereotypes we rarely identify with.

Above: A local press photographer sets up a shot to represent the performance of CLAY at Burslem School of Art. By asking his subjects to hold up a slice of bread with a hole in it, he is creating a vignette-like effect that will frame the portrait. Well prepared, the photographer brought his own loaf of bread.

What role has the local community played in the production of your work?

To produce the kind of portraits we do relies on people opening their doors to us and welcoming us in. It never ceases to amaze us just how easy this is once we get over our own insecurities and fears for not making those approaches. To that extent, a community’s willingness to let us in determines whether any portraits are made and we were rarely refused that opportunity here.

How has your work been shown and what has been the public's reaction to it?

We kept a blog throughout the project which published interviews and photographs we did as we went along. Between October 2007 and April 2008, the site had 1,264 visitors from as far as New Zealand, India, Mexico, and Israel. Locally, we distributed as many portraits to those we photographed as we could and the reaction to that has been very positive.

An exhibition of the work also took place at the Airspace Gallery in Hanley in June 2008.

What life do you see this work having beyond the PSI programme?

We hope this body of work will form an important part of our collection of work in the North of England and that it can be seen in the UK and abroad at festivals, exhibitions and other contexts.

How has your practice benefited from this commission?

This commission has challenged our practice and ideas about what documentary should strive for. It has also helped clarify what side of the fence we feel we should be sitting on regarding documentary, as we have favoured the production of images and sequences that invite interpretation rather than restrict it. On another note, when you work on a project like this so intensively for six months, it lives with you every night and day and we have become more confident that with time and patience, order can emerge out of chaos and the resulting work will find its own rhythm.

Exhibition set-up

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:54:00 +0000

We finally set the exhibition up at the Airspace gallery today and thanks to the hard work of Andy, David, Glenn and young trainee Ryan, it looks like it's going to be a great show. Running from the 16th June - 21st June, opening times 11am-5pm. For more information, call 01782 261221.

Update & Exhibition launch

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:15:00 +0000

For the past couple of months we've been frantically putting the book and exhibition together for all of this work, which has meant the blog has been neglected since the last entry. As the project comes to an end, we aim to continue adding entries as a way of sharing the process of how we produced the book and final exhibition.

In the meantime, as I write this Liz is downstairs cutting and dusting prints, framing them and making other preparations for our trip to Airspace today to put the exhibition together. The launch is on Tuesday 17th June and we hope to see you there.

Book Launch

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:59:00 +0000

100 copies of Raw Material have finally arrived, just in time for the launch on Monday the 9th June at Hanley Park.

The book is protected by a poster wrap containing all the PSI artists' interviews on one side and on the other an enlargement of a plate design donated to us by Spode, depicting a scene of rural arcadia that seems perfectly fitting to the project. The book has an exposed spine and has the title 'Raw Material' debossed on the front. Inside are three sections. The first presents our body of work produced in response to the Stoke landscape and inhabitants and has a running motif of vulnerability, faith and role-play throughout. The aim of this is to contextualise the physical and cultural environment in which the artists were working, whose documentation of their work follows the following second section. Finally the book closes off with a third section voicing the positive and negative personal experiences of regeneration officers working in this area and those of young children whose lives have been affected by changes to their physical environment.

[Update - 9 June 2008] The launch of Raw Material on a bright and sunny day at Hanley Park, and great to catch up with Phoebe Cummings, Louise Wood, Tom Wichelow, Gavin Peacock, Brian McClave, Roger Brown, Rachel Grant, B Arts, Kathy James, members of CLAY and the Airspace crew, David and Andy.

Book printing

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:58:00 +0000

Raw Material, a book combining our own body of photographic work with documentation of the PSI programme and a section on Regeneration officers, their work and those affected by it, has being designed by Music in Manchester. Special thanks to Anthony who's put so much care and attention to the design of the book and to Matt (Music's production maestro) - they've been a pleasure to work with.

Publish PostHighlight printers in Warrington check proofs for colour variations across the separate paper stocks.

