Fairy tales and found art: Alison Erika Forde at Manchester Art Gallery

Sara Jaspan, Exhibitions Editor

Subversive charity-shop kitsch is one way to describe the local artist’s exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery.

Sandwiched between Manchester Art Gallery’s busy shop and a somewhat more traditional display about Victorian philanthropist, Thomas Horsfall, is The Tallest of Tales. A surreal bridge between the two rooms, Alison Erika Forde’s first solo exhibition catches you off guard and has already caused several visitors to do a visible double take. It could have something to do with Forde’s deliberately miss-matched, hotchpotch aesthetic. Appropriating discarded pieces of furniture and the kind of gaudy paintings usually found in your local Oxfam, she uses these found objects to overlay faux-naïve, folkloric narratives and characters; all of which seem akin to the recycled cultural debris with which she works.

A wooden hut becomes a gallery space within a gallery space within a gallery

A dark sense of humour pervades Forde’s work. One of the larger pieces, “The Lady in the Lake”, shows a snowy Alpine scene into which Forde plants a nymph-like woman (with notably hairy legs) taking a bath and apparently immune to the stares of a party of male onlookers. Another work, collectively titled “Let’s all do the Conga” shows a succession of spliced woodland animals inexplicably dancing the conga across four framed canvases. But the works on the wall aren’t the whole story, as Forde aims to create “more of an installation environment” via a painted totem pole, hanging stuffed doll and a cluster of toadstools. But it’s the wooden hut that dominates the centre of the gallery space. Initially, it appears to evoke the enchanted forests of Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood, but venture inside and it provides a second display area for a number of additional works. It’s like a gallery space within a gallery space within a gallery. The hut’s cramped interior and the semi-erotic content of the paintings it houses give the space a strangely “adult” feel, altering the experience of the exhibition’s remaining works. It’s a strangely unsettling show. Wendy houses and fairy tales characters will never look the same again.

Culture Guides

Theatre in Manchester and the North

Theatre

You’ll find everything from work-in-progress scratch nights to multi-award winning musicals in this month’s theatre guide.

Classical Music

We preview the standout classical music events and venues in Manchester and the north.

Food and Drink

Get ready for spring and summer with the best restaurants and bars in Manchester and the North.

Cinema

Northern flicks, sci-fi masterpieces and some brand new film festivals feature in this month’s cinema preview.

Exhibitions

Spring weather might be dragging its feet a little, but the world of exhibitions isn’t slowing down with new shows popping up everywhere to greet the new season.

The Giant Easter Egg Hunt at RHS Garden Bridgewater

Families

With spring’s indecisive weather in mind, we’ve pulled together a whole load of fun indoor and outdoor family events and activities taking place in Manchester and the North.

Jen Calleja

Literature

Spring is making an entrance in live literature land with some extra special festival events, writing walks, online launches and in real life readings from local writers as well as international talent.

Music

From Father John Misty to The Flaming Lips, The Waeve to Big Thief, here are the gigs on our radar for early spring.

Tours and Activities

From indie markets to bit-sized meditation, spoon carving workshops to gallery tours, here are the headlines in the world of tours and activities.