Por Convención Ferrer, 1910 - 1918

Visual artist David Jacques presents a narrative-based work combining text, illustration and accompanying artworks that convey an interest in issues concerning the representation of history. A compelling collection of factual subjects are investigated, juxtaposed and interwoven through a series of illusory happenings. In the years leading up to the First World War a small though significant network of Anarcho-syndicalist activists in downtown Liverpool instigated an annual conference-cum-discussion group titled 'Por Convenci n Ferrer'. Contributions were broad ranging in their subject matter and relied upon the involvement of fictitious characters, spectral appearances and dream-like transcendences to places located either in the past or the future. After evidencing an archive of embroidered silk pennants commemorating each conference from 1910 through to 1918, an un-named narrator guides us through his research materials exploring the diverse content of some 27 presentations. Covering an array of matters broaching time, space and place, subjects encountered along the way range from the Scotland Road Free School to the zonal mapping of 'sleeping sickness' in the Belgian Congo, Thomas De Quincey's residing at Everton, and a Critical Mass bike ride through Manchester city centre.