We've been working on the book solidly for the past few weeks, deciding on the edit, text and how to integrate such separate bodies of work into one cohesive whole. Coming across a William Morris speech given in Burslem over 120 years ago has resulted in a seamless link from artists to regeneration. In Art and the Beauty of the Earth, Morris states:

Of all the things that is likely to give us back popular art in England, the cleaning of England is the first and most necessary. Those who are to make beautiful things must live in a beautiful place. Some people may be inclined to say, and I have heard the argument put forward, that the very opposition between the serenity and purity of art and the turmoil and squalor of a great modern city stimulates the invention of artists, and produces special life in the art of today. I cannot believe it. It seems to me that at best it but stimulates the feverish and dreamy qualities that throw some artists out of the general sympathy. But apart from that, these are men who are stuffed with memories of more romantic days and pleasanter lands, and it is on these memories they live, to my mind not altogether happily for their art [.]

I abide by my statement that those who are to make beautiful things must live in beautiful places, but you must understand I do not mean to claim for all craftsmen a share of those gardens of the world, or of those sublime and awe-inspiring mountains and wastes that men make pilgrimages to see[.]

For surely there is no square mile of earth's inhabitable surface that is not beautiful in its own way, if we men will only abstain from wilfully destroying that beauty; and it is this reasonable share in the beauty of the earth that I claim as the right of every man who will earn it by due labour; a decent house with decent surroundings for every honest and industrious family; that is the claim which I make of you in the name of art.

William Morris

13 October 1881 before the Wedgewood Institute at the Town Hall, Burslem

The last pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Fittingly, this is the last photograph we took in Stoke as part of this project, shot earlier this afternoon. It is of a burnt-out camera found on the remains of an outdoor fire behind rows of terraced houses being knocked down in Hanley. From now until the publication of a book and exhibition, all efforts will be on the daunting task of editing images taken over the course of the past six months into shape and working on production.

Earlier in the day, we'd visited the North Staffordshire Afro-Caribbean Association where amongst others, we photographed the following portraits and details.

Spotted behind Hanley Cemetery

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:35:00 +0000

The Greatest Show On Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Last week we attended workshops being run by Phoebe Cummings in Burslem as part of her Greatest Show on Earth project. The exhibition will include clay works produced by the children, displayed at the Etruria Industrial Museum on Thursday 28th February from 2-4pm. More details available from here.

Above: Sculptures produced by the children to represent their ideal homes.

Interview with Dinu Li

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:39:00 +0000

DL - Dinu Li
MH - Mishka Henner

MH: Could you tell us about the film you're working on and how you chose your actress?

DL: There were over 500 people who responded to the call out for an actress because they were attracted to this Dangerous Liaison theme. I think they thought it would be this huge Hollywood film I was making. But the reason why I am interested in Dangerous Liaisons is because in the opening and the end of the film we see the main character putting on and taking off her make-up and for me that is the essence of change. When you put your make-up on you become something else and whe you take your make-up off you again you become this different person, so that is what I am trying to recreate.

What I asked for were people who had rosy complexions and classic features. I also wanted people who are quite local. For me Rachel just has this look without having to try very hard. She already is very interesting to look at. And I think Rachel has a presence that the others don't so that will be very useful later.

You will eventually see all these interiors but shot in timelapse. You'll just see the light passing through. this is from upstairs but it's not good to be there, I've become ill coz it's so dusty. If you spend ten minutes your skin starts to itch because of the asbestos and lots of dead pigeons everywhere and pigeon shit. There are essentially three different centuries going on; the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. I'm leaving the 21st century out, I'm not describing it.

MH: How did you find this location?

DL: Once I knew I was doing the commission I came here and started talkng to lots of local people and Peter was the one actually, Peta Murphy Burke kept going on about this place and I just wanted to be sure so I looked at lots of other places and filmed some others. Local historian Fred Hughes has also been very helpful. Once I got stuck into this things started to grow on me because of the wallpaper. I also like the light and shadow of this space.

