New art exhibitions delve into town’s rich heritage
TOUCHSTONES Art Gallery and Museum will open two new exhibitions this October, which both explore ideas of Rochdale heritage, community and representation.
Centring on film works created with the participation of community groups from Rochdale, Helen Cammock’s ‘Concrete Feathers and Porcelain Tacks’ and Jasleen Kaur’s ‘Gut Feelings Meri Jaan’ will run concurrently until February 2022.
For Concrete Feathers and Porcelain Tacks, 2019 Turner Prize winner Helen Cammock has taken the 1884 Rochdale Principles of Co- operation as a point of departure.
Continuing a practice which includes film, photography, print, text, song and performance to explore social histories and question mainstream historical narratives, Cammock has brought together Rochdale residents and community groups to examine what it means to exist as part of a community.
Concrete Feathers and Porcelain Tacks was cocommissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Contemporary Art Society ( with support from the Mbili Foundation) and The Photographers’ Gallery, in partnership with Touchstones Rochdale. Supported by Arts Council England.
Exploring Rochdale heritage and official histories from a different perspective is artist Jasleen Kaur’s Gut Feelings Meri Jaan, which responds to the local archives at Touchstones by bringing to the forefront the voices of migrant communities within the town’s social history, which have historically been marginalised and misrepresented.
During a series of online gatherings and conversations held by Kaur over a nine-month period, a group of women and gender nonconforming participants from Rochdale’s local South Asian community were invited to critique the contents of the Ethnic Minorities section of the local archives at Touchstones, questioning how notions of cultural heritage are preserved and considering the human body as a living archive and carrier of histories.
The resulting work is a multiple-screen film installation in which customs and rituals preserved by group members and their families are performed in specific locations in and around Rochdale, including Touchstones, the town centre and the region’s rural landscape.
The films are also accompanied by a bilingual reference book in English and Urdu, printed on seed paper, documenting the conversations and texts studied by the group over the course of their time together.
Gut Feelings Meri Jaan is commissioned by UP Projects in partnership with Touchstones Rochdale.
The commission is generously funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Foyle Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Rochdale Borough Council and Arts Council England.
Further information on the exhibitions can be found at www. your t r u s t ro chda l e . co. uk/ exhibitions/
●● ELECTRICAL engineer killed in horror smash after vehicle came off road and hit men who were working. Emergency services rushed out to the scene, where two electrical engineers who had been working on the pavement were found seriously injured (October 17):
Michaela Radford: My thoughts are with the families. Katie Lomas: Heartbreaking. Thoughts are with the family and friends. Jade Mellor: Sad this. This is why we had a power cut today.
TEN of Rochdale’s parks and green spaces have been ranked among the best in the UK and around the world after being awarded a Green Flag Award (October 17):
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Nicole Chadderton: Milnrow Park is such a lovely place. Been taking my grandkids there on a regular basis for the last 12 years... They still ask to go to ‘The flag park’ and never tire of it. Well done to those who maintain it and keep it looking lovely. Kathleen Gaffiney: Hare Hill Park is lovely with the band playing. Are they going to come back anytime soon? Joanne Brown: Well done Rochdale. Springfield park should have a mention too. It’s my favourite. Diane Quinn: Wonderful a big thanks for posting this, just magic and proud to come from Rochdale. Lee Glover: You can hardly walk through any of them without some local druggie begging for money or some little