Cod Cheeks and Loin

Loughbohemia is almost as far from the sea as you can get in Britain but every Thursday and Saturday the sea comes to town with the market and its fresh fish and seafood stalls.

her shopping bag drips

all the way home

cod cheeks and loin

Paul Conneally

Loughbohemia

May 2017

True Love Story

True Love Story

The modern day pawn shop is doing well in Theresa May's Britain.

At the start of each day the shop assistant in Loughbohemia's 'Cash Converters' carefully puts out the display of pawned engagement and wedding rings for those considering taking the plunge themselves to peruse, buy and sell back when times get rough.

hush little baby

a mockingbird sings

here comes the bride

Paul Conneally

Loughborough

May 2017

Pull and Push

post heart attack

the pull and push of

the fast food wagon

Paul Conneally

Loughborough 2017

Early September - Lost In The Supermarket

early September
she shops for this year's
last barbecue

Little Onion

from the ongoing photo series 'Lost In The Supermarket' by Paul Conneally

Family Ties

Family Ties

The supermarket is sometimes characterised as a faceless place almost anti-community but the small to medium sized stores that serve smaller villages and towns can still feel 'local' with workers knowing and recognising many of the shoppers and families that use the shop. Here a grandmother stops to tie her grandaughter's shoelace.

Photo and Text: Paul Conneally 2016 

RE-TALE: TAMMY GIRL

The closest I get to going into British Home Stores these days is to walk past it. BHS used to be a landmark shop for ordinary folk with ordinary taste and a patriotic streak, all merchandise proudly claiming to have been made in Britain. Not these days, only the name remains.

The shop looks so dowdy. Boring. Unenticing to the point of drawing me in. I walk over to the entrance but I'm just too late. Peering in I'm glad it's closed. Headless male mannequins in grey suits lounge on white hardboard stands. 

A sign proclaiming 'NEW TAMMY GIRL COLLECTION IS HERE'.

November rain
I finger the horse chestnut
in my pocket

Paul Conneally

from the Paul Conneally's ongoing series of works: RE-TALE

A Summer Dress

the market stalls pose
so many questions
a summer dress

Paul Conneally
Mouans-Sartoux
August 2015

Stacking Shelves

stacking shelves
the shop assistant plans
a picnic for two

Paul Conneally
Mouans-Sartoux
July 30 2015

from the ongoing series 'Lost in the Supermarket'

Macramé For Beginners

World matters make me feel that Macramé for Beginners is ripe for reiteration and so it's begun. 

Last night in the relative quiet of a small town superstore the screens lit up with Mother Goose as she told her tale of weaponry, words, class struggle and religion. 

knots in string 

the sound of artillery 

and prayer 

This session lasted 13 minutes before the electrical department sussed what was on their bank of flat screens and closed down the show. 

Tomorrow's another day. 

Paul Conneally

September 2014

Click here to see the video: http://vimeo.com/7778943

Macramé For Beginners sees Mother Goose meet Marx and Engels.

Macrame For Beginners caused controversy when Conneally managed to install the video without permission on to the master DVD player of a large national electrical retail store.

The piece was seen and heard on a bank of 26 in store for sale TVs for 48 minutes in the busy retail park store before staff realised that it was not the Cartoon Network and turned it off.

Macrame for Beginners is available for installation and public viewing both in outside, gallery and other locations.

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Macramé or macramé is a form of textile-making using knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of hitching (full hitch and double half hitches). It has been used by sailors, especially in elaborate or ornamental knotting forms to decorate anything from knife handles to bottles to parts of ships.

Afternoon Lull

afternoon lull
stall holders discuss
the price of rain

Paul Conneally
Loughborough 2014

Photo: Loughborough Market February 20th 2014

Display Clearance

Display Clearance - Paul Conneally 2013

For many people Sunday is a trip to the DIY store or better still a garden centre.

Often the big DIY shops incorporate a garden centre, a cafe too serving up a version of Sunday lunch. It's almost a day out.

I'm not knocking it. I'd encourage everyone to give it a go as an entertainment if nothing else. Leave all your money, except what you might need for emergencies, at home.

Take a notebook and pencil, one big enough to make sketches and diagrams in too. You never know what you might find to tickle your interest, your fancy, your creative juices.

Try not to have a set plan of action but strive to not follow any directions indicated by instore signs. In Ikea for instance enter via the till section, the exit and track back into the shop from there. This is easily done, don't worry about being told off, you won't be, and if you are, well ignore them.

View the experience in the same way as visiting a gallery or museum.

Take photographs, make sketches, write poems.

If something really grabs you appropriate it as a new work. Give it a title, write it on a piece of paper and label the piece. This will hopefully encourage new interpretations by other visitors, shoppers, of what they are seeing.

Don't leave until you have created, revealed, at least one new work.

Enjoy yourself.

Paul Conneally

Loughborough 2013