Behind The Times.

Behind The Times was the culmination of my time as a writer at the Fourdrinier, the contemporary art magazine that emerged from PAPER Gallery in Manchester.

It was a collaboration with the artist Sarah Hardacre – a project that would produce both new writing about Sarah’s art practice and a new solo show that would help to push the boundaries of the work Sarah was making.

Sarah’s beautiful intricate collages often incorporate images of Northern architecture alongside female models taken from vintage pornography. Her work can be read as a feminist archival practice, one that deftly juxtaposes concepts of masculine/feminine, public/private, utility/pleasure, utopia/reality. Sarah’s work incorporates and subverts humour, the male gaze, sexual frankness, and empowerment, and it offers a challenge to the concept of our supposed social evolution.

The new work that Sarah produced for Behind The Times at PAPER Gallery saw us enter the richly symbolic world of the postcard to produce a raft of new image-making. The artist also upscaled her concept of the collage itself to substitute actual architecture in place of her typical pictorial representations of it.

It was also one of the most fun and unexpected projects I have ever worked on. You can read my in-conversation with Sarah here, and an article about the making of our show here. Thank you Sarah!