Chen Man’s audacious photographs occupy the knife edge separating art and fashion. It’s arguably not the most comfortable place to reside; fielding accusations of commericalism on one side and arty self-indulgence on the other must be enough to send anyone round the bend. One of China’s best-known photographers, she has been commissioned by international fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle and luxury brands including Dior and Mercedes Benz. This month, Chinese Arts Centre hosts Chen Man’s first UK solo exhibition, featuring bewitching images from her entire career.

Born in 1980, she grew up in Beijing, and cityscapes are a recurring theme in her work, which employs street culture, animation and science fiction to tweak the real into an impossible ideal. Chen’s heavily manipulated photographs both illustrate and idealise the meteoric rise of consumer culture in China; creating a level of perfection that is both unobtainable and immediately desirable.The photograph above is like many of the women who appear so often in her work: flawlessly beguiling and overtly sexual, this is surely how computer game avatars would look if they stepped out of the screen.

In the past, the celebration of some troubled modern Chinese landmarks in her work (such as the Three Gorges Dam, which famously displaced 1.3 million people) has drawn accusations of immorality, but Chen has argued that she is simply reflecting the ideals of China’s upwardly mobile post-80s generation. Wherever you come down on the issues, it certainly gives you a lot to think about while viewing these beautifully unreal photographs.

Chen Man, 10 February to 7 April, Chinese Arts Centre, Market Buildings, Thomas Street, Northern Quarter, M4 1EU. Free.

Image: Visions.sex.flower, Chen Man, courtesy Chinese Arts Centre. Words: Kate Feld.

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Can the North West support a commerical art gallery? At the opening of Samantha Donnelly’s

Samantha Donnelly: Contour States runs 28 January – 25 March at Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford Street, M1 5NH. Image: courtesy of Cornerhouse.

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Hello 2012! So you maybe assumed that there’s not much happening, this being January and all? Well, you assumed wrong. There are plenty of interesting things to do in Manchester this month. If you’re looking for something to entice you out of our house for a bracing jolt of culture, put down that DVD box set and listen up as Kate Feld hits the highlights.

Casual Friday? If, like us, you’ve always wondered why we don’t have one of those roaming themed movie nights enjoyed by discerning culturehounds in other cities, you’ll be happy to hear about Film Night. It’s a new event that builds an evening’s entertainment around a movie screening in an unusual location, with theme-appropriate refreshments, music and costumes. The inaugural Film Night is an homage to the workplace, with a screening of 2002 film Secretary at The Hive, with a Mad Men-style retro office party afterwards at Kraak Gallery. The Hive, 49 Lever Street, 27 January. screening 8pm, party 10pm, £7.50, booking required.

Watch this. If you don’t fancy critically adored silent film The Artist at Cornerhouse, head to Manchester Metropolitan University where The Modernist magazine and the Loiterer’s Resistance Movement team up to present a free screening of Bata-ville: we are not afraid of the future. The film follows an unusual coach trip of English factory workers to Zlin, Moravia, home of the Bata progressive shoe manufacturing empire that once employed them. Manchester Metropolian University, 26 January , 6pm, booking required here.

Ey up Lass. Fans of the fringe should make a beeline for the mighty Lass o’ Gowrie, where Lassfest is underway. It’s a one-pub midwinter fringe festival with more than 70 performances ranging from theatre to comedy to… erm, Corrie. We’ve been hearing very good things about The Ballad of Halo Jones, an adaptation of Alan Moore and Ian Gibson’s tale of a 50^th Century girl next door originally published in comic 2000AD. But you’ve got to be quick: its run ends 7 January. Through 2 February, Lass o’ Gowrie, 36 Charles Street, M1 7DB.

Self-improvement, part one. Photography collective RedEye are hosting a talk by photographer Percy Dean at the Manchester Jewish Museum, about Clouds of Glory, his project focusing on the orthodox community of Prestwich (17 January, 7pm, £3.50 non-members.) Or brush up on your digital photography and composition at MOSI, where Andrew Brooks is running a hands-on evening workshop ( 10 January, 6:30pm, £35.)

