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TO ALL THOSE WHO MADE THIS ISSUE POSSIBLE, THANK YOU. STAT ISSUE 03 - JANUARY 2021 CONTRIBUTORS ARCHIVES: WIGAN & LEIGH MARK COVERDALE CONAL CUNNINGHAM MONS IGNEOUS PETE MERCER SUSAN PLOVER MICHAEL PRESCOTT TRACEY HOLLIS ROWE ANDY SMITH SPECIAL THANKS JODIE BOKOR ESCAPE THE NORTH FUTUREEVERYTHING NEIL HARRIS & WIGAN COUNCIL ALL THOSE AT LEIGH SPINNERS MILL & THE TURNPIKE WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEXT ONE ? email [email protected] fb @statzine tw / ig @statmagazine website statmagazine.blogspot.com shop statmagazine.bigcartel.com donate ko-fi.com/statzine ! SUPPORT US !   patreon.com/statzine I D I D N ’ T K N O W W H A T T O W R I T E FOR AN EDITORIAL SO INSTEAD HERE I S S O M E B I G H E LV E T I C A T Y P E THAT I HOPE LOOKS APPEALING. IN THIS ISSUE IS… ARTIST’S BLOCK // EPIC LUXE // DIVIDE AND RULE // UTOPIAN RELICS / / S U S A N P L O V E R / / M A R K C O V E R D A L E / / M I C H A E L P R E S C O T T / / T R A C E Y H O L L I S ROWE // THIS PLACE [OF MINE] // E S C A P E T H E N O R T H / / 2 0 2 0 REVIEW // I HOPE YOU LIKE IT. IF YOU DO, MAYBE GET IN TOUCH AND HELP MAKE IT? PETE. STAT EDITOR. JANUARY 2021 artistʼs block words & artwork by MONS IGNEOUS being a creative means that nothing is linear. youʼll drive yourself forwards and backwards a hundred times over before eventually settling on the first attempt you made. one could argue that there is no point in making that circular journey to wind up exactly where you started, but I disagree. frustrating as it may seem, putting time, effort, resources and thought into a piece is a learning curve regardless of how long youʼve been practising - whether it be ten days, ten months or ten years - sometimes ending up in the same place is exactly where you were meant to be. and that isnʼt exclusive to art. itʼs applicable to everything. your journey as an artist, a creator, a storyteller, is no different to your journey as a person. as long as youʼre willing to put the effort in, you will never stop growing. that being said, there will always be moments of struggle. the feeling and fear of failure, and falling short of the expectations you place upon yourself. thereʼs no quick fix or cure for this kind of slump, but I believe curiosity may be one of the most useful tools to help drag yourself back up. be curious. wonder, what would happen if I drew this upside-down? what would come of it if I chose the colours for my piece with my eyes closed? what if I used orange fanta as my painting medium? gradually get more curious, more ludicrous with your sense of wonder, try everything without expectation. create something with the intention of it being bad - you might just surprise yourself with the outcome. p.s. using orange fanta as a painting medium doesnʼt actually work - believe me, I tried. monsigneous.co.uk tw / ig / fb: @monsigneous EPIC LUXE Rethinking the role of a gallery space in an age   of social distancing, The Turnpike presents Epic Luxe, a collaborative photography Livia Lazar piece by artist Frances with thanks to The Turnpike Disley and Fallen Angels Dance Theatre - a charity supporting people in recovery from addiction through the medium of dance. watch EPIC LUXE at theturnpike.org.uk/ francesdisley DIVIDE CONAL CUNNINGHAM AND How Coronavirus has RULE re-energised the North-South divide. artwork by strain of the virus - consistently higher Andy Smith in Northern England, with the Northern ig: picturesmash1 Health Science Alliance finding that Covid-related deaths between March words & images and July were 14% higher in the North Conal Cunningham than those in the South. What this tw: ConalCunningha underlines is that the North and South divide is not a gimmick or a political hot-topic, but a structural and As we began to feel the first, e c o n o m i c i m b a l a n c e t h a t dramatic effects of coronavirus way disproportionately affects those in the back in March, there was a sense that North, especially in times of crisis. we were all in this together, that the To better understand this regional virus did not differentiate nor divide, you only need to look at the discriminate. Not only did this prove to figures of Northern deprivation pre- be untrue, with the virus clearly Covid. Out of the 20 most deprived discriminating against the poorest in neighbourhoods in the UK, a 2019 society, but the Conservative government report found that 19 of governmentʼs handling of the pandemic these are in the north of the country. has ignited divisions throughout the The Institute for Public Policy country, from the conspiratorial Research (IPPR) found that in the (although the less said about anti- North East, the child poverty rate is vaxxers the better) to the political, the around three times the UK average, geographical to the constitutional. whilst the Office for National Statistics Indeed, just months after the Tories found that the general life expectancy decried their 2019 election win would for men in Blackpool is a mere 53.3 ʻforge a new Britainʼ, their response to years old - 18.6 years below that of Covid has, rather ironically, shown this new nation to be splitting from all sides. In this context, it is perhaps inevitable that the inter-generational discord that exists between the North and South of England would emerge from slumber once more; an age-old division that has permeated English history. Indeed, not since Thatcherism and the 1980ʼs minerʼs strikes has the gulf between the opposite ends of the country been so glaringly stark. Throughout the pandemic, infection and mortality rates of coronavirus have been ‒ until very recently with the new men in Richmond-upon-Thames. To why much of the Northern “red- summarise a particularly grim analysis, wall” (traditional Labour safe seats) fell the IPPR have concluded that the UK is to the Conservatives last year - many ʻmore regionally divided than any for the first time ever - or to why the comparable advanced economyʼ. North predominantly voted to leave the In the best of times, these statistics European Union in 2016. The North should be a huge cause for concern. desperately needs investment and They emphasise how ten years of change, so if promises are waged to austerity and cuts to local funding have deliver this, it is not difficult to severely affected those in the North, understand why votes would be cast noticeably in local authorities such as on it. Liverpool, Blackburn, and Barnsley who Even consecutive Conservative have faced average cuts twice that of governments have themselves areas in the South, according to a acknowledged the reality of regional Centre for Cities report. inequality that exists inside the country. In the midst of a global pandemic, Yet, the irony of the regurgitating however, these statistics are rhetoric to create a ʻNorthern devastating. They highlight the powerhouseʼ or to ʻlevel upʼ the North uncomfortable correlation between is that it admits that the North of deprivation and high coronavirus England has been neglected for infection and mortality rates, with your generations. Quite counter- chances of survival in some part productively, such grand statements dependent on your locality. If this was create an aura of surrealism rather not bad enough, the IPPR states the than realism when considering the North is now experiencing levels of consistent political decisions that have unemployment not seen for a quarter allowed the North to dilapidate whilst of a century, likely coming as a London eternally evolves. Indeed, how consequence of the strict restrictions can we believe the claims that we will the area has faced for the majority of soon be a powerhouse when 1980ʼs the year. Once you factor in that those Northern Rail Pacer trains ‒ now a in more deprived areas are less likely to museum exhibit - were still running up be able to work from home, and the until late last year? dramatic austerity cuts to local mental And whilst there is clearly deprivation health services, it becomes clear that and poverty that needs to be the pandemic is a concoction of addressed across the UK, particularly consequences that is perpetually in some areas of London, recent skewed against the poorest in society, history also strikes a similar, irksome and those heavily populated in the chord to Northerners. Of course, who North. can forget the Burnham-Johnson This dire imbalance is not something standoff in which the government were that has gone unnoticed, however. only prepared to pay 67% of Indeed, it goes some way to explain furloughed workerʼs wages in Greater