please feel free to forward this invite you are invited to the opening of The War Effort Holden Gallery Faculty of Art & Design Manchester Metropolitan University Cavendish Street Manchester M15 6BR

Opening Thursday 23 January 5 - 7 pm with a presentation by Bill Drummond

This ad-hoc coalition of artists makes no claim to a fixed strategy or singular voice and offers no universal observations. Rather, the group has been brought together by the artist's shared conviction that in the fallout of September 11, the 'War Against Terrorism', the need for an alternative cultural reaction to war is acute. Rejecting the idea that art should be neutral, they engage from individual positions with the reality, rituals and symbols of what they see as a 'new barbarism'and question militarism as a failed response to social inequality. Among the participanting artists are lecturers from Hull School of Art and Design - Clare Charnley, the designer Andy Edwards, the photographers Casey Orr and 24449753, an ex-serviceman - alongside John Hyatta painter and Head of the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design at MMU. They are joined by the London-based sculptor, multimedia performer and radio DJ Tracey Sanders-Wood, the artist and writer on art and politics Bill Drummond, and Disinformation, a creative duo whose repertoire covers 'almost every conceivable artform'.