Self-improvement, part two. If you’re up for a longer educational commitment, we love the sound of Cornerhouse’s six-week evening course Introduction to Contemporary Visual Art: Beyond the Counterculture. Hosted by the publishers of leftfield arts magazine Nude, it’s a fantastic opportunity to get stuck into psychedelia, punk art, zine culture and the Tiki revival, and discuss work from artists like Pervasive Art pioneer Gary Baseman (above. ) Starts 16 January, £60/£45, booking and more info here.

By the book. Literary types might enjoy Dead Ink: The Future is Words at The International Anthony Burgess Centre, featuring the launch of Manchester author Richard Evans’ Kosmonaut Zero and a host of supporting readings (26 January, 7pm, £5/4). And there’s more wordy shenanigans at Afflecks’ Three Minute Theatre as live lit night The New Libertines comes north, with 2010 Not the Booker winner Michael Stewart topping a night of wide-ranging readings from local and not so local writing talent (23 January, 8pm, free).

Eve of destruction. Finally, if January just makes you feel like burning stuff, do it in the name of high art at the Manchester Artists Bonfire. Part spectacle, part experiment and part act of creative insurrection, artists consign their work to the flames at Islington Mill, along with a piece of paper explaining why they are burning their work. At Islington Mill, James Street, Salford M3 5HP, 26 January, 6-9 pm, free, with a late-night party afterwards (admission TBC).

Image: from “Happy Idiot”, Gary Baseman, courtesy of Cornerhouse.

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Using a Lomo camera takes you back to the time when taking a picture was an act of faith. The cheap plastic film cameras from Russia developed a cult following in the 1990s for the amazing pictures they produced, complete with light bleeds, chromatic aberrations, vignettes (yep, basically the retro cool effects those hipster photo-editing apps try to re-create.) It’s not every camera that comes complete with a ten-point manifesto, but the Lomo isn’t just a camera anymore – it’s a fiercely analogue way of approaching the world. Using only a viewfinder, or even eschewing one entirely and shooting from the hip, you click and hope for the best. So we’re delighted that the Lomographic Society International is opening their third UK shop in the Northern Quarter this week. Visitors can check out a lomography wall, participate in classes and workshops, buy cameras and develop film. Don’t think, just shoot. You’ll be surprised. And isn’t that the point?

– Kate Feld

Lomography Gallery Store, 20 Oldham Street, M1 1JN.  From Saturday 16 December. Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 12-6pm

Image: David Tester shooting on Piccadilly with a Lomo LC-Wide.

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The People’s History Museum offers up an engaging new exhibition on the art of the political poster. It’s definitely got Kate Feld’s vote.

The new austerity is upon us, with rioting in the papers, the world economy in peril and ordinary Britons worried about how they’re going to put  presents under the tree. So maybe that’s why, even with no election on the immediate horizon, the Picturing Politics exhibition at the People’s History Museum feels timely. Political posters were originally an appeal to working Britons who didn’t have the time or money to spare on newspapers, but who’d see posters while walking around their cities. Lots of posters. In 1910, which saw elections in January and December, political posters covered two million square feet in London. That’s not advertising, that’s outdoor wallpaper.

Exhibition curator Chris Burgess, a doctoral candidate at the University of Nottingham, says the posters’ transitory nature is part of what that makes them so interesting. “One of the problems with looking at election posters is that, though they’ve been used for at least 110 years, each one is designed at a very specific time to speak to a very specific electorate.” Through the posters at the museum we can witness the rise and fall of great leaders, earth shattering world events and changes to society and daily life (women suddenly appear in 1918, often clutching babies, then after the Second World War we mainly disappear outside of family scenes. Uh huh).

But if the posters hold up a mirror to the British people, it’s a funhouse mirror. This is not the voting public as we really are, but as we are seen by the people who want to win our votes, with our needs, wants and fears exaggerated in whatever way they deem most likely to bring about the desired effect. Once produced by party members, they’re now shop windows for high-profile ad agencies, who sell a party and a politician like they sell us soap or insurance. We’ve come a long way from the days of Gerald Spencer Pryse, creator of hundreds of posters for the Labour party (such the striking Women – Vote Labour, from 1918, left). He was offered work by the Conservatives but declined citing his belief that “the workers have been given a raw deal in the industrial age.”

