Art in Liverpool Magazine, issue #9, November 2018

Issue #9 - November 2018 News, Reviews & What’s On. Your monthly update on visual art in the Liverpool City Region

Cover image: Post-it: Independents Biennial Writers-in-Residence 2018 book cover. Drawn by IB18 volunteers. Digitized

by Mark Simmonds

DaDaFest International is here See the disability and D/deaf arts festival in venues across Merseyside until 8 December www.dadafest.co.uk /events DaDaFest principle funding partners:

DaDaFest International is funded by:

Art in Liverpool magazine is a monthly newspaper promoting visual art across the Liverpool City Region.

Art in Liverpool, issue #9, November 2018

Published by Art in Liverpool C.I.C. and written by contributions from our partners, supporters and most importantly, volunteer writers, who add a unique voice to arts writing in the UK, thinking differently about what actually matters to people visiting galleries.

With issue #1 published in March 2018 we’ve got a lot of growing to do, and if you want to be part of that, get in touch: info@artinliverpool.com Equally, we’re here to support galleries and creative spaces, so make sure to keep us up to date about your events at least two weeks in advance of each issue.

If you’d like even more of a presence in the magazine we have advertising available every month, and take bookings well in advance. For details on pricing and deadlines contact Patrick: patrick@artinliverpool.com

issue #9, November 2018 Editor: Patrick Kirk-Smith Contributors: Kathryn Wainwright, Bernadette McBride, Joanie Magill, Ian Fallace Photography: Tony Knox, Mark Hobbs Advertising, sponsorship, distribution, stocking & event enquiries should be sent to info@artinliverpool.com Art in Liverpool C.I.C. Company No. 10871320

Leaving George Henry Lee’s, during the final days of Independents Biennial. image: Kathryn Wainwright

Ideas are the focus for most of the articles in this issue. The power of a single idea to change the world, no matter how small a change, is the hidden catalyst for most art, and November is going to be a month to prove that.

At Tate Liverpool, Ideas Depot starts us off, with a programme that got under way in October, but continues appropriately in part of the Constellations gallery on the first floor. How ideas connect with each other, and what they mean, when carried forward to today from times when the world was infallibly different. A memorial to Stephen Lawrence by Chris Offili headlines the show (though show is possibly not the right word).

Ideas Depot is an exhibition intended to form a curriculum. Aimed not at linking works to one and other, but at teaching primary school students about history, through contemporary art, and how the opinions of artists help to shape debate.

Works not so much about form, and certainly not function, supply teachers (who have helped curate and select work with the exhibition) with the tools to teach the true value of art.

That value will be evident in the next show to hit FACT too. Broken Symmetries is part of a lively debate on the benefits of pushing a STEAM (Science Technology English Art and Maths) agenda in schools, rather than

the STEM subjects focussed on by those who set school targets.

Having worked in collaboration with CERN, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, FACT invited artists to work with scientists to realise their own ideas.

There are clear pros and cons to working in collaboration with other disciplines in service to the arts. When it is done for the sake of putting art on the curriculum it can only serve as damaging – implying that art serves as a creative output to something else, rather than having value in its own ideas and opinions.

But when the collaboration is the idea, the purpose is clearer. FACT’s collaboration with CERN pursues the eternal connection between art and science, and the results are outstanding. The exhibition opening later this month proves, in a very precise way, how inseparable the two are, and how reliant science is on the presentation of ideas; and in this case, how reliant art is on the discovery of new things.

The importance of developing new ideas, and presenting opinions in the context of modern life can’t be overstated. It’s what you’ll hear from both biennials in the coming weeks and months on how and why they will change how they work in 2020. Will it be in response to audience feedback? Artist feedback? Or will it be a

response to the world around it? Will the focus be on presenting new ideas, or on pushing opinions on the way the world and the city function?

Opinions and ideas are as reliant on each other and art and society. Observation leads to change, change leads to observation; each lead to criticism, and everything creates a lively space to live and create new things.

I wasn’t expecting to reach much of a conclusion with this, but that’s the nature of ideas I guess. Posing questions without answering them; leaving gallery visitors the job of concluding.

Super Collider. When art and science met Preview of Broken Symmetries, a collaboration between FACT & CERN

Coming later this month, FACT’s recent collaborations with CERN – the largest particle physics laboratory in the world – go on display in Liverpool’s centre for arts and creative technology. In recent years, the line between art and technology has been slightly less clear. Exhibitions included traditionally creative portions of the sciences (gaming, social media, film industries, etc.) as their focus. For Broken Symmetries, science is very much science, and art is very much art.

Above: Haroon Mirza, ããã, 2016. Installation view from ‘Entheogens’ (2017), Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, January 13 to March 19, 2017.

Photograph by SITE photography.

Below: Yunchul Kim’s Cascade (c) Mark Blower

The two industries collaborate, using representatives from each as go-betweens.

There is no particular theme, meaning the artists aren’t squeezed into any boxes, other than having worked with scientists.

In the same way as an artist might work with an historian, and see completely different results to another, in a different field of history, from a completely different perspective. The only thing linking the works is the joining of industries.

A particle physicist focussed on time will inevitably work in a different way to one working to understand space. The artists, therefore, have to prove themselves to be capable of understanding the information they are working with, in order to accurately represent it to FACT’s audience, or use the

work of the scientists to enable their own ideas more accurately at least.

“ideas are more important than anything else” There is a fundamentally important boundary between art and science; a place of connection rather than separation; this sits in what we mean by an idea. In all other disciplines, what happens is interpretation.

In maths, language, geography, technology, history, religious studies, medicine or psychology, an action, or a decision, is an interpretation of a motion already carried.

In the arts, an idea is a philosophy not yet formed. In science, an idea is a theory not yet proven.

It’s part of the creative nature of the two, where ideas are more important than anything else. Broken Symmetries should prove that, if it meets it potential.

-Words, Kathryn Wainwright

Review: Liverpool Biennial 2018

Visitors with Haegue Yang’s ongoing series The Intermediates at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2018.

Photo: Mark McNulty

Beautiful World, What Are You?, rather than Beautiful World, Where Are You? seems to be more appropriate title. What is globalism in 2018, and what is localism. Where do the boundaries lie between the two, and what are the impacts of one on the other?

Liverpool Biennial took a sharp turn somewhere before the start of 2018, and produced one of the most insightful biennials (not just Liverpool) for years.

Local and global issues are growing increasingly similar, with the same catalysts, and the same results, and this year’s Liverpool Biennial worked with artists who all tried to answer the same questions from entirely different places.

From the ultra-local Four Musicians by Ari Benjamin Meyers at The Playhouse, or the ultra-global Hack The Root at RIBA North, defining what we mean by ‘our world’ is as near to impossible as it’s ever been.

Mae Ling Lokko’s Hack The Root at RIBA North took agricultural waste and turned it into a potential solution to a global housing crisis. Using coconut husks and jute sacks, with an accelerator I’ll not try to explain, the artist and architect grew bricks that were both easy to produce and biodegradable (when needed). The scope that was shown here by Liverpool Biennial is one that clearly wanted to stay true to the question they asked with their title this year.

Equally, Tate Liverpool housed an installation that proposed a sort of international dystopia-utopia-in-between state that could have just as easily been talking about Liverpool, as it could Manhattan. The skyscraper developments overshadowing traditional craft, crafted from plastic fibres, rather than authentic materials, caught the imaginations of everyone who saw it. Importantly, people who saw it wrote about it. They didn’t stop and draw, or sit and listen. Visitors stopped, sat down, and truly thought about the work,

developing their own narratives.

In complete contrast was Madiha Aijaz’s new film installation These Silences Are All the Words at Open Eye Gallery, whose film told a very direct story of postcolonialism in a society that was in the early stages of embracing globalism, for better or worse. What it gave the subjects of the film – librarians working mostly in Urdu rather than English – was a voice to speak their truths, on the effects of the English language invasion into modern Pakistan.

But that question of the title, always one of the biggest hurdles of a biennial, still stands, looming over the festival and working its way into the narrative of the exhibitions.

Where is this beautiful world?, and just what does that mean?

Kitty Scott, this year’s guest curator brought a clear and genuine sense of fascination, and discovery, to the programme. We’re here already, we know the Minton Tiled floors exist, we’ve already stumbled across the Birds of America at Liverpool Central Library, but having a curator of international standing find these civic gems, and remind the city’s residents of the wonders under their nose lit up the festival.

