Iron Signposts

 

If you go walking in the hills around here, you'll have seen one of these. It's a Peak District and Northern Counties Foot Path Society sign. This society - based on Turncroft Lane in Offerton - selflessly erects beautiful iron signposts for the convenience of walkers. They've been doing it for a while, too - this is the first, from 1905. 

I've always thought these things are beautiful, little green jewels to delight the eye. Some of the older ones even have the altitude on them.

 

 Now you can admire them without the hassle of walking, as their website has most of them on display. Check them out here. 

I've got one quarrel with them, though. At some point they shortened their name to Peak and Northern Footpaths Society. Fair enough; except that some lunatic thought it was a good idea to go round painting out the words 'district' and 'counties from existing signs. And it looks ridiculous.

Voicebox - another made up artist?

  The history of art is full of made-up artists. Some, like Nat Tate, are just elaborate hoaxes. Some, like Pietro Psaier, were attempts to make money. But they're definately not real.

   Then there are ones you're not sure about. They seem real, as in there's a real person out there. But are they genuine, or fake?

    Mr. Brainwash, for one. You watch 'Exit through the gift shop'  - a really fine film - and wonder: is he for real? It might be one of Banksy's more elaborate hoaxes, after all.So you google him.  He does Warhol -type stuff, mass-produced art based on other people's images - even down to the soup cans, except his are aerosols. So he's a plagiarist, if there's such a thing in art. And he's got a significant online footprint. Looks real enough. But still...

   Banksy's real enough. Except he might be more than one person.

   Which brings me to Voicebox.

   He's got posters up all over the college.

   Is he real, a bluffer, a fraud, a hoax, or a scam?

   He hasn't got much of an online footprint. Just a tumblr blog.

   His work seems to be mostly pictures of posters with smartarsed graffiti sprayed on them. Some of it looks familiar too. So looks like he's a plagiarist as well. He's nicked his image from Fonejacker, for god's sake

   He claims to have political ambitions, says he's going to stand as Stockport's next MP and Manchester's next police commissioner. No chance of winning, of course. So must be a stunt.

   Or is he a real, deluded fool? Or an attempt at hype? Or a joke by a higher profile, real version of his imaginary self?

   When you start thinking about this stuff, you get lost in a maze of bluff and double-bluff - who are these lying bastards, and why are they lying? It's like being George Smiley. Except, for him, the outcome mattered. For me, I soon stopped caring either way. Just tell yourself  'it's all art', and have another drink.

  

Colourful Dinner

  Stir fry last night. Healthy AND photogenic.

Shopping Arcades

  Before the Trafford Centre, we had the arcade. Forget the shops, just admire the ironwork and glass.

Cool Beer Ads

   Saw these nice beer posters in a pub in Leeds.

 

This is my favourite. I'll have one of those!

Art Deco window frames

   My partner's daughter has just moved into a 1920/30's flat in Didsbury. Art Deco a-go-go!

    What I really love about these buildings are the metal window and door frames. Very elegant.

  

   There's another type of metal window frame from that period that I love even more. Some houses with bay windows had curved panes of glass at the ends.

 

   See how the windows curve in towards the front door?

   A bloke who lived in one told me that the owners of the newly-built houses were given a form with a catalogue number. Should they break one of the curved panes, they had to contact Pilkingtons glass at St. Helens, who would then make them a new pane. Of course this cost about twenty times the price of a normal flat one. These windows have all but disappeared now, victims of the double-glazing salesman. But the road in Bramall where I took these shots has four houses still hanging on to them. Some people are prepared to sacrifice comfort for style. Hats off to them, I say.

John Byrne

   Last night I watched 'What artists do all day?'. It's well worth a look. The star this week was John Byrne, a scottish artist I'd never heard of until then. He's a very industrious chap, putting in 12 to 15 hours a day painting, or at his other job of theatre set designer. He also wrote 'Tutti Frutti', a rather good tv drama from 1987 that set light to the careers of Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson.
  
    The odd thing about him, though, is that a lot of his output is made up of portraits of himself.


   Why on earth would he do that? And why are people queueing up to buy them?

    Then I had a go myself.

    Number one in a series of five million. Any buyers?