Looking into the mind of Jan Hakon Erichsen

Art says things without speaking and can be heard in all languages, although some things may differ in translation. It is a more personal experience than music, film or fashion as it broadens a persons conceptual ability for interpretation and understanding. Whilst art can take many forms that aren’t simply confined to beginning with a blank white canvas, Jan Hakon Erichsen has begun to undertake a weird and wonderful form of art that I was yet to discover. He takes household objects and merges them with himself and other ordinary objects to create an art of destruction, danger and beauty, a master of the oddly satisfying desires that lay deep in our hearts. He now capitalises on the opportunities that comes with the media, sharing his work with hundreds of thousands of people each day. The abstract art that can be found on Jan's Instagram page is constantly pushing the boundaries of its predecessors, evolving to become a more empowered form of visual art each day, with frequent content to keep fans engaged Jan does not show signs of slowing down or going back to a different style of art anytime soon.

On until the 22nd April 2019, ‘Return to Manchester’ is an intimate, engaging exhibition of documentary photography. The experience is nostalgic. Not only is the visitor is invited to track developments in the city of Manchester, but also the career and style of Martin Parr, from 1970 through to 2018. Whilst Manchester itself and the people in it change, Parr’s interest with the ordinary, the personal and the seemingly mundane is a constant. What is truly remarkable is his ability to present these things as full of beauty and meaning. Parr’s early work captures pubs, hairdressers, young music fans and the living rooms of ordinary families, all, as Manchester Art Gallery puts it, ‘celebrating the humanity of the everyday.’ 

Born in Epsom, Surrey, Martin Parr was a photography student at Manchester Polytechnic between 1970 – 1973 and has gone to be one of the nation’s eminent photographers, president of the prestigious Magnum Photos between 2014 and 2017. But it was in Manchester that Parr began his first major work, and the impression made upon him by the city is clear. Having avoided expulsion from the university only after his tutor’s intervention, it was always a fight for Parr to document the subjects in which he was interested. He recalls being taught by the university proscribed commercial techniques, including how to make gone-off doughnuts looks appealing in certain lighting. Indeed, at the time, an interest in photography for artistic purposes was rare, and so the move beyond the commercial sector was fundamentally underground, and often driven by young, aspirational students like himself.

Parr, then, played a role in establishing a new form of documentary photography, presenting itself not as journalism, but art. Inspiration was abundant. For him, arriving in Manchester from the south ‘was very exciting and felt very real.’ This appreciation of somewhere new and different comes across strongly, particularly in Parr’s earlier work, which is almost entirely concerned with Manchester’s industrial working class. Perhaps most striking in this section of the exhibition is the way in which he foregrounds individuals against decrepitude and industry. Despite the crumbling redbrick backdrops there is a sense of personality, hope and happiness that shines through. 

Photography is by its very nature one of the more democratic, accessible forms of art. The point of contact with the topic seems more direct, less mediated by the artist, and with Martin Parr this seems especially true. Whilst photographers like Kevin Cummins have captured the cities’ seminal cultural figures, such as Tony Wilson, Peter Hook or Ian Brown, ‘Return to Manchester’ celebrates the overlooked, the unheralded and the everyday. The culture explored by Parr in the 1970’s is expressly underground, it is gritty and real, found in bars and on street corners. The exhibition then maps his transition from untrained 19-year-old to celebrated professional, a development reflected in the gentrification of Manchester that he traces through his work. To follow these changes in both a city and a career is incredibly interesting. Certainly worth the visit.

Joe Ronan 

26.04.19