Folk Archive
Blackpool Illuminations light up Salford Quays, as part of Folk Art exhibition, featuring gurning, graffiti, vegetable sculptures & a mechanical elephant!
Folk Archive: contemporary popular art from the UK
22 July – 17 September 2006
Family Fun Day – Sunday 23 July, 1 – 3pm
For the very first time Blackpool Illuminations will be dazzling visitors to The Lowry Galleries this summer with an electrical extravaganza, showing as part of the exhibition Folk Archive, 22 July – 17 September. Folk Archive is a celebration of the creative life of ordinary people and the FIRST exhibition of UK contemporary folk art for over 50 years.
From gurning and graffiti to tapestry and sculptures made from vegetables, Folk Archive is a fascinating and provocative exhibition. It presents an astonishing collection of documentation and works from scarecrows to needlework, sculpture to performance, as well as video, drawings and paintings. Brought together by artists Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller (2004 Turner Prize winner) Folk Archive celebrates folk art’s dynamic and influential role in British culture today.
A selection of Blackpool's world famous Illuminations will feature in this unusual exhibition. The Lowry will have its very own switch on of Blackpool illuminations on the opening weekend of the exhibition. Visitors can expect the unexpected at this Folk Archive Family Fun Day on Sun 23 July from 1 - 3pm.
Free to everyone, visitors can participate in activities like vegetable sculpture making and marvel at a gurner, who will be showing off his amazing talent at facial distortion. On the plaza outside The Lowry, Snowdrop, a life size mechanical elephant, will give rides to children. Morris dancers and clog dancers will demonstrate their flair for traditional folk displays. All children will receive a stick of special Lowry rock to take home!
LS Lowry admired the vitality of folk art – “art produced by untrained artists” – and no doubt visitors to The Lowry will agree with his view when they see the wealth of diverse work on show in Folk Archive.
A wide range of individuals and groups have contributed to this exhibition including the Women’s Institute, the Cumbrian town of Egremont, car modifiers, gurners, tar barrel rollers, prisoners and political protesters. Exhibits include a cigarette shaped funeral wreath, contemporary trade union banners and a crash helmet shaped as a skull.
Folk art has often contained a narrative or commemorative element: an alternative story, sometimes bursting with humour or injected with bold political statements. It often comprises paintings created by untrained artists and handmade, highly decorated objects, where the labour involved far exceeds practical or monetary value. Folk Archive considers how folk art has adapted in light of social, cultural and technological developments. It also looks to increase the profile of creativity that lies outside the recognised cultural industries and, as such, is often overlooked or undervalued.
Also showing at The Lowry over the summer is two more exhibitions: A City’s Pride, Salford’s entire collection of LS Lowry’s work, comprising over 350 paintings and drawings, and Flood. Bristol-based artist, Howard Silverman is flooding the Galleries with a river of corrugated cardboard.
The real Blackpool Illuminations shine from 1 Sept - 5 Nov 2006 visit www.visitblackpool.com for more details
Folk Archive: contemporary popular art from the UK is a national touring exhibition by Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller, co-ordinated by Bruce Haines and supported by Arts Council England and The Elephant Trust.
Its accompanied by an artists’ book by Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller, with an essay by Jeremy Millar, edited by Bruce Haines and published by Book Works. ISBN: 1 870699 81 5. www.booksworks.org.uk.
Posted on Friday, 07 July 2006 under Press Galleries Press