Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption exhibition continues to tour the breadth of the country with its last stop to date being NoiseLab; a guerrilla arts pop-up store slap bang in the middle of Manchester city centre.

Last week the city was infused with creativity as it played host to Future Everything, a music and arts festival going on with delegates dodging ash clouds to get here from California and other lovely places. In turn we were fortunate enough for some of them to deviate from the endless list of activities going on elsewhere in the city on Wednesday night (May 19) to come and join the madness at Noise; where we enjoyed our own little festival with ambient grooves from the guys at Stutta Disco, Darren and Dan and the satirical tales of greed; to stark compelling illustrations of war, poverty and fear.

If that wasn’t enough, the Ctrl.Alt.Shift short films were also projected throughout the night whilst we put pen to paper, designing a postcard to lobby the Kenyan government about corruption, and creating illustrations on the canvassed wall.

We knew we were in for a good night when CAS reporter James Prosho spotted Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords downstairs buying a t-shirt! Later on, we were graced with another unexpected guest, Igor from Santa Cruz who previously worked for comic book 2000AD. He said he was “incredibly impressed by the calibre of pieces in the exhibition” and the opportunity Ctrl.Alt.Shift had provided through the Unmasks Corruption comic competition which ran in 2009. He added, “It’s reassuring to know that people in their twenties are thinking about the society and have a political and social conscience about these issues, and are willing to express them."

Martin, an illustrator based in Manchester, said how it was “nice to see, as an illustrator, things hung in this way - it’s really nicely put together." We took over the third floor of the gallery with a raw edgy industrial type vibe, where the comic strips hung from string attached to the steel frames across the length of the venue either side.

A group of embroidery students also came down from Salford especially for the exhibition opening night and described it as “completely unique”; they said how they felt that they were leaving Noise with a clearer understanding of some of these complex societal issues.

A great night all in all, as many people unexpectedly found themselves tripping over Noise and encountering some profound and imaginative political art instead of their normal late night shopping sprees.

Words and photos: Holly Davis