3 Days Without Water

Wed 22nd August – Sat 25th August 2012

3 Piccadilly Place, M1 3BN [MAP]

The Life Friendly Collective present:

3 days without water

Water is vital to life: we depend on it for our survival. Yet we pollute it, disrupt it, waste it and fear it. 3 Days Without Water examines our relationship with water and its dynamic properties which can be both life enhancing and destructive.  

Works include a water garden, sound installation and live events.

Featured Life Friendly artists:

Kate Bevan - Water Words

James Brady - ark:judgement

louie+jesse - call and response

Maya Chowdhry - Leftover Garden

Squirrel Nation - Somewhere in the Middle

Penny Skerrett - Vortices: remembering Viktor Schauberger

Opening times:

Wed 22nd Aug: 12.30pm - 5.30pm

Thu 23rd Aug: 2.30pm - 7.30pm

Fri 24th Aug: 12.30pm - 5.30pm

Sat 25th Aug: 12.30pm - 5.30pm

Free Special events:

Water Words - Kate Bevan

"Water Words", is a participatory work for five people at a time and will be performed on...

Friday 24th August, 12.30pm - 12.45pm & 12.45pm - 13.00
Saturday 25th August, 17.15 - 17.30 & 17.30 - 17.45
To ensure a place, please email: lifefriendlyartistsATearthly.co.uk with the date & time of the performance you'd like to attend. To find out more click here.


A Manchester Smell Walk
Friday 24th August, 1 - 2pm: meet 3 Piccadilly Place

Manchester has its fair share of water. From the waterways of Canal Street, Piccadilly Gardens' Fountain Plaza, the mini water features dotted around the city and, you guessed it, the rain, water has a major impact on the city's sensory landscape. But what influence does Manchester's water have on the SMELL OF THE CITY? Here's your chance to find out, with an hour-long smell walk around some of the local odour hotspots led by Dr Victoria Henshaw from Manchester University. Remember to wear sensible shoes and dress for the weather!

No need to book, just turn up at 1pm.

Visit the Smell and the city blog: http://smellandthecity.wordpress.com

Follow us on twitter: @life_friendly

Water Ways

Some converging interests and energy, including the canal walk and the desire for a space to experiment, have led to an opportunity. Water is the theme and a group of us will be exploring water as a critical resource in a space, near Piccadilly Basin, that we have access to, thanks to Jessica and regular collaborator Louie who are making an installation/ sculpture as part of Louie's MA.



The space itself presents a Life Friendly challenge with limited electricity. We'll have access to the space from the 7th Aug until the 25th Aug during which time we'll be exploring the many different ways in which water is important and producing a group exhibition around the theme of Water.

 

The residency and exhibition dates coincide with the 2012 canal festival and related events which we hope to make links with.

 

Participating artists:

Jessica Mautner
Louie O'Grady
Kate Bevan
Maya Chowdhry
James Brady
Penny Skerrett
Caroline Ward
Erinma Ochu

Explore slideshow of the space.

Water Ways will be open to the public to visit from Wed 22nd August to Sat 25th August 2012.

Water ways has become.... 3 Days Without Water

Related blogs:

Waterwheel: sharing about water
Water: pinterest

Canal Walk

Inspired by the AND Festival artist residency opportunity, five of us went on a walk along Rochdale Canal last week. Starting out at Piccadilly Basin we walked along the canal for just over 3 hours stopping off for a picnic en route before getting the bus back to Piccadilly.

We mapped out the route beforehand and documented people, botanicals & buildings using video, photography and also recorded the route on a cycling GPS tracker. We considered how we could explore the life friendliness of the canal and how it might have a restorative impact on the people and immediate environment.

We wondered how we might transform and reveal its potential as an ecological 'edge' through foraging, sculpture, interactive work, archiving and film. We came up with an idea for exploring SLOW TRADE - how could the canal be considered as an ecology that is traded from one end of the canal to the other - influencing, interacting and gaining from connections with the dog walkers, cyclists, lovers, fishermen - that frequent it? The kind of thing that builds, balances and restores slowly over time.

The whole slideshow from the walk is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/squirrelnation/sets/72157629876322384/show/

Welcome to the We Are Life Friendly blog - over the next coming months we hope to share with each other and you, everything we are exploring under the term 'Life Friendly'. What is Life Friendly we hear you cry???? Well please read out about us page for more info.... but simply remember...
  
"The Life Friendly programme at Chinese Arts Centre explores in a systemic way how artists and arts organisations can redesign their practice to have benign/restorative impact on the natural world and on human quality of life"