Issue #4 - June 2018 News, Reviews & What’s On. Your monthly update on visual art in the Liverpool City Region
Cover image: by Tom Wood: from Common Ground, a major exhibition as part of Art of Football © Tom Wood
Art in Liverpool magazine is a monthly newspaper promoting visual art across the Liverpool City Region.
Art in Liverpool, issue #4, June 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
To open this issue, here’s an outstanding new street work of Mo Salah created ahead of the Champions League Final. We didn’t win, but that doesn’t make their achievements less worth this new work from Rapid Response Unit artist, Guy McKinley.
Ode to Mo, by Guy McKinley. image credit: Pete Carr
Independents Biennial is back next month, relaunched by Art in Liverpool because telling the world about the artists of the region is what we do. Over 250 new works, including five festival commissions, and more than 100 individual events will see communities come alive in celebration of the region’s creative life. We’ll be welcoming new galleries, existing art spaces, and breathing life into forgotten places, bringing a fresh perspective on how we see, make and use art in Merseyside. In 1999, Liverpool Biennial launched with four strands; Liverpool Biennial, Trace; John Moores Painting Prize; New Contemporaries; and Tracey – the fringe.
issue #4, June 2018 Contributers Writers: Moira Leonard, Kirsten Hawkins, Joanie Magill, Carol Emmas, Gabrielle De La Puente Editor: Patrick Kirk-Smith
Advertising, sponsorship, distribution, stocking & event enquiries should be sent to info@artinliverpool.com Art in Liverpool C.I.C. Company No. 10871320
In 2002, the second edition, what was Tracey became the Independents Biennial, the slightly wilder sister festival of Liverpool Biennial, and under various leaders and groups, it ran until 2014, with some jellyfish in a window making a pretty huge splash across world art news. In 2016, the festival didn’t happen, instead replaced by a much more critically aware Biennial Fringe run by Double Negative, a Liverpool publication making art criticism accessible to all [www.thedoublenegative. co.uk]. This year, for the 10th edition of Liverpool Biennial, we wanted to capture the energy
of 2002, and respond to the reality of Liverpool, a city that is now a region, with more disconnected parts than a Haynes Manual. Artists live and work in every corner of this great region, and they have the power to join the dots, so rather than working entirely in the city centre, we’re spilling out into interesting spaces in all six boroughs. We want to capture the quality of 2016, with the chaos of 2002, and create a festival that teams up with its sister to make local, national and internationally significant art available to all. Both festivals run from 14th July to 28th October 2018, and we’ll be announcing the full Independents Biennial programme in the next issue, with some exclusive interviews with artists from both festivals. -June though. In case you need reminding, the World Cup starts this month (apparently it’s quite popular). I can’t say I’m on the edge of my seat for the football, but BidoLito! (the magazine which is very likely to the left of where you picked this up from) are coordinating an arts programme alongside the World Cup that considers the impact of football on our culture, and the impact of our culture on football.
There’s a preview inside, with further details, but for any World Cup sceptics it’s an escape from the big screen. I know I’ll likely be carted off to Camp & Furnace to watch a game or two, and the presence of an exhibition inspired by Umberto Eco, the brilliant Italian semiologist who left a genius shaped hole in our world on his passing in 2016, will be a welcome retreat from the chaos, in the neighbouring gallery. The exhibition, curated and produced by LJMU’s Design & Illustration Department is a fascinating collaboration between art and football, and promises to be a critically savvy show reminiscent of the days of A Foundation – safe to say it’ll be the highlight of my World Cup anyway. But it’s not completely overshadowed by football for us at Art in Liverpool this June, as we will be working none-stop to bring you the next issue covering not just our own Independents Biennial programme, but cross-overs with Liverpool Biennial artists, and updates on the progress with our excellent LJMU & Hope graduate award recipients for 2018. All our love, Art in Liverpool
OUTPUT Gallery: Liverpool’s latest, loyalest, addition to the gallery scene Gabrielle De La Puente on her grand plans for a space built by and for local artists Liverpool is known locally, nationally and internationally as having a strong relationship with arts and culture. From the outside, we seem quite blessed to have a tonne of institutions and venues that can play host to all sorts of visual arts and music. A good proportion of that creativity is imported in as producers love to parachute international names into their programmes and festival lineups. Of course, these things are great and it’s important we celebrate them, but it has meant that for a long time all the energy, visibility and funding available has not been supporting the actual individuals who constitute the local art scene. Because institutions like Tate Liverpool, the Bluecoat or FACT are so out of reach, there is nowhere really for artists on the ground to show. The Royal Standard is heralded as being artist-led, but has its own issue of territory, insular social circles, and an identity that is becoming an institution in itself. On top of the drought of spaces, the
shift towards complete and fashionable internationalism (spearheaded by the Biennial) has meant Liverpool artists seem utterly uncool and not worthy enough of attention in their own city. It is bizarre, and it is so unhealthy for the local industry in terms of economy and diversity if no one is allowed to come up. Those are the feelings a lot of us have, particularly here at the bottom of the ladder. How am I ever going to make it? Should I move to Glasgow or, more ambitiously, to New York, where there are commercial galleries that actually invest in their communities and allow artists to break through? Hopefully you’ll stay in the city because we have opened a space that wants to be a solution; wants to be useful and used by the people who need it most. OUTPUT gallery, at 32 Seel Street in Liverpool city centre, will work exclusively with creatives who are from or based in Merseyside. We say that because we want to recognise the people who have made
the area their home, and who are as much a part of it as the ones born in the Women’s. It would also be good to catch the ones that got away, and so we’re putting the call out to the artists who left to find work elsewhere, so they know there’s a gallery in Liverpool worth being a part of (and one worth moving back for...).
