All art is equal in the world according to Delaine Le Bas
Discover Un-Play-Ground at The Whitworth, Manchester
I’m about to break one of the laws of digital publishing - suggesting you click through to read something else right at the top of my own post. But I started this morning reading the latest edition of food writer Mark Diacono’s newsletter Abundance about the Stockport recording studio used by everyone from Neil Sedaka to Joy Division - and I think Stored Honey readers will enjoy it as much as I did.
It turns out that Mark’s music writing is every bit as good as his food writing - interesting, funny and filled with the level of detail that helps you imagine yourself into the story. And to think I was going to use this space to tell you a daft story about the time I interviewed Neil Sedaka about his pet parrot.
This is a free post for everyone but if you do decide to support my writing by becoming a paid subscriber then you will receive lots of extra content including a monthly guide to the best of what’s on in Liverpool, Manchester and across the North West, as well as Meet the Artist features, curators’ picks of 5 things to see in their venue and the Stored Honey podcast. Either way - thank you for reading.
Huge names features in Delaine Le Bas’ exhibition - but you won’t find them written on labels
It’s the day before Delaine Le Bas’s exhibition opens at The Whitworth and the 2024 Turner Prize nominee is tearing shreds of paper from the wall. It’s unexpected and slightly unnerving until you see what she is revealing behind it.
She is standing inside her Witch House (2026), a structure covered with wallpaper printed with a painting she made in 2005 that featured a slogan from The S*n newspaper - “Meet Your Neighbours” - backing a campaign by the Conservative Party to strip Gypsy Roma and Traveller people of their human rights. It’s a “destructive rhetoric that disgusts me whenever I see it,” Le Bas has written in a guide to the exhibition. Her Romany heritage is just one of the many influences in her work, which include her studies in fashion design and her deep engagement with folklore and witchcraft.
At the centre of Witch House is a glass display case containing neatly laid out pairs of shoes made in Serbia around 1900. The ceiling is made of calico with geometric shapes cut out.
As Le Bas determinedly rips at the wallpaper, the assembled journalists whip out their phones and start filming. It’s a seemingly incongruous mash up of the Insta age and the folky setting, but then this is an exhibition that places everything on the same level - all work, whether created by a Turner Prize nominee, an established Modernist or an “Outsider Artist”, is displayed without labels.
The image behind the wallpaper is gradually revealed to be Joan Miro’s Le Chien Bleu. On another wall is William Blake’s The Ancient of Days frontispiece. In the same space are works by Paula Rego, Giorgio de Chirico, Madge Gill and Ken Pratt. If you know these works, you know their significance in (or exclusion from) the art historical narrative, and your viewing is flavoured by that knowledge. If you aren’t already familiar with them, and with no labels to guide you, every work has equal status.
Some of the people she creates art with and for don’t feel comfortable in traditional galleries, explains Le Bas. And so she has painted the floors and hung the walls with calico to make it less intimidating and more of an installation to step inside, filled with key pieces of her own art, alongside work from Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection and items from the Whitworth’s collection.
There are many specific reasons to visit Un-Fair-Ground - to be overwhelmed by the scale of the mural Le Bas painted at Glastonbury Festival, to be cheered by Niki de Saint Phalle’s joyous Nana screen-printed wallpaper, or to be haunted by Madge Gill’s crowds of staring faces, drawn according to the instructions of her spirit guide.
But more is to gained by wandering the spaces in the gallery, untethered to a particular story or concept and eavesdropping as the works speak to each other.
Delaine Le Bas: Un-Fair-Ground is at The Whitworth, Manchester, until Sunday 31 May.
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 by sending details and an image to laura@lauracdavis.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 or if you don’t like filling in forms I can send you the questions via email.
In case you missed it
Now booking
The Beekeeper of Aleppo is touring to Storyhouse in Chester next month in a stage adaptation of Christy Lefteri’s best-selling novel produced by the team behind The Kite Runner. Nuri is a beekeeper who lives with his artist wife Afra in beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo. When all they care for is destroyed by war they are forced to escape. Tuesday 21 April to Saturday 25 April. (Also at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre from Tuesday 26 May to Saturday 30 May.)
Last chance to see
Turner Prize winner Simon Starling’s solo exhibition, Boat Works, at Abbot Hall in Kendal 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. Ends Saturday 14 March.
One for the diary
Art After Dark returns to Birkenhead for a second year on Friday 20 March with more venues signed up to take part in a night of art, creativity and community. It will include a showcase of locally-based creative talent at Make Hamilton, and exhibition by Wirral-based photographer and artist Alan McAleavey at Start-Yard and live printing at Play Play Play.
Thank you for reading the 171st edition of Stored Honey. If you enjoyed it then please tap the❤️ button to help this newsletter be seen by more people.
I’m off now to commit the divisive act of eating a Hot Cross bun well before Easter.
Have a great week,
Laura
Stored Honey is a member of the Independent Media Association, and adheres to its Code of Conduct.
