Barbara Walker - Being Here

'To be an artist, to create in times of adversity, is to be optimistic. I have sought to make 'positive' images, or images that will have a positive impact. I love working with people who  are not used to having their voices heard. People who are often made visible in only the worst ways. I want to help make people visible in the best ways possible, by creating affirming images that speak of and to humanity'.

Being Here, by Barbara Walker

at the Whitworth, Manchester.

This is the first survey of Walker's work and brings together over 70 artworks, spanning the last 25 years. From small, detailed drawings on archival documents to monumental wall drawings, Walker combines exquisite technical skill with a critical eye on the social and political realities that shape black lives in Britain today.Walker experiments with techniques of visibility and erasure - enlarging, cutting-out, obscuring - to speak truth to power and prompt us to consider how we can collectively shape black futures.

End of the Affair, 2023, (graphite, charcoal, pastel and conte on Somerset Satin paper)

This self-portrait responds to the classical Greek myth of Leda and the Swan. The original story describes how Zeus transforms into a magnificent swan and 'seduces' (rapes)  Leda, queen of Sparta. This well-told story of antiquity has been depicted by many (mostly male) artists form the Italian Renaissance to today. Here, Walker retells this myth on her own terms, asserting herself as a powerful version of Leda who stands defiant, centre stage, in front of an emasculated Zeus.

Private Face:

Although drawing is recognised as Walker's primary technique, she initially trained as a painter. This post presents paintings from Private Face, her first body of work. They depict family and friends, and everyday scenes from Afro-Caribbean communities in Birmingham.

Responding to the negative stereotyping of black communities in the media, Walker set out to redefine perceptions of black life. Inspired by Birmingham's rich history of social documentary photography, she carried a camera around the city, building trust with sitters and taking photographs she later translated onto canvas. Individuals are captured on their own terms in closely observed, quiet moments. In scenes from a Pentecostal church, barbershops and markets, Walker captures spaces 'where the rituals and ceremonies of everyday black life occur'.

Attitude, 1998, (oil on canvas)

Boundary I, 2000, (oil on canvas)

'Boundary I centers on a barbershop, a familiar presence throughout the area of Handsworth, Birmingham, in which I grew up. I wanted to present a sensitive, empathetic interpretation of one of the very few spaces in which black men can freely congregate and fraternise. I have tried to capture a sense of the trust, mutual respect and affection that exists. As a woman seeking to document such scenes, I am in some respects an outsider. I have tried to use that outsider status to document rituals and spaces that might at first glance appear ordinary but are of profund importance and great beauty'.

Boundary II, 2000, (oil on canvas)

The Ritual, 2001, (oil on canvas)

Untitled, 2000, (oil on canvas)

Assembly 2005, (acrylic on canvas)

Pride, 2001, (oil on canvas)

The Sitter, 2002, (oil on canvas)

Peacemaker, 2001, (oil on canvas)

Zipporah, 2002, (oil on canvas)

There Is No Place

There Is No Place by Jakkai Siributr at the Whitworth, Manchester.

There's No Place explores ideas of home and belonging and particularly, of not having a home. For the last five years, Siributr, a Thai artist, has worked with mostly young Shan refugees who have lived in the Koung Jour Shan Refugee Camp on the Thai Maynmar border. The project highlights the challenges faced by the participants who are not recognised by the Thai authorities. Siritbutr asks us to regard the individuals with empathy. 'They are just like any other kids. They have their phones and access to the internet. They have dreams and hopes. But because of being stateless, they won't have good prospects in life'.

As part of the on-going collaborative embroidery project, inhabitants at the camp have recorded their interests and experiences onto stitched embroidered story cloths. The artist then invites members of the public to respond by adding to the embroideries using black, white and grey yarn. These are incorporated into the installation, presenting a collaborative conversation expressed through stitch.

 

The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.

We enjoyed our visit to the Whitworth. The main building is Grade II listed, built between 1895 and 1900 in a free Jacobean style. It consists of two storeys and a basement. In 2013, the gallery closed for refurbishment and re-opened in 2015, transformed so that it doubled its exhibition spaces, and opened itself to its surrounding park.

The development includes expanded gallery areas, a learning studio, study centre and an art garden and cafe. Developers constructed a glass, stainless steel and brick extension consisting of two wings which extend into Whitworth park from the back of the gallery building. The wings are connected by a glass promenade.

