The Penthouse

Established in 2012 as an experimental art studio and project space in Manchester’s Northern Quarter by artist / curators Rosanne Robertson & Debbie Sharp (not just good friends) The Penthouse built its foundations on experimentalism, DIY attitude, action and as a test bed for over 300 artists. The Penthouse has been described as: elevating Manchester’s Underground to the top floor of a tower block- The Wire delivering Manchester’s best sound art show on our New York tour- The Bushwick Daily. ad hoc art space the Penthouse...is the best of the Northern Quarter Alt City Guide to Manchester- The Guardian The hands on environment is unlike any other… encouraging experimentation like nowhere else- The Skinny We have challenged and explored our position as artist led and Dyke|Queer led from all angles via residencies, workshops, talks and actions including our curatorship of Bill Drummond’s Curfew Tower, Noise Above Noise sound art series, Might & Main residency and symposium and when invited to contribute to programs at People’s History Museum The Queers Are Revolting, Royal Standard’s Dark Matter, Castlefield Gallery’s Cpages, University of Manchester’s Contemporary Feminist Activism series and The David Hockney Gallery LGBTQ+ symposium. Our relationship with experimentation, live art, sound, the senses and the site specific has been Queer in our disregard for boundaries between artists, the personal and audiences. Our voice has not been governed, we refuse censorship and institutionalisation. We encourage artists to explore all subjects personal to them in a fearless way, we have worked with artists whose work has been censored and stolen by police and we have provided safe space for exploration of body, sexuality, identity, politics and activism. As artists whose lesbian identity informs our personal practice we understand how vital it is to have a space to be and follow our deepest lines of enquiry in a place where mistakes don’t exist with support and connection to other Queers and artists across art forms. During 2017 The Penthouse hosted the 5th Queer Art Show: REVOKE curated by Debbie Sharp. Queer Art Show has showcased Manchester’s local Queer emerging and established visual artists since 2010 and supported artists who have experienced boundaries to the exhibition of work. 2017 has seen The Penthouse move from our first home on the top of Hilton House- a building that provided a valuable start full of freedom, square footage and skyline- into Paradise Works- an artist run initiative on the Manchester and Salford border providing studio space to 30 intergenerational artists and projects whose outlook is local, national and international "we believe artists hold a vital role in the development of a vibrant and diverse city."

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GUILD

We are really pleased to have been selected to be apart of The Guild project, which will help The Penthouse develop over the next 3 years. We have some really exciting plans which we will be telling you about soon as well as this we will be redeveloped our website over the coming months to archive the past 6 years and to showcase the new work we will be doing. So keep posted. 

Julie Lomax, chief executive of a-n, said about Guild and the artist led

“Artist-led spaces and projects are important to sustaining artistic practice, offering the space for experimentation, research and the production of new work, all of which builds an international reputation for the UK, brings communities together and contributes to the UK economy.”

The Guild Project 

A-N on GUILD by East Street Arts - a program we are very excited to have been selected for.

20 artist-led organisations selected to join East Street Arts’ national project on the future of artists’ spacesOver the next three years, the organisations will be part of the GUILD project, a comprehensive programme of research, mentoring, tailored support, and infrastructure and space development

East Street Arts has selected 20 artist-led organisations across England to join its GUILD project, a comprehensive programme of research, mentoring, tailored support, and infrastructure and space development.

The Arts Council England-supported initiative was created in 2018 by the Leeds-based organisation in partnership with a-n The Artist Information Company, Key Fund, University of Salford, University of Leeds, Stockholm Institute for Environment and Locality.

Over the next three years, GUILD will explore how towns and cities can develop and support artists’ spaces. It will look at how spaces can sustain creative practice and how artists can work with developers and communities to create the kind of sustainable spaces that meet the changing needs of the sector. In doing it, it hopes to determine what form the artists’ spaces of the future will take.

The organisations selected for GUILD are: Abingdon Studios, Blackpool; Artworks, Halifax; Assembly House in Leeds; Margate-based Bon Volks Studios; Double Elephant Print Workshop, Exeter; Dyad Creative, Norwich; Fish Factory, Penryn, Cornwall; Shy Bairns, Salford; Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth, Derbyshire; Bristol-based Bricks; Southampton’s K6 Gallery; Leeds-based Live Art Bistro (LAB); Navigator North, Middlesbrough; Ort Gallery, Balsall Heath in Birmingham; PROFORMA from Greater Manchester; The Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading; The Penthouse, Manchester/Salford; Two Queens, Leicester; Caraboo, Bristol; and Manchester-based The Travelling Heritage Bureau.