2018 seems to have shaken off the identity wars of previous years, and the patronising We The North nonsense that so often accompanies international events in Liverpool, with artists and curators forcing themselves into boxes to fit some local fashion. Instead, 2018 focussed on adding prying voices to the existing civic identity. Voices that accused and twisted truths, until an honest story came together.

There were let downs though too. 2018, while good, was not perfect. Granby Resilience Garden sat open on Saturdays, for a few hours, as though resilience is something that can be timetabled in. If spaces like that are going to be created, they should absolutely remain open for public use. And in

Exchange Flags, Holly Hendry’s work sat in disservice to itself, failing to revive the work that led to it - a mammoth installation at Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates, that imagined new passageways between the seen and the unseen spaces of the urban landscape. Her concrete installation failing to have the same impact here, fractured and a little sad.

Another criticism was of Ryan Gander’s work. An installation that didn’t exactly brighten up its location. The installation at the Metropolitan Cathedral feels permanent though, as a positive andp powerful addition. The only appropriate criticism I can see of that work, is the public crowd funding to continue it – it feels out of step with the Biennial’s pace.

The work itself, and the fact it is produced with a school in Knotty Ash, rather than Childwall or Granby is outstanding.

One common criticism was that due to the overuse of film, many visitors simply didn’t have the time to experience this year’s Biennial, because it demanded so much of it.

But video art does that. It is a demanding and selfish art form. But fundamentally all art, especially writing, is a fairly selfish thing, producing work that artists believe tells a worthwhile story; there aren’t many industries where that level of ego would go unnoticed.

To me though, and I hope loosely citing George Orwell will justify this (he stated a similar point in Why I Write) having an ego isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Good ideas come out of it sometimes. Much of the best work in this year’s Biennial was film. It captured the significance of the festival’s title question more than any other work in the festival.

This year’s Biennial stood by its title, and didn’t shy away from putting it at the front of everything it installed.

-Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

Independents Biennial, a diary I’ll start where I mean to end; something happened this year that clarified a new responsibility for Art in Liverpool.

In February, we confirmed that we were going to coordinate this year’s Independents Biennial. A revival of a festival that holds incredibly dear memories to a huge number of artists in the city, and divides others.

Access to opportunities through the Independents Biennial is probably the most divisive issue, to audiences and artists, but for 2018 we decided to start a journey that will hopefully change that. We’ve not achieved it yet.

2018 was the most diverse roster of artists in the festival’s history, with more LGBT+ artists, more BAME artists, and more artists with disabilities than past editions. It was a step towards reflecting the residents of Merseyside through the artists that represent them, their identities and the conversations being had by communities and groups that represent them.

2020 will be more diverse, and hopefully an accurate reflection of the region. 2018 wasn’t, but the discussions we had as a result were fiercely revealing.

The potential to open up a revived art market in Liverpool was also contentious.

Artists who felt sales were critical to being able to continue a practice, and artists who felt that selling work limited their output.

Balancing the two wasn’t a plan we had, but the results of 2018 will hopefully lead us to one for next time.

But by far the biggest issue historically with the Independents is how it lives up to its name, while providing opportunities to artists who deserve to exhibit in the biggest and best connected galleries. This year, events were hosted by studios, independent galleries (who ran their own programme within the festival), public space with the support of councillors and councils – who allowed artists to develop new work without restriction, and Liverpool’s most established galleries.

artists with connections to St Helens, Sefton, Wirral and Knowsley to create new work that focussed on the identity of the space they inhabited.

Brigitte Jurack’s Oxton Rock became the first installation in Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery, taking to the incredibly local Oxton Road for its inspiration. Cath Garvey’s workshops at Kirkby Gallery engaged local

Tate Liverpool hosted three major exhibitions as part of the festival, Bluecoat hosted the festival’s Graduate award winners for an in-conversation event with Fauziya Johnson, Amber Akaunu and Sally Slingsby, and Walker Art Gallery hosted a huge new partnership with the Big Draw, who launched their international festival of drawing in Liverpool. The launch featured workshops and interactive art from three Independents Biennial artists.

Clarifying the roles of councils and internationally renowned institutions is going to be key moving forwards, and hopefully continued relationships with local partners (Liverpool Biennial, Heart of Glass, Kirkby Gallery, The Atkinson, Metal and Williamson Art Gallery & Museum) will help that.

The partners supported the commissioned production of new work, revivals of old work, and development of completely unique workshop practices.

The commissions were probably the most significant development in 2018, enabling

children in an effort to reform their opinions of comic book heroes – instead focussing on female lead characters. The results of that workshop will stay with its participants for a lifetime.

Kate Hodgson’s workshops in St Helens ran right through the festival, with local groups responding to St Helens’ one-of-akind local history through a range of female voices in print. While in Southport, the Sefton commission saw Threshold Festival take a Baltic Triangle focussed event to a space where art forms share space, but rarely share time. Their mini-Threshold took place over one day and invited people who would ordinarily miss out on their festival to get involved.

Opening up the Independents Biennial to the

entire region created a situation we hadn’t anticipated though; audiences were seeing things related to their own community, and missing the work of others.

Perhaps it’s a question of transportation, and physical access that links the boroughs of Merseyside, or of rethinking the sorts of commissions – or even embracing the localised festivals that happened within the Independents this year.

The gallery that bucked that trend was the Williamson; which hosted the second largest amount of exhibitions in the entire festival. The gallery held the installation

by Brigitte Jurack from the very start to the very end of the festival, it also hosted Tom Wood’s Cammell Laird documentary photographs, Cian Quayle’s images of transition, following in the footsteps of Malcolm Lowry, Textile21’s On the Edge of…

And then there was the central pop-up

that hosted dozens of exhibitions over just thirteen weeks.

George Henry Lee’s presented the power of local artists to make a difference. It’s transformed city centre space, created a sanctuary for those who needed it, fostered new art lovers, created debate on a daily basis, and gave opportunities to put together major exhibitions to artists at the beginning of their careers, as well as those at an established point in theirs.

So with all that in mind, what exactly is the Independents Biennial? That’s probably

about as clear as asking somebody what Merseyside is. A blurred geography. A passionate community. An identity that works best when it works with its allies.

As Art in Liverpool continues that work, towards a more diverse, supportive, beneficial festival, the absolute focus has to be on making sure that the work presented is amongst the best contemporary visual art in the world.

-Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

From left: Liverpool Artists Network; Ali Harwood’s #Tunstall30; Brigitte Jurack’s Oxton Rock; Mark Hobb’s Big Stick: images, c. Tony Knox.

A Long The Riverrun, Independents Biennial 2018. photo credits.Tony Knox

Conversations with Independents Biennial artists: Paul Mellor and John Elcock Anatomy of an exhibition Interview by Joanie Magill A Long the Riverrun, a painting show curated by Paul Mellor and John Elcock, ran from 14 to 29 July in the former Rapid DIY store in the George Henry Lee’s building on Basnett Street. When I met with Paul and John after the show ended, we talked about the process of curating the show, creating work for the exhibition and discovering a market for contemporary art in Liverpool that neither had imagined existed.

JM: What was the impetus that created the IB18 exhibition, A Long the Riverrun?

PM: It goes back a couple of years to when

John and I first met. John just turned up at my studio one day with a flyer. I didn’t know about John and his work. John didn’t know about my work and we spent a couple of hours just talking about how that might have occurred. There were two artists working in Liverpool, living quite close together and working very much in isolation.

JE: There’s two aspects in terms of our early chance encounter and first was the natural affinity as painters, which is a wonderful thing. It’s not unique in art but there is a traditional legacy with painters which stretches far back and is so current

Handmade to order in Liverpool www.cherrytreejewellery.co.uk

that it automatically bonds you. There is something about the practice of painting which is unique, it’s a mutual fascination with the isolation Paul talks about.

JM: How did you curate the exhibition?

PM: Last year, myself and John and another artist Josie Jenkins had a big exhibition in Warrington. That was a really good experience to see three different painters together. So on the back of that we thought we must do something in Liverpool. We wanted to put on a painting show, but the main stumbling block is finding a venue.

We went to Runcorn and various other places and looked at established exhibition spaces, none of which were right. At the time we were thinking of just the two of us. That’s how this show came about, it was just always trying to find a venue. So to jump very far forward we got this space (George Henry Lees) by chance basically.

