Alligators in the Sewers!

Ermine Exhibition: Performance, Installation and original score © Ruby Tingle Chetham’s Library Manchester- Commissioned and Produced as part of Manifest Arts Festival 2017. With collaborators Dirty Freud, Mike Chavez-Dawson and Simon Woolham. A living self portrait with original score installed in the Reading Room of Chethams Library; responsive ideas were drawn together along with fictional concepts set in the city, reflecting the Library’s collection of local folktales. A number of items in the library collection were of significant inspiration, including the Belle Vue photo archives and the donation of natural history curiosities including an alligator skin. Ermine was created by the artist as a new urban myth is set in the surrounding medieval quarter: a make-believe future Manchester has suffered an oil spill into the Irwell, forcing its water fowl to adapt and set up home in metropolitan habitats. Focusing on the unnatural presence of white in nature, the exhibition looked at imagined animal mutations as a result of manmade substances and interference- albino sewer alligators, golden insects and oil spill anomalies all featured as interventions within the library.