Karen Watson, artistic director at East Street Arts, said: “We are really looking forward to developing the relationships and getting to know the artists’ spaces involved within the GUILD programme. We started East Street Arts as two artists over 25 years ago and have learned a lot about the artist-led sector and their value and impact.”

Daniel Cutmore, relationship manager at Arts Council England, said the selected organisations “represent a snap-shot of the different contexts and challenges in which many artists operate”.

He added: “Given the changes in the nature and pace of urban development, working with property owners, GUILD will generate new learning for the wider sector on approaches to business resilience, operating models and new opportunities for entrepreneurship and income generation.”

GUILD will establish a programme of support that will include toolkits, business models and artistic development programmes. It will also lobby and seek to influence funding bodies, local authorities, community and regeneration bodies for support for artists’ spaces, advocating for flexible solutions to embedding arts spaces and artists within cities and towns centres.

Julie Lomax, chief executive of a-n, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with GUILD and East Street Arts to support a cohort of artist-led spaces across England to enhance and sharpen their professional skills and to shape and influence the future provision of work space and artist development in England.

“Artist-led spaces and projects are important to sustaining artistic practice, offering the space for experimentation, research and the production of new work, all of which builds an international reputation for the UK, brings communities together and contributes to the UK economy.

“Collaborative and collective in spirit, they are becoming increasingly vulnerable and required to navigate and shape-shift through a complex set of structures and relationships.”

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The Penthouse are pleased to be part of this symposium on the artist led. We will be talking about our past project Might and Main at the symposium on the Saturday at the School of Fine Art Leeds.

Ecologies and Economies of the Artist-led: Space, Place, Futures | Leeds, 26-27 October 2018 Convened by the Artist-led Research Group (Leeds) in partnership with Yorkshire and Humberside Visual Arts Network [YVAN], University of Leeds, and Music and Arts Production [MAP Charity] Friday 26 October: MAP, Hope House, 65 Mabgate, Leeds, LS9 7DR (12:30 - 17:30) Saturday 27 October: School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies, University Road, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT (10:30 - 16:00)

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The Penthouse took to the streets in support of our Trans community.

The Penthouse will always Stand by Our Trans.

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We love these photographs taken by one of the young artists at Skimstones when we were doing a sound walk around Phil and Lit library in Newcastle. Kieran had never done any photography before but captured some great moments in the library

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A selection of Photographs from our Skimstone Art Residency  

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Manchester-based artists and curators Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp, known as The Penthouse, completed a residency with Skimstone Arts in summer 2018.

They were one of four artists awarded residencies in the summer of 2018, each responding to the theme of ‘celebration’, as Skimstone Arts marked its 10th anniversary.

The Penthouse presented an ongoing artwork which was open ended, subverting the idea of ‘monuments’ being set in time. Monument to the Past was a performance of deconstruction, tearing down old patriarchal and unequal systems that do not champion or position diverse people as monumental. This performance demonstrated The Penthouse’s practice to audiences including Skimstone’s Young Artists Collective (YAC), and paved the way for Monument to the Future.

Monument to the Future was a collective live sonic artwork performed with Skimstone’s Young Artists Collective. Young artist Kieran recorded and edited his very first soundscape and introduced it to the audience, bringing explorations of the sonic landscape of Newcastle into the performance. Video and photography from the artists’ sound and environment walk were projected as well as a new illustration by YAC member Alice, titled Monument to Freedom. YAC artist and musician AJ brought innovative ways of experimenting with sound to the project and started the performance with what was playfully named the Fidget Spinner Orchestra. Alice experimented with electronic sounds combining interests in gaming and experimental music; YAC drummer and artist Ben brought his intuitive percussion and free jazz to produce a section of vocals where YAC members Nicole and Steven learned how to perform with a loop station, bringing haunting and poetic vocals to the mix. The artists worked together to structure the different sections of performance and brought the piece to an end by listening to each other after a cacophonous noise section at the end.

The Penthouse said: “The summer residency with Skimstone Arts was a rewarding and exciting experience with the freedom to experiment and collaborate with The Young Artist Collective.

“We found the experience to be of mutual learning- we learned from Claire and Peter and the rest of the Skimstone Arts as an organisation how to work continuously with young people from varying backgrounds and how to develop our interest in the political importance of socially engaged and our aims for socio-political arts practice.

“We learned from The Young Artist Collective to continue working with personal and challenging themes and how they can connect us. We felt we could provide a place for the young people to try out new things and combine visual and sonic art forms, conversation around collective improvisation, listening to each other and well being involved in physical sound making and drawing became key parts of our process.”