MH: How important is the timelapse element of this piece?

DL: It's hugely important because that is what the commission is about. It's about the changing of places and people and so when you think about even the title 'timelapse' it's just so relevant.

Dinu will be showing his film, looking at the passing of light and the changes that take place in time and space, on Monday 17th March 2008 at the Film Theatre, Flaxman Building, Staffordshire University, College Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2EF. Complimentary drinks and snacks will be available from 6.30pm, with the main presentation and Q&A session starting at 7pm.

Scars on the Landscape

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:24:00 +0000

"Most studies of ruins have concentrated on the noble piles of classical antiquity, scenes of rural quaintness or the fake ruins installed in English country estates. Yet the 20th century has produced more ruins than ever before, whether through warfare or as a remorseless, short term-oriented capitalism turns solid things and places into air, rendering the contents and activities housed within industrial buildings instantaneously obsolete. In Britain, at the end of the 1970’s and through the eighties, the government of Margaret Thatcher allowed ‘market forces’ full reign, promoting an orgy of real estate speculation which produced a reconstructed industrial landscape. But not everywhere was able to capitalise on this economic reconstruction and in many areas, as old industries died, the buildings that housed them lay dormant and empty. This process persists and the material legacy of the industrial revolution, in the form of ruins, can still be found in most British cities.

These ruins are largely understood – especially by bureaucrats, city promoters and planners - as offensive to the character and aesthetics of the city. The sooner these scars on the landscape are demolished and swept away, effaced in the name of civic order, the better. They are matter out of place, a continuing rebuke to attempts to render urban space productive, smooth and regular. Imagined as sites of urban disorder, dens into which deviant characters – drug-users, gang-members, vandals and the homeless – are drawn, the imperative is to extinguish their decaying features from the urban backdrop." Tim Edensor, found here.

CLAY performance

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:06:00 +0000

On Tuesday night, we attended the opening of 'Clay' by B Arts, a site specific piece of theatre performed first inside Burslem School of Art before moving on to the disused Acme Marls site at Bournes Bank. Susan Clarke, Director of B Arts, described the show as "being about making a community. In the process of making the show we've made a little tribe who stick together and look after each other. The song we sing during the show means 'People make us who we are,' which we think is one of the key messages that gets lost amongst everything else that everyone seems to be worrying about." The performers and crew were made up of professional artists, emerging or early career artists, refugees and local residents.

Find out more about B Arts here.

Interviews with four CLAY participants

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:56:00 +0000

LL - Liz Lock
MH - Mishka Henner

Ben, 28

Ben: In anything to do with creative practice, everyone can feel that something good's happening to the city. From music to the arts, theatre, films, people are actually going, "hey, this is good." Whereas before my mum would've said, "why don't you go to Liverpool, why not Manchester? There's loads happening there." Well, I want to be here when it kicks off and I think it's going to happen.
MH: How would you describe what's happening here?
Ben: I'm excited about it and would describe it as having a ticket to go on a roller coaster, but I don't know where it's going. It feels like we're going up that uphill incline, it's that kind of excitement. It might be over dead quick, it might be long.
MH: Do you think the landscape of Stoke has anything to do with that?
Ben: The fact that it's six towns is one of the reasons why I've stayed here. But I also think it's stunted the chance of this place going ballistic in terms of the arts. I feel it's where Manchester was 20 years ago in terms of employment levels, aspirations, opportunities. And out of that you get really gritty poets, songwriters, bands and artists.
MH: How would you describe the work that people are producing here?
Ben: There's two ends to it, you've got the uplifting, positive promotion of good things happening here which is exactly what this play is all about, then there's people who sing about the glum streets of Burslem with no future. But it has got a future, it's just about finding those juicy tangible bits that people can get their teeth into.
MH: What are those tangibles?
Ben: The city has a tendency to hemorrhage talent. People will come in, get skilled up, then leave for Manchester or Birmingham. For the people who actually live here, having grown up on these streets with parents who worked down the pot banks, there's that cycle of never asking for stuff or expecting anything, never striving for stuff. And that's starting to change with the people living here. They're starting to come around now, saying "well actually, Manchester's got this, we want this. Birmingham's got this, we want this. Let's not have it all in London, we want this."
MH: What is that thing that people want?