“everything isn’t going to change overnight, but Liverpool is worth the effort.” OUTPUT is based in the former workshop of the Kazimier Gardens, and hosts a Cafe serving affordable coffee and food which helps to subsidise the not-funded-yet venture. The gallery is supported by The Kazimier who know and care deeply about access to space, having had their own beginnings through a similar invitation. They’ve been able to stay where they are for 10 years when the rest of the Ropewalks area has been bulldozed and redeveloped, and they now want to make the most of their prime location in the city centre and pay it forward.
OUTPUT has an initial three month programme after which the public will help decide what the space is used for. To do so, OUTPUT is holding INPUT days for anybody interested in having those discussions. That could mean suggesting residencies, specific talks, sharing any criticism of the gallery or even throwing your own name into the hat for a show. We want to know what people need and if that’s a solo show to bolster their career, a space for their choir to rehearse, or somewhere to practice a performance, let’s figure it out. It’s exciting and although we know everything isn’t going to change overnight, Liverpool is definitely worth the effort. Please get in touch if you think OUTPUT might be able help you! We can’t wait to hear your ideas. -output@thekazimier.co.uk @outputgallery thekazimier.co.uk/output Written by OUTPUT’s gallery manager, Liverpool born and based Gabrielle de la Puente, who also co-runs art criticism website The White Pube. Her experience in curating combined with a focus on institutional critique has shaped the intentions of the gallery, putting into practice some of her politics.
Woodman and Schiele, on the anniversaries of their deaths. Carol Emmas on Life in Motion at Tate Liverpool As Tate Liverpool continues its 30th anniversary celebrations, with Life in Motion, there have been mixed reviews in the national press about the pairing of the artist Egon Schiele and photographer Francesca Woodman. But, what else do you do when Vienna wants to celebrate Schiele’s work on the centenary of his death? You think outside the box and come up with a canny pairing on what would have also have been Woodman’s 60th birthday, had she lived. While it was a struggle to reconcile previous bedfellows, Emin and Blake, Woodman and Schiele possess similarities more obviously complementary in this interesting male/ female dynamic. Each artist explores the body through their introspection of the self and other. Both Woodman and Schiele died young and both liked using themselves as their own protagonist (whether through convenience or otherwise). But there the similarities end. With a bold, accomplished and confident draughtsman’s hand, Schiele’s works are quick, confident and self-assured in their delivery. Without the availability of online pornography, the next best thing in Vienna in the early 1900s must have been the paintit-yourself version. Studying under Gustav Klimpt, Schiele moves Klimpt’s more idealistic visions into a lustful kitchensink erotic and vibrant reality of the human form; Reclining Woman With Green Shoes, (1917), Squatting Girl (1917). He spent time in prison for creating these ‘degenerate’ images. Yet, he wasn’t all about porn. The
Francesca Woodman, Eel Series, Venice, Italy 1978. Tate / National Galleries of Scotland © Courtesy of Charles Woodman/Estate of Francesca Woodman
elongation, disproportion and accentuation of his self-portraits, like Self-Portrait in Crouching Position’ (below) are so simple, yet so visually striking - they are no less than perfect in their execution.
The Woodman images portray the body in a more precarious and ephemeral way. In much of her work, Woodman tries her best to blend into her surroundings, into the earth, into the walls, into the ether. Woodman’s death at 22 (after throwing herself from a roof in 1981) means she will be forever type-cast in the cult-like status of Sylvia Plath.
“Schiele’s confidence ran to his death-bed. Woodman felt her work was “not good enough””
Egon Schiele, Self Portrait in Crouching Position 1913. Photo: Moderna Museet / Stockholm
because I turned my head, but because what looked at me was dead. We don’t exist - We only dream we’re here - This means we never die - We disappear”. Her black and white subject matter reinforces a sense of melancholy. Yet we forget that behind the scenes there must have been vibrant colour while she was constructing her work. So, the question here is whether the images are telling a truth, or do they lie? Whereas, Schiele’s testosterone-fuelled confidence ran through to his death-bed (he died in the flu-pandemic of 1918). “The war is over and I must go - my paintings shall be seen in museums around the world.” Woodman, suffering from depression felt her work was “not good enough”.
The forever mystery of ‘why’ and that other Victorian literary worship of the fragile woman cut off in their peak of youth will generate many a thesis. It also means in true Victorian gothic tragedy, her Angel Series could be construed as a doomed portent; whether she’d wished it, knew it, or not.
--
In Don Paterson’s poem, ‘Francesca Woodman’, he wrote: “Ghost face. Not
Words, Carol Emmas
Life in Motion: Egon Schiele / Francesca Woodman is at Tate Liverpool until 23 Setpember 2018
World Cup 2018 through the eyes of artists:
Coinciding with the greatest footballing event across the globe, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Art of Football will see Liverpool host three major exhibitions, a symposium, pop-up cinema, and a music festival as well as stage a call out for community groups to take part in a football parade with a difference – all in celebration of the creative culture and social fabric which underpins football. From 15th June to 15th July, Art of Football, looks to bring together two usually detached worlds with more in common than they might think. The events explore the international tapestry of footballing culture, in some cases quite literally, with the results of last month’s Terrace Tapestries workshops at The Florrie on display at the Martin Luther King Building during the World Cup. The cross-discipline festival will investigate football from all angles, with Soccerama Symposium at Central Library debating the modern relationship of football to equality, populism, and in particular race and LGBTQ culture (12th-13th July). My personal favourite, and the furthest from the conversational comfort zone of modern day football is an exhibition of design and illustration in response to the late-great Umberto Eco’s ‘World Cup and Its Pomps’, an essay which concludes “Is the armed struggle possible on World Cup Sunday…Is revolution possible on a football Sunday?” I guess that’s my reservation with football – just how far does it get in the way of other conversations, and when might it actually start to help? This will be such a welcome relief from positivity for anyone looking to cast a critical eye on the not-so-beautiful game, at Camp and Furnace (30th June – 15th July).