Claire Webster Saaremets of Skimstone Arts said: “The Penthouse brought a strong sense of artistic exploration and an immediate connection with our young artists and ourselves. We loved the theme of ‘Monument’, especially when a new YAC member found a confidence to create and perform with them. We look forward to more collaborations with The Penthouse in the future.”

AJ, a member of the Young Artists Collective, said: “I enjoyed working with The Penthouse, even from the beginning we had a base line understanding of each other and I think we had very similar comfort levels in how we liked to work. I liked that they worked with sound which was musical but was very kinetic.”

The Penthouse was established in 2012 as an experimental art studio and project space in Manchester’s Northern Quarter by artist / curators Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp. The Penthouse built its foundations on experimentalism, DIY attitude, action and as a test bed for over 300 artists.

The residency was supported by Arts Council England’s Elevate fund.

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MONUMENT is a living archive and experimental performance project by The Penthouse artist directors Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp.

The artists have explored the idea of what connects us and the idea of the monument- and what our relationship with the monumental says about us as a society. The idea of a temporary monument of noise and action subverts the idea of something being set in time or stone with an ever changing MONUMENT to the past, present and future. Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp have produced a new live performance titled ‘Monument to the Past’ considering destruction and direct action which will pave the way and set the scene for 'Monument to the Future' a live collaboration between The Penthouse and the Young Artists Collective.

Monument to the Future will be a live collage of sound and visuals celebrating flux with improvised noise as a tool for connection and resistance. ___

Inner Paradise is an exhibition preview and opening by Martim Dinis. Inner Paradise explores our relationship to personal and collective pleasure through movement, tableaux and celebrational gesture, formign part of the artist's series of research into what paradise is.

Martim and the Young Artists Collective work together to capture moments of individual statements about pleasure and dreams, transforming them into pictoral and allegorical works. ___

Upcoming residency artist Irantzu Aguirre (Chanson de la nuit (1927), C.Salzedo; Technicolor for Harp and Electronics (2008), A.Negron) introduces her experimental harp playing.

Weds June 20th- 6.30pm Monument to the Future 30 minute performance by The Penthouse- Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp and the Skimstone Arts Young Artists Collective

7.15pm Experimental harp performance by Irantzu Aguirre

£3 Suggested entry Tickets available at or on door Eventbrite https://bit.ly/2sFMAOU

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The Penthouse Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp with Bill Drummond.

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During 2017 The Penthouse- a Dyke led contemporary art space and project in Manchester curated Bill Drummond's Curfew Tower in Cushendall, Northern Ireland.

On Wednesday the 8th of August The Penthouse showed some works from selected residencies and related projects made between Cushendall and Manchester during their curatorship.

There was  a bonfire, rooftop action, films and stories around the fire and very importantly curry by Tracy. Sound art in the kitchen, Performance in the prison, The rainbow flag flying and a small exhibition by Queer cult hero anonymous art collective HOMOCULT.

Exhibiting/performing artists:

Debbie Sharp Rosanne Robertson Louise Woodcock Stiofan O'Ceallaigh Richard Shields Karl Olsen Mary Stark & David Chatton Barker Sophie Cooper HOMOCULT Sandra Bouguerch

There was also a screening of REVOLT an action featuring Manchester's finest Queers that took place on our (then) Penthouse rooftop- commenting on new relationships between the DUP and The Tories.

8pm OPEN- SMOKE GRENADES ON THE ROOF

8.30pm Screening of EVF The Future is Bright the Past is Colourful by Richard Shields

10.00pm Gather around the fire with Louise Woodcock. Performance by Debbie Sharp.

Exhibition of works open throughout.

The Series of residencies in 2017 titled IMPOSE||LIFT were supported by Arts Council England.

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Richard Shields- The Future is Bright The Past is Colourful- Preview Thurs 12 July 6-9pm at Paradise Works.

In many ways he went 'too far' becoming physically, spiritually and mentally involved with the small town of Cushendall- but that is just where he needed to go. His art practice burns as bright as the fire that burns and it comes from the very centre of his being which also burns as bright as the fire that burns as bright as the brightest fire that burns.

The Curfew Tower 2017 Resident Richart Shields is showing a new body of work born of his EVF project devised during his IMPOSE|LIFT residency. Shields is a Manchester based artist from Northern Ireland and was selected for this residency based on his explorative, research based practice combining drawing and performance. This residency focused on the socio political situation of The Curfew Tower and we knew Richard would explore all of the corners of this without holding back.

Shields describes that he has continued to explore issues surrounding the fractious history of his country, offering an alternative Ulster, in which art movements are at the centre of the troubles. Parallels are drawn between what some consider to be elitism within the arts and the secretive nature of Ireland's paramilitary and masonic style fraternities.

