Heterotopia: moments in art
a life in art
Deirdre McConnell is an artist, art teacher, art psychotherapist and human rights activist. After studying for a Combined Honours BA degree in Fine Art and Italian at Exeter College of Art and Exeter University, she moved to Manchester, where she has lived and worked for forty years. Manchester, its people and events have shaped her life. This exhibition comprises sculptures, drawings and paintings created over a lifetime and includes some new paintings that complete a series started decades ago.
Heterotopia, unlike utopia, is both real and imagined. French philosopher Michel Foucault’s term denotes a spatiotemporal contestation of norms. The exhibition space is heterotopic, as are the artworks and the art-making process. Deirdre presents moments in time caught in paint, pastel, and clay that invite viewers to connect with their sense of time, space, and place. Her artwork has changed throughout her lifetime, as she has. Some themes link to community action in Manchester and identity that goes beyond the individual to the global, as in her work on Sanctuary. She offers a space for reflection – on what we see, how we see it and how we see different worlds.
Exhibition opening: Saturday 8th February, 2 pm to 5 pm. All welcome
Open to the public at weekends: 12 – 4 pm until 23rd February.
Rogue Artists’ Studios Project Space is a dedicated exhibition venue in the ground floor sports hall of our new studios at the former Varna Street school buildings in Higher Openshaw, Manchester.
The Project Space is a flexible gallery space of 290 square metres floor area with three freestanding moveable right angled screens each face of which is 8 feet square. The walls of the gallery are 8 feet high affording extended display space for 2D works.
The Project Space is available for art exhibitions and events curated by individuals or groups external to the studio membership. Proposal forms are available from David Gledhill at rogueartistsstudios@yahoo.co.uk.
As Manchester’s latest contemporary art gallery, the Project Space will create a platform for Rogue studio holders, community groups, and emerging and mid-career artists and collectives from the region and beyond to show their work in a critically informed context. Rogue Project Space will acknowledge and support practices that may be in the process of being formed or developed, and also the work of mature artists whose work falls outside prevailing models of display.
Nested in a community with a rich social and industrial heritage, the Project Space also represents an opportunity for socially engaged artists to contribute to Rogue’s offer as a studio group of international significance and local relevance. To that end, we particularly welcome proposals from artists wishing to engage new audiences through exhibitions, displays, outreach, educational and workshop activities.