People made of cake, a bathtub filled with more cake, wallpaper covered in icing – this is the newest art installation to open in Manchester, and it’s literally good enough to eat.
This is An Edible Family in a Mobile Home, a restaged piece of art that was a major feminist artwork in the 1970s.
Artist Bobby Baker has now recreated this incredible piece of work outside the Whitworth Gallery, alongside the Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990.
Step inside this prefabricated home and you’ll find different figures in each room, each one of them in some way edible.
From the father watching television in his armchair (he’s made of fruit cake) to a coconut cake baby in a crib, to a Garibaldi biscuit teenage boy lying in a bathtub of vegan chocolate cake, to a floating teenage girl made of meringue, visitors will be able to eat their way through the sculptures.
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Each cake inside is made by beloved Levenshulme bakery Long Boi’s Bakehouse too, and having taken a bite of the very first slices – they’re all delicious.
The space used to stage An Edible Family in a Mobile Home is plastered floor-to-ceiling in mid-70s newspaper and magazine pages, advertising everything from secretarial jobs to cigarettes, and documenting landmark moments like the death of Elvis Presley.
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These wallpaper cuttings have then been decorated with icing doodles.
There are also old radio stations playing in the kitchen, and 70s comedy on the TV.
An Edible Family in a Mobile Home at the Whitworth in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Bobby Baker’s work was first created in her prefabricated East London house in 1976, then wasn’t seen for almost 50 years until she restaged it at the Tate Britain in 2023.
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And now it’s Manchester’s turn, with this impressive, playful piece in residence at the Whitworth art gallery until 20 April.
During which time, the artist’s cake ‘family’ will be steadily eaten away by the public.
This installation is possible thanks to public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Bobby Baker said: “Originally I wasn’t overtly considering the work as ‘feminist’, however over the years – and having had children and now grandchildren, I have come to realise that unpaid domestic labour is an incredibly undervalued part of life.
“It is fundamental to how the human world operates – how we look after each other and care for our children and stay healthy.
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“However, domesticity and the work it requires still have words like ‘menial’ attached to it. In 1976 when people came to see Edible Family in what was my actual mobile home, they could contemplate who plays what domestic roles and why – and restaging this now, I feel that this work is still very much relevant today.”
Elsewhere in the Whitworth, ‘Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990’ features over 100 women artists and celebrates their often-unsung contribution to British culture.
An Edible Family in a Mobile Home is free to visit and is open from 7 March until 20 April,
‘Northern Lights’ to be visible in Bolton as popular FREE light art festival returns next month
Emily Sergeant
Bolton’s festival full of fantastic immersive light art installations is set to shine on the town centre next month.
Back by popular demand after proving to be such a success during its inaugural year in 2023, with the first-of-its-kind event attracting more than 50,000 visitors, Put Big Light On Festival is returning for another year of festive magic, and there’s some huge and impressive art installations set to descend on the Greater Manchester town’s centre.
Curated by artistic events company, Things That Go On Things, the festival will take place right across Bolton in late November.
This year’s lineup will feature magical creations from a diverse range of artists.
A free festival of immersive light installations will shine on Bolton again next month / Credit: Bolton Council
Returning in 2025 for what’s said to be ‘the final time’, Dan Acher’s fan-favourite Borealis will illuminate Victoria Square by recreating one of planet Earth’s most incredible natural phenomena, the Northern Lights, in the most immersive way possible.
As beams of light travel through particle clouds, visitors can look up to see the show above their heads, and as the particle clouds are moved by wind, over which there is no control, this means they’ll never see the same pattern twice.
Other installations this year include Mars by the critically-acclaimed artist Luke Jerram, which is a six-metre diameter sculpture featuring high-resolution NASA imagery of the Martian surface, and Submergence by Squidsoup – a walkthrough experience with thousands of suspended lights creating an immersive sense of movement.
Wave by Are You Playing Out, The Garden by Ant Dickinson, Celestial Carousel by Eye of Newt, and Beacon of Hope by Craig Morrison are a handful of the other installations.
As well as the festival itself, there will also be plenty of vibrant street entertainment over the four-day event too, and residents can expect lots of family activities in the run-up to the festive season.
“Put Big Light On is more than just a festival, it’s a celebration of Bolton’s creativity, resilience, and community spirit,” commented Bolton Council’s Executive Cabinet Member for Culture, Cllr Nadeem Ayub.
“We’re proud to welcome world-class artists and local talent to light up our town and bring people together in a truly magical way.
“Visitors can expect a family-friendly event packed full of entertainment and moving light art displays designed to inspire wonder.”
Put Big Light On Festival returns to Bolton town centre this winter from Thursday 20 and Sunday 23 November, and it’s free for all to visit.
Featured Image – Joel Chester Fildes (via Bolton Council)
Art & Culture
Lady Gaga is a tour-de-force of talent at the Co-op Live Manchester
Clementine Hall
Lady Gaga proves she’s a truly world-class act after two sold-out nights at the Co-op Live Manchester, as if we needed any reminding.
The city of Manchester has been flooded with harness-wearing, mesh-sporting little monsters over the past two days.
And that’s because the absolute icon that is Lady Gaga brought her ‘Mayhem Ball’ to the Co-op Live for two nights.
I don’t think you’ll find anyone who doesn’t know who this fabulous woman is. Over the past decade, she’s won an Oscar, headlined the Super Bowl, performed in blockbusters alongside Al Pacino, no less, and her songs are literally ingrained into our minds.
It’s been a whole 11 years (yes, really) since she performed in Manchester, and it’s safe to say she was back with a bang.
The performance was split up into five distinct acts, and each one was as exhausting and exhilarating as the next.
She begins the show by bopping out of a comically huge red dress, but this staging was only the start of what madness was about to ensue.
Luckily, we’d been prepared by the other half of the Audio North team, who had the equal privilege of seeing her on night one and were left similarly speechless.
Throughout the 30-song epic, we had crutches, sand pits, cages, skeletons, enough wigs to produce an amateur production of Annie, and we didn’t question any of it. Why would we? It’s Lady Gaga.
Kicking things off with ‘Bloody Mary’, the two and a half hour marathon didn’t leave any stones unturned.
We had all the bangers, from ‘Just Dance’ and ‘Paparazzi’ to ‘Bad Romance’ and ‘Applause’, it had us wondering why any other superstar even bothers putting a song out these days.
Pop is in a good place at the moment with the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and so on, but you can make a strong case for Gaga having helped pave the way for every lady in the business ever since.
Gaga truly had us in the palm of her hands (or claws at one point), even more so when she left the stage to de-robe and show her more vulnerable side for the last two songs – beanie firmly on.
It wasn’t just a concert: this was a fully-fledged tour de force of talent that Manchester won’t forget any time soon.
Sometimes there’s no point in intellectualising why someone has that ‘X-factor’; sometimes you just have to take a step back and say WOW.
Daisy Jackson -
6th March 2025 