Disco Sócrates, on the other hand, looks set to undo all the hard work of the graphic designers, just over the road at Constellations on 30th June, with one of the most positive events of the festival, pouring MCs, jazz musicians, traditional Arabic music and performance art from artists drawn from the participating World Cup Nations. But the starring exhibition comes when photographer Tom Wood, who has featured in these pages a lot recently, teams up with Ken Grant and Tabitha Jussa to explore what football means to its fans, and just how deep it runs in the culture of the city, for Common ground, an exhibition examining the communities that have evolved alongside the multi-million pound industry. Tabitha Jussa, the artist who walked away with the main prize and the People’s Choice award at the Liverpool Art Prize in 2014, has continued her work with the people and spaces of Liverpool since then. Her work has always focussed on people, not always with them in the frame, but the impact of people, or the impact on people.
image © Tom Wood
In 2008 there was an energy and excitement surrounding the rumours of both clubs moving stadiums, and finding new homes, a decision still going on ten years later, with little change in the emotions of that debate. Her photo series in the pubs followed the passionate supporters of the city’s clubs, marked as a project of the people, for the people – the inimitable 12th men and women of every match.
at the Albert Dock Colonnade on the 15th June and running right through to the World Cup Final on the 15th July as part of Liverpool2018, a celebration of ten years since Capital of Culture, and ten years since Tabitha Jussa occupied two of Liverpool’s most passionate pubs. -Find out more at www.artoffootball.co.uk
The unconditional love fans gift to their teams sets this exhibition apart, opening
Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith
“what football means to its fans, and just how deep it runs” One of the most memorable of her works centred around the belief and hopes of fans in 2008. It was the Capital of Culture year, so everywhere was used to becoming unusual galleries by this point, but the King Harry pub and the Winslow, two of Liverpool’s most strongly held footballing footholds, were two of the most unexpected galleries of that year.
image © Tabitha Jussa
Eleven local artists announce a major new exhibition as part of Independents Biennial 2018 Just Be, Cherie Grist
The exhibition will take over the ground floor of the former George Henry Lee’s on 14th July 2018 Artists have started sharing news of their Independents Biennial programmes ahead of the launch in July, and one of biggest, set to open alongside the launch of Biennial season is a long the river run. The exhibition of eleven of the city’s leading artists will take over the ground floor of the former George Henry Lee’s I Liverpool City Centre. One of Liverpool’s best loved buildings, and some of the region’s best loved artists offer a unique snapshot of modern figurative and abstract painting in Liverpool.
Promises Diptych, Pete Clarke
It is a perfect example of what happens in Liverpool every two years. Liverpool Biennial and Independents Biennial foster an energy like nothing else, a challenge to the people of Liverpool to discover a world of art they don’t know yet. Whether that’s artists visiting from abroad, doing the biennale circuit of the world, or local artists who take the chance and make something great happen, Biennial season in Liverpool is something to behold. So much so that it’s not even happening for a month, and we’re already going on about it. The first exhibition to be fully announced is a long the river run, curated by Paul Mellor and John Elcock, which will see eleven artists, including two John Moore’s Painting Prize exhibitors, Pete Clarke (currently in the running for JMPP 2018) and Cherie Grist (shortlisted for JMPP in 2010). The exhibition takes its title from the opening and closing lines of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, referencing the variety in their work, but the common sense of endeavour, both playful and serious which ties them together. Having had the pleasure of seeing the artists in their exhibition space, I can safely say it is an exhibition not to be missed, and one that will be packed for the opening weeks of the Biennials.
George Henry Lee’s is undergoing a transformation for Independents Biennial 2018. image courtsey John Elcock
Alongside the exhibition, in the adjacent St John’s Market, there will be a rolling programme of exhibitions and events between July 14th and October 28th,
profiling emerging and established artists with links to the Liverpool City Region, working directly with stall holders, customers and audiences who walk through the door, with exhibition guides, workshops, film screenings and pop-up shops working alongside the existing market as part of a festival which aims to give everyone in the city a voice. The festival will also see multiple public art trails around the region, in parks, gardens and lived-in space, with a newly announced Writer-in-Residence position, to work with artists and organisations on new creative work. Independents Biennial 2018 will connect with its audience, new and old, for its entire duration, whether through conversation, or exhibitions like a long the river run which show Liverpool’s artists off at their very best, in locations we can usually only dream of seeing occupied by art. -Independents Biennial runs 14 July – 28 October 2018 a long the river runs 14 – 29 July Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith
NEWS
The third and final Giant spectacular comes back to Liverpool around September. Founder and Artistic Director of Royal de Luxe, Jean Luc Courcoult, said: “We love Liverpool and can’t wait to return. “The welcome we receive from the people of the city warms our hearts and we are excited about not only bringing a brand new story to Liverpool, but also to exploring beautiful Wirral for the first time. “As it will be our last Giant show here we think it will be very special, and we hope people will enjoy our final farewell to the city which is our second home.” Royal de Luxe first came to the city in 2012 with Sea Odyssey – a story inspired by the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. The adventures of the Little Girl Giant, her playful canine companion Xolo and the Diver attracted crowds of around 800,000 and brought in £32million to the local economy.