Ben: I think they're proud of where they live, but they want to be able to be proud today of where they're from. I think it's a sense of pride and also, they just want someone to say, "it's okay." They want to be able to say, "this is what I want."

Binyam (Jordan), 17. From Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Jordan: I play basketball and they call me Jordan so I like to be called that. I live in Hanley. I've only been in the UK for six months. Before I was in Ethiopia. There it's ten months sunshine and two months rain. Here it's the other way around.
MH: What's Stoke like compared to Ethiopia? It must be very different.
Jordan: It's colder here than in Ethiopia! But in Ethiopia right now, everything is changing. There is this thing now that they are building called a condominium. There's a lot of building happening everywhere you look. They used to be a poor country but now they are developing.
MH: Are people different here to your home country?
Jordan: There is something here which I find hard to believe. If you see an eleven year old girl with a boyfriend, I don't appreciate that. It's not the time to think about boyfriends at that age. In my country, you have to get a boyfriend or girlfriend after 18. You can have a chat, but not sex. The main reason I think you have this problem here is because it's a rich country, and the families never control their children.
MH: How do you know that England is a rich country?
Binyam: If you go to London or Manchester, you see a lot of things that you know make people rich. Like cars, or buildings, even the money is much higher here than everywhere else in the world.

Imar, 17. From Ghazni, Afghanistan

MH: How different is Stoke to Afghanistan?

Imar: Really different actually.
MH: Really!
Imar: The houses, the cars, people.
MH: How are people here?
Imar: The people are friendly here, everything's cool.
MH: How's the food here?
Imar: Lots of sandwiches, salad, and kebabs. In Afghanistan we have a lot of meat, and kebabs, with really good rice.
MH: What are the houses like in Afghanistan?
Imar: Really different, in Afghanistan people make the houses with their hands. Here they're made by machines and very stylish. There's no stylish in Afghanistan.
LL: Have you been to other places in England?
Imar: I've been to Bimingham and Manchester. There are lots of big buildings and shopping complexes in those cities, lots of crowds and people, it's quite different.
MH: What do you do in the evenings here?
Imar: Sometimes I go out but not very often. I need permission from my father or brother to go out. In Afghanistan it's a free country I can go out at anytime. But here if you don't speak good English people want to fight with you.

Omran, 17. From Balochistan, Iran

Omran: Everything is different here. The weather, city centre, people, everything.
MH: What are the main differences?
Omran: Everything!
LL: Is anything the same?
Omran: No, I don't think so.
MH: What about the food?
Omran: It's very good here.
MH: I don't believe you!
Omran: Here all the food is in freezers. In Iran you could buy fresh, that's different.
MH: What do you like to eat here?
Omran: I like the chips. They're ready made, you just put them in the oven and they're ready. You don't have to chop everything up like in Iran.
MH: What are people like here?
Omran: People are very good, when you talk to them they're very nice.
MH: Did you ever do anything artistic in Iran?
Omran: No, nothing at all. I like the dancing here, I love the dancing.
LL: What do you think of the landscape here? How is housing different to Iran?
Omran: Here they are all next to each other. In Iran one house is here and another one over there.
MH: Do you like that people here go out a lot?
Omran: Here people can drink alcohol because they get enough money to buy that. They get paid every day but in Iran people don't get paid for months so they can't go outside until they get paid so they have to go home and alcohol is very expensive there.

Rehearsing CLAY

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:53:00 +0000

Rehearsing Clay on the former site of Acme Marls

"CLAY is an exploration of loss and discovery, forgetting and invention, remembering and hoping, the cycle of change, using live performance, fire, sound, clay and bread.

The performance will take place indoors and outside and starts in Burslem School of Art, Queen Street, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 3EJ at 7pm on Tuesday 5th February 2008.

