Issue #8 - October 2018 News, Reviews & What’s On. Your monthly update on visual art in the Liverpool City Region
Cover image: The Last Days of ROAD © Tony Knox (feature inside)
Independents Biennial 2018
Independents 14 July - Biennial 28 October 2018
14 JulyLet- the 28art October take over 200 artists Let the art take over 250 new works 70 locations accross Liverpool, St Helens, 200 Sefton artists Wirral, and 250 new works 70 locations accross Liverpool, St Helens, www.artinliverpool.com Wirral, and Sefton
Putting Merseyside artists on the map
supported by by
ip within partnership with
Putting Merseyside artists on the map
@indybiennial #IB18
www.artinliverpool.com @indybiennial #IB18
Art in Liverpool magazine is a monthly newspaper promoting visual art across the Liverpool City Region.
Art in Liverpool, issue #8, October 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:
Cover image: The Last Days of ROAD © Tony Knox (feature inside)
patrick@artinliverpool.com Our final Independents Biennial issue is here. In November, we’re back to normal, returning to routine. But that, in no way, means things are going quiet. On the 18th of this month we’ll be in George Henry Lee’s launching a book by our Writers-inResidence, and there are still more than 20 exhibitions yet to open their doors for the festival.
issue #8, October 2018 Editor: Patrick Kirk-Smith Photography: Tony Knox Contributors: Aimee Sandilands, Liverpool Irish Festival, Bernadette McBride, Heart of Glass Advertising, sponsorship, distribution, stocking & event enquiries should be sent to info@artinliverpool.com Art in Liverpool C.I.C. Company No. 10871320
Art in Liverpool usually writes very outwardly, reflecting on the highs and lows of what’s going on around us, so the upcoming book has been a fascinating opportunity to self-reflect, often very critically of the festival, and its context. Working with eight of Liverpool’s most exciting writers, the book includes work from Richard Billing, Jessica Fenna, Joanie Magill, Bernadette McBride, Paul McDermott, Marjorie Morgan and Callan Waldron-Hall. What’s come out of it are a series of realisations that while we’ve produced a festival we’re proud of, and have achieved something that hasn’t been done in a very
long time, there are hurdles yet to be crossed. Examining the profiles of Independents Biennial artists is incredibly eye opening. We’re nowhere near diverse enough as a festival on the inside. Our audiences have been wonderful – half way through writing this, a school group from Salisbury turned up, followed by a class of English as a Foreign Language students – but the artists we represent don’t cover the diverse map of voices and experience in the city. The book gives an insight into the stories behind work, and the voice of those who made it speaking truthfully about some of the most impactful work of IB18. We’ll be carrying forward what we learned into 2020, when the Independents Biennial will return having worked with artists and organisations to create something that makes an even bigger impact on the region than it has in 2018. But until then, in the two years we have to reflect, we’ll be building up this
newspaper, and the website that goes with it, to create a more accessible, more open platform for artists and their audiences to thrive. Our day-to-day returns with a new clarity on the mission of Art in Liverpool – a community that grows together in the creative kaleidoscope of Merseyside. We’ll be announcing the full details of the book launch (18th October – save the date) on www.artinliverpool.com really soon, so keep an eye out, or join the mailing list to get the info straight to your inbox (www. artinliverpool.com/subscribe). Thank you all for picking this up as often as you do, and thank you for helping, visiting, exhibiting, reading about or engaging with Independents Biennial 2018 in whatever way you did. Our doors close on the 28th October, just as November’s issue hits the press. It’s been fun, and it’s been a challenge.
photos, credit, Tony Knox
Farewell Victoria Street;
a sad goodbye to a cultural hub, and a warm hello to the future of its tenants Without agenda or pretence, I want to commemorate a building which has been an invaluable support to Art in Liverpool, the Independents Biennial and myself, as it closes its doors to add to Liverpool’s long list of apartments and hotels. The Crown Buildings on Victoria Street towered over the road out of town with grace, holding a steady face while positive creative chaos ensued behind its bricks. Outstanding exhibitions, entrancing music, and hypnotic writing happened on every floor. Ideas were born, and things were achieved. On its top floor, was Art in Liverpool’s studio, housed in ROAD Studios, where we met writers for the first time, planned the first stages of the Independents Biennial, hosted guests and wrote half of our 2017 articles. One of the team leading the studio, Tony Knox, has contributed hundreds of beautifully framed photographs for the website over the years, and continues to provide the spectacular documentation of the Independents Biennial. Nothing will replace the bricks and mortar of ROAD, but equally, nothing can stop them in their tracks. They have moved over into George Henry Lee’s, for now, while the group find a venue that suits them and lets them work their creative magic for years to come. Their exhibitions programme will play out at GHL too, with an exhibition curated by Liverpool Hope University Students open now, Eoin
Flynn’s window installation continuing until the end of October and Kerry Baldry’s much anticipated solo show opening later in the month. Born out of Wolstenholme Creative Space, the studio members who moved to ROAD embodied the counter culture creativity that opposed the nightlife in Wolstenholme Square. They continued to add their voice to the city centre, and will carry on. Their gallery was flexible, engaging, and accessible to emerging artists and established ones alike (though not particularly physically accessible, with four flights of knackering stairs to climb to get there). It was where I first discovered Soup Collective, now SCI, who are exhibiting in George Henry Lee’s at the moment, it’s the first time I saw the work of Patrick O’Rourke, again, an artist we invited as part of Not Just Collective to exhibit here in George Henry Lee’s, and more importantly, my first stop for every LightNight, whether or not it was an official part of it or not. The genuine and honest way that exhibitions evolved there was unique, and unlike any space I’ve known, largely down to the curators, Tony Knox & Rob Flynn who held the chaos together impeccably. Sadly like so many other creative spaces it has been moved or relocated over recent years. The nature of a move is inevitable; the space, the mission, the direction of travel changes and what you do transforms.
ROAD were one of the last city centre artist spaces in the city and will hopefully stay in that category, but the nature of their directors is difficult to change, and in my gut, I think it’s quite clear that even if they set their new studio up on a yacht floating on the Mersey, they’d still be the same ROAD Studios we know and love. For now, they live at George Henry Lee’s with so many other exceptional artists in this temporary artist community, with exhibitions ongoing until the end of the festival, including Eoin Flynn’s ‘Landscrapes’ in the window gallery, a collaborative exhibition by Liverpool Hope University staff and students (featuring work by John Moore’s Painting Prize 2016 People’s Choice Winner, Donal Maloney) and the upcoming installation by Kerry Baldry – one of the most anticipated visiting artists of Independents Biennial 2018 – opens 5th October.