We have had a sneak peek of his new film which is layered with outstanding wit, moments of brilliant connection- wiping our slates clean and welcoming us into a new future.

Join us for the preview this Thursday at Paradise Works

http://richardshieldsartworks.org/The-Future-Is-Bright-The-Past-Is-Colourful 

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IMPATV 138 - ANTI -MONUMENT - DEBBIE SHARP & ROSANNE ROBERTSON

Streamed live from HOME 18/01/2018 by IMPATV

Instigate Arts presents a night of creative and artistic Do it Yourself, bringing together Manchester and Salford’s cutting edge, innovative and leftfield creatives, collaborators, collectives and spaces. 

For De(Construction) artist directors of The Penthouse Debbie Sharp and Rosanne Robertson present a reverse sculpture that pairs raw materials of construction and the performance of destruction - reducing old hierarchical individualistic monumentalism to the communal experience of dust. 

 Over the past 5 years The Penthouse was born of and incubated by a piece of crumbling modernist architecture, we cooperated and revolted within its dust which we believe still resides within our bodies. Indeterminacy, ephemerality and moments happened within the dust of a previous era with cranes bringing the dreams attached to new concrete blocks all around us. 

Boundaries between our bodies, structures, vibrations were destabilised. The Queer female body within crumbling modernist structure has been an important yet non-formalised part of the experience with both artists exploring structure and the city on their own terms and inviting other artists to do the same. The Dyke body forcing the destruction of built up Penthouse dreams and agitating ideals for an advanced and sleek future brings into force an 'Other' power. This power is more attuned to Mother nature who has the force to engulf all into the sediment layers of the Earth. 

The boundaries of the artists' bodies and the materials of the spaces in which their practices exist renegotiated- De(Constructed) within a live performance. This act is reflective of the ongoing cycle of creation and destruction within DIY and artist led culture- creating a space for freedom. 

 impatv.com 

instigatearts.org 

thepenthousenq.com 

www.rosannerobertson.com 

www.debbie-sharp.com

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Download our first newsletter of 2018 as PDF here.

TEXT: RECAP: Established in 2012 as an experimental art studio and project space in Manchester’s Northern Quarter by artist / curators Rosanne Robertson & Debbie Sharp (not just good friends) The Penthouse built its foundations on experimentalism, DIY attitude, action and as a test bed for over 300 artists.

The Penthouse has been described as:

elevating Manchester’s Underground to the top floor of a tower block- The Wire

delivering Manchester’s best sound art show on our New York tour- The Bushwick Daily

ad hoc art space the Penthouse...is the best of the Northern Quarter Alt City Guide to Manchester- The Guardian

The hands-on environment is unlike any other… encouraging experimentation like nowhere else- The Skinny

 We have challenged and explored our position as artist led and Dyke|Queer led from all angles via residencies, workshops, talks and actions including our curatorship of Bill Drummond’s Curfew Tower, Noise Above Noise sound art series, Might & Main residency and symposium and when invited to contribute to programs at People’s History Museum The Queers Are Revolting, Royal Standard’s Dark Matter, University of Manchester’s Contemporary Feminist Activism series and The David Hockney Gallery LGBTQ+ symposium.

Our relationship with experimentation, live art, sound, the senses and the site-specific disregards boundaries between artists, the personal and audiences. Our voice has not been governed, we refuse censorship of ourselves and others. We encourage artists to explore all subjects personal to them in a fearless way, we have worked with artists whose work has been censored and stolen by police and we have provided safe space for exploration of body, sexuality, identity, politics and activism. As artists whose lesbian identity informs our personal practice we understand how vital it is to have a space to be and follow our deepest lines of enquiry in a place where mistakes don’t exist with support and connection to others across art forms.

IMPOSE||LIFT 2017-2018

For 2017 The Penthouse were selected as curators for Bill Drummond’s Curfew Tower. During 2017 we selected 9 artists to carry out their own residency projects exploring their situation to the tower and the surrounding town of Cushendall considering themes of restriction and liberation and personal politics.