JE: When it came to curating this show, the crude measure was that it had to be painting. When we started even thinking about the space in George Henry Lees, it became clear from the materials left behind from the previous tenant, that there

could have been opportunities for great pieces of sculpture. As the two curators and also as a group of artists in the space we had to reign things in and keep it simple and work together. I think it was a bit of a gamble because we brought together the people that we knew who were painters. We didn’t do an open submission, we wanted to open it up to friends and colleagues, people we knew and a few we didn’t.

and running and also the nice little nod to Liverpool as a city.

PM: We wanted to celebrate painting, and as John said, the idea of doing an open submission, because there are hundreds and hundreds of painters so many painting clubs and organisations, within the whole of Merseyside, we would’ve been inundated.

We would’ve still been looking at work, but we did have a network of people that we’d known or exhibited with before and we got that group together quite quickly.

JM: The work you both made for this exhibition, was it new or existing work?

JM: The title was A Long the Riverrun, did that come first, or after the work was installed?

PM: That was one of the most difficult things, finding the title. Working with eleven artists was ok. We showed them the space and at the time the space was absolutely full of the previous tenants (stuff). There was no floor space at all, but they were all energised by looking around, it could be great, it’s in the city centre. Vincent Lavelle came up with this title. I think John and I got it down to five and asked artists to give their top three and that was by far the most popular.

JE: It was credit to Vinnie really because some of the other working titles we had, I guess we tried to be clever with the idea of these conversations that painting is still relevant. So we were slavishly trying to deal with these ideas and then Vinnie’s concept was just so elegant. It just side stepped all that and neatly dealt with the continuity of painting in terms of a river just flowing

PM: The reference is from Finnegans Wake

by James Joyce, the first sentence and the last sentence, it’s like a cycle – the last bit of the last sentence feeds into the first bit of the book. It was about the river Liffey in Dublin, but it could just as easily been about Liverpool.

PM: It’s the last thing I did [We had] three or four weeks clearing the space and working out how much space anyone was going to get, who was going to go in the window and all those sorts of issues, so personally it was the last thing I did, which was one or two weekends before we started hanging it.

I had an existential crisis that everything I’d done over the last two years was rubbish.

So I ended up initially putting up a lot of old work, not that it had been exhibited before, but just older work. I didn’t really feel comfortable with stuff I’d done in the last couple of years basically.

JE: My work is probably relatively eclectic and that’s the feedback that I got from visitors. I wanted to do something slightly different to landscape and as we were allocating the space, the section I’d demarcated for myself helped crystallise my thinking. I created one large new work for the show and the rest of the pieces which related to the work in that section were mainly to do with questions around the divinity of birds, birds being a very important part of my interest and practice.

I painted the section of the wall a fabulous vermillion that we’d found on the premises.

I wanted to create a sort of anti-chapel area so that when you stepped in, you stepped into an ‘other’ area.

We noticed that for the rest of the artists,

which I don’t think was necessarily that deliberate, but in terms of A Long the Riverrun there was a very interesting linear flow of works that meandered from one artist to the next. The space was broken up, it felt as though you were going on a little bit of a river journey. It wasn’t necessarily deliberate, but we heard from visitors that it seemed to flow very well. That’s a great relief from a curatorial point of view because you never really know how it’s going to work until the hang.

JM: It wasn’t a risk because you trusted all the artists you’d chosen to work with?

PM: Yes and it was a very diverse range of painting styles, references, practice, but it worked. That was reflected in the visitor’s book. We had a lot of visitors and plus we sold a lot in the first two weeks, so we extended it a further week. Normally you’d go to a gallery visitor’s book there’s going to be a very wide range of comments. There wasn’t one negative comment.

JE: The numbers were beyond any sort of aspiration. I think we had about 3500 or 4000 thousand people.

PM: We had 300 most days. We’d only planned to do it for two weeks because we couldn’t really manage it any longer than that. We sold £17,000 of work in the first couple of weeks. We were both really surprised. I think we expected we’d get good numbers because of where it was.

We expected we’d get a reasonable amount of footfall, but we didn’t know there was a market and we were both really surprised.

JE: I know we had this conversation many times as we were invigilating, that Liverpool is a fantastic city to make art but is it such a great place to sell art? For me personally I would hope that the other artists would reflect on this as well because one of the outcomes of the exhibitions is that it

irrevocably changed my idea of a market for contemporary art in Liverpool. You’ve just got to have the combination of footfall and good quality art and integrity.

PM: I think one of the reasons for that is that if you go to Manchester or Leeds or other provisional cities, there’s a lot of commercial galleries. In Liverpool, there isn’t and there never has been really. So there isn’t that infrastructure at all so we were really surprised that there is a market there and it needs to be built. We all sold apart from one or two artists.

JM: Do you think it helped being in a nonconventional gallery space?

JE: That was a definite factor and for those of us who have been to the Biennial since its conception, one of the unique aspects of the Biennial was always the reuse of interesting or temporary allocation of space – buildings you’d never been to in years, buildings you’ve never been in to, buildings slightly unsafe perhaps all that wonderful stuff that was always a signature of the Biennial. So we definitely had feedback from people saying that it felt like a Biennial show because it was a quality use of an interesting and dramatic and ambitious space.

PM: We had several audiences. At the beginning we had the Biennial crowd coming in. We got the people who used to shop or work in George Henry Lees, we got people coming in off the street thinking Rapid was still open, and people were tourists to the city who just happened to be passing, real different audiences.

-Interview by Joanie Magill, Independents Biennial Writer-in-Residence

A Long The Riverrun, Independents Biennial 2018. photo credits.Tony Knox

NEWS

DaDaFest International comes to Merseyside this month

Kos Town Paradise Hotel Front Terrace c Gary Lawrence

Gary Lawrence wins John Moores 2018 Visitors’ Choice Visitors to the John Moores Painting Prize 2018 have spoken in their thousands and voted for Gary Lawrence’s Kos Town Paradise Hotel Front Terrace to be their winner for this year’s Visitors’ Choice Prize.

The dark and deceptive painting has won the £2,018 prize, sponsored

by Rathbones.

In total around 16,000 votes were collected for the Visitors’ Choice, with many of those who voted for Gary’s work taking the time to say what had drawn them to it: “When you glance at it all you see is black, but as you stare, a picture forms. So clever, it reminds me of people – you don’t see someone’s true colours right away, it takes time for them to open up.”

Sandra Penketh, Director of Art Galleries at National Museum Liverpool, said: “We are very pleased to award Gary the 2018 Visitors’ Choice, on behalf of the John Moores Painting Prize audience, who so loved this magical painting.”

Artist Gary Lawrence said: “I am delighted to have won the 2018 John Moores Visitors’ Choice Prize. It is always eye-opening to get feedback on one’s work but an acknowledgement such as this award is very humbling.

“Being part of this John Moores exhibition has been terrific. I’m massively grateful to all the staff at the Walker Art Gallery and to the sponsors Rathbones.”

“The way the artist uses very few colours to depict the terrace is extraordinary. The white lights attract the viewer and the green completes the outlines. Entrancing.”

Gifted Mandela prints on permanent display at St Georges Hall Limited edition artwork by Nelson Mandela, gifted to Liverpool City Council and the Mandela8 group by his eldest daughter, have been put on permanent display in St George’s Hall.

The City of Liverpool has strong connections to Nelson Mandela, being active in supporting anti-apartheid since the 1960’s and supporting the Free Nelson Mandela campaign and giving Nelson Mandela the Freedom of the city in 1994.

The Mandela8 group was established in 2013 after Nelson Mandela’s passing to establish a permanent memorial and educational programme as a fitting legacy.

The memorial will be installed in Princes Park and officially opened in 2019.

Earlier this year representatives from both Mandela8 and Liverpool City Council visited South Africa to share the designs for the memorial with the Mandela family and were delighted to return to Liverpool not only with

the blessing of Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter Dr Makaziwe ‘Maki’ Mandela for the designs, but the beautiful gift of the limited edition ‘Struggles Collection’ prints.

The collection includes 5 line drawings depicting the various stages of South Africa’s development and the direct influence Nelson Mandela brought from struggle, imprisonment, freedom, unity and future.

DaDaFest International returns to Liverpool City Region venues this November showcasing a series of high-quality cutting-edge work which challenges stereotypes and celebrate disability and D/ deaf cultures.

Comedian Francesca Martinez, theatremaker and comedian Jess Thom, Stop Gap Dance Company, artists Faith Bebbington, Jonathan Griffith, Simon McKeown and Martin O’Brien, and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Fisher are among the 2018 line-up.