images © Stephen King
The power of print Heart of Glass and Kate Hodgson in conversation, on their Independents Biennial collaboration
Liverpool/St Helens-based artist Kate Hodgson believes in the power of print to shape, and to shift conversations. As part of this year’s Independents Biennial Kate has been working with a group of women and their children to produce a new print-based creative project. Over the summer the group have been experimenting with print techniques and exploring the art form’s past, pivotal role as a way to disseminate political messages. With Parr’s Torus Housing, the group have also held a series of sessions with local councillors, touching on equality, democracy and the machinations of local government. These conversations have fed into the series of printmaking workshops, along with the group’s passion for crafting, to produce a series of posters, t-shirts and totes - keep an eye out for the resulting images on a street near you! Kate, could you tell us a little bit about your practice and what particularly drew you to printmaking as an artistic form? My practice explores the nature of print as a tool of commerce, craft and art. I am interested in print’s role as a ‘democratic art form’ that can be taken away from the confines of the gallery and used to spread messages and information. For me print is such an interesting medium because it is used for so many things that everyone is familiar with (t-shirts, posters, magazines even credit cards are screen-printed) which makes it accessible, people recognise it. I also love that it is a process, that you can think while you make. There are happy accidents and often the final outcome isn't what you had in mind at the start of the process- but that is what is so exciting! Yes, I understand that appeal, that print is simultaneously a very formulaic process but which can still result in unexpected outcomes, which means that it manages
to retain something very magical even if you've seen the process a hundred times! As you point out, the history of this particular form is tied up with a notion of the democratising of art and knowledge. Could you say a little more about your interest in this aspect and are there artists or movements that you particularly identify with? Print by its very nature is democratic due to its ability to create multiples and historically it has been as a tool of mass reproduction. I am interested in how this original use has been adopted by artists and collectives, so for example ‘See Red’ who were a women’s collective that printed posters and banners to spread feminist messages, also Sister Corita Kent who screen-printed posters to spread the word of God. Print allows artists to communicate messages thoughts and feelings in such a direct way. The print workshop itself is a democratic space of social interaction, of working together, of sharing knowledge. The workshop is a necessity of printmaking, as the materials and machinery are large and costly so that sharing through the means of a workshop makes economic sense. Ciara Phillips is someone that uses print and ‘making together’ in the workshop in a really exciting way; using gallery spaces as workshops. Through her process based exploration she is able to explore what screen-print can do as a medium, look at questions of work and labour, art and craft and print as a communication tool. That’s a very nice description of the space of the ‘workshop’, I completely agree and those forms of space are becoming increasingly rare in our public everyday. So, as part of this year’s Liverpool Independents Biennial, you were commissioned to work with us at Heart of Glass and have been running a series of printing workshops
with a group of local women. I’ve really enjoyed seeing the prints developing week after week and particularly the unexpected collection of images and text that have been collated through the workshops – from Nutella jars to community slogans! Your practice also includes this element of the absurd or the ambiguous in the bringing together of words and image and I wondered if you could say a little bit about this and also how this element has perhaps been explored through the workshop process? Yes, the sessions have been fun and we have managed to produce some great work - both with the women and their children who really got stuck in. I've always been interested in text and it is a huge part of my practice. My most recent work has used text from slogan t-shirts like to leave it up to an audience to dissect the language that I use and question what it means. I am also, as you say, interested in questioning what does it mean to place images and text together. It can completely change the
meaning of both elements which is such a fun thing to play with. In the workshops we have been exploring this, looking at artists who use text and image and questioning what the women want to tell an audience about themselves and their group. We have used some great slogans that really reflect their sense of community and combined these with surreal drawings of nutella and ninja turtles - it sounds mad which I suppose it is! We have used words that perhaps don't make grammatical sense, there are different ways to interpret the work - it might mean one thing to the women but could mean something completely different to an audience and it is this ambiguity that makes the work really interesting. -For more information please visit http:// www.heartofglass.org.uk/project/ independents-biennial-parrs-project-withkate-hodgson/
NEWS
Giant’s end their story with one final tour of the Liverpool City Region This month, Giant visitors will walk the streets of Liverpool and Wirral (Thursday 4 to Sunday 7 October) – in what will be the final in the trilogy of Giant spectaculars in Liverpool, and the final display of the Giants from Royal de Luxe, who have decided to take a new artistic direction. For this latest instalment, the world-famous street theatre company Royal de Luxe, from Nantes, wants to keep the event shrouded in mystery so will not be revealing which Giants are heading to our shores just yet. However, the team behind the event can say where they will be walking. All 20.6miles of it…
Friday to Sunday (5-7th). The action kicks off from 10am on Friday in Liverpool on St George’s Hall Plateau.
Details of the static element of the show taking place on Thursday 4 October will be revealed in the coming weeks.
On the other side of the water in New Brighton, another Giant will wake at Fort Perch Rock at 11am and will spend the day enjoying the sights and sounds of Wirral.
An interactive version of the map is online, as well as a downloadable copy via www.giantspectacular.com Printed versions of the maps will be available at selected locations throughout the city region – a full list of these locations will be available via www.giantspectacular.com
Saturday will see all the Giants in Liverpool – they will all come together in the afternoon and spend the rest of their time in the city together. The show culminates on Sunday with a focus on the waterfront and a parade finale. And as this is Royal de Luxe’s final ever time in the city, expect some surprises…
The main ‘walking’ action of the show takes place from the
Frankenstein Book Art exhibition takes over Knowsley’s Kirkby Gallery
Following a hugely successful residency at Liverpool’s iconic Central Library, Liverpool Book Art’s third major exhibition of Book Art from artists across the globe now heads to Knowsley where Kirkby Gallery will be its home until the end of January, 2019. Following the great success of 2016’s ‘Shakespeare Now’ exhibition, organisers
have been celebrating 200 years since the first publication of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus’ with this year’s offering. The Knowsley arm of the exhibition will feature over 15 new and exclusive works, which did not appear in Liverpool, as well as a site specific mural.
Billy Wilson People’s Choice Award Winner Announced On Thursday 31st August, Liverpool Art Fair hosted the second annual Billy Wilson People’s Choice Award. The award was created to celebrate the region’s leading artistic and creative talent in memory of the late Billy Wilson, owner of The Gallery
Liverpool where Liverpool Art Fair has its roots. The hugely popular People’s Choice Award received over 6,000 votes from both locals and tourists with each putting forward the name of their favourite artist whose work can be found on display in the purpose-built gallery on Liverpool’s iconic waterfront. Local artists Hazel Thomson and John Sharp were revealed as runners up, with the winning artist, Alan Murray, a painter, announced by Billy Wilson’s daughter.
Screen Queens new programme announced at Metal The Venus Collective to host a new monthly film screening night that celebrates female directors.
by The Venus Collective include a Zine launch, club nights and body confidence workshops.
The Venus Collective presents Screen Queens a new monthly immersive screening night at Metal, Edge Hill Station which celebrates female directors.
The Venus Collective want to deliver events that allow people to engage more confidently in feminism, and the issues within the movement, by generating discussions in a non judgemental, academic or intimidating environment.
The Venus Collective is a group of queer female identifying creatives based in Liverpool who programme events with the aim of making the complicated politics of feminism more accessible through popular culture references. The Screen Queens project is The Venus Collective’s first public events that will combine a celebration of female made films with talks, workshops and discussions. Other events planned
The Screen Queens film programme will happen at Metal’s unique 23 seat screening room, based on platform three of Edge Hill Station. Guest are welcome to bring their own refreshments. Tickets are £6 / £8 and available via Event Brite.
Dance takes centre stage this November as LEAP festival officially launched LEAP Dance Festival, one of the UK’s most anticipated dance festivals is officially launched with press and VIP guests attending the exclusive event at Liverpool’s Medical Institute. With this year’s theme being suffrage, guests were welcomed in fitting style as performers staged a Suffragette-style protest outside the venue.
Biennial 2020 dates & curator revealed Liverpool Biennial has announced the appointment of Manuela Moscoso as Curator for Liverpool Biennial 2020, which will take place 11 July – 25 October 2020.
the talented team on the next edition of the Biennial. It is a challenge and a great new context in which to set my mind, and my heart, at play.”
Moscoso, Senior Curator at Tamayo Museo, Mexico City, will co-curate the 11th edition with the Liverpool Biennial team.
Sally Tallant, Director, Liverpool Biennial, said: “We are delighted that Manuela Moscoso will be joining us for 2020 and bringing her expertise to the team. I look forward to welcoming Manuela to the city and working with her together with our partners in Liverpool.”