At PHM, a wonderful display takes apart each of the elements of the poster, examining the evolving interplay of text and image, and providing a fascinating catalogue of poster symbols still in use today; the strong leader who shines with the light of the sun, the shopping basket representing family interests, the British voters as children continually on the verge of being led astray by the nefarious politicians of the other party. At first glance, the detailed paintings of the Edwardian Tariff Reform battles seem positively antique next to the stark, photography-based posters currently in favour. But themes don’t really change. Think Saatchi & Saatchi were the first to use a line of unemployed workers to strike fear into voters’ hearts? “Going through the archive, the dole queue is quite a big thing. The idea of having to wait, of having your lives impeded in this way. There’s a poster from 1955 that simply says ‘no more queues’, and one from 1929 featuring unemployed voters streaming in to cast their ballots,” Burgess says. And we could well see it adorning posters again, he points out. “Unemployment will be a big issue in the next election, just as it has been a big issue in different elections throughout the century.”

In this age of mass media saturation, viral videos and smartphones the political poster may have outlived its usefulness. “We probably don’t need them anymore,” Burgess admits. “We don’t know how much of an impact they actually have – but we put them up to remind people that there’s an election on, or sometimes for parties to show voters they’re making an effort.” Can you imagine an election without them? We can’t. Here’s hoping that day never comes. In amongst all the consumer directives, it’s somewhat heartening to see ads urging us to make a decision, to do our civic duty, to stand up and be counted.

Picturing Politics: Exploring the Political Poster in Britain, through 17 June 2012, People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields M3 3ER. Free.

Images, from top: The Only Hope is Tariff Reform, 1906; Women – Vote Labour, 1918; because Britain deserves better, 1997. All images courtesy of People’s History Museum.

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There are many things in life worth railing against, but Mother Nature isn’t one of them. Rough seas, floods, snowstorms, ash clouds: she has a whole host of disasters at her disposal to remind us that we are little more than mindless ants milling about on the Earth’s surface. So when jewellery designer Jo Bloxham was grounded by a volcanic ash-cloud, she had the good grace to accept her lot. And then she did what any self-respecting Mancunian would do: she decided to make the most of it.

In April 2010, Jo had been at a jewellery symposium in Mexico City. Suddenly stranded in a city far from home, she met up daily with fellow designers to check the news and berate the airlines for refusing to fly (they wouldn’t budge until the skies were clear: according to a BA pilot who had flown through an ash cloud from Mount Galunggung in Java, flying in such conditions is “a bit like negotiating one’s way up a badger’s arse”). The cloud remained stubbornly in place for almost a week, and it was then that Jo had her Big Idea: why not stage a jewellery show based on this collective experience? And so Under that Cloud was born. The exhibition features new work by 18 of the world’s leading jewellery designers, and every bit as dazzling as their work are their accompanying stories : tales of fear, resignation and inspiration. A taste of these stories is below – for the full experience head down to Manchester Art Gallery and give thanks that Mother Nature’s roving eye hasn’t recently alighted on you.

Under that Cloud, Manchester Art Gallery, Moseley Street, until 15 April 2012. Free.

1. First-aid Easy Mantras for Air Passengers Involved in Travel Disruption Due to the Ash Cloud, Gemma Draper. “The first person who told us that a long dormant volcano in Iceland had resumed its expulsion of smoke and ash, a dense cloud that was forcing the closure of airports in Northern Europe, seemed to us an inspired storyteller. Our subtle system of certainties was still protecting us, keeping our planned agendas untouched. The surprise took a while to sink in.”

2. When Skies Were Silent, Andrea Wagner. “Airspace in Northern Europe was closed for six days. For the first time I realised how vulnerable our travel system… really is. We take the rapidity and ease of modern life so much for granted. Yet nature’s calamities can greatly disrupt all that. But there was also beauty; a peaceful silence in the skies. I couldn’t help but intensely envy all whose destinations hadn’t been effected; like being able to fly home on golden wings.”

3. Swarm, Nanna Melland. “Most species move to some extent, despite the fact that it is energetically costly and can involve great, life threatening risks, but… in difficult habitats without suitable food, migratory strategies are essential. The migration of humans in the last decades, helped by the development of airplanes, has had a severe impact on our social systems and nature, but it does have both positive and negative consequences. There is a fragile balance between order and chaos.”

