Bunker Talk #165 with Stephen Sutcliffe is taking place next week at the Salutation Pub, tickets are available via our bio!
UK based artist Stephen Sutcliffe (1968, Harrogate) creates and exhibits films, collages, wall paintings and photographs from an extensive archive of material he has been amassing since childhood, together with items found in institutional collections.
Often reflecting on aspects of British culture and identity and having literary origins, the results are melancholic, poetic and satirical amalgams which subtly tease out and critique ideas of class-consciousness and cultural authority.
Employing an extensive editing process Sutcliffe’s works subvert predominant narratives, generating alternative readings through the juxtaposition and layering of both found and self-generated material.
On 15 May, 19 May and 20 May I'll be hosting / chairing three brilliant events in my favourite mill towns, Paisley and Manchester.
On 15th May I'll be talking to Damian Barr at Paisley Book Festival about his beautiful novel 'The Two Roberts'.
On 19th May I'll be introducing Stephen Sutcliffe for what will be a brilliant artist talk for the @mcrschart_prg Bunker Talks series at Manchester School of Art.
On 20th May I'll be chairing a book launch at Manchester School of Art to celebrate my colleague Adam Walker's new book 'Textual Actants', alongside readings and discussion with Laura Haynes on her forthcoming novel 'The Quick' and Nell Osborne on her awardwinning novel Ghost Driver.
Links in bio to book.
Dr Gabriele Aroni recently published an article in The Conversation on video game photography. See here:
/when-players-become-artists-the-rise-of-in-game-photography-275966
Exciting news from current staff and former students @mcrschart Reader in Fine Art, David Osbaldeston @david.studio.o will be showing new works in progress as part of the upcoming Open Studios Event at the @britishschoolatrome David is currently undertaking an Abbey Fellowship in Fine Art, Painting where he has been active in researching dualities and the manifestation between new and established forms of power relationships.
David will be showcasing new work alongside fellow artists’ and award holders, which also incudes former BA Fine Art Alumni, Anna Clough @anna.clough_ from the class of 2022, was awarded the Rebecca Scott Rome Resident for 2026.
Fine Arts Awards at the British School at Rome offer exceptional artists the opportunity to live and work in one of the world’s most artistically and historically rich cities. These 3 to 9-month residencies provide en-suite studios, shared meals around our communal table, and—most importantly—dedicated time and space to focus on artistic practice and research.
Since its foundation, the BSR has supported leading figures in contemporary art. Alumni include Cornelia Parker, Laure Prouvost, Barbara Walker, and Mark Wallinger, who described his residency as “breathtaking… I just roamed the city day after day and feasted myself on everything…the whole thing inspired me for years afterwards.”
Reader in Sculpture, Brigitte Jurack is currently showing new works in a group show titled 'Never Say Never Again' alongside a number of establshed British Artists at the Wincester Gallery @uni_southampton_wsa The exhibition runs until January 10.
The Visual Culture Research Group at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Met, invites you to a lunchtime lecture by Dr. Jennifer Thatcher, our British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Art and Design. The lecture will be delivered online via Teams on Thurs 11 Dec at 1-2pm. Please email [email protected] for the Teams link.
"In the early nineteenth century, British artists were seen as innocent, instinctive and inarticulate. By the end of the century, the artist had evolved into a commercially and socially savvy figure, with periodicals publishing regular American-style interview-profiles of celebrity artists at their covetable studio-houses.
In this talk, research-in-progress for a monograph on the early history of artist interviews, I compare interviews with George Frederic Watts (1817–1904), one of the most celebrated Victorian artists, dubbed by critics as ‘England’s Michelangelo’ and the ‘artist-prophet of our century’. Watts was an intriguing mix of establishment (Royal Academician and Member of the Order of Merit), bohemian (he wore a Titianesque robe and skullcap and went by the nickname ‘Signor’) and puritan (he liked to get up at 4am, and abhorred gambling and drinking).
