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! 

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

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

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! 

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.

Excuse me, do you love Roubaix?

We are super excited to be heading to France in 2 sleeps! Maho get to visit Roubaix (twin town of our beloved Bradford) thanks to our Euro Heroes at East Street Arts. On this trip we will get to know a flying visit version of Roubaix, and meet a group of artists who have their own independent art space in a renovated mill called le non-lieu. They have a disused chimney and they aren't afraid to decorate it!

 Très magnifique! 

Celestial gardening at Shambala!

The wonderful Brick Box Ladies invited us to join Gypsy Rosie Rosie Rosie Lee's Rose Garden residence in the beautiful woods of Shambala Festival. The call of the woodland is powerful and we had an enchanting time with our womenfolk, as 'Green Enablers'.