Preparations are underway as the city gears up to welcome some very special Giant visitors for what will be their third and final Liverpool experience. Royal de Luxe, the world’s leading street theatre company, is returning to its second
home for a free, unmissable show from Thursday 4 to Sunday 7 October 2018. Fans of the previous Giant Spectaculars won’t be surprised to hear plans for the October outing are currently under lock and key, and all that can be confirmed so far is
Bluecoat and Norton Priory Museum and Gardens launch a new inclusive arts project for young adults from Halton
that the action will take place in areas of Wirral and Liverpool, and the theme of the four days is Liverpool’s Dream. Which Giants will be embarking on this adventure will be announced in the near future, and the route itself will be revealed
The tenth anniversary year of Bluecoat’s acclaimed Blue Room project, will see a new arts project for young adults with learning disabilities in Halton. Norton Priory Museum and Gardens will work with Bluecoat to develop and host this new weekly programme which will start in July with a series of summer taster days. From September onwards a group of young adults will meet every Friday at Norton Priory. Working with an artist facilitator and guest artists, they will go on an exciting journey together, learning about contemporary art and artists, developing a range of art skills and creating their own artwork. Blue Room Members often work collaboratively with each other and often with guest artists. In 2010 Sonia Boyce worked with the group to create Like: Love, a multimedia piece exploring the meaning of love. Like: Love revealed some of the challenges faced by people with learning disabilities in developing relationships, especially when barriers are
-To keep up with the latest news by following Giant Spectacular on Facebook and Instagram, or follow @giantspectacle on Twitter or visit www.giantspectacular.com. Follow the story with #LiverpoolGiants.
imposed by other people, often with the best of intentions. Blue Room are currently working with Alice Odgers and Louise Waller from Baltic Clay on an anniversary ceramics collection to be revealed later this year. Members will be involved in our upcoming Family Weekend on 9 and 10 June and we will shortly launch the Blue Room archive as part of the My Bluecoat website. In 2019 some of the new Blue Room members will be given the opportunity to help in the running of art clubs for local children from the Runcorn area. Bluecoat’s Head of Engagement, Bec Fearon said: “We are so excited at taking Blue Room on the road. The project in Liverpool has had such a massive impact on everyone involved over the last ten years. This will enable more creative people to fulfill their potential, and in such a beautiful location.”
The artists saving our seas by turning the tide on plastic As scientists predict that soon there will be more plastic in the oceans than there are fish, a group of artists have been commissioned to explore the problem. Their work forms part of the “Changing Tides” creative programme, which is partially funded by The Arts Council and curated for the Three Festivals Tall Ships Regatta which took place in Liverpool and Wirral on May 25-28. Artist Lulu Quinn has created two, giant 26ft (8m) bottles, made entirely from recycled plastic bottles, which at night becomes a beacon, illuminated by a glow from within. The bottles appeared in Salthouse Dock, in Liverpool, and in New Brighton, Wirral. They are created from plastic bottles which have been collected with support from organisations across Merseyside, including Veolia working in partnership with MRWA who collected hundreds at their Gilmoss
Young people in Sefton and Runcorn launch new book on Northern Identity
© McCoy Wynne
Our North, a new book produced by local young people in collaboration with artists, curators and designers is set to launch over May half term, with a series of free public events open to everyone. The book, formed of photos and short essays, seeks to respond to an important question for those interested in fashion, heritage and identity: ‘What does it mean to be Northern for young people today?’ In Crosby, Formby, Bootle and Southport, the book will launch at a series of events taking place in the area’s libraries over between 29th May and 11th June. Another launch event will take place in Runcorn, at The Brindley Theatre. The culmination of the Our North project from Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery.
recycling site. The bottles will feature messages from local schoolchildren inspired by the artist’s very timely focus on plastic pollution. At the close of the festival, as the Tall Ships sail away, Liverpool’s bottle embarked on its own journey as the installation crosses the Bay of Biscay to Bordeaux aboard the Tall Ship La Malouine. Wirral’s bottle remains in place on Marine Lake as a stunning focal point on the waterfront, as well as a reminder of its environmental message. Local sculptor Faith Bebbington also created a 15ft long cat made entirely out of milk bottles, on display at the Albert Dock chasing her famous “Super Rat”, which hit the headlines after it appeared on a rooftop in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle in 2016. The tabby Cat, which is inspired by legendary feline seafarers like Ms Chibley, who circumnavigated the globe as chief
Youth dance project launches in Liverpool and Kirkby
Faith Bebbington
rodent control officer on the tall ship Picton Castle, has been created from around 2,000 reclaimed milk containers, collected by staff in Liverpool’s Cunard Building as well as Crown St Day Centre. They are cut up by hand by the artist, then
stitched on to chicken wire – and at 15ft long, it’s Bebbington’s biggest creation yet. -The Tall Ships Regatta sailed n from 25th28th May 2018
Bluecoat’s Head of Programme to curate Wales in Venice Biennale
Movema’s youth project Unlock the Box is coming to 4 centres across Liverpool and Knowsley this Spring. Young people aged 5 – 16 years old will have the opportunity to take part in eight weeks of free dance activity preparing for a performance as part of Brouhaha Carnival on Saturday 7th July. Participants will also take part in a unique celebration of world dance as part of Movema’s Big Union on Saturday 23rd June at The Black E, Great George Street, Liverpool where they will be treated to workshops, performances and food from around the world. -More on www.artinliverpool.com
Sean Edwards has been selected to represent Wales at the Venice Biennale 2019. The exhibition will be curated by international curator and Bluecoat Head of Programme, Marie-Anne McQuay, in partnership with lead organisation Ty Pawb, Wrexham, following an open call for proposals in March 2018. This will be his most ambitious and emotionally resonant show to date; a
poetic enquiry into place, politics and class intertwined with personal histories. The artist’s proposal will see the creation of a major new body of work that will foreground his interest in social class and the everyday, influenced by his own experiences of growing up on a council estate on the outskirts of Cardiff in the 1980s. The exhibition is commissioned and managed by Arts Council of Wales with support of grant in aid from the Welsh Government.