4. Anatomy of Fear, Agnieszka Knap. “I want to illustrate the condition of being part of something but not being able to connect with it emotionally. Something that creeps up slowly, becoming larger and larger so that in the end there is no point of return: you must face the fact despite how unpleasant or scary it turns out to be. When I was told about the volcanic eruption I continued my stay in Mexico City as if nothing had happened. It was very interesting to watch the different reactions of my co-passengers, certainly better than confronting my own fears. Some people were calm…others panicked and devoted all their time and energy to trying to get home, most often without success..”

All images copyright Jonathan Keenan, courtesy Manchester Art Gallery.

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We have a policy here at CT Towers of not mentioning the c-word until at least 1 December. But despite our editorial best of intentions there really is no escaping it: you can’t head into town without tripping over trees, tinsel and Gluhwein-glugging tourists. So as we can’t beat ‘em we’ve decided to join ‘em: here’s our festive round-up of what’s on in Manchester this month, while over here Kate Feld rounds up the best alternative Christmas shopping the city has to offer.

White Christmas? This time last year it was snowing; this year the weather is distinctly damp – but don’t let grey clouds dampen your sense of festive fun. Head down instead to Cornerhouse, which this month is screening a series of Christmas classics, including the wonderful It’s a Wonderful Life, Meet Me in St. Louis and, of course, White Christmas. Cornerhouse, Whitworth Street West, 3-23 December, times and prices vary.

What the funk? Less festive but still kind of, um, festive (bear with us), George Clinton is back in town on Thursday and he’s bringing his funky family, Parliament Funkadelic, with him. This time around he touches down at the Ritz, a great venue for his spaced out, zero-gravity grooves, with DJ support from one of Manchester’s longstanding funk nights, Funkademia. Expect to hear all those classic songs you didn’t know you knew: One Nation under a Groove, Flashlight, Atomic Dog. Yup, we’ll be watching the skies this week: the funk mothership is on its way. George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, The Ritz, Whitworth Steer West, 1 December (7pm), £22.50.

Candle in the wind. News comes to us of an intriguing exhibition at the John Rylands Library: Kindle, a display that is not (as you might imagine) made up of the ubiquitous e-reader but instead features 3,500 paper candles spread across the library’s old map room. Kindle has been created by Nicola Dale, an artist inspired by the idea that the knowledge contained within books is turned into data and, eventually, a kind of digital light – bringing the word ‘kindle’ closer to its original, fiery meaning. Nice, and kind of festive too, no? John Rylands Library, Deansgate (until 29 April 2012). Free.

Literary Luminary. Booker prize winner Alan Hollinghurst is in town this month and if you’re any sort of lover of words don’t pass up the chance to hear him read (his Line of Beauty is one of our all-time fave novels). Hollinghurst will be at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on 8 December. It’s a free event so no excuses please – get down there. IABF, Chorlton Mill, Cambridge Street, 8 December (6.30pm). Free.

Get digital. If you can’t get to see Hollinghurst, try the next best thing: read the new edition of The Manchester Review. Online, free and rather marvellous, it features Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Millhauser and Booker Prize long-listed Jon McGregor, as well as a clutch of other poets, writers and up-and-comers.

Clock this. Hate shopping? Fancy a bird’s eye view of the city instead? Ditch the consumer crowds with a tour of the Town Hall’s 134 year-old, 85 metre-high clock tower – one of Manchester’s most iconic sights but not one often open to the public. This rare tour gives the chance to visit Great Abel (that’s a massive bell, not Manchester’s equivalent to Quasimodo) and, best of all, walk the catwalk that surrounds the tower for what must be one of the most panoramic views across Manchester. You’ll need a head for heights, a willingness to climb a lot of stairs and be aged 12 or over. 22 December (1pm, 2.30pm, 4pm, 5.30pm, 7pm). £7.50. Book on 0161 234 4433.

