Drawing Out The Monastery: (residency, curated exhibition and performance)

Drawing Out The Monastery was the culmination of a 12month public residency at The Manchester Monastery in Gorton, Manchester exploring and presenting textures of history taken from the architecture, interior and objects around The Manchester Monastery site. A music performance presenting the immersive installation was in collaboration with Gorton Voice Choir, Woolham’s band L.A.S.H. and The Manchester Monastery's organ and cello player Stephen Mann. The project was particularly focused on The Monastery as a site in relation to a sense of belonging and history and is a celebration to those that built, worked and still work at The Manchester Monastery. Drawing is central to Simon Woolham’s practice and graphite rubbing, a traditional process of taking brass rubbings in churches, is utilised to engage with layers of time and space, heightening multitudes of histories, textures of narrative through seems of investigation. Drawing Out The Monastery is a 12month residency which will culminate as an exhibition and performance, a new immersive artwork which will act as a stage for a music presentation. Drawing Out The Monastery is particularly focused on The Manchester Monastery as a site in reference to a sense of belonging and history, utilising drawing, walking and song making processes. The Drawing Out The Monastery performance would act as a way of interpreting and presenting the drawing as a one-off performance event as a way of interpreting the drawing, heightening the narrative and the processes and experiences involved in building the artwork. The ‘Drawing Out The Monastery’ residency, exhibition and project was funded by Early Career Research (ECR) funding from the University of Huddersfield.