Culcheth own Mark Bradley has brought a properly thought-provoking new exhibition to Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, and it is not the sort of thing you wander past while half-thinking about what is for tea.
What is this Hubbub? is a collection of nearly 70 oil paintings, arranged to feel like the visual overload of scrolling through social media. In other words, that familiar modern experience of being clobbered by headlines, opinions, outrage, tragedy and nonsense before breakfast.
The exhibition tackles some enormous themes, including refugees and asylum seekers, the Gaza war, artificial intelligence, fake news, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, media narratives, social unrest, and the rise of the political right. So no, it is not a gentle display of ducks on a pond. It asks more of visitors than a quick glance and a polite nod.
Mark, who is based in Culcheth, said there are clues in the images and titles, but he wants people to come to their own conclusions. That is refreshing, frankly. We are all so used to being spoon-fed instant takes online that being asked to actually think can feel almost rebellious.
The paintings include anonymous figures and fragmented scenes, brought to life with vivid colour and expressive brushwork. The result sounds deliberately unsettling, like the inside of a newsfeed after the algorithm has had too much coffee. That is both the strength of the show and, for some visitors, probably the challenge. It is not trying to be decorative wallpaper for a pleasant afternoon. It is trying to get under the skin.
Bradley is a retired arts teacher and former head of department for fine art at Carmel Sixth Form College in St Helens, and his long-standing interest in social and political issues runs through the exhibition. He said that when people walk into a gallery, the world goes on hold, giving them the chance to slow down and question what they see more deeply than they might online.
That is a fine ambition, and one Warrington Museum deserves credit for hosting. Local cultural spaces can sometimes be treated like optional extras, somewhere to pop into when it rains. This is a reminder that they can also be places where difficult subjects are taken seriously and where local artists get to say something substantial.
Bradley also speaks movingly about the influence of the Hillsborough disaster on his work. He recalls watching the tragedy unfold on television and being horrified not only by the loss of life, but by the lies that followed, including those perpetuated by the media and police, and the injustice faced by families. He says the themes of human tragedy, truth and justice have shaped much of his work since.
There is real weight in that. At a time when misinformation spreads faster than common sense on a village Facebook thread, Bradley's insistence on questioning what we are told feels painfully relevant. His point is not that art has all the answers. It is that art can make us stop long enough to realise we may have been asking the wrong questions.
He says he wants visitors to recognise the human element in global events, even when those events feel distant. Most of us have not experienced war, but we understand fear, grief, love and vulnerability. That is where empathy begins, and the exhibition seems determined to drag it back into the room.
If there is a criticism, it is that exhibitions dealing with so many vast subjects can risk becoming overwhelming or too broad. But then again, that appears to be part of the point. The modern world is overwhelming. The trick is not to look away entirely, tempting as that may be.
Mark Bradley: What is this Hubbub? is free to view at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery until August 2. For a Culcheth artist to be tackling such big, uncomfortable questions on a local stage is something to be proud of, even if the subject matter refuses to let anyone sit too comfortably.