One for the kids #1. With the ice rink now at Spinningfields, Piccadilly Gardens has filled the hole left in its wake with a family fun fair. It’s rather retro (helter skelter, swing boats) and it’s also rather nice to see something in the city centre aimed squarely at small people. Still, there’s entertainment on tap for the grown-ups too in the form of a Big Top Bar, food stalls and live music courtesy of Band on the Wall – and you’re never so old that you can’t enjoy a go on the carousel. Piccadilly Gardens, until 3 January (daily, 11am-late, closed on 25 December).

One for the kids #2. If the Grotto in the Arndale doesn’t float your boat then try MOSI’s festive affair instead. Here, Santa ditches the sleigh in favour of a steam power, and kids can grab a gift from Saint Nick before jumping on a real, live steam train and taking part in some Christmassy activities. MOSI, Liverpool Road, 3 & 4 Dec, 10 & 11 Dec, 17 & 18 Dec and 19-23 Dec (10.30am-4.30pm), £5. Tickets can be bought in advance or on the day.

And finally, a tuneful rumour. We’ve heard it whispered that the Northern Quarter Boys Choir is planning on doing some carolling around the ‘hood. The hipster choirboys did something similar last year and it was huge fun – follow us @creativetourist and as soon as we get confirmation we’ll Tweet the details. UPDATE: We’ve now received word that the choirboys will be singing this evening (16 December) around the neighbourhood, and on Sunday 18 December at the Christmas Markets (day), The Royal Exchange and The Castle (evening), on 21 December at the Oddbar quiz and Common quiz in the evening, and finally in the evening of 22 December at Common. They’re raising money for the men’s cancer charity Everyman (here’s a link to their fundraising page.) Yes, they will be performing Christmas classics, but we understand they will also be singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. All together now: ‘Turn around, bright eyes…’

Words: Susie Stubbs (except George Clinton, by David Turner). Images (top to bottom): Cornerhouse; Kindle by Nicola Dale; Piccadilly Partnership; Courtesy Northern Quarter Boys Choir; Susie Stubbs .

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Two years ago, researchers at the University of Manchester discovered a box in their archives. Apparently lying unnoticed for a hundred years, it housed a collection of forgotten Nubian bones (Nubia was ancient Egypt’s powerful but ultimately less remembered neighbour). Instead of shrugging their shoulders and dumping the box back on the shelves, the researchers had a light bulb moment. They realised they had stumbled across the personal collection of Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, a palaeopathologist responsible for one of the biggest archaeological digs ever conducted – and its discovery marked the start of a very 21^st century detective story, one that is told in a new exhibition at Manchester Museum, Grave Secrets.

In 1907, Elliot Smith was a man on a rescue mission. The area of ancient Nubia he was excavating was due to be flooded for a new dam; he was given four years to dig up and preserve as much as he could before it was forever lost. “Elliot Smith and his team excavated 151 cemeteries in just four years, a phenomenal task,” says research associate Jenefer Cockitt. “He had huge teams of workers, all racing against the clock. The area had never been worked on before and they had no idea how much they would find, nor how much they would learn about ancient disease and, in turn, how the modern understanding of disease would expand as a result.”

It was a radical project and thousands of discoveries were made – but when time ran out in 1911, the team of researchers dispersed across the world (Elliot Smith himself took a post in Manchester), taking their bones with them.

Back in present day Manchester, Jenefer Cockitt and her colleagues are part-way through the task of reuniting what is left of the original collection – the thousands of bones, photographs, maps and artefacts, some recorded and others not, that have survived the intervening years. It is this detective work that forms the basis of Grave Secrets, says Cockitt. “We are trying to bring the collection back together and complete the survey – even though it was one of the most important collections of ancient disease ever made, the job was never actually finished.”

It is no mean feat: researchers have so far found just 1,000 bodies out of the 8,000 or so originally excavated. “We want to capture and conserve the collection for future generations – and allow researchers today to use it properly,” says Cockitt. Alongside the exhibition, then, all research results are being posted publicly online and anyone can access the findings, whether professional or public. Grave Secrets, then, a small show tucked away on the third floor of Manchester Museum, is that rarest of things. It gives an insight into the kind of research that normally only takes place behind closed doors, and it is genuinely exciting. Cockitt and her team have shed light on old bones, and in so doing have illuminated the lives of the ancient Nubians, and Elliot Smith’s explorers who, over 100 years ago, first dug down and discovered their remains.