They are part of a busy programme that includes more than 50 exhibitions, performances, talks and workshops by both well-known mainstream audience artists and new emerging artists, all responding to the festival’s theme Passing: What’s your legacy?

Artists have been invited to explore the concepts of ageing, death and disability (passing time) and the changing nature of all our journeys and the legacies we leave (passing on).

The festival will also commemorate the end of the First World War as a key moment for modern recognition of disability as a social construct.

Events will be held at a wide range of venues across the city centre and beyond including St George’s Hall, Royal Court Liverpool, the Bluecoat, Tate Exchange, Constellations, the Unity Theatre and World Museum.

Visual art is represented by Gina Czarnecki whose special exhibition of eco-friendly coffins designed by local and national artists Who We Are Now will be staged in the Oratory in the grounds of Liverpool Cathedral from November 1-18.

Find the latest news & more on these articles at www.artinliverpool.com

Iconic new public artwork by international artist Ugo Rondinone unveiled at Royal Albert Dock Liverpool to mark cultural anniversaries Liverpool Biennial and Tate Liverpool have unveiled a major new public artwork by internationally acclaimed artist Ugo Rondinone – his first work in the UK. The sculpture, called Liverpool Mountain, stands over ten metres tall, next to Tate Liverpool in Royal Albert Dock Liverpool.

The artwork celebrates Liverpool City Region’s commitment to supporting bold, contemporary art and its status as a world renowned cultural destination. Part of the Liverpool 2018 programme, the project marks the 10th anniversary of Liverpool European Capital of Culture, the 20th anniversary of Liverpool Biennial and the 30th anniversary of Tate Liverpool.

Ugo Rondinone is famous for creating large scale public art sculptures. His work for Liverpool is part of the artist’s mountain series.

Ugo Rondinone, Liverpool Mountain, 2018 Installation view at Royal Albert Dock Liverpool Photography: Rob Battersby

Liverpool Mountain is Rondinone’s first public artwork in the UK. Rising ten metres, the sculpture consists of rocks stacked vertically, with each stone painted a different fluorescent colour. Inspired by naturally occurring Hoodoos – spires or pyramids of rock – and the art of meditative rock balancing, the sculpture seems to defy gravity in its teetering formation, poised between the natural, the artificial and the manmade.

Exhibition on Activism Opening at International Slavery Museum in Liverpool

The sculpture transforms the Mermaid Courtyard area, next to Tate Liverpool at the historic Dock, a previously underused space on the World Heritage site.

The artwork builds on the Dock’s position as a world-class leisure destination with culture at its heart.

Mike Stubbs to say farewell to FACT Mike Stubbs, Director and CEO of Liverpool’s Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, better known as FACT, has announced he is to step down after eleven years at the helm.

Under Mike’s leadership, FACT, sited on Wood Street, has become one of the UK’s leading centres for new media and cutting edge digital art and garnered an international reputation for excellence.

Mike says: “After 11 years, I am leaving to focus on my own creative practice as an artist and pick up new opportunities as a programmer and advisor. This week, my new show ‘Strata – Rock – Dust – Stars’, comes

to fruition and opens at York Art Gallery as the main exhibition for the inaugural York Mediale. I leave with great pride and wish all the staff, associate artists and the institution itself, amazing new journeys to new horizons. “ This year, FACT celebrates its 15th year anniversary in its RopeWalks home – a district of the city that has become a vibrant, heart of Independent Liverpool.

The International Slavery Museum has opened its new exhibition ‘Journey to Justice’, exploring how people, both in the UK and internationally, have sought to challenge inequality and campaign for cultural and political transformation.

It shows how ‘people like us’ can become extraordinary in the quest for social justice today, and how to become campaigners ourselves, focusing on Liverpool’s community and the city’s DIY, roots up culture of self-activism

The exhibition reveals the inspiring and moving personal stories of some of the less well-known women, men and children involved in US and UK struggles for freedom through history.

Highlights in include a display of 27 vibrant zines from Over Here Zine Fest, a not-for profit event focusing on the work of Black, Asian and BAME zine makers, artists, writers and activists.

Interview with Independents Biennial artist Alice Lenkiewicz Goddess Trail at Rimrose Valley.

By Bernadette McBride, Writer-in-Residence for Independents Biennial 2018.

See it online: https://tinyurl.com/y8kyytma

B: How does Gaia, and your Goddess Trail relate to the Anthropocene and our modern society?

A: I felt the goddess related to the Anthropocene by redirecting our consciousness and allowing us to rethink our relationship to living systems.

I was interested in the link between the destruction of the land and the ancient goddess which is representative of Mother Earth and nature. Originally it was the female deity that was worshipped as a Goddess in ancient times and later this developed into the polytheistic view by the Egyptians and Greeks when both male and female gods were worshipped and now in our modern society it is the monotheistic world view which is just one male god.

This missing link and duality is about readdressing unity and the natural cosmic order which is formed for a harmonious balance of the female and male divinity of creation according to divine law and inspiration.

The goddess is a spiritual consciousness that in many of us has become hidden away.

When we discover her within us we also manifest spiritual consciousness into our reality and focus more on divine inspiration for guidance rather than focusing our consciousness entirely through manmade laws. Once we become more aware of this duality and celestial consciousness we can then find ways of breaking free from what could be considered the matrix which binds us to an ideology that is centred on ego and self and one that does not consider the holistic values of our communities and

society as a whole.

I feel that raising awareness of the goddess who has in ancient civilisations represented the divine feminine and nature itself is a way of reclaiming back the balance, the missing part of our spiritual whole and the planet.

I wanted to look at the idea of recognising the two polarities in ourselves.

B: When commissioned to create a work for the Rimrose Valley “Environmental Land Art Trail” what inspired you to come up with the Goddess trail?

A: I took my inspiration from a variety of sources in ancient art such as Minoan Bronze Age art, the ancient chalk drawings in the hills, stone henge, looking at ancient earth works and chalk drawings such as Sidbury Hil in Avebury, examples of early Celtic art, sacred symbols, shrines labyrinths and ancient places of ritual and worship. The hands across the valley event to protest against the motorway at Rimrose, I felt was reminiscent of that ancient need to worship nature and make a statement about the earth. This linking and sharing in our beliefs and using this connection of our love of nature is a powerful thing.

I saw the fight to save Rimrose Valley in opposition to the proposed dual carriageway as an example of reflecting this misunderstanding we have with our relationship with the earth. We can observe that through our fight to save our natural environment that many people still feel this strong connection to nature. This is what they are fighting for.

People are now realising they are being

affected by this constant need to destroy our countryside for profit. I think what has been forgotten is our awareness of our oneness with the sacredness of the earth.

We have lost our ability to connect to the source which is connected through us via the earth and the divine feminine who offers the missing link in our current monotheistic consciousness. We have lost site of our ancestral spiritual connection with nature.

Instead, people worship money and profit like they worship a god. Only today when I went to get money from a cash point the slogan that came up on the screen was ‘Cash gives you freedom’. This is sending out the wrong message. Once we become trapped inside the matrix we lose site of our considered decisions.

To build an eco-system takes a long time.

Road building is fast and has no privacy.

This fast patriarchal approach destroys and separates the spiritual connection we have with ourselves and to others, we start to become ruled by materialism instead of making positive decisions that benefit people as a whole rather than just a select few.

When I created the trail there was much support although some people had negative or mixed feelings. It was strange to be caught up in arguments about Paganism and Christianity in this modern age! Some people felt I was opposing the church.

I didn’t see it as that extreme. I believe that we can all worship a variety of gods and goddesses and belief systems in this modern age but I wanted to make a strong point about the goddess and the idea that spirituality can come to us through nature and nature principles that go back to

ancient sacred teachings that have been hidden from us for a long time.

This beautiful natural space was very important to the community and they are fighting against the government proposal of building a dual carriageway through the valley. Not only will this destroy the beautiful park but it will also intrude on the wildlife and the wellbeing of the community who enjoy and use this natural space. The dual carriageway will create more pollution and yet again it’s another scar on the natural landscape. People have been offering alternative ideas such as a tunnel through the valley, or a railway line and have been campaigning to save this area. Authorities do not seem to be responding and we have a voice of the community and beyond who are campaigning for their voice to be heard.

It occurred to me that I could do something to contribute especially as I lived in the area and also I visit Rimrose Valley, have created art videos in the valley, walked my dog there and always appreciated this lovely area.

