After spending Friday night drinking in the Easington Working Men’s Club I was reminded of Chris Coekin’s fabulous body of work Knock Three Times: Working Men, Social Clubs and Other Stories. 

Chris’s family has a long tradition of socialising in Working Men’s Clubs. As a child Chris was taken to many clubs in his hometown of Leicester and during family holidays around England. Many of these clubs have long since disappeared. Working Men’s Clubs were originally set up for the support and education of the working man. Knock Three Times is set in the Acomb WMC York where Chris first photographed in 1996. The club, and its members, symbolise the working class community at large. 

“Using metaphorically driven images and archive ephemera, Chris explores his cultural roots and identity. The vivid, ambiguous, and often autobiographical images reflect his recollections of visiting WMCs as a child. They interrogate the complexities associated with growing up within a working class culture, ideas of masculinity, relationships and its work ethic. The notion of ‘common sense’ provides the foundation for a narrative that looks beyond the surface appearance of WMCs.” As quoted on Chris’ profile page of the University College for the Creative Arts in Rochester, where he lectures.

You can see a slideshow of the work see showcase of the work here and read a review on Jörg Colberg’s weblog here.

 

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 5:57 am and is filed under MISCELLANEOUS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.