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Winter 2021New exhibitions at Touchstones explore Rochdale heritage and identities

Three new exhibits will look at local heritage, community and representation, and works that can be interpreted in multiple ways.

Major new art displays by 2019 Turner Prize winner, Helen Cammock, and The Paul Hamlyn Foundation award recipient, Jasleen Kaur, are now on display at Touchstones.

Centring on film works created with the participation of community groups from Rochdale, Helen Cammock’s ‘Concrete Feathers and Porcelain Tacks’ and Kaur’s ‘Gut Feelings Meri Jaan’ will run until February 2022.

For her exhibition, Cammock has taken the hugely influential 1884 Rochdale Principles of Co-operation as a point of departure, looking to reconnect with these ideas through open dialogues with residents of Rochdale. Together, residents and community groups have examined what it means to exist as part of a community through film, photography, print, text, song and performance, exploring social histories and questioning mainstream historical narratives.

Taking an eclectic selection of items from Touchstones’ public art collection and archive – which will also be on display – a diverse group including Rochdale’s former mayor, young people, a local artist, a retired joiner, and a Ukrainian women’s choir, were invited to breathe new life and narratives into these objects and uncover strikingly different facets of Rochdale.

Artist Jasleen Kaur will explore Rochdale heritage and history from a different perspective 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 non-binary participants from the 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 – commissioned by UP Projects in partnership with Touchstones Rochdale – 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 the borough.

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.

Another exhibition bringing shapes to life, ‘Aligned Raised Lowered Offset Paired’ showcases the geometric artwork of Todmorden-based artist, George Meyrick. Using simple, geometric forms to create works that can be interpreted in multiple ways, Meyrick has even incorporated elements of Touchstones’ exhibition space.

“My works may seem difficult to explain and understand, but this is a key part of interpreting them,” said the contemporary artist.

“Imagined alternative interpretations of the elements are a key part of the visual experience. “I love encouraging the viewer to make their own judgement on the work, and it exists to be individually interpreted, resolved and recreated in their minds."

Current exhibition dates at Touchstones:

  • George Meyrick: Aligned Raised Lowered Offset Paired, Gallery One until Sunday 9 January 2022
  • What’s Changed?, Gallery Two until Saturday 1 January 2022
  • Jasleen Kaur: Gut Feelings Meri Jaan, Gallery Three until Sunday 13 February 2022
  • Helen Cammock: Concrete Feathers and Porcelain Tacks Gallery Four until Sunday 13 February 2022

Touchstones Rochdale offers a wide variety of exhibitions in the Heritage Gallery and the Art Gallery’s four gallery spaces including those from the local community, selections from the borough’s impressive art collection and work by contemporary artists. As well as the changing exhibitions spaces, there is also a permanent museum which aims to tell a potted history of Rochdale.

The museum is ideally suited to visitors with an interest in the history of Rochdale or families.

There are interactive exhibits, films, audios and objects from the borough’s collection on display.

Opening times:
Wednesday - Saturday: 10am - 5pm
Sunday: 10am - 4pm

Touchstones Rochdale, The Esplanade Rochdale, OL16 1AQ. Tel: 01706 924492.

Admission is FREE.