I began by initiating an outdoors art exhibition. I suggested that we create an environmental art exhibition in order to reach out and towards another group of people in Liverpool, the artists. This took a while to get off the ground as we had to get permission from Sefton council and there was a lot to organise but eventually the idea was taken on board and we got the go ahead and this linked in with Art in Liverpool and the Independents biennial who supported the project and also offered Rimrose Valley an arts hub in St Johns Shopping Centre.

Our group of artists who reached out to us with ideas for the arts trail set about creating works to be installed in Rimrose

Valley. They were all interesting concepts relating to saving the natural environment and we all expressed this through our art in different ways.

I eventually decided on painting as that is my main practice. I was offered a pathway in the valley and I decided to create a Goddess trail of goddesses from around the world. I researched the Goddesses and discovered there were so many. Many cultures had the symbol of the female goddess as their symbol of worship for fertility and to encourage the crops to grow.

I focused on many of the earth and nature Goddesses from different cultures. The list was endless.

I took my inspiration style of work from Warli painting, a style of tribal art mostly created by the tribal people from the North Sahyadri Range in India. This range encompasses cities such as Dahanu, Talasari, Jawhar, Palghar, Mokhada, and Vikramgadh of Palghar district. This tribal art was originated in Maharashtra, where it is still practiced today.

B: “EARTH DIVINE GODDESS MOTHER NATURE WHO GENERATES ALL THINGS” are words written alongside your trail art in Rimrose Valley – please can you explain the choices of text by the images and their relevance to the project?

A: I took the words that I wrote on the pathway from an ancient poem. It comes from a 12th century English herbal and is very clearly pagan although it was written during the time of Christianity which makes you wonder about the idea of the Goddess and how this also inspired people at the time. Were they trying to hold on to this lost divinity also? Was this poem part of the early Pagan Revival?

I originally wanted to use graffiti style writing relating to the goddesses and write phrases in protest to save the valley but when I discovered this prayer I was overwhelmed by its beauty and relevance to my project and used these divine words in my work. I have read that this particular historical mysterious poem has been solved by Professor Ronald Hutton. On page 384 of his book, Pagan Britain (Yale University Press, 2013), ‘Ronald identifies this poem as a product of the late Roman Empire, reproduced in various continental manuscripts from the 6th century onwards, though only the aforementioned 12th (or possibly 11th) century herbal in England, always under its Latin title, Praecatio Terrae Matris, ‘Prayer to Mother Earth.’

B: Currently climate change and ecological issues are hard to convey, the arts is one branch of communication that has the

ability to create dialogue globally and locally. What further role do you think the arts can play in creating a conversation around these important issues?

A: I think art is very important for conveying these messages. My work was only one angle of the environmental debate. There were artists who looked at the capitalist issues, the way that the decline of bees is impacting our environment, weather conditions, light and shadow. Artists also used materials that were recycled and biodegradable and interactive educational projects. The exhibition was fascinating and reached out to the community within the valley as well as online. These artworks could be re-approached and extended into further artworks and ideas on the environment.

seeking ways to publicise. You will find both sides try and educate the other. Think about ways you can also do art that does not cause harm to you or others and that does not identify who you are. This can be fulfilling and reduce all the paperwork and preparation. If you go down the route of presenting a proposal to a campaign make sure you make it manageable. Talk to others who are doing environmental art.

If I was going to do this again I would probably see if I could seek some funding also as this does help with travel costs and materials and of course your time and is a nice offering to other artists. I think this kind of project opens a window to so many ideas and issues. The work can also be done via performance, film and play writing --

There are so many options for the valley that would be educational and help the city and community in so many ways. We need these natural spaces. They are very important.

Interview by Bernadette McBride, Independents Biennial Writer-in-Residence

B: What advice would you give to aspiring artists? Particularly those who want to create work that highlights ecological concerns A: I would just say try and get involved with voluntary groups and campaigns that are

Review: It’s The Travelling Life

An exhibition based on fact, by Liverpool irish Festival Liverpool Irish Festival’s lead exhibition focussed on Irish Travellers, in their own words, and their own images. I expected it to dispel myths, or introduce a new side to the travelling community that I wasn’t aware of. It didn’t. It did something far more powerful.

The photographs of young children, proudly wearing middle fingers like badges of honour, and mistake-ridden handwritten signs, selected with clarity and defiance by those who wrote them made me think again about what I knew, and wonder whether any of it was necessarily a bad thing.

Our lives, as a national or local community, are generally built around things of a social or monetary value, so it’s difficult to imagine a world where possessions are assumed to be shared, domestic boundaries are blurred, and hierarchies are heavily observed, within families as well as public settings.

unbelievably young members of the community who have died, remembered through photographs in this work. The reality is that the average life expectancy of the travelling community is 15 years less than that in the general population. Due to lifestyle within their circle, and due to pressures from outside.

The story of Johnny Delaney, whose portrait is part of the exhibition, is one of an unprovoked racist attack in Ellesmere Port. The fifteen year old boy was beaten to death on a playing field while visiting friends. His killers were never brought to justice, and the investigation was widely panned as being deliberately lazy simply because he wasn’t a member of mainstream society.

It’s unclear what the direct connect between Johnny and the families in the Irish Festival exhibition is, but in his death he has become an icon.

But that’s the reality of the travelling community. Men take a proudly breadwinning role. Women proudly raise their children. And children proudly strive to recreate the history of their parents, and carry on the traditions they were taught.

Not a happy exhibition by any measure, but one that reminds you that most points of view are worth listening to, especially when they’re not your own.

It’s impeccably uncomfortable in parts, seeing pictures of

Words, Kathryn Wainwright

--

Images, c. Jonah Frank (cropped)

Ideas Depot; where art isn’t part of the curriculum.

It’s all of it.

Quietly, not after but during the Biennials, Tate Liverpool opened a new space.

Between Tate Exchange (the space for artists to create) and Clore Studio (the space for families to engage), is an area of the gallery now dedicated to shaping learning.

Major works from the Tate collection have been brought out of storage, selected by primary school teachers to inform and enrich the curriculum.

In a time when engagement is being pushed out of every orifice of every gallery, to a point that it might actually be damaging some artistic programmes, this is a new take. One that doesn’t detract from existing galleries, or try to shape the curatorial outputs.

Ideas Depot, on the 1st floor of Tate Liverpool, pushes the potential to present art as the carrier of an idea. Alongside Salvador Dalí, whose work was likely chosen to engage students who will recognise his popular strokes, is work by Chris Ofili and Layla Curtis. And not their best known.

Chris Ofili’s R.I.P. Stephen Lawrence 19741993 provokes clear questions about British identity today, and how, if at all, it has changed since 1993. Painted in 2013 - when the murder of Stephen Lawrence was just as relevant to conversations on hate crime as

it was then, and is now – the work has a big job to do, raising those questions amongst primary aged students in 2018. How does Stephen’s name continue to do good? How does the work of Chris Ofili respond? What does the response say about the history?

“selected by primary school teachers to inform and enrich the curriculum.”

I can imagine the class now, filling in my answers, and transcribing my own version of the work on the back of the worksheet.

And I can imagine looking back at it twenty years later, feeling inspired to have had the opportunity to work in that way.

This new way of focussing engagement in ways that can make a difference, rather than spreading it thinly across entire galleries could be truly monumental, but we won’t know for some time, just how well it’s worked – so keep an eye on the space, and pop in during your visits, as it’s entirely open to the public, to see, and learn.

-Preview, Patrick Kirk-Smith

Chris Ofili, R.I.P. Stephen Lawrence 1974 - 1993, 2013 © Chris Ofili; courtesy the Artist and Counter Editions

top: Post-it, the book set out for it’s launch night; bottom: Callan Waldron-Hall reading at the launch (Images, c. Mark Hobbs)

Book review: Post-it: Independents Biennial Writers-in-Residence 2018 become words in print, by Mark Simmonds.

The second book, hand bound and selfproduced is a transcript of three hours of bird-watching on Rimrose Valley Country Park. The park is currently awaiting the building of a major bypass directly through it, and was turned into an outdoor gallery by a group of artists working with the Rimrose Valley Friends for Independents Biennial.

The exhibition was a protest, highlighting the importance of the space to local wildlife.

Eight writers, four months, two books. What happens when you ask writers to respond to something that is itself evolving? In this case, a book that functions like an anthology, reads in peaks and answers few questions.

Post-it, written by Richie Billing, Jess Fenna, Bernadette McBride, Paul McDermott, Marjorie Morgan, Mark Simmonds and Callan Waldron-Hall, is an outstandingly accurate reflection of the festival it set out to document. Independents Biennial 2018 was hosted across the entire region, and was a disparate interdisciplinary show.