Please RSVP: info@pandaemonium.biz or T: 01782 717326"

The following photos were taken at Clay's rehearsals at the Burslem School of Art on the 3 February (click on the images to move through the pictures and refresh the page to start again).

Stoke Dream #3

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:33:00 +0000

I'm cycling through a sprawling metropolis, rushing to get to a meeting on time when I take a series of wrong turns and end up in Stoke, in a complex of pink, high-density high rise apartments not unlike those found in Hong Kong. Inside the complex, rows and rows of pink and red clothes hang from washing lines that criss-cross from building to building. Weaving through them, I find the door of an apartment and decide to see if I can cut through the flat to get to the other side. The door is unlocked and as I carry my bike on my shoulder through the tiny apartment, I notice that the living room is tiny with the floor plan shaped like a diamond, with only a TV in the corner and two raised doorways side-by-side leading into it. I hear faint music and head towards a narrow corridor at the opposite end of the living room when out from one of the doors emerges a youngish lookng-man in his thirties. Unfazed by the sight of a stranger in his living room with a bike, he asks if he can help, to which I admit that I'm lost. He takes me out of the flat and points the way out of the complex. We begin chatting and he tells me he works in business. I ask what kind of business and he replies, "pure business." When I explain I'm a documentary photographer he interrupts, "oh yes, my grand-father was Stanley Matthews don't you know." Amazed, I explain the documentary we're doing in Stoke, and ask if he'd like to have his portrait taken. "Only if I can see your place" he replies. Keen to explore this new relationship with a potential subject, I agree and we return to my two-up-two-down which is a very long terraced house and looks like it's been furnished entirely from an ILVA catalogue. I show him the marble walls which have just been installed and the antique though rusty motorbikes parked in the conservatory, which he takes great interest in. It's then that my mother walks in and he embraces her hand, creepily continuing to kiss the length of her arm. My dad arrives and wonders who this man is, at which point things start to get awkward. We say our farewells and the man leaves. After a heated exchange in which I justify to my parents who and why this man is in my house, I head for the back garden and stop at the motorbikes, realizing one of the tires has been slashed and is leaking air.

The 'SoHo Effect'

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:51:00 +0000

Researching last night's dream, I discovered the following:

"The pattern of gentrification is typically known as the 'SoHo Effect' and has been observed in several cities around the United States. A backwater of poor artists and small factories in the 1970s, SoHo became a popular tourist destination for people looking for fashionable (and expensive) clothing and exquisite architecture. This has been frowned upon by many people now living in SoHo."

In a bizarre twist, further research has led me to this item in the New York Times:

"Mr. Deitch [owner of famous SoHo-based Deitch Projects Gallery] said he was stunned by the police action. ''This is unprecedented,'' Mr. Deitch said. ''I have never, never in my experience known artists to be arrested while they're putting up a serious museum exhibition in a leading gallery.'' Mishka

Stoke Dream #2

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:12:00 +0000

As our work in Stoke gathers pace, I've noticed that the place and its landscapes have started to occupy my dreams. I've had two of them now, the second last night and the first ten days ago. After the first one, I wondered if I should include these dreams on the blog or not, and whether it had any significance to the project. Now the second one has come, I think I should and have back-dated the first one on this blog to the date it appeared. What follows is last night's dream:

"I'm at a warehouse party in Stoke, overlooking a busy street filled with bars and cafes that wouldn't be out of place in New York's SoHo district. At the party, a sudden army of graffitti artists passes through the space we're in and head out in an impressive regimented silence. They ask us not to draw attention to them and from that, we allude they've been working on something outside, maybe on the exterior of the building we're in. Slightly drunk and keen to show my allegiance to them, I stand up and shout "we're with you" which is followed by an awkward silence. As they leave the building, someone shouts that they've been caught. We rush to the windows and see that police dressed in riot gear are raiding the cafe these artists have wandered into. Angry, we all head for the roof with tennis rackets and balls and start hitting the balls at the police as they bundle the artists into police vans."