 Sophie Cooper

Sandra Bouguerch

Mary Stark & David Chatton Barker

Rowan Eastwood

Chloe Beecham

Juliet Davis

Hannah Leighton-Boyce

Richard Shields

 Sophie Cooper took the chance to  invite locals to an open house and a gig in the Tower kitchen with 3 Eyed Makara as well as launching her Dial-a-Bone project and releasing The Curfew Tower Recordings, Cassette on Crow vs Crow (sold out. Digital download available)

Mary Stark & David Chatton Barker carried out their all-encompassing The Quickening project inspired by the forthcoming birth of Mary & David’s first child that took the form of a 2 hour radio broadcast on CAMP Radio 

Richard Shields rose through the ranks of his own organisation- The EVF- The Esoteric Volunteer Force. He performed a EVF RECRUITMENT DRIVE in both Cushendall and at Carbooty, Manchester, works from his project have been exhibited by Sexy Boy Unites Salford at Paradise Works, Salford.

A full review of artists projects from IMPOSE||LIFT will be released early 2018.

The Penthouse curatorship of The Curfew Tower continues with QUEER CURFEW until August 2018 resulting in an event for Festival of the Glens, Cushendall.

The Curfew Tower 17 on Facebook

                       2017 saw The Penthouse host the 5th Queer Art Show: REVOKE curated by Debbie Sharp. Queer Art Show has showcased Manchester’s local Queer emerging and established visual artists since 2010 and supported artists who have experienced boundaries to the exhibition of work. REVOKE brought an international collaboration between Stephen Kelly and Ron Kibble making site specific work and our Queer Art Show on wheels for the Manchester Pride Parade. Manchester based artist Seleena Laverne Daye showed new work commissioned by The Penthouse celebrating Queer People of Colour, especially those on the ACE spectrum. Highlighting misconceptions of Asexual people, to queer women of colour in literature (See Alice Walker's The Colour Purple) and to sometimes the only way POC and asexual people can get visibility is to shock.

2017 saw an invited bunch of riotous Queers take to our roof in REVOLT as part of our exhibition from curatorship of The Curfew Tower- titled IMPOSE||LIFT in an action captured here by Sophie Broadgate. This event was part of Manifest Festival who triumphantly joined up Manchester’s Artist Led on the occasion of Manchester International Festival. Listen here for Manifest Podcasts.

 Sound Experiments: Manchester’s Women & Non-Binaries: The Skinny

“…the emergence of spaces such as The Penthouse and earlier Islington Mill, brought Manchester central spaces for sound-based events outside of a commercial setting. Rosanne Robertson co-founded The Penthouse, along with Debbie Sharp, and tells us about the Northern Quarter-based studio’s relationship to Manchester’s scenes: “The Penthouse is about tackling the model of art as luxury commodity and more about the necessity to find space.” 

Read Article

 We ended the year as part of International Queer Art Collective Balaclava Q screening HIVideo on the occasion of World Aids Day. Works by the collective including mention of Rosanne Robertson’s Be Enraged Become Explosive named after AIDS activists Fierce Pussy were included in this article for OUT.COM.

“…Where were queer women during the AIDS epidemic of New York in the '80s and '90s? A new audiovisual work from Manchester artist Rosanne Robertson remembers their role: Be Enraged, Become Explosive, which borrows its title from the wheat-pasted activism of the Fierce Pussy collective formed in '91, premieres today on World AIDS Day—in 19 cities around the globe.”

We would like to thank Stephen Kelly for his extension of this platform to build on into 2018.

https://balaclavadotq.com/

OUR MOVE: 2017 has seen The Penthouse move from our first home on the top of Hilton House- a building that provided a valuable start full of freedom, square footage and skyline- into Paradise Works- an artist run initiative on the Manchester and Salford border providing studio space to 30 intergenerational artists and projects whose outlook is local, national and international we believe artists hold a vital role in the development of a vibrant and diverse city.

FIND US

The Penthouse

Paradise Works East Philip Street Salford Manchester M3 7LE

Find us at our new home at Paradise Works on East Philip Street on the border of Salford and Manchester

(10 min walk from Victoria Train Station). Google Map link

www.thepenthousenq.com

https://www.paradise-works.com/

 CONTACT US

[email protected]

https://twitter.com/ThePenthouseNQ

 UP NEXT:

PUSH- (DE)CONSTRUCTION

HOME, Manchester

Fri, Jan 18, 2018

6:00 - 7:00 PM

DE(CONSTRUCTION) – DEVELOPING THE CREATIVE SCENE, DIY STYLE AT HOME, MANCHESTER.  

Instigate Arts presents a night of creative and artistic Do it Yourself, bringing together Manchester and Salford’s cutting edge, innovative and leftfield creatives, collaborators, collectives and spaces. Find out who’s doing what, where and how and enjoy an evening of art, performance, music, video and conversations.

ANTI-MONUMENT

 A reverse sculpture by artists Debbie Sharp and Rosanne Robertson.