Naturally then, this book is made up of poetry, script, fact and fiction in different styles, at differing paces.

Critically though, is the split of the publication, with one part set out in a separate book entirely, Thoughts on the air

The other book has extracts of the transcript, but not all, with the other writers inspired by work that had come out of Liverpool Biennial as well as the Independents, and essays reflecting on the condition of the festivals in both a local and global context.

Bernadette McBride’s poetry presents soundscapes with confident interpretations and imaginings of the words behind the background noise. Her response to Not Just Collective’s residency at the Fulwood Community Gardens expands on existing ideas rather than creating entirely new thoughts. The fierce confidence of McBride in her interpretation serves to summarise the nature of the book as a whole; a response.

time. We stop, we interpret, and we judge.

Interpretation, or development, is the most prominent path in Post-it, but judgement is certainly evident.

Jess Fenna and Joanie Magill both take a look at the biennial condition, and the position of the Independents within that.

Rather than a line of fruitless attack, they pose constructive questions, and criticism of both festivals.

But it is Marjorie Morgan, whose Thin Red Line, a script written in response to The List – Liverpool Biennial’s most memorable work from 2018, for all the wrong reasons – that draws out the emotion of the festivals.

She clarifies the role that introspective investigation can have on understanding the value of art, by shaking off the shackles of the Independents Biennial, and delving into a story pushed by Liverpool Biennial.

Her script ignores the recent artwork, and the tales of destruction, and focusses on the story of three of the List’s occupants.

True to form, Marjorie Morgan’s nervewracking writing, alongside the fact and fiction of the other writers turns Post-it into a truly purposeful anthology.

--

In using art as a starting point, the book reflects that process we all engage with when seeing new exhibitions for the first

Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

Koffins in The Oratory for DaDaFest

The Oratory, poised as the entrance to the crypts and grave yards of Liverpool Cathedral, is to host an exhibition of coffins.

Sounds quite ghoulish writing that just a few days before Halloween really, but Koffin, the latest project from Gina Czarnecki, is far from it. Inspired by the ideological challenges faced around life and death, the artist has launched a new company, inviting artists, and members of the public to design their own casket; something personal and everlasting that represents them in the afterlife.

21 full sized Koffins will be displayed as part of DaDaFest International, the most ambitious programme from the Disabled and Deaf Arts Festival to date, from 2nd – 18th November.

The coffins coming to the Oratory allow people to design their own, it’s why the company was set up, and it’s really important to stress that this is not an exhibition gimmick, but a serious observation turned into reality by an artist who cares deeply about how we deal with death, and how in a world constantly ensconced in staring in the mirror, we enable ourselves to reflect that in our passing.

So moving swiftly away from the actual venue, which will draw a crowd in itself, Koffin project deserves some serious attention, and potentially even action if you’re considering something different that might just fit you better than a box.

-Preview, Kathryn Wainwright

Review: Smoke & Fire at Bridewell Studios

Review: The Library of TSOIT A show on the theme of ‘Smoke and Fire’ using various spaces within this historic building. The title was triggered by a house fire experienced by two of the exhibiting artists. It explores personal experiences, folklore, popular culture and primal urges through painting, sculpture and site specific installations.

The main gallery is dimly lit at one end, brighter at the other. A clay chimney sits in the gloom with a small round cloud suspended above it. There is a glow from within but no heat. The scale is unconfirmed. Are we viewing a large object from a distance? As we know, clouds are fairly large and the chimney dwarfs it.

This would make the surrounding gallery a proportionally huge voluminous space. Or is it the size it looks in reality? This could make the cloud a tiny magical creation part way through a conjured water cycle waiting for wind to gently position its sooty contents over lines of drying white washing.

The third part of the show takes place in the cells of the old police station. Burning Well a docu-vid on a small screen documents a strange bubbling well where the water in the ensuing brook can be ignited like brandy at Christmas even though water is still cold to the touch. The breezy reedscape is reminiscent of the terrifying classic Onibaba a Japanese horror film from the 1960s and a full moon adds to the feeling that the Burning Well is a portal to an older time of mystery and magic.

Finally in a cell stands two pairs of footwear, one male, one female. From them protrude what looks like stumps of charred leg bones. Called Brief Encounters it is a metaphorical remnant of past relationships.

The surrounding soot is made of memory.

Love and passion, hurt and anger or maybe just indifference. It reminds us that we will all become fading memories as we turn to dust.

--

The rest of the gallery is filled with paintings, video, a light box and a strange blue flame mask which manages to be quite cute and Smurflike on the one hand and terrifyingly on the other, to be some kind of blue supremacy. It cleverly conveys the duality of our relationship with fire as being both a comfort and a danger.

In the basement is a claustrophobic room in which simultaneous videos are shown on the theme of smoke and fire. Plucked from pop culture through the ages from The Wizard of Oz to the Crazy World of Arthur Brown the sounds and images lick the wall like flames reaching out towards the viewer.

Words, Ian Fallace Smoke & Fire is now closed. Bridewell’s next show, RAW, by Angela Wright, is open until 10th November Images, courtesy of the artists

The Society of Interesting Things lived up to their name at George Henry Lee’s for the Independents Biennial this year.

Their exhibition was a reflection on every stage of higher education, presenting it through a library of technique, enquiry, production and ideas. It’s over now, and I don’t usually write about things that can’t be seen any more, but The Society of Interesting Things (TSOIT) have started something really bizarre, and really wonderful, so I guess this is just as much a rant of adulation as it is a review.

I try not to admit that I’ve got something of a soft spot for academic art. But it’s why I love writing, and it’s what I feel most comfortable writing about, because everything is justified, and everything has a reason beyond the aesthetic. Sometimes its reason is all it has, and any aesthetic pleasure that might have otherwise existed is entirely irrelevant.

In this case, there’s a fair amount of both.

Incredibly well presented work responding in accessible ways to important things. One work which stands out, is the painting that I think made it all happen. The huge canvas, commissioned in the 1950’s by a print factory, is a surreal depiction of machines, and machinists, with ghost images that hint at colleagues lost at work. Last year, the canvas was being thrown out by the factory as they were closing down. Part of the team behind TSOIT heard about the work, and took it in.

As you would with something like that, the artist could help but respond. In the event, they wrote an essay on the work.

The essay implies an understanding of a work that, visually, is fairly un-understandable.

But the rest of the exhibition, while not directly linked, seems to talk to the essay, and the canvas that inspired it. A publication on graduate depression links to the repetition and reality of working life, and the ghost images on the canvas, while the semi-industrial soundscape as you entered the exhibition from the staircase adds a synesthetic experience to viewing the rest.

On the whole. The Library of TSOIT was a truly inspired exhibition, that filled a space with a huge history, and made me forget the history of the space in favour of the future of the work and the artists in it.

-Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

A contribution from a visitor to Art in Liverpool’s Independents Biennial Reading Room at Tate Exchange, Tate Liverpool, in September 2018.

We asked for responses to the festival, and the gallery, in writing and in conversation. This thought on the value of culture fell out of our ďŹ les while starting to pull together the initial evaluations of Independents Biennial 2018.

WHAT’S ON > CURRENT

John Moores Painting Prize 2018 Walker Art Gallery, 14 Jul - 18 Nov The UK’s longest-established painting prize

Ugo Rondinone: Liverpool Mountain Tate Liverpool, permanent addition 10 metre high sculpture inspired by the art of meditative rock balancing

Dragons of the Pool Arts Centre Edge Hill University, until 23 Nov A multimedia exhibition exploring the hidden history of the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen.

Ideas Depot Tate Liverpool, 12 Oct - 21 Jul A dynamic display of artworks chosen for primary school children to be enjoyed by everyone

EXHIBITIONS Current Exhibitions

RELIC Bluecoat Display Centre, 29 Sep – 10 Nov This is Metalsmith Rebecca Gouldson’s first foray into curating RAW by Angela Wright Bridewell Studios, 29 Oct – 10 Nov An exhibition of print, and their marking, inspired by a building

The Abstract dot-art, 4 Oct – 10 Nov Shape, colour and gestural markings are at the fore of the new exhibition The Liverpool & Knowsley Book Art exhibition: Frankenstein 2018 Kirkby Gallery, 26 Sep – 26 Jan The theme of the exhibition marks 200 years since the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Quentin Blake and John Yeoman: 50 Years of Children’s Books Lady Lever Art Gallery, 19 Oct – 3 Mar The first exhibition to celebrate illustrator Blake’s decades-long partnership with the author Double Fantasy – John & Yoko Museum of Liverpool, until 22 Apr World first: Liverpool to host exhibition of John and Yoko’s story in their own words The Provincial Grand Orange Lodge of Liverpool Museum of Liverpool, until 28 Sep 2019 Featuring objects, photographs and interviews, the display offers personal perspectives alongside an interesting look at the Orange Lodge’s roots and ongoing presence in the city

Dragons of the Pool Arts Centre Edge Hill University, until 23 Nov A multimedia exhibition exploring the hidden history of the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen.