Discarded paintbrushes found in a derelict area on the top floor of the Airspace factory last November.

As a documentary artist/photographer, can I consider this dream a valid document? Mishka

Reviving the old buoyant communities of folk memory

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:40:00 +0000

"Many of those fighting to keep a heart beating in the old communities believe that a nation which once gratefully took the coal, steel, textiles and ships they produced owe them something else. Self-help can only go so far. But it is living, enduring industry, they say, which sustains living, enduring communities." From an interesting (if a little dated) article found here.

Stoke Dream #1

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:00:00 +0000

This dream is back-dated, insofar as when I first had it I wasn't sure if it ought to be included on the blog or not. With the second Stoke dream arriving last night, it was time to include it.

"I'm in a car, heading into a brand-new estate of new-builds looking for my friend Jason. The problem is I've got three friends called Jason and they all live somewhere on this estate. I drive over cobbled speed-bumps, anxiously trying to recognize one of the squares I'm sure Jason lives on. Although I've been here before, the squares all look the same and none has attached itself in my memory to each of the Jasons I know. I'm running late now and get out of the car and go on foot, thinking this will speed up the search. The regimented houses have small paths in front of them that run the length of the facades. I'm walking along one when another friend Simon and his wife spot me from one of the windows. I haven't seen Simon for years and they come to their door to greet me and let me in. Simon is a best-friend from school, someone I used to be very close to. Feeling obliged to enter his house, I soon find myself in his small bedroom on a laptop, doing a Google search for Jason. That's when I notice his younger brother also in the room, lost amongst a drum kit in one corner of the room. Simon and I don't have much to talk about, so he shows me a tune he's learnt to play on his new piano - his latest hobby. I don't recognize the music - it seems jumbled to me, a bit of a mess - but out of politeness I smile and tell him it's nice, that he's got talent. We don't really talk much and I carry on googling, though get distracted by typing in Jason Streatham and ending up on a modelling website for Russian girls. Simon comes back into the room and tells me he knows Jason, though with further description, I realize it's not the same Jason I know. He points me in the direction of his friend Jason's house, towards an equally non-descript housing development across a strip of fluorescent grass. Keen to leave, I head towards it knowing it's not the right Jason, but too resigned to look elsewhere."

A new-build near Rachel Grant's home, photographed last November

The relationship between these dreams and the photographs makes me wonder which comes first? The images or the dreams? The place or the identity? Mishka

There's No Place Like Home

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:50:00 +0000

Interviews with the cast of the New Vic Theatre's production of the Wizard of Oz, which ran from the 26 November 2007 until the 19 January 2008. More information about the production here.

Sheryl / Dorothy

"I'm from Fife in Scotland. Stoke is very, very grey and dull and not magical like the Emerald City. The Emerald City is very green and 'wow' and Stoke is very grey and rubbish. I've been living in someone else's house here, I'm used to living in London so it's quite different, it's very quiet."

Alastair / The Cowardly Lion

"I'm based in London but originally from Yorkshire. When I first came here I was really confused because I expected one big city, but there are about five or six separate towns and potteries." How is it different to the Emerald City? "Well, you don't see many lions and tin men running around here."

Stephen / Tinman

"There's lots of things to do here, everyone's really happy. I've seen a lot of films here - I've seen everything going - you can ask me any question about a film. From the outset, it's a little bit dull here but once you go round the potteries and you see all these amazing potteries and stuff, you realize it's got a lot going for it. It's not as hip and happening as London but that's the way the cookie crumbles."

William / Scarecrow

"I've been working here for two and a half months, I like working here because the theater is incredible. We haven't got out much, it's very quiet here, everything seems to close by about 8 o'clock. You know you're in Stoke because of the monkey forest. It's a facility run by monkeys for monkeys. It's about 2 miles out, I really enjoyed that. You've got a lot of countryside around but I've been here in the winter so it's quite dreary, and wet. You don't see nearly as much dancing in the streets as you do in the Emerald City and you have a lot more Thai restaurants in Newcastle and a lot more hairdressers too."

