Tuesday 27 May 2014

The Rose Garden returns to Bradford!


A long long time ago in a far away world we helped a enchanted tribe of celestial gardeners to build an alchemical rose garden. It's inspiring beauty has never been far from our hearts and we are very excited and honoured to be able to build a yurt-sized version at this year's Bradford Festival. 

Details of when and where are here: http://shar.es/VfBNj

You can be celestial gardeners too! Come and help the green enablers and Gypsy Rosie Rosie Rosie Lee add the finishing touches on Friday 13th June between 3pm and 5pm in Norfolk Gardens at the back of City Hall.

Sunday 11 May 2014

Kidda learn lessons


After seeing Jung Witches first ever gig at No Hands we were very keen to collaborate with them. We began improvising together in April and will be showing some of the stuff we've been experimenting with this Saturday in Oastler Market.

Photography: lofieye

We are very much looking forward to returning to the market as we had such good fun there with our apothecary installation. The space will be transformed again - this time from an empty market stall into a gallery style white cube, by art in unusual spaces as part of the dark matter institute.

We are very proud to have Sophie Powell aka lofieye as documenting photographer and some of her work will be exhibited in the cube. There will also be recorded cassette tapes for audience and visitors to listen to and experiment with. 

Photography: lofieye

There will be lots to see and join in with on the day as we also have the amazing Fabric Lenny as part of our collaboration crew. He will be projecting improvised live drawing in response to the noises and shapes the rest of us make. Super fantastic!

Photography: Adam Simons

'Kidda learn lessons' will be open between 11am and 4pm in Oastler Market, right by Woodies cafe and the noodle stall. There will be short live improvised performances with various combinations of Maho, Jung Witches and Fabric Lenny at the following times:

12.30
1.30
2.30 
3.30 

It would be great to see you there! 

Monday 28 April 2014

Jung Witches and Maho

Maho are teaming up with Bradford's newest pretentious art noise combo Jung Witches for a series of improvisations to be shared as part of the dark matter institute in Oastler Market in the lead up to Threadfest next month.

Here's a homework task completed in readiness for tonight's rehearsal 


Details of what and where to follow shortly! 

Wednesday 5 February 2014

The great folk of Bradford and their wise cures!

Contact Maho by email - mahobradford@gmail.com


After much last minute wrestling with cable ties, fishing wires and forgetting to switch on the amp, we opened the shutters on The Little Bradford Apothecary yesterday. It was such a lovely day - we met so many wonderful people and learned many herbal remedies and folk cures. They are being recorded in the book of all Bradford cures, and in voice form for a sound installation that plays around us in our stall. We were already enchanted by John Street market, but the reception we received from both traders and regular shoppers was so heart warming we are considering giving up being dancers and renting our own market stall! 

Our second day today brought us visits from people aged from 1 - 92!

Alma gave us her secret for long strong life! It is recorded in the book and you can come and read it until this Saturday 8th February, 1-4pm every afternoon. 


Below is our youngest visitor playing with a doll from our installation.


It would be lovely to see you at the stall but if you can't make it and you have an old remedy you wouldn't mind sharing with us please email it to mahobradford@gmail.com

Thursday 23 January 2014

Apothecary build phase 1

Company magpie Sam spent a great afternoon in some garages up in the hills yesterday, getting out-magpied by our new expert friend Pete White. Pete is a passionate collector of apothecary and old chemistry items - he is generously supporting Maho in the loan of some of his wonderful collection. 

See below 0.000001% of Pete's collection, all wrapped up and wondering where they are... 


Thanks to our fairy art parents at East Street Arts, we have taken up residence in another super brilliant temporary studio  and so have the amazing luxury of having all this space to create a dry run of the installation! Thanks fairy-art-parents! 


Signing off for now, but will leave you with a sneak preview of some of the delicious items that thanks to Pete will appear in The Little Bradford Apothecary, in Oastler Market 4th - 8th February. 


More soon!
Maho Bradford

Wednesday 22 January 2014

The Little Bradford Apothecary



There was much excitement this morning as we collected our posters from the Market office and began to promote the opening of our apothecary installation!

Between now and Tuesday 4th of Feb our mission is to transform this unused market stall in the corner of Oastler Market near Woodie's Cafe


... into an old apothecary shop, the place to go and get fixed, before chemists or doctors became the norm. We were inspired by the theme of healing potions when we visited the market last year and learned that it was once famous for selling patent cures! 

It was really great to make friends with some of the market folk today and we are really looking forward to collecting the folk remedies of all the people of Bradford. We will have 3 versions of this collection by the end of this project; a book of cures, a sound installation and a dance! More news to follow soon! 




Thursday 12 December 2013

Maho visits Roubaix!


Us, Olivier and the chimney of the non-place Roubaix. The artists of Roubaix are proud of their chimney and they inspired pride in us! 

Our tres brief visit to Roubaix to meet the artists of le non-lieu was very very inspiring. The similarities between their city and ours are pretty amazing - hopefully we plan to collaborate with them in the next year. We will keep you informed of our plans. 

Above: Chemaine being stuck on top of a massive dyeing tank in le non-lieu, one of Roubaix's many beautiful decommissioned mills. 

This mill which once weaved woollen suit  cloth, was saved from demolition, preserved, and re-opened as a creative social centre. It now houses as much weaving machinery, artefacts and memorabilia as the artists there can manage to incorporate into their space. Le non-lieu is a tribute and an archive that feels very much alive with open and independent art-making and performance. 

A huge thank you to Karen and John from East Street Arts for supporting us to take this trip. It inspired us in unexpected ways, which we will give more detail of soon.