DUTTY LINGO

Apr 12

[video]

Mar 29

[video]

Mar 24

Dutty Lingo

Take a step back and try to recall your own generational transgressions. Youth culture, dominated by musical tastes, fashion, objectionable hairstyles and its own language, is nothing but an artefact of growing up. It’s the outcome of the process that young people, navigating the tortured period of adolescence, go through as they seek a community that’s distinct from that which has come before. Essentially, it’s a period rich in self-expression, catalysed by the negotiation of social boundaries.

Hulme based artist, doodlebug nuggets host and cultural programmer, Michael Barnes-Wynters was invited by Tate Collectives to produce a new audio visual installation exploring UK subcultures and its relationships with Jamaican culture as part of the Tate Tanks opening season during last summer’s Cultural Olympiad programme.

Intrigued by young people’s language of the street, where the English language has morphed into Jamaican patois (and then some), juxtaposed with being tired of hearing the ‘usual’ Mancunian story, owned by the same few storytellers. Michael decided to explore the true richness and diversity of our city’s subcultures with its textures, sounds, aromas and the influence of Jamaican culture at its core. With a young creative team ( Hayley Moses-Walsh, Pablo Melchor, Bedos Mavanubu and Zuza Grubecka ) , he directed the production of filming over one hundred and twenty Mancunian and Salford ‘ talking heads’ at Work For Change’s ‘Yard Theatre’ in the heart of Hulme.

An amazingly diverse mix of cultures and ages from 16- 68 shared their stories from Queer to Dancehall, Goths to Grime as all were asked the same three key questions which explores the myriad of subcultures and ultimately the meaning of dutty lingo.

Britain is as much about jerk chicken, rice’n’peas as it is about fish ‘n’ chips and is as much about the Caribbean Carnival as it is about the Hallé Orchestra.

Dutty Lingo is seeking a home for all to access and is planning an autumn installation ‘home coming’, in the heart of Manchester.

Meanwhile…

listen

[video]