Mei Grows Tall

The new exhibitions at The Manchester Gallery were actually quite wonderful. My favorite of the lot was the show Deodorant Type: Sculptures By Gwon Osang. I wasn’t permitted to take pictures inside, but the sculptures were so inspiring that i did a few sketches. Here’s what an article said:

Containing 14 individual artworks, including several new and specially commissioned pieces, Deodorant Type forms the first major UK showcase of Osang’s extraordinary human sculptures and looks certain not to disappoint.

Beginning with an intensive photo session, during which the artist painstakingly documents every inch of the model’s clothed and often heavily posed body, Osang creates each art work by sculpting a life-size 3D replica of the individual, on to which he then applies hundreds of still images. Finally, a light glaze is applied over the work, lending each piece an eerie translucent glow.

They were really cool. In the gallery, it was just a huge, open room, so i decided to sit on the floor and do my thing. I was pleasantly surprised and about 5 other twenty something art students decided to do the same, sketchpads and all. See, either a) they saw me sitting in the middle of the floor and decided to follow my example, or b) they would have done this anyway and i happened to stumble on kindred spirits. Either way, the episode was quite jolly and put me in a great mood.

There was also an old guy that strolled over. He took a look at the pose i was drawing and remarked, ” ‘ey. I can pose li’ that yeh know.” he chuckled. I reply, “Alrigh’. Give it a go, then,” and we both had a good laugh.  See, it was this one on the left:

it was quite the day, for sure. I went to a different gallery this afternoon, called Cornerhouse. I was kind of disapointed with it, becasue all they had there right now was a pititful book seleection, a weird art film show, over priced food and not enough art. I ordered a smoothie from the cafe that was like 3 pounds and not all that great, but overall i really shouldn’t complain. I chilled out and came back to the university at leaest more entertained than when I left.