Manuela Moscoso, Curator, Liverpool Biennial 2020, said: “I am thrilled to be moving to Liverpool to start working with
Produced by MDI, the theme for this year’s festival celebrates 100 years since some women were first given the right to vote. In celebration of this, the festival will feature female protagonists in each of the dance performances. The festival begins at the Capstone Theatre on Friday 2 November with Liz Aggiss: Slap and Tickle. This award-winning show is a dark and ribald physical comedy driven by content that embodies feminist dance practices, is framed by the politics that challenge and resist the ‘authority’ of formal conventions, revising attitudes towards mature female visibility
On Monday 5 November a cast of intergenerational women from Liverpool will perform Gaby Agis: Shouting Out Loud at The Great Hall with a soundtrack by seminal punk band The Raincoats. On the same afternoon Gaby Agis and Eva Maria Mutka will perform a duet entitled Close Streams. As well as the wealth of performances, for the first time MDI and Liverpool Hope University are staging Our Dance Democracy: Dance, Performance, Culture and Civic Democracy – a twoday conference that brings artists and academics together to look at the role of dance and performance in democratic discussions. The festival will mark the final year at MDI for Artistic Director Karen Gallagher MBE. Karen has championed the development of dance across the Liverpool city region for over 30 years and during her time at MDI has received a great many accolades and awards for her work in the region.
It’s the Travelling Life – new exhibition depicts life in Liverpool’s Irish Traveller community A new exhibition, curated by American artist Jona Frank, provides a rarely seen glimpse into the lives of women in Liverpool’s Irish Traveller communities today as well as snapshot of Irish Traveller culture from 25 years ago. The photographs, taken by Irish Traveller women and their children, provide an insight into a community – often on the receiving end of many assumptions and outside perspectives – showing a life of family and domesticity, captured during summer 2018. Shown in two locations, It’s the Travelling Life, is a collaboration with members of Liverpool’s Irish Traveller Community, Liverpool Irish Festival, Liverpool Mental Health Consortium and Irish Community Care. The relationship with the Irish Traveller community has developed from Irish Community Care’s ongoing work over the past two decades, developing a strong relationship and understanding of the community. The inspiration for the project was Jona Frank’s 1990s images of Irish Travellers in Tallaght, near Dublin. As that work turns 25, there was a desire to empower, instead of viewing them through a media lens or third party. Here, the community’s women document and tell their stories themselves. They chose to capture images of their day to day lives. Typically, focus is given to the lives of the men within Irish Traveller communities. Women -their domestic roles, family care, community rituals and routines- are not often given the same centre stage. Here, the images they have given us show the importance of family. Providing a sense of ordinariness they also hint at some of the darker aspects within the community, most notably the issues of mental health problems and suicide among young men and of the preoccupations and concerns of a marginalised community. A selection of works from Jona Frank’s 25 year old project will be shown alongside the 2018 pieces. Jona Frank has curated the women’s
photographs to best reflect the stories told by them. On seeing the photographs, she recognised the women had surpassed the brief to ‘tell a story that is important to you’ and were looking closely at their world. She said: “Setting out to do that may sound simple at first, but actually doing it is far from simple. Actually doing it requires a person to stop during their day-to-day tasks and think about what their story is, what their purpose is. It is celebrating the ordinary. It is celebrating a history and a course of life that others seem to quickly dismiss and disrespect. These women and children are taking a step back from being in their day-to-day to observe it, to look closely, to create a record and to share it with pride. That’s courage”. As part of Liverpool Irish Festival, the project provides a platform for another strand of
‘Irishness’. Director Emma Smith says it is central to the ambition of the Festival to provide Liverpool Irish people with their own means to define their culture and voice. “Jona Frank is one of those empathic artists who has an ability to illuminate her subject’s heart and humanity. With this project we wanted to work with Jona to use her ability and capability to support community expression. The Liverpool Irish Traveller community is marginalised –generally and within the identity of Liverpool Irishness – so it important for us to recognise their unique vantage, provide space for their voices and support the artistic expression that came directly from them”. For Irish Community Care, the project is part of their ongoing work with Liverpool’s Irish Traveller community. “We’ve built up
a trust relationship with the families for over 20 years. We have worked with them, empowered them and listened to them to develop a greater understanding of how we can support them and in raising awareness of how important they are as a society. Women are the backbone of this community and provide a real strength within it but often don’t get a voice”. -It’s the Travelling Life will be exhibited at two venues in Liverpool. At George Henry Lee’s the exhibition will open from 18 Oct- 28th 2018 as part of Liverpool Irish Festival. It will also be exhibited as part of Liverpool Mental Health Festival, at The Brink from 11 October – 7 January 2019.
Interview with Kiara Mohamed for Humanscape, Independents Biennial 2018. By Bernadette McBride, Writer-in-Residence for Independents Biennial 2018.
photos, credit, Kiara Mohamed
The byline for Humanscape ‘"When I am looking down at the Liverpool landscape through the drone I look at the Liverpool landscape; at the humanscape. Our love, our hate, our pain and our joy" Location: St John's Market Date/Time: Saturday 14 July 2018. – Sunday 28th October 2018. 09:00 - 17:00 Bernadette McBride: The use of a drone in your work is very interesting to me, aside from the unique aesthetic results it helps you achieve, it’s also symbolic of the concerns you highlight affecting minority groups; in particular women of colour, and the issue of forced marriage and FGM in our communities . The drone itself, views objects, people, and land from a distance – it sees but does not act (immediately) – is the drone perhaps reminiscent of the ‘silence’ in communities, those who see but do not act? Although in your case, you use the drone as a tool to draw attention to those concerns; observing the unseen and the unspoken and bringing it to our full-scale attention via art. Kiara Mohamed: I do a lot of landscape
photography and love to go on walks just for this purpose. The use of the drone has come after a self-journey of creative visualisation of imagining the land around me from above. I always find myself trying to understand our human condition through nature. With the drone, I feel like I am taking a step back by taking a snapshot of life and reading between the cracks on the walls in our communities and talking about the unspoken experiences of the minority. At the core of Humanscape, is a project about love and caring; do we care enough for those around us? And should we care? It’s inviting the viewer to participate in anonymously caring for one another and in turn to look back into our own lives and ask our loved ones how they are. I have spent many years feeling invisible and like no one cared and I know many people feel like this in communities where forced marriage and honour-based violence happens. This project is a nod to the invisible and saying ‘I see you and I care, and I will make others see you and get them to care’. B: You recently shot a video ‘Black Flowers’ in Liverpool Town Hall with @ROOTed Zine inviting black artists to create and be seen in a formerly predominantly white space, aside from your Humanscape exhibition, you are making advances in all directions
putting women of colour creatives firmly on the map – what advice would you give to any aspiring female creatives, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds? K: I would tell them to trust in your truth and let your art come from the heart. That the art world and the social world may feel like there’s an invisible wall keeping them out and stopping them from doing what they really want to do – but that they need to keep pushing boundaries. They are creating a pathway for the next generation of young women from an underrepresented background and making it that bit easier for the next woman to reach her dreams. My projects are about my experiences and shining a spotlight on these experiences by creating art that humanises women of colour, humanises the experiences of minorities and giving them the platform to not just be heard but to heal. This is how I and three other black women created a podcast, the idea of by black women for women of colour resonates with me. I am a co-founder of a podcast called Black Liver Birds and we speak on our experiences of politics, work, art and everyday life challenges. We will be interviewed by BBC Merseyside Sunday 3rd
September 2018 at 8pm, tune in to have a listen to us talking about why our podcast is a breath of fresh air to Liverpool! In order to change the world, I feel like you have to be brave enough to speak up, create that platform and make people care. The way society is built, we seem to forget or not pay as much attention to women from underrepresented backgrounds but I see it as a social responsibility to use art as a radical activist movement. I would also tell all aspiring female creatives that they are good enough. Society actively conspires in breaking women down and shaping them to them to the male gaze, I am saying you are good enough. B: You recently won a competition place on the Hedge Arts @artshedge women’s writing and wellbeing retreat, along with a mentoring opportunity with poet Ruby Robinson, creative expression is clearly important to you across your art, poetry and other mediums. I’ve done some training in expressive arts therapy – do you think creative expression is your therapy? K: I couldn’t believe I won the competition, I never win anything! I feel a little emotional just thinking about the fact that Ruby Robinson is my mentor but most
