The people who history happened to
John Moores Painting Prize | Chris Killip: Askam-in-Furness | Robert Watson's 48 Hours in New York
“A really, really important exhibition for Northern-based artists,” is how Manchester School of Art graduate Ally Fallon, named this week as the youngest winner of the John Moores Painting Prize since 1957, described it. The Walker Art Gallery’s prize is a national competition with a huge reputation and an illustrious history - and it’s based outside of London. More of that please.
I was fully planning to see the exhibition this weekend before writing this newsletter, but I had a reunion of the 1960s Liverpool folk scene to get to yesterday (no I wasn’t around then but my parents were) and today I am driving to Staffordshire for Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, which takes place each year on the first Monday after the first Sunday after September 4. And yes I have checked six times that I’ve worked out the right date. But seeing Fallon’s playful work ’If You Were Certain, What Would You Do Then?’ and that of the other 70 finalists is on my list for this week along with Hill Station at RIBA North + TATE Liverpool (see lower down).
Before that, a reminder that Stored Honey’s subscription costs will be increasing on October 1 - but it won’t be going up for existing paid subscribers. So if you want to get it for the current cost of £4 per month (£40 for an annual subscription) then now’s the time - but please don’t do it through the iOS Substack app as Apple adds extra charges (explained here). As well as weekly posts like this one, paid members get a monthly guide to the best of what’s on in Liverpool, Manchester and across the North West, as well as new Meet the Artist features and curators’ picks of 5 things to see in their venue.
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Previously unseen images revealed in Chris Killip solo exhibition
The former department store on Barrow-in-Furness’ high street was a “leaky and ramshackle shadow of its former self” when £2m renovations began in 2011 to transform it into a creative media centre. But there was more than a shadow to work with - a grand red brick frontage in Victorian gothic style, a landmark on one of the main roads into the centre of town.
In 2021, Cooke’s Studios expanded into the building next door and launched an exhibition space, which has recently been refurbished and is where Signal Film & Media is launching two exhibitions featuring work by photographer Chris Killip.
Killip, one of the most influential British photographers of his generation for his documentation of Northern working class life, once said about his work: “History is what’s written, my pictures are what happened. It’s like a people’s history - the people who history happened to”. His images are snapshots of ordinary life - ordinary in the sense of “everyday”, but, as his lens reveals, what is for some people the everyday is for others quite extraordinary.
His solo exhibition, Askam-in-Furness, features pictures Killip took while spending time in the West Coast Cumbrian village in 1981 and 1982, immersing himself within the community and gaining people’s trust. It includes 20 silver gelatin prints, hand-printed by Killip himself and loaned by the Chris Killip Photography Trust and the Martin Parr Foundation.
Alongside these are 59 digital scans from negatives and an archive installation of previously unseen images, recently uncovered by Signal Film and Media during a research project that reconnected with some of the subjects of Killip’s original series of portraits. They include a young boy clutching a pigeon, cows ambling past Linda’s clothes store and the unbridged Askam pier.
Killip’s work also features in ONE YEAR! Photographs from the miners’ Strike 1984–85, marking the 40th anniversary of the year-long industrial action that defined a generation. Curated by Isaac Blease with images from the Martin Parr Foundation Collection, it explores the role photography played in documenting and resisting the pit closures.
The show also includes work by Brenda Prince, John Sturrock, Jenny Matthews, Roger Tiley, John Harris, Imogen Young, Phil Winnard and Howard Sooley, displayed alongside rare posters, badges, records and publications. Together, they span the full year of the strike and range from photo-journalism to photo-montage to albums compiled by Philip Winnard, who was himself a striking miner.
The infamous clashes between police and flying pickets are of course represented, but so is the camaraderie between those on strike and the activities of support groups such as Women Against Pit Closures. The contrast is powerful, as you can see in these two photographs…
Chris Killip: Askam-in-Furness and ONE YEAR! Photographs from the miners’ strike 1984–85 are presented by Signal Film and Media at Cooke’s Studios, Barrow-in-Furness, from Friday, September 19 to Saturday, November 1.
See your work featured in Stored Honey
If you’re an artist, actor, theatre maker, curator, director or producer, I’d love to hear more about your work. You can submit details of an exhibition, performance or cultural event via this short form or send me an email to tostoredhoney@gmail.com. If you would like to take part in Stored Honey’s regular Meet the Artist feature, please answer the questions in this Q&A form.
Latest arts news
⚽ I Am Steven Gerrard, Sean McLoughlin’s play about a young man whose dreams of embodying the Liverpool legend becomes a deeper exploration of what it means to be a man today, opens at the Epstein Theatre next week. Produced by Tip Tray Theatre and directed by Amy Roberts, it runs from Thursday, September 11 to Saturday, September 13.
⛵ Turner Prize winner Simon Starling is opening a solo exhibition at Abbot Hall in Kendal on Saturday, September 20. Boat Works brings together nearly all of his projects, including Island for Weeds and Houseboat for Ho, in which the boat takes centre stage as a symbol of migration, transformation, and change. It runs until Saturday, May 16, 2026.
🦟 A new exhibition at RIBA North + TATE Liverpool tells the story of a town in Sierra Leone that was constructed on the advice of Liverpool’s School of Tropical Medicine, following an expedition to the country in 1899 to research malaria prevention. The design included an exclusive enclave of “houses for Europeans” to be built on a plateau overlooking Freetown. Combining architectural model work and film, Hill Station explores architecture, colonialism and health segregation, and the complex links between two port cities of Liverpool and Freetown. Ends Sunday, November 16.
🐭 The UK tour of IDEAL, the 20th anniversary stage adaptation of the multi-award-winning BBC TV sitcom by the same name, launches at Lowry, Salford, on Monday (September 8). Johnny Vegas is reprising his role as ‘Moz’, Manchester’s longest serving weed dealer. Ends Saturday, September 13. It’s sold out but it’s always worth calling the box office on the day of a performance just in case any house seats have been released.
In case you missed it
Opening this week
Award-winning photographer Robert Watson fully immersed himself in New York for two days, diving deep into the bustling rhythm of the city to seek out the candid moments and diverse characters that define its vibrant culture and identity. He shot 27 rolls of film. The result is the exhibition 48 Hours in New York, which opens at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery on Friday, September 12 and runs until Sunday, October 26.
Last chance to see
Artist-researchers Ruairí Valentine and Tom Chachewitz’s Independents Biennial exhibition, CALL THE CATTLE HOME, is open on Saturdays in Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre until Saturday, September 20. They present a new body of work, including textiles, sculpture and sound, which charts a line between ancient pasts and modern magick in Wirral.
Thank you for reading the 143rd edition of Stored Honey. If you enjoyed what you read then please hit the ❤️ button as it helps to get it shown more widely.
I’m off now to pack some sturdy shoes for my trip to Abbots Bromley. In the meantime, you can submit details of an exhibition, performance or cultural event via this short form or send me an email to tostoredhoney@gmail.com. If you would like to take part in Stored Honey’s regular Meet the Artist feature, answer the questions in this Q&A form.
Have a great week,
Laura
P.S. A fascinating insight into the Greenham Common Peace Camp
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