Manchester-based artist Jackie Haynes writes a guest post of her own reflections.
Marking International Women’s Day by tracing an intersectional one-hundred-year thread from Mary Greg’s collection of objects, through writers, artists and a group of climate justice activists, to arrive at ‘The Empty Space’ in Manchester Art Gallery’s new Climate Justice Gallery.
The Mary Greg Collection
The copper objects from the Mary Greg Collection currently displayed in Manchester Art Gallery’s new Climate Justice Gallery are amongst other copper-related items from the public collection. The items have been selected by the Climate Justice Group to draw attention to the implications of a photographic print from Nyaba Leon Oedraogo’s The Hell of Copper Series (2008). Also exhibiting at the Manchester city-wide We Face Forward Exhibition in 2012, Oedraogo described the disastrous working conditions resulting from electrical waste materials coming from Europe and the United States.
“The dump at the Aglobloshie Market spreads over 10 kilometres. From dawn to dusk, dozens of young Ghanaians, from 10 to 25 years of age, exhaust themselves doing this, seven days a week. Their mission is to disassemble the old computers and burn certain plastic or rubber components to cull the precious copper, which will then be resold. Everything is done by hand or with iron bars, makeshift tools found among the refuse. They have neither masks nor gloves. There are not even any functioning toilets.”
‘The precious copper’ is recyclable without loss of quality and the International Copper Association estimates that 80% of the copper that has ever been mined remains in use. The copper comb exhibit from the Mary Greg Collection was excavated from Holborn Viaduct, London in 1866. Writing extensively on the Mary Greg Collection, Platt Hall’s curator Liz Mitchell explains how Mary Greg’s belief in the personal and spiritual growth to be found in paying close attention to the small things of life adds another dimension to her varied gifts to Manchester City Art Galleries and beyond. Her collections may embody a certain nostalgia for the past, but her motivation seems to have been to inspire the present and the future.[1]
Injustices illuminated by the contrasting provenance and perception of value of the collected objects and the photograph point towards and away respectively, from caring for the planet’s people and resources. The Introduction to Climate Justice Gallery states the intentions of using Manchester Art Gallery’s publicly-owned collections:
We have chosen to call this gallery Climate Justice because tackling climate change involves tackling social injustice. Those who do the least damage are being harmed the most. Those who hold the power and wealth are responsible for global warming. “They have the least reason to change.”
Joining the dots between climate change, colonialism and capitalism can help us to understand the structural changes needed.
Art collections are often displayed to reflect the stories of the powerful. This is unjust. We need a more democratic approach to history, because we need radical change.
Manchester gets much credit for its ‘radical’ history, the industrial revolution and the cotton trade. Taking pride in our city’s history must come with the acknowledgement of the damage caused by industrialisation and its links to colonialism.
The gallery can be a starting point for reviewing this history. Over time, we will use the gallery and collection to encourage collective learning and action on climate justice through:
- Learning from history
- Activating a different future
- Scrutiny of policy makers
- Collective working and care
The injustices of climate change highlighted within this gallery do not end when you leave this space. You’ll find them throughout the art gallery, all over the city and beyond.
Our labels (next to the artworks) include the parts per million (PPM) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the year each artwork was made. The “safe level” of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been assessed as 350ppm; we passed this level in 1987.[2]
The curation and grouping together of the artworks around a theme such as copper, is an example of efforts made by the group to stimulate debate needed to address accumulating and overlapping injustices.
Noah’s Ark
Cross-cutting themes are deliberately abundant in the exhibition, radiating from each artwork and waiting to be activated by the thoughts and conversations of whoever happens to be looking at it. Manchester Art Gallery has three Noah’s Arks in its collection, practically a flotilla.
One Ark and its animal and human residents, dating back to 1840 and by an unknown maker, is placed below Francisco de Goya y Lucientes’ Flying Folly from the Disparates (1816), an etching and aquatint on paper. Together these works suggest a sea, land and airborne narrative of climate catastrophe. They form an ‘embankment’ to ‘The Empty Space’, a deliberately curated gap in the exhibition.
The ‘embankment’ on the other side of The Empty Space includes A Beach In My Living Room (2010-11), a photographic print taken in Ghana by Nyani Quarmyne. In the interpretation panel, group member Rabia Begum describes how
“Numour Puplampo of Totope has been forced to abandon his home as it has been buried by the sea. This image shows the nature of Totope where Climate Change is very real. A Ghanian man standing behind a window looks directly at the camera, as the pink and red painted walls begin to peel. The man and room are half-submerged in the sand. Whilst the West looks at “mitigation”, Africa looks at “adaptation”. Quarymyne explores how the affluent find ways to remain comfortable and the less affluent must find ways to adapt to this. “How would you adapt to this?””
A Beach In My Living Room speaks across The Empty Space to the flood narrative of the Ark, but The Empty Space is like a parting of the waves, held back to make way for the arrival of more artwork by global majority female artists, currently and conspicuously lacking in Manchester City Art Gallery’s collections. Watch this space and check back next International Women’s Day for a just and representative cultural tidal wave addressing this injustice.
Jackie Haynes joined the Climate Justice Group to make climate emergency-related links between Manchester Art Gallery and Platt Hall’s collections. This came about as a result of Platt Hall commissioning TSAP (Terrace Square Artists Project, Moss Side) to respond to collections with new artwork to display in Platt Hall’s public-facing windows in Platt Fields Park.[3]
No! Ah! (dismay followed by ideas) (2020) tells the story of the 22 modern day cousins of the 19th Century Noah’s Ark animals from Platt Hall’s Mary Greg Collection. The animals end their year-long trek towards Platt Hall Climate Emergency Hub, which began following the announcement by Manchester City Council of the Manchester Climate Emergency Declaration on 10th July, 2019. On the way to sheltering in the hub, they walk and talk through how they’d like to emerge from the emergency into a better world. The following video is the first in an ongoing series of both generations of animals’ climate activism. The video is silent because the animals are speechless with dismay, but quietly determined.
References
[1] Mitchell, Elizabeth Sarah (2018) ‘Believe me, I remain…’: the Mary Greg collection at Manchester city galleries. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University p.265
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/620461/
[2] The Manchester Art Gallery Climate Justice Group started meeting online in July 2020. We are gallery staff, artists and activists based in Manchester:
Rabia Begum: Artist, activist and member of Manchester Climate Change Youth Board
Janet Boston: Curator: Craft and Design, Manchester Art Gallery
Kooj Chuhan: Digital artist, filmmaker, activist and director of Crossing Footprints
Ana Lucia Cuevas: Artist and filmmaker
Clare Gannaway: Curator: Contemporary Art, Manchester Art Gallery
Jackie Haynes: Artist, art practice-based researcher.
Bev Hogg: Collections and Assets Assistant, Manchester Art Gallery
Jane Lawson: Artist and fungus grower
Adam Peirce: Core member of Climate Emergency Manchester
Hannah Williamson: Curator: Fine Art, Manchester Art Gallery
Emmanuela Yogolelo: Singer-songwriter, storyteller, music facilitator, cultural leader and producer
[3] https://art.tsap.uk/jackie-haynes/