A video as part of an ongoing installation using shredded paper. In this video I am looking at my experience of boarding school through reading my old school reports, shredding them, and then making them into a hanging sculpture.
Readers: Monica Sagar & Roger Bygott
Camera director: Judith Chan
Sound: Jonny Pratt
Editor: Richard Addlessee
Production Assistant: Jenni Laine
Venue: Federation House: Castlefield New Art Spaces
Short video experimenting with gif animation frames.
A one minute video reflection on the Buddhist notions of impermanence and rebirth.
My Open Studio was part of the official launch of Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces at Federation House on Thursday 13 March from 6-9pm.
4-500 visitors came for this vibrant opening. Lot’s of helpful comments and conversations with artists, friends and guests. People seemed to pick up on the dream-like quality of my work. ‘Magical’ was a word that came up. More critical artists asked about my reasons for using shredded paper and further implications of the work. I appreciated the spectrum of comments.
Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces (NAS) is an initiative to create dynamic project spaces for artists, artist collectives and artists development agencies. Making use of temporary vacant retail, office and light industrial units, NAS provides opportunities for emerging creatives to incubate their practices, produce work and showcase new art to local communities. Currently CG runs New Art Spaces in Leigh, Widnes, Salford and city centre Manchester.
Great to see your beautiful work earlier this evening Roger.Â
Best of luck,
Fran Toms (Lead Cultural Development officer Manchester City Council)
Installation view
‘Mother & Child’
(Photo by John Lynch)
Speeches at 6:30pm on the 6th floor by:
Maria Balshaw
(Director Whitworth and Manchester Art Galleries, and Manchester City Council’s Strategic Lead for Culture)
Alison Clark-Jenkins
(Director Combined Arts and North for Arts Council England)
Martyn Hulme
(Managing Director Co-operative Estates The Co-operative Group)
Address: Federation Building, Manchester, Corner of Federation St and Balloon St
Exhibitions and open studios were on all 8 floors:
Lower Ground floor MARS / Upper Ground floor Curated Place, CSV, DIY Art School, and Lauren Sagar & Sharon Campbell / 1St floor Mark Devereux Projects / 2nd floor Greg May, Molly Smyth, Saoirse Higgins, Julie Del’Hopital, Holly Rowan Hesson & Lisa Denyer, and TEA / 3rd floor Filmonik / 4th floor Roger Bygott, and Charma Force & Rafael Perez (guest exhibition) / 5th floor Sam Meech, Kathryn Miller, Darren Nixon, Huw Wahl, James Bloomfield, and Pool Arts / 6th floor TOAST
Well, this Open Studio went really well. I lost count of how many came, but the adjacent ‘Serendipity’ show must have pulled in over 100 people, so lots of people drifted in as well as my invited guests. Friends and visitors included: Cary Young, Mark Kennard (of Bureau), Nicola Ellis, Â Dave Griffiths, Annie Harrison, and Annie Carpenter.
Arnie Pollock made this short video doc of me describing my installation:
In the lineage of Magritte’s ‘Ceci nest pas use pipe”….
NOTE: Best played in full screen.
A reflective and possibly sinister piece…
Playful performance piece using stop-motion. No audio (probably needs some music).
This is a video documentation of the Body Stories IOU Halifax residency. It is in two parts: the first sweeping across the installation elements; the second showing clips from the performance where we shared the work in progress to an invited audience.
The work went on to be developed at Huddersfield Art Gallery later in the year: Body Stories HAG
A sweep through the Unit X Blue Sky Thinking exhibition…..
A collection of work from the Manchester School of Art- Unit X: Design Festival Project.
Blue Sky Thinking is the product of Manchester School or Art (MMU)’s Unit X project at the Bench Self Made Gallery. The exhibition showcases their plans for the ultimate Manchester Design Week festival.
The students use innovative and unexpected media and materials to plan the concept demonstrated via the models, audio, film and textile samples on show.
Delving into the local community to find out what the people of Manchester would like to see in a design festival on their doorstep. Students filmed and recorded interviews with residents and businesses creating the great video and audio footage collated in the gallery.
Plans include a proposed footbridge to connect Ancoats to the Northern Quarter, a night festival to run in conjunction with daytime events and community workshops. Models of pop-up structures to be built to house events at the festival will also feature. Throughout April and May Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, have taken over the Bench Self Made Gallery with their Unit X Design Festival, as one of its external studios.
The evolving backdrop of exhibitions, music and events that have been running at the Bench Self Made Gallery alongside the project have encouraged students to focus on experimental ways of thinking and working, which can clearly be seen in the outcomes of the project.
Interactive Arts Enquiry 