I can’t have been to this specific spot for over 20 years. Possibly not since my doings were still determined by my parents, and before walking up to ‘the Tops’ became more of a wish for transcendence. In my 20s I’d always stick to the roads which cut through this landscape, because I wanted toContinue reading “Submerged utopias of impossible escape”
Author Archives: John B Ledger
One day…
I’m back in the same spot, the hills that separate the urban spaces of Yorkshire and the North West. I made a bold admission the night previous: I told social media that I had lived with a mental illness for 20 years. This kind of thing makes my many social masks turn inwards and scowl,Continue reading “One day…”
Anorexia and the moors
I did not know how to be a body down there in the towns. I didn’t know how to be flesh. In my younger adult years my guts were saying “take me to the moors, take me to the moors”. It was compulsive thought. Perhaps it was put in my head by words of theContinue reading “Anorexia and the moors”
“This world that we imagine in this room might be used to gain access to other rooms, Other worlds, previously unimaginable.”
“Without examples, without modelsI began to believe voices in my head, That I am a freak, that I am broken, That there is something wrong with me, That I will never lovable. Years later, I find the courage to admit that I am transgender, And that does not mean that I am unlovable. This world that we imagine in this room MightContinue reading ““This world that we imagine in this room might be used to gain access to other rooms, Other worlds, previously unimaginable.””
‘Back to Normalism’ at Fossgate Social
One half of ‘Back to Normalism’ is at the Fossgate Social, on Fossgate in York. It consists of smaller scale works. However these works are of no less importance than my larger works.
photos from preview of ‘Back to Normalism’
These are photographs from the preview of Back to Normalism, my most recent exhibition, which included a spoken word/sonic performance collaboration with myself and Adam Denton. Thanks to Mark Tighe for taking these pictures, which I feel perfectly capture the shows essence. Also, I did this quite lengthy interview for Charles Hutchinson press prior toContinue reading “photos from preview of ‘Back to Normalism’”
Photos from the Lockdown year
I recently rediscovered photographs from late 2020 early 2021, a time that already feels foreign, even as still try to adopt to the ‘back to normal’ culture. I had a studio in my home town at the time, and the area, already a semi-forgotten part of town, felt like the edge of the world duringContinue reading “Photos from the Lockdown year”
Back to Normalism opening at Micklegate Social
Thank you to everybody who came to see the opening of Back To Normalism @micklegatesocial in York on Friday 13th. Thanks to @stubbs_mike @wdus.art for making it happen. The opening was centred around a collaborative performance with @zonal_markings which helped create something really special, which resonated with the ghostly sculptural forms which, like all ghosts, have since disappeared. But the drawingsContinue reading “Back to Normalism opening at Micklegate Social”
Pain resurfacing
I’m increasingly having feelings I had as a teenager, when I couldn’t do the things that helped me cope on a daily basis. When my legs were bad, because I’d run too much during that year, or the weather was just way too bad to go out, but I’d also eaten a full meal, andContinue reading “Pain resurfacing”
‘Back To Normalism’
Apologies for posting this so soon after xmas, but this show is also very soon. This time, however, there’s much more time to see the work: Back to Normalism will be held at both Micklegate Social and Fossgate Social in York from Friday 13th of January to 13th of March 2023. “Back to Normalism”, aContinue reading “‘Back To Normalism’”
John B Ledger 