My exhibition is nearly here!
Opening night is 6pm - 8pm 13 March.
It runs from 13 March - 5 April at Fabric Gallery, 33A Broadway, Bradford (opposite HMV)
"Bradford gets a bad press. Media depictions of the city are not always flattering, often focussing on divided communities and recession stricken highstreets.
Why would anyone live here? Personally, I don’t take such a dim view of the place, I find it a very interesting city to walk around. There still stands many an indicator of its industrial heyday, when some of the finest examples of civic architecture in the country were built. They stand incongruously next to relics of 60s and 70s town planning, well meaning in their vision of a modernist utopia but often short sighted and unfinished. Bradford’s long history of immigrant communities can be seen everywhere, from Little Germany to the Westgate Mosque.
I am fascinated by what immigrants who move to the city make of the place. Do they see beauty or decay; familiarity or an alien world? Do they see home? Whenever I travel abroad I see the “exotic”, which is essentially the difference between that place and home. Whether it be the abandoned Russian military buildings in Paldiski or the desert fort of Jaisalmer, the landscape and architecture contrasts starkly from my home town and is all the more compelling for that. Could the same be true of Bradford seen for the first time?
Conversely, I am always drawn to small indicators, uncannily familiar landmarks in an otherwise alien city. It might be a church, a town hall or even a whole street that appears to have been miraculously transported from England. Of course it is no miracle, it was an attempt by the immigrant British communities to make the alien more familiar, to make a home from a foreign land. In a reversal of this, the immigrant communities of Bradford have done the same in building a mosque, a temple, a Polski Sklep or a synagogue, often in a style very different from the surrounding buildings but one that they would feel at home with. This all adds to form a rich and visually diverse landscape in the city of Bradford and one which I have tried to focus on in this exhibition. These paintings stand next to cityscapes chosen from countries with a strong connection to Bradford, namely India, China, Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia. The exotic can be found in the most mundane places, it all depends on what home is to you."
Opening night is 6pm - 8pm 13 March.
It runs from 13 March - 5 April at Fabric Gallery, 33A Broadway, Bradford (opposite HMV)
"Bradford gets a bad press. Media depictions of the city are not always flattering, often focussing on divided communities and recession stricken highstreets.
Why would anyone live here? Personally, I don’t take such a dim view of the place, I find it a very interesting city to walk around. There still stands many an indicator of its industrial heyday, when some of the finest examples of civic architecture in the country were built. They stand incongruously next to relics of 60s and 70s town planning, well meaning in their vision of a modernist utopia but often short sighted and unfinished. Bradford’s long history of immigrant communities can be seen everywhere, from Little Germany to the Westgate Mosque.
I am fascinated by what immigrants who move to the city make of the place. Do they see beauty or decay; familiarity or an alien world? Do they see home? Whenever I travel abroad I see the “exotic”, which is essentially the difference between that place and home. Whether it be the abandoned Russian military buildings in Paldiski or the desert fort of Jaisalmer, the landscape and architecture contrasts starkly from my home town and is all the more compelling for that. Could the same be true of Bradford seen for the first time?
Conversely, I am always drawn to small indicators, uncannily familiar landmarks in an otherwise alien city. It might be a church, a town hall or even a whole street that appears to have been miraculously transported from England. Of course it is no miracle, it was an attempt by the immigrant British communities to make the alien more familiar, to make a home from a foreign land. In a reversal of this, the immigrant communities of Bradford have done the same in building a mosque, a temple, a Polski Sklep or a synagogue, often in a style very different from the surrounding buildings but one that they would feel at home with. This all adds to form a rich and visually diverse landscape in the city of Bradford and one which I have tried to focus on in this exhibition. These paintings stand next to cityscapes chosen from countries with a strong connection to Bradford, namely India, China, Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia. The exotic can be found in the most mundane places, it all depends on what home is to you."
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