Caleb White

★   ★   ★  ★  ★   As part of 20/20 project, Manchester Art Gallery is displaying Holly Graham's artwork/exhibition 'The Warp/ The Weft/ The Wake' until March 2026. It explores the legacy of colonialism and labour exploitation in the cotton industry, central to Manchester, and to the founding of The Royal Manchester Institute - which would later become the Manchester Art Gallery itself. Both Graham's final product, and the surrounding contextual archival material, are a resounding success - a shining example of explaining an artpiece in a way that doesn't reduce, but deepens the experience.  It a Tuesday. This is the third attempt at taking notes on this exhibition. On the opening day, I had just finished a shift at my new coffee shop, and - seeing the room packed with visitors - decided against taking photos and notes, blocking the view of others. Yesterday, also after a shift, I tried again, forgetting the 'closed-on-monday' sector wide rule. But today I a...

  ★   ★   ★   ★  ☆ I enter from the right, coming straight from the staircase, neglecting Lowery and Valette, and continue straight on towards a Harvey Ball style smiley face, stuck on the outside of a cabinet, covering the place at which a mannequin’s head would have been. The mannequin inside wears a yellow dress. Image via fashionexhibitionmaking.ac.uk While the gallery is titled “fashion”, every subdivision concerns ‘Couture’. A seed collection, works of big-name designers, has been transformed into quite a brilliant exhibition. Brilliant, first, in its transparency. The reverse wall, left and behind as I enter, showcases ephemera left over by the exhibition team. A steady progression from mind-maps, through mood-boards, to floor-plans and sketch ups. Both the drive and the focus of the exhibition team is apparent in their workings. Already, colour is used to great effect. Text is highlighted in yellow, signifying the theme of ‘storytelling’. A set of A4...