Blackburn Road, Accrington

MPA invited artist-team B&P Projects to produce a body of research into a section of Blackburn Road, Accrington as part of the Talking Shop series. A key aim of Talking Shop is to research and promote the social and economic importance of small, local shops and businesses in selected neighbourhoods of East Lancashire in the context of regional regeneration.  For the past year B&P Projects has been investigating the contemporary face of local business along Blackburn Road, Accrington.

On their initial visit to Blackburn Road, the artists found a pound coin outside the bank. This chance event prompted the attempt to spend £1 at each of the businesses along a designated section of Blackburn Road with the aim of exposing the various exchanges which take place during the act of shopping on the high street.  The artists visited at regular intervals over the space of a year during the working day and invited participation a maximum of 4 times.  Any businesses which declined or were closed are not included, as yet.

Inverting the conventional relationships within commercial exchanges (shopping), where the desire of the consumer drives the exchange process, the owners or shop-keepers were invited to suggest the purchase from the range in stock or the potential services offered. Free to suggest what objects or process the artist-consumers will obtain or experience, the owners and keepers direct the exchanges. The resulting processes reveal the diversity and potential of the business of Blackburn Road and a self-portrait of the business owners and keepers.

Along the section of Blackburn Road between Lister Street and Eagle Street, there is a total of

• 85 business premises with 71 currently still trading (at June 2007),

• 11 derelict shops and business premises,

• 15 private houses

• numerous flats attached to shops and business premises.

Among the exchanges experienced or promised to date are a £1 taxi ride, ¼ of a shave, 2 hours in a pub B&B, found family photos in a second-hand camera, 1 nail extension, 1/50 of a tattoo.

To date, B&P Projects has facilitated a total of 51 exchanges and display the evidence and legacy at the gallery.