...continued: importantly, I’m excited about the future! Creative expression was the only way for me to come to terms and deal with some of the things that have happened to me in my life. I tend to feel a little lost or overwhelmed but once I’ve penned my emotions in forms of poetry, photography or filming, I feel a little lighter and that I can breathe again. I started writing poetry from the age of 10 and by 14 years old I was writing almost every day; I was angry and hurting and needed a way to process that pain. Around that age, for a period of two years, I used to think of ways to kill myself and actually try to do it. I eventually decided that I needed to use that energy and instead of the focus of dying use it to continue to write poetry and that helped me. I have tried actual therapy before and I realised straight away that it was not helping me because the person I was talking to could not understand my cultural background and could not appreciate the significant nuances of a young, unmarried Muslim woman leaving home. After a few sessions, I dropped out and went back to my art. My instincts told me that art is a way out for me and so far, it has not failed me. B: How did you learn to create drone photos? Did you study art at college or university? Or are you self-taught? What is it about the medium that caught your interest? K: When I was living at home I didn’t own a camera but I knew that I’d love photography without even taking any photos. I loved the idea of capturing an essence of a moment. So, growing up I read about women who changed the world and wrote poetry about how I would change the world. In all my work, the significant strand that holds it all together is nature. Be it poetry or photography, nature is always present in my work. I grew up being told I was so unnatural,
that no one could possibly love me or want me. I would then look at nature around me; trees, flowers, clouds. I’d imagine I was one with the trees, the flowers, with the birds in the sky. So in my mind I built an energy connection between myself and the nature around me and concluded, how could I be unnatural when I am connected to nature? I studied photography when I came to Liverpool at the City of Liverpool College and my lecturer was amazing. She believed in my art and encouraged me to explore, which I happily did. When it came to going to university I wanted to further understand the social mechanism of the issues I wanted to explore in my art and so I studied a combined degree of Social Policy and World Religions at Hope University. Drone photography is only something I have been doing for the last 13 months and I am in love. To be able to see the world the way a bird would see it is both liberating and terrifying. It is liberating because the joy of mapping my surroundings from above is electrifying but the terror that I feel is the understanding that we are not so far away from each other. We are neighbours, friends, lovers, strangers and yet the intimacy might not always be there and I reflect on that when I’m capturing the world from above. I imagine that I am the bird, seeing the world from above and I am in conversation and communion with the world below me.
able to reach where I want to go and most of the time I feel like an imposter. I feel like I’m actually not an artist and somehow talking rubbish but I recognise that as my own insecurities taking over and many years of social conditioning that I have to break. I hope to be a little kinder to myself because as artists and as women, we are wonderful at speaking for others but not ourselves. I have a love-hate relationship with the Liverpool art scene; Liverpool has an amazing amount of local artists who are creating groundbreaking work but Liverpool’s big art institutions are not doing enough to fund these projects. They want the amazing work that’s coming through but money still goes to established artists from outside of Liverpool. Speaking on Liverpool’s minority artists – well they are not given as much recognition as they should. The big money in art does not go into small communities – it circles around the same group of people, all benefitting from each other.
That’s why I feel like I have no choice but to create my own platform, to continue producing art that speaks on the experiences of women and ethnic minorities because unless we speak, no one is listening. But I am very positive about the future, I believe we are slowly getting to the kind of society we want to be in. But we can’t afford to be complacent and wait for social change to be done by someone else – that someone is us. However small we change the present for a better future, we will create a big enough ripple effect that can change the status quo. -Kiara Mohamed’s Humanscapes is moving to George Henry Lee’s in early October, until 28th October 2018 Words, Bernadette McBride
photos, credit, Kiara Mohamed
B: What are your personal hopes and aspirations for the future? Also, Liverpool has been a place you were drawn to personally, and as a place to create in. What do you see for the future of the Liverpool creative scene, and for the future of a more diverse Liverpool creative scene? K: I hope to continue to create art that I love and be an established successful artist. I hope to reach a point in my life where I feel a little bit more mentally stable. I have a fear of failure; I am afraid that I will not be
Dragons of the Pool, coming later this month to Arts Centre EHU Believing they had been deserted, the families of Chinese seamen who had been secretly deported back to the Far East tell their somewhat unknown story. After the Second
World War, over a thousand Chinese seamen where taken and forced to board specially assigned cargo ships bound for China, this exhibition documents their families’ feelings
of loss, betrayal and confusion. The project is by the sons and daughters of the families searching for answers and clarity after years of believing their fathers had abandoned them. Fifty years later, the release of declassified records of more than 1,300 sailors who had had control of their lives taken from them, which were made publically available led the relatives on a path of discovery, which has led to a new multi-media exhibition, travelling between Merseyside venues. The exhibition tells the stories with new light. It is hoped that the project will help participants and the wider community better understand the foundations of what became the largest settlement of Chinese people in the UK by the end of the 20th Century, here in Liverpool. Led by artist and filmmaker Rosa Fong, Dragons of the Pool brings together iconic photographs of the seamen from 1942, alongside interviews and an audio installation, Chinese Whispers, with an introduction from, actor, David Yip, giving historical and personal accounts of the men who ended up the shores of the Mersey. Find out about the war heroes who risked their lives to save Britain in the exhibition launching at The Arts Centre Edge Hill University on 8th October 2018.
photos, credit, Tony Knox
Test! The programme of trial and error taking chances for Independents Biennial
There’s an important layer to the visual arts that rarely gets seen. It’s the part that would most likely advance thinking beyond art as an output and remind people there is a process, and a career that befalls the end product. Independents Biennial 2018 set out to show the creative process in its true form, and introduce audiences to art as it exists in the minds of artists; a path from idea to result. One group of artists took this incredibly to heart in a programme of trial and error that is still going on, and which has brought the festival’s audiences into its development. Launched by Angelo Madonna’s Jugglers, the space has been home to kinetic, sonic, and interactive, performative, works by members of Material Matters. Titled TEST!, part of the 2nd floor of George Henry Lees has become a residency and production space for artists to try new things, and better understand how audiences interact with their ideas. Jugglers, two cups spinning relentlessly on a delicate pair of plinths, was test number 1. On its first day, before the work was finished, audiences sat and listened to the hypnotic pulse of the cups. Their reaction set the tone for the following performance, Persephone – another test. Sylvia Battista responded directly to Madonna’s work with a new performance designed to interact with the work, and weave around its audience. Her performance, lasting almost three hours in total, mirrored the hypnotic, repetitive voice of the sculpture and culminated in a story telling that took her own reaction to the work very literally. Focussed on the myth of Persephone, and her abduction by Greek god Hedes, it summed up, in its opposition to my own take on the work, the power of the space. If a work is being introduced to an audience in a way which openly admits it is not yet finished, the reactions are all equally valid. For me, it was a pulsing upwards propulsion; quite joyous. For Sylvia Battista, something quite the opposite, a pulse of
the underworld. For one visitor the sound was reminiscent of an antenatal scan, potentially the reason one young listener fell asleep twice. Jugglers has left now, replaced by John Elcock’s ‘La Grive!’, one of the most relaxing works I’ve ever encountered. The predominant element of the exhibition is a looped field recording of a song thrush taken by the artist on the Isle of Iona, but it’s its spirituality which sets the pace for the viewer. A slow work whose melody transports its listeners to another place outside the busy city outside. 1002m of the gallery are given over to a scale map of Iona, and it’s only noted landmark in the work, its chapel. Iona’s chapel is a place of pilgrimage, and a place of reflection away from everything else. Writing from the gallery, reflecting on the work, the bird song is completely transformative. I’ve spent quite a lot of time with this work now, so when I go home I inevitably compare the bird song I hear to that in the work. The blackbirds stand out, but it’s the fact they stand out that upsets me. They have to stand out from the noise, the faint traffic, or the passing train, the drone of karaoke from the pub down the road, even if their own space with no conurbations to speak of. But La Grive is a recording of something incredibly pure, a bird in song, in its own space without the noise of human intervention. This test is an almost realised work of art, using its residence to prove itself, and succeeding. It will soon be joined by Josie Jenkins, another part of Material Matters responding to Elcock’s work before the end of Independents Biennial 2018. -TEST! continues at George Henry Lee’s until 28th October Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith
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1 5 OPEN STUDIOS DAY 2018 The 3rd Liverpool Open Studios Your chance to visit a professional artist's studio, meet the maker, see work in progress and buy work at studio discount. Support the Artists!
