SPARK #27: The Right Side of History
Sat 12 Oct 2024 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Manchester Museum (top floor), M13 9PL
Description
Artist and SPARK co-ordinator Jane Lawson hosts this practical solidarity session at Manchester Museum, making cards for people imprisoned for peaceful environmental protest.
Since changes to the law brought in by the previous government, those taking
action
in the UK against the intensifying climate and ecological crisis are
increasingly facing lengthy jail sentences. At the time of writing, there are 25 people in prison for exercising their
right to peacefully raise concerns about the existential
threats posed by the climate crisis and the failure of their own
government to take adequate steps in response.
With
climate impacts worsening,
and more and more evidence coming
to light about the tactics used by the fossil fuel industry to
prevent meaningful action being taken on climate change, it could be
argued that the wrong people are behind bars. In the words
of writer Naomi Klein, “In a world that was right-side up, you
would be celebrated as the ones who helped break the spell that is
setting our world on fire.”
In
support of prisoners who we believe are on the right side of history,
SPARK members will turn collages from a previous SPARK session into postcards to send to inmates. Bring something to
cut out with
and something to
stick
with!
And
bring poems and sayings to put on the cards.
The session will take place in the top floor classroom at Manchester Museum. This space is wheelchair accessible.
Jane
Lawson
Jane Lawson has spent the past twelve years working with
fungi to loosen the grip of capitalist realism on our collective
imagination. There is still some way to go. She also makes diagrams
to help her understand the processes and structures that shape our
world and possible pathways to an environmentally and socially just
future. She recently completed MA Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths,
where she delved into various ways of being fungal and made a
diagrammatic environmental policy.
Jane
was part of the ten-strong group that co-curated Manchester Art
Gallery’s Climate Justice gallery in 2021/2, using the Gallery’s
collection to highlight narratives around colonialism and
extractivism. She has worked for Castlefield Gallery in Manchester
since 2012 and in her role as the gallery's Artist Environmental Lead
she provides admin support for SPARK. Recent projects include a
poster as part of Jade Montserrat’s commission Tender Order (for
Precarious Straits, 2021); Being Fungal (UK Fungus day event for
Heart of Glass, 2023); Detox to Delish (part of A Modest Show,
2022).
janelawson.co.uk
@msjanelawson
SPARK
The
SPARK
network
was set up by Castlefield Gallery in 2022 to facilitate a Greater
Manchester/North West-based network of artists wanting to intervene
in the climate crisis. The gallery initiated SPARK in response to the
high demand for places on the 2021/22 SUSTAIN
programme
focussed on low carbon artmaking. SPARK
#25 follows on from the first twenty-four SPARK sessions at
Manchester Art Gallery, Rogue, The Birley (Preston), Eccles Friends
Meeting House, Manchester Museum, AIR Gallery, Paradise Works,
Editional Studio, Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss, Gallery Oldham,
the John Rylands Library, Dunham Massey, Lindow Moss and Castlefield
Viaduct. SPARK recently
had a group
exhibition,
also called SPARK, and events programme at Rogue Studios.
https://www.instagram.com/sparkartistsnetwork/
Image credit: banners by Di Terry, at Trafalgar Square Extinction Rebellion protest in 2019; photo by John-Paul Brown
https://www.instagram.com/diana.terry.artist/
https://www.instagram.com/johnpaulbrown_/
Location
Manchester Museum (top floor), M13 9PL