For De(Construction) artist directors of The Penthouse Debbie Sharp and Rosanne Robertson will present a reverse sculpture that pairs raw materials of construction and the performance of destruction - reducing old hierarchical individualistic monumentalism to the communal experience of dust.

MORE INFO AND TICKETS

FOLLOW OUR WEBSITE FOR FURTHER 2018 NEWS including our new program.

www.thepenthousenq.com

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

 We would like to thank all the artists who have been part of our actions, exhibitions, residencies and events and to our audiences engaging fearlessly with new experimental, Queer and ‘Outsider’ Art.

We would like to thank Arts Council England for their support of our projects with Grants for the Arts.

We would like to thank Bill Drummond for his Curfew Tower.

We would like to thank Hilary Jack, Lucy Harvey and all at Paradise works for our new home.

We would like to thank Stephen Kelly and BalaclavaQ.

We would like to thank Superbia for their continued invaluable support.

We would like to thank Instigate Arts for their support from the start.

We would like to thank Fred Aldous for their generous support from the start.

X

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Superbia present Visual Aids -Alternate Endings, Radical Beginnings.

Date: 1 Dec 2017 – World Aids Day

Time: 7-10.30pm (2 part event with HIVideo- see below).

Venue:

The Penthouse at Paradise Works

Paradise Works (2nd floor)

East Phillip Street

Salford

M3 7LE

Donation entry:  £2 to George House Trust (entry to both Visual Aids & HIVideo).

Tickets: Free from Eventbrite (booking essential). 

This event is included in Manchester’s first Day With(out) Art programme from Superbia which you can read more about here. 

Newly commissioned videos by Mykki Blanco, Cheryl Dunye & Ellen Spiro, Reina Gossett, Thomas Allen Harris, Kia Labeija, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Brontez Purnell premiering on World AIDS Day 2017.

ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS is the 28th annual iteration of Visual AIDS’ longstanding Day With(out) Art project. Curated by Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett for Visual AIDS, the video program prioritizes Black narratives within the ongoing AIDS epidemic, commissioning seven new and innovative short videos from artists Mykki Blanco, Cheryl Dunye & Ellen Spiro, Reina Gossett, Thomas Allen Harris, Kia Labeija, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Brontez Purnell.

In spite of the impact of HIV/AIDS within Black communities, these stories and experiences are constantly excluded from larger artistic and historical narratives. In 2016 African Americans represented 44% of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Given this context, it is increasingly urgent to feature a myriad of stories that consider and represent the lives of those housed within this statistic. ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS seeks to highlight the voices of those that are marginalized within broader Black communities nationwide, including queer and trans people. 

The commissioned projects include intimate meditations of young HIV positive protagonists; a consideration of community-based HIV/AIDS activism in the South; explorations of the legacies and contemporary resonances within AIDS archives; a poetic journey through New York exploring historical traces of queer and trans life, and more. Together, the videos provide a platform centering voices deeply impacted by the ongoing epidemic.

This screening is programmed back to back with HIVideo by Balaclava.Q - A Global Exhibition of Video Art for World Aids Day. HIVideo is the moving image strand of Balaclava.Q- an international Queer Art Project and collective. HIVideo seeks to promote contemporary dialogue(s) on World Aids Day via video art from both a local and global perspective. HIVideo complements current discourse and the de- stigmatization / -criminalization movement by creating dialogue about HIV/AIDS via art – and the attendant aesthetics and politics.

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The Penthouse Present HIVideo by Balaclava.Q

Date: 1 Dec 2017 – World Aids Day

Time: 7-10.30pm (2 part event back to back with Visual Aids- see below). 

Venue:

The Penthouse at Paradise Works

Paradise Works (2nd floor)

East Phillip Street

Salford

M3 7LE

Donation entry:  £2 to George House Trust. (entry to both screenings).

Tickets: Free from Eventbrite (booking essential).  

This event is included in Manchester’s first Day With(out) Art programme from Superbia.

HIVideo is A Global Exhibition of Video Art for World Aids Day. HIVideo is the moving image strand of Balaclava.Q- an international Queer Art Project and collective, better known as TACTIC 2. HIVideo seeks to promote contemporary dialogue(s) on World Aids Day via video art from both a local and global perspective. HIVideo complements current discourse and the de- stigmatization / -criminalization movement by creating dialogue about HIV/AIDS via art -- and the attendant aesthetics and politics.

The 2016 programme is available to view on a newly launched Balaclava.Q YouTube channel here.