Studio opening times vary. Please check the official event website to plan your journey. Times and artist participation are subject to change at short notice. Follow social media for updates via #LOST18
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Ali Harwood 100 Bishopgate Stree BrushStrokes The Gallery, Calder Mary Delaney 25 Linkstor Road, W John Elcock 19 Druidsville Road, W The Yard 1 Rose Lane, Mossley Hi
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Arena Studios Elevator Building, 27 Parliament Street Art in Windows 5 Bold Place Bridewell Studios 101 Prescot Street DoES Liverpool The Tapestry, 68-76 Kempston Street Hub Studios Northern Lights Building, 5 Mann Street ROAD Studios 2nd floor, George Henry Lee Well Studios 2 Roscoe Street Zap Grafitti 9 Oldham Place
The 3rd Liverpool Open Studios Day
Saturday 13th October, 2018 @LivOpenStudios #LOST18 www.lo-st.uk
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et, Wavertree rstones Park Woolton Woolton ill Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. www.openstreetmap.org | www.opendatacommons.org
photos, credit, Tony Knox
Art in Windows: A revolution in plain sight?
What happened at Tate Exchange? Network yourself. Liverpool Artist Network (LAN) and Contemporary Visual Art Network (CVAN) sit at opposite ends of a spectrum. They each make incredible things happen, and each engage and inspire new work every year, but where they do that and how they do that is very different. In September, at Tate Exchange, Independents Biennial took up residence, twice. The first time, writers developed new work and worked with members of the public on work of their own, exploring ideas in a very public place. The second, talks from Liverpool Artist Network and CVAN inspired quite a lot of change. New projects developed from artists meeting and understanding the work of others at LAN, while CVAN came and discussed very national problems and how they impact local artists. It was a fairly rare event, doing what CVAN does but without the middleman, building policy based on conversations with artists rather than on conversations with organisations, who have had conversations with smaller organisations who have had conversations with artists.
Cities need spaces for artists to thrive, and artists need access to the space when they happen. The beauty of having these two networks in the same space over two days was that the same conversations were being had at both. Though at LAN the conversation was about space being an issue, and at CVAN it was about tackling the issue in a particularly constructive way. LAN, hosted by Josie Jenkins and Colette Lilley, are very strict on their stance on not leading the conversation. They bring people together and get them to share. The result is a very natural conversation that gets right on the pulse of what is happening in the lives and work of artists in Liverpool. Whether you’re audience or artist, their meetings are useful things to attend, and can be a really important stage in finding your feet as an emerging artist. Equally, for artists who are interested in making real change, joining the local branch of CVAN is incredibly worthwhile, as however small your voice is it can make a big difference to the issues faced by local artists. Join LAN at: www.liverpoolartistsnetwork.org
City Centre retail space is hard to afford as an artist, or an arts organisation. But the windows, they’re everywhere. There is such scope for Liverpool’s streets to be filled with art without any need to reinvent the gallery wheel, or dispose of commercial space. Art in Windows are potentially at the start of a revolution of how we see our streets, with Adrian Jeans at the helm. Next door to the Bombed out Church, 5 Bold Place sits humbly shaded by the clock tower, under cover of trees and lampposts, below private flats and offices, in a window that would otherwise host blinds or close curtains. Currently talking to artists and organisations about windows branching out into other quarters of the city, the project looks set to be an important part of how we might engage with art in the near future.
Join CVAN at: www.cvan.art/north-west Currently on display are drawings by Colette Lilley, titled Draw Draw Draw, the exhibition delivers its title with unique time consuming drawings that engage in an unusually intimate way with their subjects.
Review: Aurora at Toxteth Reservoir
“Please be aware that when you so into the space it is a wet and damp environment. We’ll provide those of you with permeable footwear with waterproof boots or wellies” are the opening lines to our tour or Aurora, FACT & Invisible Flock’s latest collaboration, which has taken over Toxteth Reservoir for three weeks.
Lilley is co-founder of the Liverpool Artists Network, where I recall the first notion of Art in Windows being discussed. The network are there to make things happen, but not produce them, so encouraging artists to develop their own platforms like this one is key to what they do.
They weren’t wrong. The flooded gallery, formerly Liverpool’s main water storage centre used water to an intense and uninterrupted performance that sought to do something that had never been done before.
The result here, on Bold Place, is a space like no other to display work that can reach hundreds if not thousands, and the variety of what they’ve shown throughout the Independents Biennial this year works almost as a manifesto for showing variety and difference.
Droplets, frozen, twisted and masticated danced in the broken light. The water, in all its forms was mesmerising, terrifying, polite, friendly and angry all at once. It invites you in, and tempts you closer, ever more aware of the guided paths which takes you around in relative safety. Clearly this installation is more than it states, from exhibition, to performance, to installation it borders on innumerable art forms and captivates its audience in an entirely unique way. It’s hard not to compare the installation to Liverpool Biennial’s 2016 exhibition in the reservoir, but once you get past the lasers, there is nothing quite like Aurora. Ice sculpture and soundscape are the tamest way to identify what you will see
here, perhaps immersive performance, but it’s a definition of something which is almost undefinable. I’ve been waiting for Aurora for a long long time now, wondering whether it would live up to its promises, and wondering, equally, what those promises were.
of water; something that examines what water means to us today? Well it ended up doing none of that. What it delivered was something unexpected, very personal, and that has continued to reverberate.
Something that explores the relationship with water in the day; something that dictates a water; something that critiques
Aurora is at Toxteth Reservoir until 7th October
human modern plan for our use
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High Park Street, L8 8LU
Putting Merseyside artists on the map
Independents Biennial 2018
GUIDE supported by
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What’s On : October
CLOSING SOON
Independents Biennial Closing Party 6-10pm, 18th October 2018, George Henry Lee’s Join us for a showing of the final events, exhibitions and talks of Independents Biennial 2018 at George Henry Lee’s on Thursday 18th October, where we’ll also be launching the publication by our Writers-in-Residence. The book responds through poetry, critical writing, script, music and part-fiction to the events and exhibitions of Independents Biennial’s come back year, by eight incredible writers: Richard Billing, Jessica Fenna, Joanie Magill, Bernadette McBride, Paul McDermott, Marjorie Morgan and Callan Waldron-Hall.
