Another dark and unloved corner of Manchester city centre was briefly illuminated once more this weekend by an artist-led series of events called The VERB Projects.
Continuing with its manifesto to create site responsive art and its particular approach to curating, this exhibition took place in a former Christian bookshop on Brazennose street and, once again, made for challenging and thought provoking viewing.
The first impression upon arrival is that our Christian friends have literally just taken their books and left, leaving behind a kind of lived in clutter, which to a degree is true. It’s only after a second look that you realise the exhibition you’ve come to view resides amongst it.
Furniture, shelves and waste bins were stacked to create an abstract screen upon which negatives were projected. A menacing structure that seemed to stalk the whole space as if trying to claim it back for itself. The images projected onto it became fractured as if being chewed up and broken by the very thing they are screened on.
Hoover bags hung from the ceiling surrounded by fallen pennies, the product of an interactive challenge to throw the coins into the bags. A statement on the fluidity of moneys perhaps? Or our inability to hang onto it?
Scratch still further and you find four draws each housing an abstract cynotype print of old Christian text, a nod to the site’s former use and a comment on the steady disappearance and importance of organised religion in contemporary society. Close the draws and it’s gone again. Out of sight, out of mind.
Posters hang in the disused window but unlike the surrounding units these don’t read ‘To Let’ but instead offer internal and abstract meditations. Snippets of thought that then direct the reader onto his or her own private monologue.
This was fascinating art, made more so by the artists’ reaction to the space they were working with. This is an entirely different viewing experience to anything you would find in Manchester’s established galleries. You are forced to work at it and that in itself is refreshing.
A brilliant exhibition, but as of 6pm last night, it was gone. Like life, these exhibitions are fleeting; you won’t want to miss the next one.
The VERB Project #4 was curated by Kathryn Miller. The artists involved were Kathryn Miller, Rebecca Rodgers, Tom Evans, Hazel Robert and Benny Plimmer.
Details of forthcoming events and archives of previous events can be found by visiting www.verbmanchester.com
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