Find FULL listings and events information at www.artinliverpool.com

The Art of Noise The Atkinson, until 16 Mar 2019 Listening to music inspired by visual art, The Art of Noise exhibition invites visitors to explore how music alters the way they look at art Frank Hampson – The Man who drew Dan Dare The Atkinson, until 16 Mar 2019 Frank Hampson created ‘Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future’ in 1950, as the front page strip ‘that sold the Eagle’.

John Moores Painting Prize 2018 Walker Art Gallery, 14 Jul - 18 Nov The UK’s longest-established painting prize Leo Fitzmaurice: Between You and Me and Everything Else Walker Art Gallery, until 17 Mar 2019 Asking visitors to look twice at what might, at first, seem familiar

Quentin Blake and John Yeoman: 50 Years of Children’s Books Lady Lever Art Gallery, 19 Oct – 3 Mar The first exhibition to celebrate illustrator Blake’s decades-long partnership with the author

Small World – an exhibition from Re-View Textile Quaker Meeting House, 27 Sep – 5 Nov Sculptural and flat work using felt, dye, stitch, printing, recycling and mixed media Dennis Spicer Seagrass Studio, 8 Oct – 5 Nov A thoughtfully curated selection of still lives and landscapes Op Art in Focus Tate Liverpool, until 2 Jun 2019 A dazzling display from pioneering artists of the 1960s to today Ideas Depot Tate Liverpool, until 21 Jul 2019 A dynamic display of artworks chosen for primary school children to be enjoyed by everyone Ugo Rondinone: Liverpool Mountain Tate Liverpool, permanent addition 10 metre high sculpture inspired by the art of meditative rock balancing

The Art of Noise The Atkinson, until 16 Mar 2019 Listening to music inspired by visual art, The Art of Noise exhibition invites visitors to explore how music alters the way they look at art

WHAT’S ON > COMING The Art of Social Mobility Tate Liverpool, 20-25 Nov Exploring themes of social mobility with communities across Merseyside

Artist Rooms: Alex Katz Tate Liverpool, 23 Nov – 17 Mar Discover the pop style of American painter Alex Katz

No Passengers (DaDaFest) St George’s Hall, 21 Nov – 8 Dec Simon McKeown presents an exciting and surreal view of British Invalid Carriage vehicles

Fernand Léger Tate Liverpool, 23 Nov – 17 Mar Regarded as a forerunner of pop art, Fernand Léger (1881–1955) was key figure of international modernity. This retrospective of more than 50 of his works, many rarely seen in the UK, will show Léger’s iconic paintings, alongside important films such as Ballet Mécanique 1924

Until the Last Breath is Breathed (DaDaFest) St George’s Place, 21 Nov – 8 Dec Video installation documenting 30 actions to camera, performed on the hour, every hour, for thirty hours

Fernand Léger Tate Liverpool, 23 Nov – 17 Mar Regarded as a forerunner of pop art, Fernand Léger (1881–1955) was key figure of international modernity. This retrospective of more than 50 of his works, many rarely seen in the UK, will show Léger’s iconic paintings, alongside important films such as Ballet Mécanique 1924

Exhibitions Jonathan Griffith Retrospective (DaDaFest) Unity Theatre, 1 Nov – 8 Dec An 81 year old self-taught artist, representing a life-time striving to be selfsufficient Who We Are Now (DaDaFest) The Oratory (Liverpool Cathedral), 2-18 Nov The exhibition launch of Koffin company, inspired by ideological challenges around life and death, art, culture, and the funeral industry Challenging Disability Stereotypes through Art Bluecoat, 3 – 23 Nov, 12-5pm Liverpool Hope University is working with DaDaFest Young Leaders to look at how disabled people have been represented in TV, art, film, books, and magazines Calls and Affirmations Tate Liverpool, 5-11 Nov DaDaFest and Proud and Loud Arts bring new performance work to Tate Exchange Scarlett Crawford: First Waves, Liverpool edition Bluecoat, 10-25 Nov Artist and educator, Scarlett Crawford, marks the 1968 Race Relations Act with a newly commissioned exhibition at Bluecoat Elements of Displacement (DaDaFest) Mann Island, 12 Nov – 8 Dec Bringing together two significant art commissions and performance Rachel Gadsden has artistically directed in Palestine, UK, Germany and Jordan

Broken Symmetries FACT, 22 Nov – 3 Mar A new international exhibition premiering at FACT, Liverpool, Broken Symmetries, brings together artists who aim to understand and question the physical world by navigating the shifting realities of modern science

Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho: News from Nowhere Tate Liverpool, 23 Nov – 17 Mar See Liverpool through the eyes of a man who has travelled through space and time to arrive in the city on the eve of the apocalypse Inside Perspective Tate Liverpool, 27 Nov – 9 Dec Drop in to Tate Exchange for a presentation of artwork from prisoners across the country

Refuge Journeys Through The Balkan Route: A Crisis No More?

Tate Liverpool, 12-18 Nov Explore the stories of migration and the refugee crisis in Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece Wake Up Together Open Eye Gallery, 16 Nov – 17 Feb For Homotopia Festival 2018, Open Eye Gallery presents Wake up Together, a photography exhibition championing the rights of every person to love who they want and respectfully live as they wish Jade Montserrat: Instituting Care Bluecoat, 17 Nov – 10 Mar A solo exhibition by Scarborough based artist Jade Montserrat, North Yorkshire who has also been in residence with Bluecoat during 2018

Broken Symmetries FACT, 22 Nov – 3 Mar A new international exhibition premiering at FACT, Liverpool, Broken Symmetries, brings together artists who aim to understand and question the physical world by navigating the shifting realities of modern science

Joshua Henderson and Veronica Watson: Studio Me Bluecoat, 17 Nov – 10 Mar Joshua Henderson and Veronica Watson, members of Blue Room, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts programme, embark on their first studio residency The Art Schools of North West England Bluecoat, 17 Nov – 10 Mar An exhibition of photographs and texts documenting 30 historic sites of art education Jasmir Creed – Dystopias Victoria Gallery & Museum, 17 Nov – 21 Apr A new exhibition expressing alienation and disorientation in the modern city

Who We Are Now (DaDaFest) The Oratory (Liverpool Cathedral), 2-18 Nov The exhibition launch of Koffin company, inspired by ideological challenges around life and death, art, culture, and the funeral industry

SOON University Centre St Helens Open Day Town Centre Campus, 21 Nov & 12 Dec, 5-7pm If you are considering studying for a degree in the Creative Arts and would like to find out more about how University Centre St Helens can help you achieve your goals, come along to our next Open Day. Visit our website to reserve your place! uc.sthelens.ac.uk

21 The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau (DaDaFest) Tate Liverpool, 5 Nov The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau is an office in which a person sits. Their role is to call their list of depressed artists, and see how they’re getting on

ST

5.00pm - 7.00pm Talks, Tours & Performance

N OV E M B E R 2 0 18 ,

Quiet Hour Tate Liverpool, 3 Nov, 10-11am A calmer, more comfortable environment on the first Saturday of every month

November Art Club Meeting George Henry Lee’s, 4 Nov, 2pm This month, the art club looks at the work of members The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau (DaDaFest) Tate Liverpool, 5 Nov The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau is an office in which a person sits. Their role is to call their list of depressed artists, and see how they’re getting on

Moon and Jeon Artists’ Talk Tate Liverpool, 23 Nov, 6-8pm Hear from artists, Kyungwon Moon and Joonho Jeon discuss their new commission

Scarlett Crawford and guests Bluecoat, 9 Nov, 6pm Marking the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Race Relations Act, the artist talks ahead of her exhibition The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau (DaDaFest) Edge Hill Arts Centre, 12 Nov The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau is an office in which a person sits. Their role is to call their list of depressed artists, and see how they’re getting on A Liverpool Bestiary Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, 15 Nov, 6pm An illustrated talk about the creation of ‘A Liverpool Bestiary’, a collection of prints produced by invited international artists

