So, Sippel and I took the day yesterday to adventure around Salford, which is a town just a bit outside of Manchester. It's quite a pretty little corner, as the canal runs directly through the Salford Quays, allowing for lots of picturesque little footbridges and such.
Our first stop was at the Lowry, which holds two theatres and three gallery spaces. They have a permanent exhibit with the works of LS Lowry, an Mancunian artist with a penchant for industrial scenes and "matchstick men".
LS Lowry, Coming from the Mill, 1930
In addition to the Lowry permanent collection, there were two other exhibits on view, both of which were quite entertaining. The curators at the Lowry really strive to bring eclectic, family-friendly exhibits to the space, and their current exhibit on pop-up book art is no exception. Pop-Up Around the World presents popular monuments from around the globe in pop-up form, as well as a corner for gallery goers to create their own pop-ups. Good fun.
(My apologies for the low-quality photos. My camera has nearly reached its end...)
In addition to the kid-oriented exhibits (which are always my favorite), the Lowry also puts on some brilliant photo exhibitions. The current one presents photographs from the Guardian over the last century. A Long Exposure: 100 Years of Guardian Photography offers press photos in an art context, really allowing viewers to consider the skill and artistic eye of these images. It was quite interesting seeing the photograph in a gallery setting and then viewing it within the context of the newspaper. Indeed, the setting of an art piece has the ability to change its meaning.
After the Lowry, Kristy and I headed over to the Imperial War Museum. It was certainly a different experience from the war museums in the states, which are much more sterile. Upon entering the space, we found ourselves immersed in darkness with sounds of bombs and gunfire echoing throughout the hall. It was pretty intense, but makes clear the completely different attitude that most Brits have towards the world wars. Certainly, having these wars occur so close to home makes the British perspective inherently different than the American one. That aside, the museum housed some interesting relics, devoted a good deal of space to women in war, and ended with a pretty political message on modern-day warfare and the myth of peace.
I would have liked to explore the war museum more, but Kristy and I had to jet off back to Manchester for an exhibition opening at the Cornerhouse. We met Larissa and Zara there and took in the new exhibition, Interspecies, which included films on monkeys, a fish one could communicate with through electromagnetic impulses, and a performance piece of a woman living with a pig named Deliah for 36 hours. The exhibit was a tad incongruous, but was still interesting, particularly a film by Rachel Mayeri which explored the similarities between human and primate social interactions. Quite amusing, actually.
So, all in all, the day was pretty much brilliant. Moral of the story, Manchester has some interesting cultural offerings which are good fun to explore. Yet, the Manchester Art Gallery will still always be my favorite because it houses my Pre-Raphaelite loves. Le sigh.
Note: This didn't actually happen yesterday, but a few days ago. I am just lazy and didn't finish the post until this point. Between now and then... Kristy has left us to head back to Wisconsin-land. Tis a sad story, but it gave us the excuse we needed to have a kick ass going away party weekend. We will miss you, Sippel!
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