Opening Times: The gallery is open before live performances and during the interval.
Current Exhibition: Art, Music, and Cultural Diversity
Artists: Shugufta Altaf, Grecia Balassone, Lydia Godsell-Morris, Robert Mcleod, Niamh Ritchie
Jackson Pollock’s large abstract paintings were intuitive, gestural, and performative. They were influenced by jazz music. The free jazz of Ornette Coleman et al. Jazz in turn was a musical form that had its roots in African American communities in the late 19th/early 20th century. The rhythm and syncopation of jazz influenced music across the world. And it shaped the Modernist art of the twentieth century to boot. Today, we live in a Post-Modern era (and, perhaps, in a post-Postmodern era) and music embraces traditions from across the world: flamenco, qawwali, gospel, klezmer and others.
In this exhibition, students of the BA (Hons) Fine Art programme at the University of Salford were invited to reflect upon music and diversity. The results are, predictably, different and embrace music and culture from around the world. Robert Mcleod presents an image of the great jazz vocalist Dinah Washington, derived from a still from the film, ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day’ (1957). Niamh Ritchie offers a large abstraction that draws inspiration from the same film, which captures the rhythms and syncopation of the music, and the mood of that bright summer’s day. Shugufta Altaf’s twin paintings examine the rhythms in Islamic pattern, decoration and ornamentation and hint at its aural corollary. Lydia Godsell Morris’ digitised Pop art ‘screen-print’ in Phototex assembles the key items for music production. Grecia Balassone works with an upcoming band to create a work for an album cover. A digital collage that is derived from film-maker Werner Herzog’s diary ‘When I rest, a mountain rests’.
The Fine Art programme would like to thank Dan Pickles at the University of Salford, and Fran Healey and Lucy Miller at Chethams School of music. Thank you to The Haworth Trust for their continued support of the Chetham’s Foundation pioneering Emerging Artists Scheme, supporting early career artists and musicians.