Everyone’s a musician: Euphonia at Bluecoat Joanie Magill on collective signing and the elightening sound art exhibition at Bluecoat Standing at the threshold of the gallery space at the Bluecoat before stepping into Emma Smith’s Euphonia installation, I was suddenly acutely aware of the difference between the sounds coming from the café area and those coming from the exhibition. The café area could quite easily be an extension of the installation, because Emma Smith’s Euphonia is an exploration of the relationship between communication and music. The threshold of the gallery space has become a confluence of rhythm and harmony. The premise of the exhibition is that everyone is a musician. When we talk we produce harmonies and rhythms and depending on the emotion behind them, they will produce different sounds. The installation uses all of the gallery spaces as a series of spaces for experimentation and interaction. In the first gallery, two computer terminals provide an invitation to complete a questionnaire where you reflect on how music makes you feel. It’s part of an experiment which continues the work undertaken by Smith and Professor Robin Dunbar during the research for Euphonia. You are asked to return to the gallery at the end of your visit to compare your results. Having been a member of a choir for over three years, I am a true believer in the power of collective singing on wellbeing and the positive connections you make
images courtesy of Bluecoat
with the people with whom you sing. The difference between how you feel before you begin a session to how you feel at the end is noticeable. Completing the initial questionnaire, I was in no doubt that there would be a shift by the time I returned. The main gallery houses Euphonia itself. Curved, tinted Perspex walls fill the space and allow you to weave your way from one end of the space to the other, absorbing sounds from the speakers as you approach them. At one end of the space, is a microphone, suspended from the ceiling and half covered by a black soundproof shell which you can use to interact with the piece, adding your own voice and listening to the
subtle changes of the score. Smith worked with local choirs and collected the conversations of gallery visitors over the course of a year to create the score. When you visit an exhibition, what you take in through your eyes effects you on an intellectual and emotional level. What Euphonia offers, and what was powerful and immensely satisfying for me about this installation, is the experience of being able to hear and feel it. By spending time in the space, you become aware of the subtle shifts in how you feel. I visited the exhibition twice, on different days and at different times of the day. It was disappointingly empty both times. Although it is a rare treat to engage with
images courtesy of Bluecoat
a piece of art by yourself and really enjoy the space and the sounds it, and you, create, it seems to defeat the purpose of an installation created to engage with the rhythms of sound created by collective sound making. Saying that, it has provided the perfect reason to return again and again to experience the piece in different ways. Euphonia is the first sound art installation in the Bluecoat in its 91 year history as an art centre. I hope this one is just the beginning. -Euphonia: Emma Smith is at Bluecoat until 24th June 2018 Words, Joanie Magill
Wirral Open Studio Tour, 2018 Wirral Open Studios are back again, across Bebington, Spital, Birkenhead, Oxton, Bidston, Eastham, Greasby, Heswall, Thingwall, Hoylake, Meols, Little Sutton, Ledsham, New Brighton, Wallasey, Thurstaston, West Kirby and Caldy. In one of the UK’s biggest Open Studio events, covering the Wirral Peninsula in art for one unmissable weekend, the tour covers 69 artists over 36 studios, and for the first time opens for an evening preview on the 8th June. For almost a decade, Wirral Open Studios Tour has welcomed hundreds of visitors to its open studio weekend to see local artists from across the peninsula showcase their work. The event introduces artists at all stages of their career, with artists you’ve heard of and those you haven’t, it’s a chance to get to know the creative world on your door step, and for some, an opportunity to meet the makers who become their teachers. That’s the thing about open studios, you never know what you’re going to find, and even with the tour organisers suggesting you plan your visit, I’d rather discover brilliant new ideas by accident and find
myself in places I’ve not seen before. And its not just about what you might see, but what you might find yourself wanting to make. Action. That’s the key. Seeing artists working, and getting to know them without a white wall or a price tag, opens up conversations about why artists do what they do, and for many can be that light bulb moment towards a career in the arts.
“discover brilliant new ideas by accident” What sets Wirral Open Studios apart from others is how visible the Wirral is in the work, with artists directly responding to their surroundings. Amanda Oliphant, one of the most prolific artists in the borough, is a perfect example of that. “I know I can never be landlocked, there is a love of where sea meets land or land meets sea,” and it’s that, that inspires her, and countless other artists in the tour, which goes a long way towards making the peninsula the creative space it is.
Shore Cottage Studio, in Thurstaston, is the embodiment of that love of place. With its build appearing on George’s Clarkes Amazing Spaces in 2012, it is still one of the most recognisable spaces on the banks of the River Dee. They’ll be showing work from their residents including Kirs Heath, who cuts into local found feathers in one of many connections to life on the Wirral that will be profiled over the weekend. Each studio has its own way of welcoming
visitors, whether it’s a live workshop, chat, and explanation of the working processes. Every studio is unique – as is every artist or maker who takes part. -Wirral Open Studios tour launches in select spaces 8th June and is open 9th-10 June You can download a map at www.wirralarts.com
Measuring Your Contemporary Conditions: An Interview with Taus Makhacheva Ahead of her commission for Liverpool Biennial 2018, Taus Makhacheva talks about the evolution of her practice, her Dagistani period, ASMR (Auto-Sensory Meridian Response) and collaborating with Ukrainian artist Alexander Kutovoi. Until recently, Moscow born Makhacheva’s work has focused on Dagestan, her ancestral place of origin, exploring themes of cultural authenticity, politics and contemporary life. Mostly known for her video work, her artistic practice also encompasses food-based work, installation, and a super hero alter ego, Super Taus. Her Biennial commission is a sculptural installation that is a spa experience, with products developed by Tigran Geletsyan from 22|11 Cosmetics. It is inspired by Auto-Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), a phenomenon where watching videos of seemingly mundane activities such as folding towels or tapping fingernails on a surface can produce physical tingling sensations in the viewer. The piece is also a response to the installation site, Blackburne House, and its history of supporting and rebuilding vulnerable women. You’ve talked in the past about how a new piece of work starts with a story. Can you talk a bit about the story that triggered this piece? TM: Yes, I think there were multiple ones. It’s all sorts of general observations about the contemporary condition in a way. It was my obsession with ASMR videos that I have been watching and this really strange intimacy that is enjoyed digitally.