Roger Brown - Visual Ethnographer

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:42:00 +0000

"I'm a documentary photographer and think of my work as both photography and anthropology. What I'm trying to do in Stoke is a visual ethnography, a deep immersion into a community. It's a very fragmented community and I've been concentrating on the more elderly of the population - the ones who are most effected by the changes taking place here. I like to work from the inside out, trying not to work like a journalist by just dropping in. I prefer to work with a much more substantial understanding to the place and it's people and the life and the culture, understanding how the whole thing begins to knit together.

If you said to me go anywhere I would go to Papua New Guinea. I've been fascinated by places like that ever since I was young when I used to read about Captain Cook and his travelers tales and exploits. That kind of thing is very romantic. The advantage I've got here is I speak the language, I've lived here for 25 years, I feel as though I already know a lot about Stoke-on-Trent. But the core problems for anthropologists are essentially the same, finding the right people to talk to, finding the gatekeepers."

Wrestlers at Ravenside Retail Park

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:44:00 +0000

On Sunday, we joined Gavin, Brian and Tom at Fitness First to witness them filming wrestlers in training using a 3D camera. More information about their exploits here. During the filming, we talked to the wrestlers about their work and hobbies, and took their portraits:

"Wrestling is a form of art, everything that you do is crafted. But if somebody gets hurt we don't call it art, we call it a mistake. I'm from Longton, I'd say it's a nice place to be, I'd say it's just right, but I don't like the traffic in the morning when I try and get to university. I'm thinking about starting a computer business when I leave uni, building them, fixing them, all that sort of stuff." Kyle, 21. Computer student (above).

"I'm a full-time father of two girls, so this is my release. You know how you use your camera as an expression of art? Well we use moves and our physique as our expression of art. It's so good it's like sex. You get slammed and it hurts but it feels good. You sit there saying 'I want another one. Please, do it again'. Every bump you take you just get up and do it again. you don't want it to end. If I pick you up for a power slam, people think 'oh, he just likes grabbing men - he's gay', but if somebody actually got into the ring and let me do a power bomb to them they'd look at it in a completely different way. If we don't land them right, it's gonna hurt." Jason, 23. Father of two (above).

"Wrestling is everything to me - I think about it 24/7. When I'm at work I'm thinking wrestling, I'm thinking what new costume can I wear, what new music can I come in to, what new moves can I do. It's always on my mind. When I see someone playing games I think how can I interpret that into something? It's life. You can actually take doorwork and wrestling and put them together. When I've been on the doors I've actually had to use wrestling moves to get people out. It's great to be able to combine them."

Would you say it was an art?
"It is - you can express yourself in a weird way. Other people see it as mindless violence. I've always loved drama, I used to want to get into stunt work and I found the best way to do it was through wrestling. I can act and I can do my stunt work at the same time and have fun with it." Dave, 23. Doorman (above).

"It's like drawing a picture, you've got to tell the audience a story when you wrestle. We buy these outfits off ebay, most of them come from America. They don't make them in Stoke as far as I know. The trousers cost about £30, and the shoes are £30 too. I used to live in Manchester but it's a lot better in Stoke. Manchester's rough, it's all guns and knives which is just not for me. It's normal here." Dave, 18. Sports Science student (above).

Louise Wood Coalville Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:39:00 +0000

Last night, Louise Wood held clay workshops with a group of Coalville residents at the Tenants and Residents Association Centre. See here for details of upcoming workshops in Coalville.

Despite a busy schedule, Louise was kind enough to allow us to photograph portraits of the participants and interview them about their lives in Coalville and their experiences of regeneration.

Left to right: Kyle, Chloe and Lewis

"I live with my sister in a care home. I love it there, I have my own bed. I like food, supper and tea. My dream house has a garden. I'd pick leaves up and put them in a bag. I'd cook my tea and wash up, have my own bed. Cozy bed. Big windows with big lights." Sharon.

