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Signs of changing times

Sarah Walters
31/ 7/2008

SEVEN years of salvaging is paying dividends for Manchester artist Andrea Booker.

"Not everything I reclaim is useable," says Andrea, the winner of this year's Cube Open, "but I will have anything I can, in case it has a use in the future."

Her Cube Open submissions - which are on display in Cube gallery, Portland St, alongside the work of 13 other finalists - focus on her fascination with typography. Andrea's colourful messages are reassemblies of signs she has reclaimed from demolished and refurbished buildings in Manchester and Salford (see picture).

Rearranging them creates subliminal statements about urban life, highlighting issues of social conditioning, ghettoisation and regeneration.

"Hopefully it means that with Cube's backing, I can ask for more fonts from buildings without the owners asking, 'Well, who are you? What do you want with it'," laughs Andrea, a working artist since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University's fine art degree in 1997.

"Winning the Open confirms that I've been on the right track and someone believes in what I'm doing. I have scope for more adventurous projects."

Next year, Andrea will take up a residency at Cube as part of CubeLab, an opportunity for artists to explore the theme of the urban built environment. It opens for its inaugural year tomorrow with a five-week residency of new work by last year's Cube Open winner, Rich White, who will be responding to the architecture of the gallery specifically.

A photographic, internet and installation artist, White says his work will alter the way visitors see the building. "I wish to produce architectural-seeming alterations that affect, or are a result of, how people interact with the space," says Rich.

"The changes that are made are intended to almost appear as intentional parts of the original building design with only their unusual positioning, material and angle betraying their purpose." Expect to find yourself lost in Cube's meandering gallery spaces{hellip}

Cube Open is on at Cube Gallery from Saturday, August 2 until Saturday, September 6, free. Mon-Fri: noon-5:30pm, Saturday: noon-5pm.