The gallery has notable collections of watercolours, sculptures, wallpapers and textiles. Some of the exhibitions at the Whitworth are made up from works in the permanent collection. In order to ensure proper conservation of the artworks the Whitworth does not have any artworks on permanent display.

Bernard Schottlander, Terminal, 1964

It was lunchtime by the time we arrived, so the first thing we did go to the cafe to have some lunch.

It's a fabulous space, 

and everyone can enjoy great views of the park

There were four temporary exhibitions on so after a delicious lunch we started viewing the art

Views of the park are available from a lot of the modern extension galleries

There was an exhibition of textiles by Sally Craven

and a lot more, including, Nude Woman, Peter Lanyon, (gouache, pen and ink, pencil and black chalk)

Sybil Marjorie Atteck, Althea McNish, (oil on masonite)

When we finished with the exhibitions we went for a walk around the park

where it is possible to get a good view of the outside of the building

the cafe

a silver tree

another view of the cafe

a good view of the length of the building, the marriage of the old and the new

Michael Lyons, Phalanx, 1977, (painted steel)

and we slowly made our way to the front of the building

Ancoats

During our last morning in Manchester, we left the Northern Quarter and entered Ancoats, an area of the city that has been transformed almost unrecognisably in recent years. For many years, from the late 18th century onwards, Ancoats was a thriving industrial district, home to some of the largest mills that established Manchester's reputation as 'Cottonopolis'. The area suffered accelerating economic decline from the 1930s. In recent years the area has been transformed almost unrecognisably. The former factories that characterise 'the world's first industrial suburb', remain however, as do the names of the streets named after Manchester's violent Victorian Scuttlers gangs, such as Bengal Street for the Bengal Tigers.

The mills and factories have been turned into elegant flats, and there is an influx of new independent bars and restaurants, making Ancoats one of the hippest places in the UK

We soon arrived to Cutting Room Square the heart of the district. 

Halle St Peters, the principal recording and rehearsal venue for the Halle Orchestra, a Grade II listed building, dominates the square. The building is a regular host to concerts, events and weddings.

The streets are dominated by the massive cotton-mills

which are now gated residential units.

Looking in

We moved on to Rochdale canal

This canal boat caught our attention

skulls at every window.

The sculptural bridge in the distance leads to Ancoats Marina, a waterside wharf which is the border between Ancoats and New Islington.

We stopped to have a look at the mill buildings on this side of the canal. It took me back to when I read Elisabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton where the conditions of the mill workers in Manchester are described. Children starving before their parents' eyes; workers living in damp, unheated basement rooms, many dying of disease and starvation; the ill tossing on damp beds under piled clothing for lack of warm blankets.

 

We crossed this amazing bridge

view from the bridge

A whole boating community on the other side of the bridge, moored in a selection of narrowboats.

The whole area has been redeveloped with tons of apartment buildings

and bridges connecting everything

In the midddle of all these high-rises and the bridges, a pocket-sized park, Cotton Field Park

and swans, geese and ducks

and a small human-made island in the middle

Through the gate on the bridge

a main road

and we retraced our steps

past a series of adverts for the new development - they all seem to be for renting, rather than for sale

and back to the bridge, and the old cotton mills facing us.

I kept looking at these massive buildings, all cotton mills, and I could not help but wonder what it was like during the Industrial Revolution and I thought of Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England'.

Engels wrote it during his 1842-44 stay in Salford and Manchester, the heart of the Industrial Revolution. In it he argues that the Industrial Revolution made workers worse off. He shows, that in large industrial cities such as Salford, Manchester and Liverpool, mortality from disease was four times that in the countryside, and mortality from convulsions was ten times as high. The overall death-rate in Manchester and Liverpool was significantly higher than the national average. He focused on both the workers' wages and their living conditions. He argued that the industrial workers had lower incomes than their pre-industrial peers and they lived in more unhealthy and unpleasant environments.

We crossed the bridge again

We came upon the boat we had seen from across the canal - a proper skeleton this time

Another bridge, Victorian this time

We got to Great Ancoats Street, we had come full circle, and stopped at Gran T's coffee house for some lunch

It's a great place: lovely atmosphere, great food and the staff are particulatly helpful.