It was my first research visit and I thought about a few different things. There were a few phrases, Sally (Tallant, Director of Liverpool Biennial) said, ‘I’m sorry for the rain.’ It made me think of how we embody things around us, how we take on responsibility for things around us. When I came to Blackburne House, it was such an incredible place in terms of rebuilding of a person. You might be in a complicated situation and you are so empowered. Almost all the staff are women so it’s a space where you see a reflection of yourself, where you see a possible future, a possible alternative. This is a very interesting space for empowerment.
“You remake yourself with what you have” There is this Inspire course at Blackburne House, for women who are going through grief or other things, and they practice Tai Chi and mindfulness and mindful eating. For me it was similar to sculpture building and artwork making. You remake yourself with what you have, and you train your mind with mindfulness. I’ve had a few conversations, with the Deputy Director who told me about how they rebuild. Around Christmas they hit a brick wall with their studies and they don’t feel like they can do it and they send someone to talk to them to tell them that they are capable.
Walking around with Polly (Brannan, Biennial Education Curator), who said that art has radically been reduced from the curriculum in schools in the UK, made me think how do we acquire a different type of knowledge, a different type of experience? Are we trapped in efficiency, money making and very rigid type of experiences?
sculptural head that was broken down into pieces that couldn’t fit into a room in Blackburne House.
So all of these things fell into this very hybrid work that I’m in the midst of production.
I’m developing a script with David McDermott who’s based in Liverpool, whose background is TV drama. We are developing a script that would include all of these stories and inspirations that I talked about.
You are collaborating with another artist for this piece. How does this effect your process? TM: So there’s me and Alexander Kutovoi (Sasha), a very talented artist and sculptor who’s originally from Ukraine but based in Moscow. We’re imagining this giant
These pieces form the furniture that the space is going to be composed of. On the one hand it was a face, a sort of a perfect thing but then had some sort of trauma.
There will be a beautician, an actor / performer, who will be performing these sort of signature sculptural facials and she will also be reciting these stories. And she is a mixture of an art conservator and an actual
beautician because in art conservation, the stages that an artwork goes through when it’s cleaned and repaired, its very similar. The facial will be taking place during the opening days and it’s also going to be taking place throughout the biennial twice a week.
“It is techniques of inner building in a way. It’s about how one thing provides a completely different experience” Working with Sasha has really been incredible. I’ve realised that I can’t just use spa furniture it just doesn’t work, and he came up with the idea of this head and it was perfect. We both talk of the frustrations, like, no, this is not the right decision and when we arrive, we both know that it is the correct one. What I like about it is that you can get into areas that you can never get into. He came to the studio and we discovered that Blackburne House had been closed and when it was reopened there was this sculpture that had been broken and was on the floor, so we thought we would use part of that. We thought we would take maybe some historical sculptures and some things but it didn’t work. How did your interest in ASMR emerge?
TM: I think it was always there. It is a question of how does a flat image initiate another type of reaction. I did this short video about my practice for the Venice Bienniale. I was tired of doing these talking heads, so I did this ASMR video of me tapping on my gigantic hard drive, which is about 25 terabytes, caressing this monster that keeps all my archives.
This piece is very different from your previous work, much of which is rooted in Dagestan. How did you arrive at this point?
It is techniques of inner building in a way. It’s about how one thing provides a completely different experience and you are taken to a completely different place. There was one by an ASMR artist, ASMR Requests, I think. She was pretending to be a restorer in a museum and you would imagine yourself as an artwork. So she takes notes, brushes off the dust and there are all these glove sounds. So this also fed into it.
I think the practice is moving somewhere else. I like the phrase, ‘measuring your contemporary conditions’. So it’s like a period, like the Blue Period. It’s my nonDagestani period.
The International Reggae Poster Contest comes back to Constellations this month The International Reggae Poster Contest (IRPC) and Positive Vibration, Liverpool’s Festival of Reggae, are to host The Art of Reggae Exhibition again this month, followig a run of success in previous years The IRPC receives thousands of entries each year – and the best of the bunch will be on display on the walls of Baltic Triangle venue Constellations, from 6th June – 13th June. Reggae may have originated in Jamaica, but this exhibition celebrates the truly global sound of modern reggae, with entries from every corner of the globe. This powerful synergy of reggae music and art is proof, if it were needed, that Jamaica’s finest export has touched the hearts and minds of billions with its positivity and radiance. The exhibition is set to give Constellations a Caribbean glow, and on the 6th June from 7pm the exhibition opens to the public with free entry to view every poster in preparation for the international festival of reggae that is Positive Vibration.
The exhibition is a first look at the festival before music starts on the 8th, and head start on the silent auction. Displayed posters will be auctioned throughout the exhibition, with profits donated to Alpha Boys’ School, the vocational institution for underprivileged youths located in Kingston, Jamaica and founded in 1880 by the Sisters of Mercy. The school is a great Jamaican success story, producing some of the most notable legends in the history of reggae, including Don Drummond of the Skatalites, Desmond Decker and Yellowman.
Yes, there’s pretty much no Dagestan here. The closest thing to Dagestan is that we are developing these facial creams with this very nice cosmetics company in the Caucasus.
I think you can observe it with the works because for example one of the latest works Baida, which was a non-existent performance which was happening in
Venice but wasn’t really happening because all of the documentation was shot in advance in Dagestan and the voice over in London. I understand that I need to look at my practice in a wider sense, but I’m not sure I can answer that question yet – how does that fit, what is the constellation, what is the skyline like, where does it fit in the skyline? -Taus Makhacheva’s work is part of Liverpool Biennial, 14th July-28th October 2018 Interview by Joanie Magill
Review: FRANKENSTEIN 2018, The Liverpool & Knowsley Book Art Exhibition Frankenstein 2018 is a completely wonderful, delicate, beautiful exhibition, housed in my favourite building in the whole of Liverpool: Central Library. Passing through the breath taking Picton Reading Room on the first floor, with its ornate circular, polished wood balustrades and exquisite leather-bound books. It is monumental, awe inspiring and reverential before you even get to the exhibition in the Hornby Library which peels off intricately to the left. As you enter Hornby Library you are in an equally stunning space, where laid out before you are several vintage glass cabinets displaying a collection of detailed explorations of the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelly which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. A classic story of a misguided professor (Victor Frankenstein) who assembles carefully selected pieces of dead human bodies to create a living being (Frankenstein’s Monster) only to abandon him at the moment of birth because he is so ‘abhorrent’ and goes against all the laws of nature.
emotional responses, while others will make you question life in general, like: Who could abandon a child; Is it love that creates a fully functioning living being; and does the lack of love ultimately lead to human destruction?