The evening will also feature several new exhibitions from groups who have worked around the many festival venues, coming together to display the outcome of their residencies, research, including: • Not Just Collective’s RITUAL, a new exhibition born from three months of experiment in residence at Fullwood Community Gardens. • YAW Residencies, a collective of John Moore’s University graduates curating other artists and supporting their development in the public eye. • TEST! A programme a work with Angelo Madonna, Sylvia Battista, John Elock and Josie Jenkins who have used the former department store to try out new ideas and new work.
And performance, film, workshops and talks from: • Rob Flynn • Bridewell Studio Members • Empty Spaces Cinema • Writers-in-Residence As well as a first viewing of Liverpool Irish Festival’s central exhibition, It’s The Travelling Life Keep an eye on Art in Liverpool’s Facebook & Twitter for full event details
Still to see at George Henry Lee’s
t’s the Travelling Life, Liverpool Irish Festival 8.10-28.10, George Henry Lee’s A new exhibition, curated by American artist Jona Frank, provides a rarely seen glimpse into the lives of women in Liverpool’s Irish Traveller communities today as well as snapshot of Irish Traveller culture from 25 years ago. The photographs, taken by Irish Traveller women and their children, provide an insight into a community, showing a life of family and domesticity, captured during summer 2018.
Kerry Baldry at ROAD Studios 05.10-14.10, George Henry Lee’s An installation of short films by artist/filmmaker Kerry Baldry. Baldry works in a range of media including film and video. Her films have been shot on 16mm with a Bolex movie camera and have used facilities such as superimposition and stop frame often edited in camera.
Tony Mallon, The Quiet Room 14.07-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Since January 2012 Tony Mallon has been employed by Crisis Skylight Merseyside as a Photography Tutor, delivering weekly workshops at various homeless hostels in Merseyside. Quiet Room is a collaboration between Tony Mallon (Digit in the Rib) & The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre.
LJMU Graduate Award Exhibition 14.07-28.10, George Henry Lee’s
Disparity Collective, Positions of Power 14.70-28.10, George Henry Lee’s
Ian Colligan, Free To Be 12.09-28.10, George Henry Lee’s
Kerry Baldry at ROAD Studios 05.10-14.10, George Henry Lee’s
Six Graduates from Liverpool John Moore’s were invited to exhibit as part of Independents Biennial. With their space, they crated and curated a series of residencies, inviting emerging artists to develop new works under the new facilitation collective ‘Your Art’s Worth’ (YAW). 2nd Floor.
Positions of Power examines both overt and unconventional power, with photographers Keeley Bentley, Drew Forsyth, Claire Griffiths, Mark Hobbs, Jamal Jameel, Abbie Jennings and Conrad Ohnuki questioning and interpreting what “power” means in 2018.
Created after a failing commission had given the artist inspiration. Steel wings created as an expression freedom and change, using mateirlas and techniques from his past working life.
An installation of short films by artist/ filmmaker Kerry Baldry. Baldry works in a range of media including film and video. Her films have been shot on 16mm with a Bolex movie camera and have used facilities such as superimposition and stop frame often edited in camera.
--Liverpool Hope Graduate Award Exhibition 14.07-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Five graduates from Liverpool Hope University were invited to exhibit in the first Independents Biennial Graduate exhibition award. The award allowed them to develop and curate their own work and the outstanding exhibition of new and existing work stands until the end of the festival. -Kids That Fly, Ali Harwood 14.07-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Moved from St John’s Market, the installation celebrating the actions of 23 young pioneers taking flight in l7 finds a new home in George Henry Lee’s. See the work in a new light.
Trish Bermingham & Clare Brumby: The Wall Dedicated to Lost Places 11.08-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Artists Trish Bermingham and Clare Brumby take the humble sofa – a traditional symbol of domestic life, as their muse for a collaborative and playful site specific performance; weaving their way through ideas of space, random acts and repetition, to create a moving meditation about choice, chance and the non-linear interconnectedness of life. -Test! 2: La Grive – John Elcock 11.09-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Material Matters artist John Elcock shows a major new piece exploring birdsong and landscape in an installation for the Independents Biennial 2018 .
-Where The Veil is Thin, Not Just Collective 22.09-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Where the Veil is Thin: concerning ritual, seasonality and the unknown.
Since January 2012 Tony Mallon has been employed by Crisis Skylight Merseyside as a Photography Tutor, delivering weekly workshops at various homeless hostels in Merseyside. Quiet Room is a collaboration between Tony Mallon (Digit in the Rib) & The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre. -Reading Room, IB18 14.07-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Starting life in St John’s Market and developing during two weeks in residence at Tate Exchange, the Reading Room ends its days on the 1st floor of George Henry Lee’s. Developing writing by festival artists and the Writers-in-Residence stays on display.
La Grive takes its title from a synonym for the song thrush and relates a remarkable field recording Elcock made of the bird on the Isle of Iona in Scotland, with the island’s spiritual connection as an historic place of pilgrimage. -Caffeine, Ellie Woods 12.09-28.10, George Henry Lee’s The installation is a snapshot captured from a coffee shop, with the sounds, scents and views to match. The purpose of the work is to encourage audience interaction and allow them to become a part of the work --
Liverpool Art Fair People’s Choice Winners 25.09-14.10, George Henry Lee’s
Drawing on traditional customs while looking towards an uncertain future, what are our modern rituals and what do they mean for us as individuals, and for society local and global? How do we create meaning through secularism or religious syncretism?
Liverpool Art Fair is a large scale, annual art exhibition, taking place on Liverpool's iconic Pier Head, selling affordable paintings, prints and sculptures by artists from across the region. For part of the People’s Choice Prize in 2018, a handful of artists have been selected to show work in the windows of George Henry Lee’s.
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Ula Fung, Mum Said 04.10-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Mum Said’ is an exhibition combining paintings and diaries with objects from every day life, focusing on a generation of Women that changed their identities from Chinese to Hong Kong (British) between the 1950’s & 1970’s.
-Tony Mallon, The Quiet Room 14.07-28.10, George Henry Lee’s
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-Ride Your Pony No.02 12.10-28.10, George Henry Lee’s Ride Your Pony is pleased to present to you its second annual international group exhibition this October as part of the Liverpool Independents Biennial. 26 participants from across the globe including an array of Designers, Illustrators, Photographers, Artists and Makers have each been invited to create a piece of work to exhibit in response to a lucky dip letter of the alphabet. --
It’s the Travelling Life, Liverpool Irish Festival 8.10-28.10, George Henry Lee’s A new exhibition, curated by American artist Jona Frank, provides a rarely seen glimpse into the lives of women in Liverpool’s Irish Traveller communities today as well as snapshot of Irish Traveller culture from 25 years ago. The photographs, taken by Irish Traveller women and their children, provide an insight into a community, showing a life of family and domesticity, captured during summer 2018. -They Sail across the Mirrored Sea 23.08-28.10, George Henry Lee’s In a continuation of their residency at St John’s Market, SCI artists are developing an exhibition in George Henry Lee’s, inviting new artists to exhibit alongside their original work, and adding more work as the exhibition goes on, including new work by Pam Sullivan and Graham Smilie.
Sarah Gilman, Entangle 01.10-11.10, Beechams Gallery Sarah Gilman’s painting practice explores the relation of trompe l'oeil to the genre of stilllife painting. The French term meaning ‘to deceive the eye’ is used to describe paintings that are intended to fool the viewer into believing, if only for a moment, that what they see is the projection of a three dimensional object into real space, rather than an illusion held on the surface
Nina Edge: The Hundred Year Harvest Squash Centre Café, 21.09-28.10
Kirkby Gallery: The Liverpool & Knowsley Book Art exhibition: Frankenstein 2018 26.09-26.01.19, Kirkby Gallery
JMPP Winners Return, Martin Greenland & Nicholas Middleton 05.10-27.10, Corke Art Gallery
Rimrose Valley Friends Environmental Art Trail 14.07-28.10, Rimrose Valley Country Park
Liverpool Book Art is delighted to present Frankenstein 2018, in partnership with Liverpool Central Library and Kirkby Gallery, Knowsley. The theme of the exhibition marks 200 years since the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published.