"I've lived here half my life but I don't know where I was before then. I get peace and quiet because there's no children on my street, kids make too much noise. Everyone on my estate is going to have to move because we're having our houses knocked down because the builders are building a park thing. I'm not looking forward to it because I don't know where I'm going to live. I don't like my house because the builders are getting rid of the old house behind my house and all the mud keeps coming in our backyard and the dog keeps escaping. And it's noisy." Chantelle, 9 years old.

"I've lived in about four houses. I just keep moving. We moved off the estate, we lived on the estate, moved off, moved back on and then moved house because they weren't very good. I live at the bottom but there's no point spending any money on it because they're knocking it down to make the estate better. They give you application forms then a police check, and if they're all good, they'll think about giving you a house. I like it here because all my mates are here. It wouldn't feel right if you went anywhere else because you'd have to find loads of new mates again." What does regeneration mean to you? "It's where they destroy everything and make it again." Jack, 13 years old.

Three Men and a Pram-Cam

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:37:00 +0000

From Gavin Peacock's The Man From Icon: "Just back from Stoke and our PramCam excursion which was a great success. 15-18 miles of walking and 6 hours of footage. Started in Mier at around 6.45am and through Longton (15 minute stop under a railway bridge because of rain deciding whether to abort or not), Fenton, Stoke, Hanley, Burslem, Middleport and finished up in Tunstall at 3pm." Watch Gavin's video footage of the excursion here.

BM - Brian McClave
TW - Tom Wichelow
GP - Gavin Peacock
MH - Mishka Henner

MH: Something that really struck me that I've tried to capture in the pictures is that you're going past so many landscapes and buildings. Asian shops, funeral shops, boarded up buildings, new buildings. Is that something you were planning?
BM: We've deliberately planned a route through the city that in each area encompasses a variety of things from parkland to derelict areas, and nice areas. Variety has been the main director of the route.
GP: We've only had a vague route, planning a mile ahead almost but if we see something that looks interesting we'll follow our noses. But the plan was just to take in all six towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent. When we came the first time and drove around it didn't make sense to do something in just one area because there are these six separate towns with their own identities. So the idea of this film is to take in all six towns.
MH: Is there a theme running through all your films?
BM: We're dealing with issues of space and time and that ends up being refelected in the technology that we use - making stereoscopic three dimensional films. On a wider conceptual level, in terms of the ideas we're working on and the technology we're using, we're either slowing things down, speeding them up, or viewing them in three dimensions. We're looking at this place in terms of its history and its future by twisting time and manipulating spatial stuff in terms of the medium we're applying to it. What the outcomes will be like I don't know. We'll have a clearer idea of that when we look at it and assess it together.
TW: As we've been walking today, it's dawned on me just what we are going to see. It was planned to a certain extent. We followed our noses and for me that's the appeal of what we've done today. The places we've stumbled across have been delightful.
GP: It's an amazing way to find out about the place - walking through it in a day from top to bottom.
MH: You've probably done something that many people living here have never done. What would you say you've learnt from doing that?
TW: It's given us a great overall impression of the place. Almost waking up and seeing a place come to life, seeing how many people are around at a particular time, where the traffic is going, how people look at a particular time of the day. Just getting a feel and morale of the place.
BM: And the sense of the landscape. We've commented a lot as we've walked along about the different nuances of the landscape and how varied it is.
GP: They are six very different places that seemed to be joined by main roads more than anything else. There does still seem to be six separate towns joined by big roads.
MH: Does industry or traces of industry link them in any way?
BM: There's an over-riding sense of industry and decay wherever you look, and also of past wealth.

Keeping the Craft Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Liz and Mishka) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:51:00 +0000

Pottery chief claims industry is in a 'vicious circle': A leading pottery manufacturer has called for better wages in the industry and an end to switching production to other countries. Hugh Edwards, the executive chairman of Moorcroft says low pay and outsourcing has created a vicious circle'. From a BBC News website, Friday 16th August, 2002.

Video found at the Moorcroft Pottery website