“a completely wonderful, delicate, beautiful exhibition”
Helen Scalway’s work looks at the latter as she says ‘Frankenstein’s monster is doomed by his maker and everyone else to wander through icy terrains. The snowy weather in Shelley’s novel reflects the frozen treatment which the monster encounters in his life’. In ‘I am a Monster and I know my place’ she tries to evoke the monsters point of view ‘enticed by a glowing window, he will eventually reach the house shown through the snowy branches…but once there, he will experience only the rejection which finally distorts his nature’. Just heartbreaking.
The creation of this creature and his subsequent rejection allows Shelly to explore many themes around what it means to be alive, and this exhibition teases out many of these in minute detail. Some of the works will trigger very raw,
Wendy Williams ‘Notes on Nature’ portrays ‘the Monster’ as a ‘lover of nature, sensitive and curious’, something that Shelly hinted at in her original manuscript. Again, a very emotional angle to explore and one that
really does make you want to reach into the display box and leaf through it.
“monumental, awe inspiring and reverential” Linda Parr uses the incredibly destructive power of words in her work ‘insulting epitaphs’ highlighting the brutish adjectives used in Shelly’s book. In another simply called ‘colour in Frankenstein’ she creates a hand sewn hardback book and describes it as having ‘61 pages, a page for each word of colour, and the end pages list the colours used within the novel’. Alastair Noble focusses on a more macabre angle, that of teeth, referencing Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘Bernice’, exploring the obsessional fanaticism that it would have taken to create the monster in the first place.
Finally, Alison Stockmarr’s reimagined cover for Frankenstein makes me stop in my tracks … it is both beautifully gothic and deeply disturbing. There are so many artworks I could go on to talk about, each of them having something to say in a very thoughtful and thought-provoking way but I would spoil it for you. Go and see it. Overall this is a small but perfectly formed exhibition. It could not be set in a more perfect environment and I cannot recommend it enough.
-Currently showing at Central Library, Liverpool 14 May – 9 August 2018 then at Kirkby Gallery, Knowsley 17 September 2018 – 26 January 2019 Words & Pictures, Moira Leonard
© Ken Grant
© Martin Parr
New Brighton Revisited through the lens of three of its most famous exports Ken Grant, Martin Parr & Tom Wood head back to where it all began
Opening at Marine Point, New Brighton, on Saturday 14th July is a newly combined history of New Brighton, by three of its most famous children. Ken Grant, Tom Wood and Martin Parr all lived and worked in New Brighton from the late 70s to the end of the 90s, and have since built their reputations as three of the best creative photographers in the world.
And Ken Grant, who said of his contribution to the exhibition: “made as soon as work routines allowed -in the long quiet summer weeks when clocks slowed, on busy weekends when the fairs and carnivals took over -or at the end of working days, when there was no better place to walk to than out to the edge of low tide, to look out at the sea beyond with home at your back”
Opening as part of Independents Biennial 2018, the exhibition is one of the highlights in the festival programme and a huge draw for the regional spread of this year’s festival, which takes place in all six boroughs for 2018 as the Liverpool City Region starts to find its combined identity.
Ken Grant’s contribution is very much the reality of the working resident of New Brighton. He photographed what he needed to, and what he wanted to. Without any intention, he set out to take pictures that he wanted to save.
The three photographers barely need any introduction, and their work certainly won’t, with iconic scenes of one of the UK’s most iconic towns, and all three artists have captured their reflections in their own unique way. Love him or loathe him, Martin Parr is an artist whose work captures snapshots of life, with an unashamed attachment to stereotypes. There’s always a humour to his images in the simplicity of what he captures. I’m often quite a Parr sceptic, all too often finding his work out of context, but what this exhibition offers is the opportunity to see Martin Parr’s work in the space that created it. The realisation that Parr’s passion for capturing ‘Britishness’ begun in New Brighton in the 70s, shines a whole new light on his work. And alongside this, the intimately local work of Tom Wood, whose recent exhibition at Open Eye Gallery was one of the best attended in the gallery’s history. The exhibition served as a memoir of life on the Mersey, recollecting his commutes by Ferry. On the Streets of New Brighton though, he became known as “Photie-Man”, for how prolifically obsessive his photography was in New Brighton, capturing the truths of the neighbourhoods he lived in over time. It’s another world from the snapshots of Martin Parr, with Wood working over time. The juxtaposition of these two artists, finding inspiration in the same place, but working with such different outlooks will be one to behold.
