Dust by Drew Millward - 20th March - 4th May 2015

Dust window vinyl - photo by Justin Slee

Dust window vinyl (photo by Justin Slee)

Queues out of the door and all hands on deck - no, we’re not talking about Christmas at CMV, we’re talking about DUST! We were bowled over when Drew Millward chose our space for his first solo show in March 2015 and knocked off our feet by the number of folks who came to the launch. There were some incredible new works inspired by the industrial North to gaze upon (beautifully printed by Prints of Thieves), Northern Monk's mighty beer wall to sup at, and a raffle to end all raffles (yes there were Dinosaur Jr cushion covers to be had!). It turned into a huge, friendly, quite bearded love-in and remains a stand-out memory for us.

Drew Millward

Drew enjoying the hospitality of Northern Monk (photo by Justin Slee)

Drew Millward

Dust Launch, March 20th 2015 (photo by Justin Slee)

Drew Millward - Dust

Dust Launch, March 20th 2015 (photo by Justin Slee)

Dust turned out to be a really locally sourced and collaborative project with printing by Tommy Davidson at Prints of Thieves, framing by Lucy Carey at Pictures+, beer by Russell Bisset and his crew at Northern Monk and photography by Justin Slee. It made us see what was possible, how rewarding it was to work in this way. Dust was a joy from start to finish.

Drew Millward - Dust - Northern Monk

Northern Monk's Beer Wall  (photo by Justin Slee)

Northern Monk installed their epic Beer Wall in the lobby of Munro House and, if we remember rightly, got through 4 kegs on the night!

Drew Millward  - Dust

The end of evening raffle included Dinosaur Jr cushions (photo by Justin Slee)

The evening ended with a raffle (an idea we've since pinched and run with). Prizes included tee-shirts, pin badges, patches and Dinosaur Jr cushions. We didn't win.

Drew Millward - Dust
Dust after the dust had settled (photo by Justin Slee)

Dust demonstrated a whole heap of processes, including screenprints, letterpress prints, laser-cut wooden plaques, embroidered patches and even a knitted scarf.

 Drew Millward - Dust

Drew Millward at Dust, portrait by Justin Slee

The exhibition ended with a Q&A with Drew on Thursday 5th May. Questions from many of his friends were drawn from the Clam of Doom, including those from Luke Drozd, Matt The Horse, Tommy Davidson and Hungry Sandwich Club. There are no photographs of this event and the sound recording has long since disappeared. We are sure it happened.