Grave Secrets: Tales of the Ancient Nubians, Manchester Museum, until 4 March 2012. Free. Images: courtesy The Manchester Museum/The University of Manchester.

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1. Sights from The Other City – Salford’s Chapel Street creative district is well and truly decking their halls this year with a programme of festive events, art shows and fairs leading up to Christmas. Thursday’s Christmas at the Mill features open artist studios, art for sale, exhibitions and music from Islington Mill’s new neighbours, the BBC Philharmonic. Then this weekend it’s the fabulous Printomania zine fair and the opening of the eagerly awaited Manchester Modernist Society’s Modernist Pop-up Shop. If you’re shopping for fans of Brutalist architecture, you’re massively in luck.

Christmas at the Mill,  Islington Mill, James Street, Salford M3 5HW. (4-9pm, 1 December.) Free.

Printomania Zine Fair, Chapel Street and Hope United Reformed Church Gallery. (3 December 11am – 5pm.)Free.

The Modernist Pop-up Shop, 142 Chapel Street, Salford, M3 6AF. (open Wed – Sat 1 – 6 pm from 3 – 23 December.) Preview 6-8pm Friday 2 December. Free.

2. Dazzle at The Royal Exchange – While we love the Manchester Craft and Design Centre year round, Christmas is when little craft and jewellery fairs spring up all over the place, and one of our favourites is Dazzle. Featuring silver, gold and all manner of beautifully designed, lust-worthy trinkets, it’s always worth a look. Plus it offers a quiet retreat from the sausage-and-mulled-wine madness of the Manchester Christmas Markets in nearby St. Ann’s Square. Royal Exchange, St. Ann’s Square, until 1 January (Mon-Fri 9.30am-7.30pm, Sat 9.30am-8pm, Sun 11am-5pm). Free.

3. Markets (and more markets) – Sure, we all love the aforementioned Christmas Markets, but if, like us, you’ve always secretly wished they were a bit more goth, you’ll love Pop-up Afflecks, a selection of stalls from the cult counter-culture emporium installed in the foyer of the Town Hall, adjacent to the main Christmas market at Albert Square. Go browse clothing, fashion and accessories and gifts from Me&Yu, Hannah Makes Things, Clothing With A Conscience, Biggi Bagga, Beanies, Chocolate Ape and Pop Boutique. We’ve also been hearing lovely things about the new monthly  Castlefield Artisan Market. This Sunday and again at a special Christmas market on 23 December, you can check out vintage clothes and antiques, buy a sustainable Christmas tree and lay in a range of local artisan foods for the holiday larder while enjoying the cool ‘forties-style tunes of the Cotton Town Hot Club. Hot-cha-cha.

Pop-up Afflecks, Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, M2 5DB. (Daily 11am to 7pm to Sunday 18th December). Free.

Castlefield Artisan Market, Duke Street M3 4NF. (4 and 23 December from 10-4pm). Free.

4. Cornerhouse Art Book Sale – We say hooray for this annual bonanza where a whole year’s worth of discounted stock from the Cornerhouse bookshop goes on sale and is eagerly snapped up by thrifty art lovers faster than you can say Pippilotti Rist. Get there early for bonus goodies like film stills and posters from the cinema archive. While you’re there, check out the artworks from Suite Studios artists on sale in the café & bar for a very original Christmas gift all wrapped up in the extra feel-good factor of supporting Manchester artists. Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford Street M1 5NH. (Monday 5 Dec, 11am – 5pm). Donation requested.

5. GROTTO at Chinese Arts Centre – While we’re on the subject of supporting the city’s artists, its great to see GROTTO back in the Northern Quarter. The temporary shop provides local artists and designers a way to make money from their work in the run up to Christmas. Go bag yourself  (or, ahem, someone on your list) a quirky illustrated badge or tote bag from the fabulous Emma Brown Owl, an acetastic T-shirt from DR.ME or screenprints from Creative Tourist favourite One69A. Chinese Arts Centre, Market Buildings, Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1EU. (Tues – Sat, 10am – 5pm). Free.

Images (from top:) Modernist Pop-up Shop Anna Lachowska, courtesy Afflecks, courtesy Castlefield Artisan Market.

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