Being Here Exhibition @ Manchester Art Gallery.

magpieant

magpieant

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The inlaws were down today - and my wife was going shopping with her mother.

Saying as I can't drink at the moment (antibiotics :'( ), the pub was out of the question - so decided to take my father in law to Manchester Art Gallery.

I had seen the Being Here exhibition advertised and quite fancied it. (Several groups of people documenting their lives in Manchester using a range of camera - polaroid, digital, pinhole, etc).

However, how wrong could I be? The exhibtion itself is not set out as prints, and is in fact displayed on a loop on a Tv screen. The images are absolute cr*p, (subjective view admittedly) and presented with little or no information as to what they mean to the artist.

Photographically (is that a word?) wise the images are very poor (Being polite now).

I was really disappointed with the exhibition - just wondered if anyone else has visited it or had anything to do with it? Would like to hear other peoples views.

Anth.

PS - my father in law thought it was cack too !!! ;)
 
LOL I haven't been to see this. Don't think I'll bother now... :)

Was it a freebie?
I must admit since getting into photography, I've become more tolerant of those that call something 'art' which might not look like much to a non-art eye, so to speak...

But when I went to the Tate Liverpool, I could hardly contain my disappointment, I sounded like Jim Royle walking round..

"Art? That's not art, he's just sneezed on a piece of paper!"
 
Marcel,

Yeah - Manchester Art Gallery free - so nothing lost.

It's not really a case of it not being art, it's just the whole thing was badly done. The article I read recommending it made it sound like it was a well presented set of prints, organised showing people's life experiences in Manchester.

When you see it, it is in fact 3 TV screens (albeit Plasma's !!) on a loop. The photos themselves are very poor - e.g. a close up of a blokes train set in his loft in which the flash was too close and too strong - so it's a white blob with wheels.

Very disappointing.

Dunno if it is still on, or if you have been - but the football/world cup photography exhibition at the Lowry is miles better. We went a few months ago on a talk by Eammon McCabe - £5 very well spent.

Anth,
 
I recently had a look at a photo exhibition at my local arts centre. and as much as I consider myself artistic and open minded, I really just didn't 'get' what it was all about. It was just a load of bad shots of building rubble and brownfield sites. I think sometimes so called 'art' has just become so up itself that it loses the whole point. A few weeks however I went to another exhibition in Newcastle by a polish photographer, and there were some very understated yet stunning photographs. He had shot pics showing a snapshot of Poland through ordinary people and objects. Some really nice B&W pics of steelworkers etc.
 
I agree entirely mate.

It makes me sick sometimes.

Take for example the aforementioned art gallery .... one of the exhibitions there was a few bits of carpet, some old piping, a broken cricuit board and a piece of card - all with magnets on them back of them.

The 'exhibition' involved the public sticking these things on to a magnetic whiteboard to 'express' themselves!!!!

My arse!

Think of how often we have stood in the cold adjusting lenses, apertures, tripods, etc to compose the perfect shot and got nowt for it!

Really does take you back to the days when that bloke sh*t in a box and sold it for hundreds!!!!

Anth
 
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