Fine art paintings by the 2006 Winner of the JMPP Martin Greenland and the two times Winner of the John Moore’s Visitors Choice in 2006 and 2010 Nicholas Middleton.
A stunning haven of wildlife and tranquility, Rimrose Valley Country Park hosts an Environmental Land Art Trail throughout the Independents Biennial 2018. From 14th July – 28th October with 6 artists confirmed, all of them passionate about the environment, working only in natural and recycled materials. From static art and sculptures to informative trails.
-Sarah Gilman, Entangle 01.10-11.10, Beechams Gallery Sarah Gilman’s painting practice explores the relation of trompe l'oeil to the genre of still-life painting. The French term meaning ‘to deceive the eye’ is used to describe paintings that are intended to fool the viewer into believing, if only for a moment, that what they see is the projection of a three dimensional object into real space, rather than an illusion held on the surface -Berina Kelly 01.10-31.10, Bluecoat Display Centre In celebration of the Liverpool Irish Festival and their ongoing creative partnership Bluecoat Display Centre have selected the jeweller Berina Kelly for a new exhibition launching this October. -Smoke and Fire 04.10-14.10, Bridewell Studios and Gallery
-Fulwood Community Garden, Not Just Collective 14.07-28.10, Fulwood Community Garden
A large scale drawing examining ‘A Hundred Year Harvest’ exploring food and time. The work will be produced and shown at Squash and wider Liverpool 8 venues.
-Throughout the Biennial, Not Just Collective will undertake a residency at the Fulwood Community Garden, a woodland space in Aigburth, Liverpool. The collective will create works that respond to the woodland, and will survive or succumb to the elements, the exhibition growing and changing with time. --
Art on The Prom (Festival of Firsts) 14.07-28.10, Hoylake Parade It’s a very special Art on the Prom this year as the community comes together to create a Hoylake Art Trail that will stay up as part of the Independents Biennial 2018.
Nina Edge: The Hundred Year Harvest Squash Centre Café, 21.09-28.10 A large scale drawing examining ‘A Hundred Year Harvest’ exploring food and time. The work will be produced and shown at Squash and wider Liverpool 8 venues. -RELIC 29.09-10.11, Bluecoat Display Centre This is Metalsmith Rebecca Gouldson’s first foray into curating with this exhibition entitled RELIC. The exhibition draws on Rebecca’s interpretation of the theme as “a collection of objects which capture my imagination, chosen for their appearance of being found, rather than recently made
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Brigitte Jurack, Oxton Rock 14.07-28.10, Williamson Art Gallery & Museum In the newly landscaped courtyard garden of the Williamson Art Gallery, Brigitte Jurack has placed large multi-coloured and highly patterned sculptures, one on the floor and one raised off the ground by the brick wall. -Cyanosure 14.07-28.10, Williamson Art Gallery & Museum
Paul Le Bon, Vicki Lucas Le Bon, Anna Ketskemety, Markus Soukup, Chiz Turnross and Colette Whittington open a new group exhibition, with a private view 7pm-late, 4th October
All of the six photographers exhibiting in Cynosure are creative in their approach but have distinctly different styles. Five of the photographers are Wirral-based and each has been recognised for the excellence of their work.
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Kirkby Gallery: The Liverpool & Knowsley Book Art exhibition: Frankenstein 2018 26.09-26.01.19, Kirkby Gallery Liverpool Book Art is delighted to present Frankenstein 2018, in partnership with Liverpool Central Library and Kirkby Gallery, Knowsley. The theme of the exhibition marks 200 years since the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published.
Ula Fung, Mum Said, George Henry Lee’s, 04.10-28.10 Mum Said’ is an exhibition combining paintings and diaries with objects from every day life, focusing on a generation of Women that changed their identities from Chinese to Hong Kong (British) between the 1950’s & 1970’s.
RELIC 29.09-10.11, Bluecoat Display Centre A collection of objects which capture my imagination, chosen for their appearance of being found, rather than recently made.
Discordia Exhibition: Making Sense of the Chaos 04.10-06.10, The Hope Street Theatre A distinctive new show which blurs the realms of ‘art gallery’ and ‘theatre space’, fusing the disciplines of visual art, choreography and music composition. Discordia explores the theme ‘Making sense of the chaos’, inviting the audience to experience the varied meaning and perspective of a collection of paintings within an audio-physical tapestry.
3rd Liverpool Open Studios Invites You to Meet the Artists Contemporary artists and makers across 14 venues in Liverpool will open their studios to visitors on Saturday 13th October 2018 for the 3rd Liverpool Open Studios. Highlights for 2018 include rare access to the Well Studios on Roscoe Street, the historic Bridewell Studios, the former George Henry Lee building, plus street art specialists Zap Graffiti. Liverpool Open Studios 2018 (LOST18) is an entirely artist-led open studio event run by artists and makers working in Liverpool, UK. For just one day each year this is a unique opportunity to see inside professional artists' studios, meet the artist, buy art and experience art in the making. Entry to all participating artists’ studios is free.
Open studios event occur annually both in the UK and internationally, with major events happening each year in Cambridge, York, London and more locally, a wellestablished and popular tour on the Wirral. Visit the official event website at www.lost.uk for locations and times on Saturday 13 October 2018 and keep updated before you travel by following the event on Twitter via #LOST18 LOST18 is part of the Independents Biennial 2018. The artists gratefully acknowledge the support of Art in Liverpool. http://www.lo-st.uk https://twitter.com/LivOpenStudios
LOST18 includes major artists' studio groups, maker collectives, individual artists and artisans working in studios, workspaces and homes across the city. Participants this year include Ali Harwood, Arena Studios, Art in Windows, Bridewell Studios, Brushstrokes, Mary Delaney, DoES Liverpool, John Elcock, HUB Studios, Paul Mellor, ROAD Studios, Sally-Anne Thompson, The Well Studios, Yard Studios and Zap Graffiti.
Also showing this October: Curious Minds, Eimear Kavanagh 01.10-31.10, Naked Lunch
Quiet Hour 06.10, 10am, Tate Liverpool
An eclectic mix of artworks from Eimear Kavanagh
A calmer, more comfortable environment on the first Saturday of every month
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Liverpool Biennial 2018: Page-Turning: Birds of America Every Wednesday, 3pm, Liverpool Central Library Liverpool Central Library holds on display one of only 120 copies still in existence of John James Audubon’s Birds of America. -(FILM) Liverpool Biennial 2018: The Gleaners and I – Agnès Varda: Pioneer 03.10, 6:30pm, FACT An 1867 painting by Jean-Francois Millet inspired Varda to cross the French countryside to videotape people who scavenge.
(TOUR) Curator Tour: RIBA North – National Architecture Centre 06.10, 3pm, RIBA North
Liverpool Biennial 2018: Beautiful World Reading and Discussion Group 09.10, 6pm, Bluecoat Currently the UK labour force is facing a low productivity problem, despite reaching near full employment. The culture of work seeps into our private lives to the point that many boast of being busy.
(FILM) Liverpool Biennial 2018: A Woman Under the Influence – Agnès Varda: Pioneer 10.10, 6:30pm, FACT Mabel’s increasingly volatile behaviour commits her to an institution. Her husband and kids await her return, which holds more than a few surprises.
