Platform 20: Manor Boy (Yorkshire Artspace)
‘Manor Boy’ is a solo exhibition by Conor Rogers inspired by his childhood on the Manor Estate in Sheffield. Through photorealist painting, spoken word poetry, sound installation and sculpture Rogers engages with and interrogates the historic demonisation of the estate and its residents in both local imagination and national press. Rogers offers a more personal, nuanced, and familial representation of the community of residents through the lens of his own experiences - coming of age the Manor Estate.
Here he profiles the humanity of the everyday, capturing friends and familiar childhood haunts from betting shops to estate gardens. Roger’s is interested in the symbolism and burden of language and its role in storytelling, affecting perception and reinforcing stereotypes. Rogers choice of subject intends to question the nuances of our cultural differences, our insecurities, our judgments, power dynamics and sense of self. In Manor Boy Rogers has utilised paddling pools as both a reference to the innocence of childhood and a challenge to the conformity of the traditions of painting and curatorial display. Central to the exhibition, is a painting submerged at the base of a paddling pool – a gesture intended to highlight our social fragility and explore the idea of preservation. “I accept that most my works have a lifespan and will eventually decompose but there is a beauty in the birth and death of an artwork and teaches us about our very own momentary existence.”
The recent Platform 20 exhibitions featured the work of five Sheffield based artists: James Clarkson, Maud Haya-Baviera, Victoria Lucas, Conor Rogers and Joanna Whittle. The multi-venue exhibition at Site Gallery, Yorkshire Artspace and Bloc Projects presents a fascinating insight into the artists’ work developed during their two-year residency with Sheffield’s visual arts organisations.
Platform is an established artistic development programme at Site Gallery which allows artists to explore new ideas in a public space, testing new thinking and research with engaged audiences.The multi-site exhibition will be presented in three iterations at Site Gallery, Yorkshire Artspace and Bloc Projects.
These artists began their residencies in 2019 and are five of twenty from the Sheffield City Region, taking part in a rolling five-year initiative funded through the Freelands Artists Programme. Each artist receives a two-year paid residency which includes investment in professional development, production as well as opportunities to exhibit.
Platform is funded by The Freelands Foundation through the The Freelands Artists Programme. The Freelands Foundation was created to support artists and cultural institutions, to broaden audiences for the visual arts; and to enable all young people to engage actively with the creation and enjoyment of art.
Exhibition Documentation:
A collection of documentary photographs of the ‘Platform 20: Manor Boy’ solo exhibition by Conor held at Yorkshire Artspace 22/07/2021 - 22/08/2021.
Photographs by Jules Lister and Peter Martin.
