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The Pear Project
Xhi Ndubisi
Important Dates:
FEAST:PEAR - Opening Dinners 2nd & 3rd September
Exhibition continues 4th September to 20th November 2022
Open 12pm-6pm Thursdays to Sundays
WORKSHOPS (free unless stated, just drop in)
Venue: Longsight Art Space
7th October - All Day: Join artist Roxana Allison is in the gallery.
8th October - 2-6pm: The Roots & Fruits: Ali Al-Jamri holds the first of three poetry workshops exploring legacy from different perspectives
All Day: Ecaterina Stefanescu is exploring Longsight, find her with her sketchbook and camera
9th October - All Day: Ecaterina Stefanescu continues her exploration of Longsight, join her for a coffee and a conversation
15th October - 11am-2pm: Join Roxana Allison and create cyanotype images All ages are welcome
2-6pm: The Roots & Fruits: Ali Al-Jamri holds the second of three poetry workshops exploring legacy from different perspectives
16th October - 5.30pm-8.30pm: Open jam with Jo Yee Cheung. Bring your instruments be it strings, drum, flute or voice. Over glasses of perry and pear juice Jo will share her Longsight wassail and invite you to join her on her fiddle
20th October - 6pm-8pm: PEAR:FEAST journey through the world with a rice feast. Like the pear, we begin in China and travel into central Asia. Rice dinner served 6 – 8pm. For a menu and to dine at Longsight Art Space’s rice dinner, book here
26th October - 10am-4pm: Kate Daley is collecting corners, come to the gallery to find out more
27th October - 6pm-8pm: PEAR:FEAST journey through the world with a rice feast. we continue by travelling through the middle east and the Mediterranean. For a menu and to dine at Longsight Art Space’s rice dinner, book here
28th October - 10am-4pm: Kate Daley is collecting corners, come to the gallery to find out more
3rd November - 6pm-8pm: PEAR:FEAST concludes its journey through the world through rice dishes. We end in Europe and Longsight. For a menu and to dine at Longsight Art Space’s rice dinner, book here
PERFORMANCE DAY:
5th November - 10am-4pm: We open The Pear Project Exhibition with a performative orchard planting at Crowcroft Park. Join us for a day of poetry, storytelling and performance. We wassail the new pear orchard over warm pear cider and sweet pear tea.
Venue: Crowcroft Park
Exhibition Continues: 6th – 20th November - The Pear Project Exhibition
Workshops at The Whitaker, all free, all day:
12th, 13th and 15th October, artist led workshops at the Whitaker Art Gallery. Join us,or follow us on social media.
On Wednesday 12th October: leave a sounds with Jo-Yee Cheung.
On Thursday 13th October: join Bilal Zafar Ranjha for a cup of tea and a chat.
On Saturday 15th October: exchange a story for a pear with Xhi Ndubisi
Venue: The Whitaker
PERFORMANCE DAY:
22nd October 10am – 4pm: Join us for a day of storytelling, poetry, sound installations and performance.
For Directions: The Whitaker Art Gallery and Museum
Meet our Pear Project Artists
Artists in Residence:
Ali Al-Jamri
Ali is a poet, translator and teacher. He is one of Manchester’s multilingual city poets. His most recent project is ‘Family and Feasts’, a poetry installation at the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival this past summer. He’s going to be working with intergenerational pairs of participants, facilitating workshops to explore fruits and roots.
Bilal Zafar Ranjha
Bilal is an MA student in Performance at MMU. He’s going to be holding conversations with older members of the Longsight community, mainly in Urdu. His residency will be spent reflecting on journeys, decisions made to leave a place and what is left on arrival. He is likely to be in the gallery at least once a week, having tea and cake with a participant.
Dr Jo Yee Cheung
Dr Jo Yee Cheung is a British pianist and music educator, and Chief Executive of the Olympias Music Foundation – an award-winning charity championing diversity and bringing music to communities in Manchester. The daughter of Chinese-immigrant parents from Yorkshire and the first musician in her family, Jo read Music at Cambridge University, later training as a pianist and completing a PhD in Music Education at the at the Royal Northern College of Music. Having mainly worked as a Creative Producer on community projects, this is Jo’s first commission as a solo artist. Jo will be inviting community members to work with her to rework a song from Yorkshire about pears. Jo might be working with another manchester based musician to develop her practice.
Commissioned Artists:
Ecaterina Stefanescu
An architectural designer and artist, currently based in Preston where she teachs architecture at the University of Central Lancashire. Her practice Estudio ESSE, co-founded in 2015, creates site installations and bespoke design work. She utilises live-build, model-making and drawing in her artistic and research work to respond to place and material cultures of people.
Kate Daley
Kate is a multidisciplinary artist whose current practice involves creating a space for conversation.
Nadia Siddiqui
Nadia runs a women’s charity in Longsight and will be co-ordinating a collective of women to offer a journey through places via rice dishes.
Roxana Allison
Roxana is a British-Mexican local photographer and resident. She is working on a personal project drawing attention towards the people making a real difference in Longsight. To see her work in progress visit her website: http://www.roxanaallison.co.uk/hope-despair-miracles. She's also a co-founder of BeLongsight, a residents group tackling litter and fly tipping through greening alleyways and regular litter picks.
About the Pear Project:
It could have been any food, any fruit, but here and now we choose the pear.
From feudal China, across ancient gardens of Afghanistan and Iran, over Roman and French Orchards into the British landscape, the pear is the product of many cultures and countries. In following its journey, we enter a discussion about who we think we are, how we have come to be, and the complex relationship with place and personhood and happenings that occur when crossing boundaries and borders.
The Pear Project at Longsight Art Space (LAS) is the starting point of a long-term, North-West wide collaboration with artists, communities and organisations to plant pear orchards in this region. Through care and cultivation, these orchards will become a focal point of storytelling and performance as well as addressing the importance of growing food locally and the climate crisis.
Led by Xhi Ndubisi, the inaugural project is an invitation to engage in discussion and exploration of movement, of belonging and identity.
A graduated launch will see a series of meals at LAS, followed by residencies in the North-West inviting artists and local community members to explore their own relationships to movement, of belonging and identity. Participants will transform LAS into an open studio, a dynamic space of evolving work which will culminate in an exhibition at the end of October. The project in Longsight concludes with performances inspired by wassailing as an orchard is planted in Crowcroft Park and our partner gallery, The Whitaker in Rossendale.
We are excited to announce that we are commissioning 4 artists to create work during our exhibition The Pear Project at Longsight Art Space. The commission is to create new work through the residency and community engagement in response to themes around identity, movement and migration.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Email LAS: info@proforma.org.uk
This project is supported by Arts Council England, A Modest Show and Manchester City Council