Join RIBA North Director Suzy Jones, for a tour of Mae-link Lokko’s new Biennial commission, which uses Grow-It-Yourself workshops to produce an architectural structure from agrowaste-fed mycelium (mushrooms). -Makers Market 07.10, all day, The Old Police Station (Lark Lane) Free entry to stalls of unique items for sale directly from the makers. With all the art and craft you can handle
--Liverpool Biennial 2018: Sculptural Signature Facial 05.10-06.10, Blackburne House
Dragons of the Pool 08.10-23.11, Arts Centre Edge Hill University
Liverpool Biennial 2018: Suki Seokyeong Kang: Land Sand Strand – Activation 20.10, 1pm, Bluecoat
Experience a one-of-a-kind facial treatment inside artist Taus Makhacheva’s sculptural installation
A multimedia exhibition exploring the hidden history of the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen.
Suki Seokyeong Kang’s sculptural installation at Bluecoat, Land Sand Strand, will be activated through a series of movements inspired by the Korean Spring Oriole Dance.
(TALK) Liverpool Biennial 2018: A Great Enchanted Garden: Can AI Give Us Back Our Sense of Wonder? – Ryan Avent 11.10, 6:30pm, The Serving Library A talk by Ryan Avent (Senior Editor and Free Exchange Columnist, The Economist, Arlington, USA) curated by The Serving Library in partnership with LJMU’s Exhibition Research Lab for Liverpool Biennial 2018 -(TOUR) Liverpool Biennial 2018: Curator Tour 13.10, 3pm, Bluecoat
Quentin Blake and John Yeoman: 50 Years of Children’s Books 19.10-03.03.19, Lady Lever Art Gallery The first exhibition to celebrate illustrator Quentin Blake’s decades-long partnership with the author, John Yeoman. It opens at the Lady Lever Art Gallery this autumn, running from 19 October until 3 March 2019, and will feature more than 40 works, including illustrations and books by the two.
Join Bryan Biggs, Artistic Director at Bluecoat, for an insightful introduction to the Liverpool Biennial 2018 artists showing across the gallery. -(TOUR) Liverpool Biennial 2018: Exhibition Tour: Music and Activation 14.10, 3pm, Bluecoat Explore and learn more about the Liverpool Biennial exhibitions with our mediation team on a family friendly tour. For this tour, join us as we visit Suki Seokyeong Kang’s work and think about music and movement in art. -(TALK) Annual Gardner-Medwin Lecture given by Alice Rawsthorn 16.10, 6:30pm, Bluecoat Display Centre Alice Rawsthorn discusses the changing relationship of craft and design, where it stands now and how it is likely to evolve in the future. She will also explore the current resurgence of interest in craft among designers, artists, makers and the public.
(TALK) Liverpool Biennial 2018: Aliens, Fieldwork, and Universal Grammar – Jessica Coon and Vincenzo Latronico 26.10, 6:30pm, The Serving Library If aliens arrived, could we communicate with them? How would we do it? What are the tools that linguists use to decipher unknown languages? How different can human languages be from one another?
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-Liverpool Biennial 2018: Suki Seokyeong Kang: Land Sand Strand – Activation 20.10, 1pm, Bluecoat Suki Seokyeong Kang’s sculptural installation at Bluecoat, Land Sand Strand, will be activated through a series of movements inspired by the Korean Spring Oriole Dance. -(TALK) Liverpool Biennial 2018: Aliens, Fieldwork, and Universal Grammar – Jessica Coon and Vincenzo Latronico 26.10, 6:30pm, The Serving Library If aliens arrived, could we communicate with them? How would we do it? What are the tools that linguists use to decipher unknown languages? How different can human languages be from one another? -Transits and Transformations 29.10-04.11, Tate Liverpool Join University of Liverpool at Tate Exchange as they reflect on higher education and the impact it can have on transforming lives and identities. -University Centre St Helens Open Day 21st November 2018, 5.00pm – 7.00pm St Helens Town Centre Campus, WA10 1PP
In this autobiographical documentary, Varda provides a window into her eventful life as she revisits various locales that have been important to her.
If you are considering studying for a degree in the Creative Arts, join us for the first University Centre St Helens Open Day of the academic year. Providing an excellent opportunity to discover the many courses on offer, you will also have the chance to meet the lecturing teams, tour the facilities and find out what student life at University Centre St Helens is like. To book your place, please visit uc.sthelens.ac.uk
(TALK) Liverpool Biennial 2018: Reclaiming Beauty as a Public Good 18.10, 6:30pm, The Serving Library A talk by Angela Nagle (Writer, author of Kill All Normies, Dublin and New York) curated by The Serving Library in partnership with LJMU’s Exhibition Research Lab for Liverpool Biennial 2018 --
A multimedia exhibition exploring the hidden history of the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen. Artist, filmmaker and academic, Rosa Fong worked with community group, The Dragons of the Pool, to create a multimedia exhibition, which documents the story of the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen in Liverpool just after the Second World War.
The first exhibition to celebrate illustrator Quentin Blake’s decades-long partnership with the author, John Yeoman. It opens at the Lady Lever Art Gallery this autumn, running from 19 October until 3 March 2019, and will feature more than 40 works, including illustrations and books by the two.
(FILM) Liverpool Biennial 2018: The Beaches of Agnès – Agnès Varda: Pioneer 17.10, 6:30pm, FACT
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Dragons of the Pool 08.10-23.11, Arts Centre Edge Hill University
Quentin Blake and John Yeoman: 50 Years of Children’s Books 19.10-03.03.19, Lady Lever Art Gallery
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 Lakeland Arts, Head of Learning and Engagement DEADLINE: 8th October 2018 Lead a highly qualified team to produce, manage and deliver Lakeland Arts learning and engagement offer across multiple venues -People’s History Museum, Writing Facilitator DEADLINE: 8th October 2018 Are you a creative writing facilitator who can champion People’s History Museum (PHM) and its programme by delivering creative writing workshops in response to the museum’s collection? -Bluecoat, Programme Co-ordinator
CALLS
Programme Manager, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust DEADLINE: 9th October 2018 The museum is looking to employ a Programme Manager to help shape the programme by developing exhibitions and events that broadens and diversifies our audiences.
Open Call for Events 2019, People History Museum, Porterloo Massacre
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DEADLINE: 19th November 2018
Support & Training Consultant (Manchester), Spektrix
A year long programme of events and exhibitions will explore creative disobedience and its role in today’s ideas worth fighting for.
DEADLINE: 30th November 2018 Seeking an expert fundraiser who has previous experience working on fundraising campaigns to raise income and maximise opportunities. -Grants Officer, Heritage Lottery Fund DEADLINE: 10th October 2018 The Heritage Lottery Fund is recruiting for a Grants Officer on a fulltime one year contract based in Manchester.
-Expressions of Interest – Public Art Project Goodman Limited and Cheshire East Borough Council DEADLINE: 12th October 2018 Make public art that will give a new large scale strategic Housing and Employment development in Basford West a distinctive identity and sense of place. -Open Call – LightNight 2019: Ritual
DEADLINE: 7th October 2018 DEADLINE: 21st January 2019 The successful candidate will contribute to the smooth running of the gallery programme, focusing on the technical planning of installing new exhibitions as well as administrative support.
LightNight is back on Friday 17 May 2019 and Open Culture are looking for artistic proposals to form the programme. --
-Rebecca Vassie Memorial Award DEADLINE: 19th October 2018 Open call for submissions from early-tomid-career photographers in or from the UK
Festival of Contemporary Art 14 July – 28 October Free
Liverpool Biennial is funded by
biennial.com
Founding Supporter James Moores
uc.sthelens.ac.uk /UniCentreSH