Although photographs of his studio-houses in Kensington (Little Holland House) and later Surrey (Limnerslease) were frequently published in the press, and Watts himself established a public Watts’ Gallery, he was suspicious of critics and keen to emphasise his simple, unpretentious life. Cross-referencing interviews with life-writings by his first and second wives Ellen Terry and Mary Watts, and correspondence with interviewers, reveals the extent to which he managed his reputation."
Dr Jennifer Thatcher is an art historian, critic and public programmes curator. She is the co-editor of Theorising the Artist Interview (Routledge, 2025). She is currently a British Academy-funded postdoctoral fellow at Manchester School of Art, researching the 19th-century history of the artist interview.
PRG Presents: Roberto Sifuentes In Permanent Process Of Reinvention
26 November 4pm-5pm ⏰
GF11 Grosvenor East 📍
CW ⚠️ images of political content and nudity.
Read more and get your tickets using the link in our bio 🎟️
Really enjoyed giving a talk about my work and research last night as part of the exhibition ‘Things As They Are’ @jenny_up_the_hill 🤍 Lovely, engaged audience and host (Stefano) @the__cornercafe (fantastic place). Wow, Syros is extraordinary folks. Jurriaan and @vivi_papakosta are doing a brilliant job here with the gallery and a focus on contemporary painting.
Thanks @jurriaan.benschop for the opportunity to be here.
Sleeping cat in tow during the talk.
Thanks to everyone for coming along.
@jenny_up_the_hill
Supported by @mcrschart_arg
Last few weeks to see Reader in Fine Art David Osbaldeston's new exhibition ‘Tales from the Expanded Moment’ which continues to November 9 in the archive space at the legendary independent art space Matt’s Gallery, which is now relocated to Nine Elms, London.
The presentation features a number of publications, books, and interventions made by David over the last two decades. Alongside a constantly repeating egg sandwich replaced at each sell by date. The exhibition traces his playful relationship to authorship, repetition, and the stylistic positions taken which often bemuse in their subtle manner to attack how authority is conveyed.
Matt's Gallery is open Weds -Sun, from 12-6. Free admission.
The exhibition is supported by an extensive interview between David Osbaldeston and Deputy Director Tim Dixon. For further details see... @mattsgallerylondon@timothy_dixon@david.studio.o
Artist, & Reader in Fine Art Ian Rawlinson, along with long-term collaborator Nick Crowe, @nickcrowe_ianrawlinson are currently screening their prescient 2017 film Song for Armageddon at the ISAC Museum, Chicago, as part of “Megiddo: A City Unearthed, A Past Imagined” @isac_uchicago (Sep 18, 2025–Mar 15, 2026; isac.uchicago.edu/megiddoimagined)
A hellish sodium-lit environment provides the setting for 'Song for Armageddon' which was shot on location at Tel Megiddo, Israel. Tel Megiddo is a UNESCO-listed archaeological site and is most famous for being the site in the Bible where the final battle between good and evil is predicted to take place. In English language usage the word 'Armageddon' has lent its name to the end of the world, an event that is going to happen. Song for Armageddon engages with Tel Megiddo’s remarkable heritage but also elaborates on a confusion between place and event. In an age of nationalist populism and climate change, with globalisation and wars racking the globe, this work is a chance to return to the source of ‘end times’ iconography. Armageddon is a nexus of metaphysics and geopolitics.’
Over a repeating 24 hour period, a group of workers set out and wipe down thousands of chairs to create a large auditorium for an unknown audience. The idea of preparing for a cataclysmic event that is yet to happen hangs over the actions of the crew of workers tasked with preparing the site. The work invites the viewer to speculate upon the event that is to take place and upon their own relationship to ideas around endings and disaster. The accompanying soundtrack was composed by Ophir Ilzetzki. Cinematography by Teddy Testar. #nickcroweandianrawlinson
@knpazuzu , @uos_artcollection ,
@teddytestar , @fayefeya , @vex_eyal
Struggle in Jerash, a film project by reader Eileen Simpson, was screened last night at Spring Sessions in Bethlehem @springsessions@wonder.cabinet@openmusicarchive /p/DPy03pyjJ6H/?img_index=1