The Space In-between Metal, 21 Nov, 7:30pm A selection of performances in development by artists; Sarah Blanc, Vicky Malin, Kimberley Harvey and Hamish MacPherson, Rowan James, Gareth Cutter and Gemma Nash

Studio Meet: Veronica Watson Bluecoat, 17 Nov, 11am Veronica Watson shares her unique approach to portraiture

The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau (DaDaFest) Bluecoat, 19-26 Nov The Depressed Artists’ Support Bureau is an office in which a person sits. Their role is to call their list of depressed artists, and see how they’re getting on The Space In-between Metal, 21 Nov, 7:30pm A selection of performances in development by artists; Sarah Blanc, Vicky Malin, Kimberley Harvey and Hamish MacPherson, Rowan James, Gareth Cutter and Gemma Nash Moon and Jeon Artists’ Talk Tate Liverpool, 23 Nov, 6-8pm Hear from artists, Kyungwon Moon and Joonho Jeon discuss their new commission Studio Meet: Joshua Henderson Bluecoat, 24 Nov, 1-4pm Aa journey through Liverpool’s iconic architecture and join in with a large-scale collaborative drawing of the city’s skyline Future Station: Giles Duley Metal, 28 Nov, 6pm Giles Duley talks about his own personal journey from fashion photographer to documenting humanitarian stories Representing the People Tate Liverpool, 28 Nov, 6pm Léger, socialism and the public art. Hear writer Owen Hatherley discuss the role of the artist in the urban environment Immix Ensemble present Intone by Laura Cannell and Ella Finer Tate Liverpool, 30 Nov, 7:30pm An evening of newly commissioned music surrounded by the artwork of one of America’s greatest living painters, Alex Katz

WHAT’S ON > COMING SOON Classes & Workshops Small Steps Events- LGBTQ+ Make. Liverpool, 1 Nov, 5:30pm Music throughout the night, crafty workshops, art work, performances and much more

Scissors Paper and Paint Rathbone Studio, 17 Nov – 26 Jan Features abstract work by Marie McGowan and June Lornie’s textural mixed media pastiche pieces

Abstract Painting Bluecoat Chambers, 4 Nov, 11:30am Imaginative course with dot-art and Emily Bartlett

Sketch in the Sculpture Gallery Walker Art Gallery, 25 Nov, 11am-1pm Spend Sunday morning sketching in the Walker Art Gallery’s sculpture gallery

Dot-art Club Baltic Creative, 4 Nov, 1:30pm Designed to help children develop their drawing skills

Oil Painting Techniques (dot-art) Bluecoat, 25 Nov, 11:30am A broad range of traditional and contemporary painting processes and practices

Sketch in the Sculpture Gallery Walker Art Gallery, 25 Nov, 11am-1pm Spend Sunday morning sketching in the Walker Art Gallery’s sculpture gallery

Christmas Print Workshops Bluecoat, 9-10 Nov, 11am Design and print your own Christmas cards Embroidered Lampshade Workshop Bridge Cottage, 10 Nov, 1pm Appliqué and freemotion embroidery Wood Carving (dot-art) Faith Bebbington Studio, 11 Nov, 11am Learn how to wood carve with Faith Bebbington Mothers Who Make Unity Theatre, 12 Nov, 10:30 A collective of local artists who are mothers are bringing a national initiative to Liverpool this month

Liverpool Print Fair 2018 Constellations, 24 Nov, 10:30am-4pm Every year Liverpool Print Fair showcases a diverse mix of artists, designers, illustrators and printmakers

Markets & Fairs Makers Market The Old Police Station, Lark Lane, 4 Nov Free entry to stalls of unique items for sale directly from the makers Southport Makers Craft Fair At Christmas The Atkinson, 17 Nov, 11am Meet local craft makers and find out more about what inspires them to create Liverpool Print Fair 2018 Constellations, 24 Nov, 10:30am-4pm Every year Liverpool Print Fair showcases a diverse mix of artists, designers, illustrators and printmakers

Mothers Who Make Unity Theatre, 12 Nov, 10:30 A collective of local artists who are mothers are bringing a national initiative to Liverpool this month

Bombed Out Market Bombed Out Church, 25 Nov, 11am An amalgamation of Artisan creations, Arts and Crafts, Street food & Live music

JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

For up more details on all opportunities, including links on how to apply, head to www.artinliverpool.com/opportunities-2/ To send us details on jobs or opportunities for artists, email info@artinliverpool.com

JOBS Head of Platforms and Development (IWM North), Imperial War Museums You will take the lead role in developing the design and roadmap of the IWM’s Digital Technical Architecture DEADLINE: 12 Nov 2018 Creative Enterprise Officer – Maternity Cover, Manchester Craft & Design Centre A registered charity providing studio / retil spaces for around 35 creative businesses, and wider development opportunities for artist and makers DEADLINE: 12 Nov 2018 Partnerships Director, Cheshire Dance (Dance Consortia North West) Looking to appoint an insightful and highly motivated dance professional experienced in building strong, trusting partnerships DEADLINE: 26 Nov 2018 Young Black Mens Engagement Worker – Film 42, 42nd Street A partnership between 42nd Street, Theatre In Prisons and Probation (TIPP), Survivors Manchester and Youth Access, Film 42 is a Comic Relief funded project to work with young black men aged 16-20 years DEADLINE: 5 Nov 2018 Collections Assistant Fine and Decorative Arts, Gallery Oldham, Oldham Council Following a flood at Gallery Oldham early in 2018 this post is being created to assist with the administration of the ongoing conservation and monitoring of the collection DEADLINE: 5 Nov 2018 Chief Executive, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) The Board is seeking an inspirational and experienced CEO to lead FACT into its next phase, building on its position as a leading digital arts organisation, and continuing to develop its reputation both nationally and internationally DEADLINE: 9 Nov 2018

Programme Manager, Floral Pavilion Theatre Covering maternity absence for a 12 month period, we are looking for an experienced receiving house theatre programmer DEADLINE: 5 Nov 2018

Socially Engaged Artist, Ground Up Ground Up are seeking a down-to-earth, community-led, socially engaged artist to collaborate with us to produce a festival event in Burnley in March 2019 DEADLINE: 14 Nov 2018

Trainee, Wordsworth Trust The Traineeship programme is designed to provide an all-round experience in a full time role of both an historic house and museum DEADLINE: 5 Nov 2018

Community Engagement Associate – Big Up!, 20 Stories High & Theatre-Rites Working with our Big Up! team to develop participants and audiences for shows and activities in Oldham DEADLINE: 12 Nov 2018

Support & Training Consultant (Manchester), Spektrix Looking for an expert fundraiser who has previous experience working on fundraising campaigns to raise income and maximise opportunities DEADLINE: 30 Nov 2018

Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2019 The fifth anniversary of the internationally successful Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize is open for entries DEADLINE: 25 Nov 2018

Individual Giving Consultant – freelance, Manchester International Festival The individual giving consultant will work with the development director to develop a strategic approach to fundraising from individual donors, developing new initiatives, identifying new prospects, and generating new income DEADLINE: 30 Nov 2018

CALLS Artists & Illustrators ‘Artists of the Year’ 2019 The 50 shortlisted artworks will go on display at the Artists of the Year 2019 exhibition at London’s Mall Galleries DEADLINE: 29 Nov 2018 State of the City / New Neapolis: Residency Opportunity Metal, in partnership with State of the City, would like to recruit two Liverpool artists for a residency at the Waterfront Pavilion, Rotterdam.

DEADLINE: 12 Nov 2018

Call for artists: Numbers (Wake up screaming Zine) We all work with numbers, it cannot be helped, we are numerous beings! But what happens when artists consciously dive into the world of digits?

DEADLINE: 5 Nov 2018 Liverpool World Centre, Trustee (Voluntary) A job for someone who is passionate about social justice and has experience of either marketing/accounting or HR DEADLINE: 5 Nov 2018 Amplified Digital Funding from Nesta A pilot programme, to encourage the development of creative digital ideas that generate a positive social outcome DEADLINE: 14 Nov 2018 OPEN SOURCE at Open Eye Gallery A rolling submission-based open call, giving developing and early-career artists the opportunity to showcase their work digitally on the gallery’s exterior screen DEADLINE: Ongoing

21

m p 0 .0 7 m p 0 .0 5 , 8 ST N OV E M B E R 2 0 1