This is our Newsletter of 17 June 2021. If you’d like to receive our semi-regular round-up into your inbox, sign up here.
It’s not the end of restrictions as we anticipated, but luckily we can still come together in safety – and what better reason than to look at and buy excellent art & design, and cool beautiful objects. The Engine House are hosting a Midsummer Yard Sale from the ground floor of their studio space on the courtyard at Islington Mill (1 James Street, Salford, M3 5HW). Work will include: Prints, Originals, Ceramics, Jewellery, Clothing, Zines, Books, One-of-a-kinds and Seconds. Expect to see work by Engine House collective members including Aliyah Hussain, Amrit Randhawa, Amy Marsh, Ben Harrison, DR.ME, himHallows, Jason Edmunds, Manchester Type, Sew What and Textbook Studio. All card payments accepted. Treat yourself! Opening times are Friday 25th June from 6pm, then 12pm–5pm on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th June. All visitors are asked to wear masks and sanitise with a limited number of people in the space to allow for distancing, no matter the current regs.
The latest stage in our ongoing Heritage exploration is called Place in the Community and we are looking for people with memories of Islington Mill to participate. We are particularly keen to hear from people who remember the building before 1996. Did you work here? Did your mum’s friend buy school uniforms here? Do you know someone who used to work as a solderer here in the 1980s? We would love to be in touch. Our creative practitioner for this project is David Partington. Here at the Mill, David has installed a porcelain ‘dipping station’ so tenants can dip pieces of the huge foliage which David retrieved from our exterior wall, to be kept for posterity. He is documenting the project here. Please get in touch with jess@islingtonmill.com for stories or memories or to ask questions.
Taxicab Industries have launched a cool new T-shirt which Stopfordians everywhere will no doubt recognise as a tribute to the ‘Welcome to Stockport’ sign, naming the towns that Stockport is twinned with. Taxicab’s new online shop is called Remind Me Tomorrow, the name taken “from when Apple asks you to update.” Order yours here!
Laura Mansfield & Swen Steinhäuser are artists from our extended community who have just launched a project titled Index of Convalescence, an online space that considers aspects of convalescence and care. Inspired by their own ongoing practices but given new urgency through the pandemic, the project seeks “to begin to address the manifold physiological, psychological, existential and economic struggles to “come out of” or move on with, the long wake of this crisis.” Read more here.
Finally, if you pass by Islington Mill any time soon you will see that our old brick facades are covered with scaffolding and netting, with a series of words and messages currently adorning the exteriors. In collaboration with Upwording we are using these new surfaces to send a message about ourselves to all who pass by. The wording can be seen from the James Street area, from passing trains, and no doubt from many apartment windows. If you see them, please take a photograph and tag us on socials! Spread the word.
It’s video time! impaTV present The Creatures of the Mill, a host of incredible queer musicians and artists based in Islington Mill who came together and made magic. Debuting new musical performances of original music, The Creatures of The Mill displays queer music performance as you’ve never seen it before. Dive into a collaborative collision of queerness, catharsis and making f**king noise. Featuring: GY!PA & Mon Salai: (Beau Azra, Gert, Grace Oni Smith, Jordi Pordi, Jungle Julia, Laurie, The Niallist)…