In 2016 HIVideo was screened at Manchester’s LGBT Foundation and worldwide across Toronto (Canada), Paris (France), South Africa, Puerto Rico, New Mexico and Oakland (California, US) in galleries, safe spaces and sexual health centres. In 2017 The Penthouse present HIVideo at their home Paradise Works on the Manchester > Salford border. HIVideo brings together international artists and venues across 5 continents to showcase art films which look at HIV/AIDS with the intention of a more direct action approach with a specific theme for artists. Films will be screened on World AIDS Day in Rome, (Italy), Manchester (UK), London (UK), Berlin (Germany), New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Colombia and various other locations across the UK, USA and Europe.

In 2017 Balaclava.Q is working in partnership with RAMP: Recycled Medicine Campaign, LGBT Consortium UK and the global movement Prevention Access Campaign.

The artist films create awareness and promote discourse specifically about the Prevention Access Campaign, a global movement which seeks to educate communities on current findings and statistics which state unequivocally that Undetectable = Untransmissable or U=U as it has been branded by www.preventionaccess.org. At the very core of this year’s screening is a message about intimacy without fear of transmission. 

This screening is programmed back to back with Visual Aids-  a program of newly commissioned videos by Mykki Blanco, Cheryl Dunye & Ellen Spiro, Reina Gossett, Thomas Allen Harris, Kia Labeija, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Brontez Purnell titled ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS is the 28th annual iteration of Visual AIDS’ longstanding Day With(out) Art project. Curated by Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett. This event is part of  Manchester’s first Day With(out) Art programme from Superbia. 

This year’s Greater Manchester serving of HIVideo 2017 is presented by The Penthouse .

The Penthouse is an artist led Dyke|Queer contemporary art project and space based in Manchester founded and ran by artists Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp. Curatorial and research projects are focused on Queer art, radical practices, Queer feminism, experimental and raw art- we consider the power at the margins.

The Penthouse is currently based at Paradise Works in a luxurious corner suite-  a fitting home on the border of Salford and Manchester. Paradise Works is a new artist run initiative providing studios & project space to a community of proactive, intergenerational, contemporary artists established 2017.

HIVideo is produced by Balaclava.Q : An international Queer Art Project and collective. Connecting, promoting and Creating Platforms for Queer artists.

Founded in June 2016 by Stiofan O’Ceallaigh as a reaction to the Orlando, Florida massacre, Balaclava.Q is a not-for-profit and relies solely on the passion, motivation and influence of its volunteers, artists and advocates; an international queer visual art project and collective that asks artists to look at tactics that disrupt, activate, instigate and explore contemporary queer concerns. Currently showcasing works by over 200 international queer artists, this project acts as a platform and connector for artists and audiences.

This project is supported by a grant from Superbia. Superbia Grants provide financial support for LGBT events as part of Manchester Pride’s commitment to the quality and diversity of cultural events taking place throughout the year in Greater Manchester. http://superbia.org.uk

 Further reading:

Balaclava.Q website                Balaclava Q Twitter

The Penthouse website          The Penthouse Twitter

RAMP: http://rampusa.org/    LGBT Consortium UK: http://www.lgbtconsortium.org.uk/

Prevention Access Campaign: https://www.preventionaccess.org/

 Further info/ Press enquiries:

Rosanne Robertson (The Penthouse- Founder and Director) [email protected]

Stiofan O’Ceallaigh (Balaclava.Q – Founder and Director), 2017 - [email protected] / [phone]

[thepenthousenq]

NEWS / LOVE LETTER: 

Hilton House, birth place of The Penthouse has been sold to oversees investors. Something dies with this sale and it isn’t The Penthouse, it is the old school. The Northern Quarter to many is a place to visit, get a coffee, spot a piece of graffiti and so on- to Terry and his family and to the un likely cross section of Hilton House tenants it was a community and a home within our own city centre. Just like artists, other people want to be connected to where they live and work. Development companies are spending a lot of money saying they can make this happen- selling back to people what they do naturally anyway if they are given the freedom and space. 

The Penthouse has been freedom and space in the middle of it all- the young call PPI call centre workers, the alcoholic odd job men, the Jehova’s witnesses, the old school accountants, the communists, the ‘doctor’ from Libya who found space for his business in Hilton House and an ally in Terry, the drag queens, the artists, the musicians, the knocked off goods salesmen. Walking down the spiral staircase Terry has time for everybody he passes, he prays for his tenants when they are suffering from life’s cruelties. Terry is what will be missed most of all. We won’t focus on the sale of some crumbling concrete that will make the money Terry and his family are too old school to tap. We will focus on what Terry made that place for whoever needed it to get by. And we will make freedom and time and space for those who need it as far as we can in new ways when supporting artists and making platforms. 

We’ve all got our missions, beliefs, statements, aims. The young lads from the call centres who smoke out the front used to annoy us but we became good neighbours. They always offered to help us out- they couldn’t believe how much graft we used to do in there- shifting, loading, building etc. “Your hardcore yous like”. I even forgive them for drawing penises on anything we ever tried to do around the building. In a funny way I think we gained their respect when we lit a rainbow of smoke bombs on the roof and we drew all over our car for Manchester Pride “Dyke Power” and spun off. 

 A lot of these young people have no opportunities- they are from parts of Manchester that doesn’t see any of the benefits of cultural investment. They don’t have a creative space, a community centre, a library, a place where they might find the thing they can do or love. The ones who are leading these call centres are trying to make something and even though they are annoying in many ways we hope they find the cracks in the system that gives them the money they see every other fucker benefiting from. 

Image: HOMOCULT

Terry is for the underdog- whoever they might be. We had many many conversations about power and crooked systems- about religion, spirituality, sexuality. He gave us an English version of the Quran and we introduced him to Queer Art. We wrote QUEER REVOLT across the windows for a show as part of our IMPOSE||LIFT project curating The Curfew Tower (Northern Ireland). It is very visible from the surrounding area between NQ and Great Ancoats Street. He never said anything but when we asked he said he was “getting shit for it” but it’s our space and we should do with it what we need to. On talking to Terry about the EDL marches in Manchester that resulted in violence we told him about the Queer Resistance to the EDL racism and violence and he very much appreciated it. 

It all happened out on the entrance to Hilton House and Terry had a quip for everybody. His Dad Mr Shafi- came round with his business hat on and little notebook to make sure business was taken care of. A shake of the hand and a nod, always happy as long as business was being done. They wanted the building to live and it did- first home to their thriving school uniform business that turned Hilton House into “the centre of the world” as Terry called it and then to a long line of ventures. 

Looking around Hilton House many fallen pieces of it’s glamorous past can be found- elaborately patterned tiles, golden trim, brass handles, the empty ornamental fish pond. It’s time has passed. But it has been important- an incubator for our own way. Fiercly independent and a safe space for a thousand odd balls- we cried everyday of our last show there- Queer Art Show 5. People said it felt like family. This can’t be bought and sold. 

Queer Art Show 5 (below)

We would like to say thank you to every person who made the last 5 years so special, interesting and important. You have brought yourselves, your ideas, your works, sounds, vibes and you have been yourself. Our space hasn’t been for everybody- we purposefully did not institutionalize ourselves and were often ‘rough around the edges’- this leaves uncertainties, gaps, leaps and imagination and you joined it all up with us. 

We are not going to take this opportunity to say all of the great things we have done like some sort of PR stunt to big ourselves up ‘moving forward’. Being an artist led organisation involves business- no doubt- but it involves many other things if we let it- love, sincerity, connection, hope. We entered this venture together- a pair of dykes in love with a passion for the unknown, our art practices and the practices of our peers. We have learned a lot about what this means. 

Thank you to Terry, Mr Shafi, his family and to all of the artists we have worked with over this time. 

You know who you are. 

Long live The Penthouse <3 

[thepenthousenq]

Announcing Richard Shields (EVF)- The Curfew Tower- IMPOSE||LIFT Artist in Residence. 

We are pleased to announce that Richard Shields has been sent to The Curfew Tower prison from which he aims to rise through the ranks of his own organisation- The EVF. Richard has been selected due to his approach of blurring lines between his life and work- he describes “carrying out residencies in his own life.” Richard’s work becomes an unfolding document of his passage through this world often opening us up to fictional worlds and warping perceptions. Exploration via drawing and performance art bring together the live and the laboured processes that constitute his new worlds that lend from art history, personal history and local history often drawing the audience into the process. 

Richard Shields is a Manchester based artist in that much of his early career involved responding to sites located in the city, surround by a local peer group. The artist went on to develop a studio practice referencing personal situations from his life there, however Shields is not from Manchester. Originally from Bangor, County Down in Northern Ireland, Shields moved to Manchester looking for something different.

Having been brought up, unbaptized in an apolitical house by parents of Catholic and Protestant heritage Shields was not influenced by one of the country’s prominent political or religious viewpoints, which resulted in a diminished sense of national identity and tribal unity.

Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 80’s and 90’s Shields was witness to news reports of violent acts, political speeches, heavy police and army presence, bonfires, marches, sectarian graffiti drawn on random objects and painted on community walls and stories of mysterious characters who would go in and out of prison throughout ‘the troubles’ only to find a new lease of life, leaving prison behind them.

[thepenthousenq]

Queer Art Show 5 Documentation pt 2