© Tom Wood
“To put the pictures in a conversation with Martin's and Tom’s may betray differing intentions, crossovers, ambitions or even make us wonder what photography does to us and for us…and for the likes of us. Looking at my own pictures over the last year - in most cases for the first time, I couldn’t recall any intentions beyond the need to photograph” Independents Biennial, the programme taking over the Wirral, between 14th July and 28th October, needs events like this. They connect the Wirral to the rest of the festival in a way that is unique, and the beauty of it is that you can get the Ferry to Seacombe and walk along much of the seafront that inspired the exhibition on your way to see it. -New Brighton Revisited runs 14 July – 25 August 2018 Independents Biennial runs 14 July – 28 October 2018 Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith
© Tony Knox
LightNight Diary 2018: The year of reflection The year the voices of Liverpool made a difference. I don’t think I’ll remember LightNight 2018 any other way. There were the usual street performances, transformations of the city’s most beautiful buildings and cross disciplinary works that get people out and on to the streets, but it was the more intimate events that captured the imagination this year at LightNight, and poetry defined my night. It was a shame not to see more city centre studios fling open their doors this year, but the ones that did shone. The Royal Standard said goodbye to one of their best shows yet at Northern Lights, and Rob Flynn’s full gallery installation at ROAD Studios
© Tony Knox
completely transformed its space, but I did miss the rest. It was the Everyman and Open Eye that made me stop though; stop completely in my tracks and think again about how artists can represent themselves. Open Eye went into storage for LightNight, quite literally covering up their brilliant Snapshot to WeChat exhibition, and handing the entire gallery over to Pauline Rowe, their writer in residence. Working with AJ Wilkinson, a photographer who in 2015 came to the end of a 25 year relationship, Pauline Rowe set out to communicate the sense of loss faced by anyone at that point in their life. Together, the pair collaborated on finding a true synthesis between word and image to tell a story in separate ways. The connection of the two innately similar mediums gives two unique perspectives on loss, and that was perfectly reflected in the curatorial decisions of Open Eye Gallery’s Thomas Dukes to lose the gallery for that evening, giving the pedestal instead to Pauline Rowe, who transformed the space, and stretched the use of poetry into
something really unique. Perhaps that set my mood for the night, but after that, and a swift walk up to Hope Street I found myself in the basement of the Everyman, following signs to something I’d not planned on seeing, and finding myself immersed in an evening of spoken word. The voices; the plans; the conflict; the joy that came out of the basement completely redirected how I saw LightNight – and probably how I’ll see it from now on. It’s just one night where artists and audiences come together and, on occasion, make things happen. This was one of them, with poets who planned to speak, and those who didn’t, and an audience supporting speakers and those who, like me, just turned up unwitting. Listening to poetry, verse and dialogue from people who don’t consider themselves artists, but have a clarity of opinion that allows them to commit a thought to paper was such a refreshing hit of Liverpool, and I sincerely cannot wait to see more of the group, and the products of what they’re doing. From there I walked over to The Well, one
of many unofficial spaces to open up for LightNight, for the first of their three acts in a new exhibition series being honest about materials, and ended the evening staring at a road sign outside Lime Street Station. Stanza, by John Elcock, was one of seven new commissions by Open Culture for LightNight this year, sitting firmly between poetry, installation, intervention and traffic signalling. The comfortable mix of genres, in a site where these public notices usually go, ironically, unnoticed, topped off a night where visual art and poetry collided. The collaged poem brought together extracts of John Elcock’s published poetry, using a device most recognized for warning to create a place for reflection. Reflection is what summed up the festival this year. A year where the quieter spaces shone brightest, finding new ways of understanding and seeing the city we inhabit. -LightNight will be back in 2019 Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith
© Tony Knox
Independents Biennial is back.
14th July -28th October 2018
4 Months 6 Boroughs 70 Venues 300 Artists
WHAT’S ON > CURRENT
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum: Hoylake Photographic Society until 24 June The exhibition shows a selection of Hoylake Photographic Society members work as seen in the club’s annual print competition, in which members enter their work for scrutiny, by an external judge, across a wide range of competition titles which this year included the subjects -nature, street, pictorial, people, impressions, and open-altered reality.
OUTPUT Gallery: Danielle Waine until 3rd June OUTPUT gallery launches its programme with a solo exhibition by Liverpool-based artist Danielle Waine. Waine makes sound and object assemblages that respond to the spaces she works in, here activating OUTPUT gallery with her temporary installations. She will also be delivering a workshop on May 31st as a part of this exhibition.
Arriva City Buses: Monuments from the Future Three double-decker buses transformed by artists and children w/ Biennial and Arriva until 9th July
Museum of Liverpool: Double Fantasy John & Yoko John and Yoko’s story in their own words until 22nd April
ABC L1: Ways Of Colours William Duncan and Alex Rezende until 8th July Beechams Building: Vortex: University Centre St Helens Showcasing student talent; a first look at our future art stars until 20th June Bluecoat: Euphonia by Emma Smith An ambitious new sound installation by artist Emma Smith until 24th June Bluecoat Display Centre: European Connections Some of Europe’s leading jewellery designers, based in the UK and abroad until 9th June Chapel Gallery: Collette Bain A menagerie of fantastical creatures until 7th July Chapel Gallery: The Outside Room Themes of home, the everyday and the cycle of life until 30th June Liverpool Hope University: Fine & Applied Art: Graduate Showcase Drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, fine metals, print and ceramics until 4th June
dot-art: Metamorphosis: John Petch x OMD Paintings commissioned by the band OMD until 2nd June FACT: States of Play: Roleplay Reality Exploring the world of gaming, of creating virtual worlds and the avatars living in them until 17th June HeadSpace@EggSpace: “Mini pops” by Barrie J Davies Pop culture, graffiti, psychedelia, street art until 7th June
Open Eye Gallery: Snapshot to WeChat: A Migration of Identity Considering how the casual act of taking photos shapes our identity until 17th June RIBA North: It Will Never Work: 25 Years of Urban Splash 1993 – 2018 History of the regeneration company until 16th June
Static Gallery: Buyers Club: Lizard Force A detailed world of Military clad Dinosaurs until 18th June St George’s Hall: Presence: A Window into Contemporary Chinese Art Some of the best Chinese artists working today until 3rd June Tate Liverpool: ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein in Focus One of the great American pop artists of the twentieth century until 10th June
John Lennon Art & Design Building: LJMU: Liverpool School of Art & Design Degree Show 2018 The 10th anniversary of the opening of the RIBA award winning John Lennon Art & Design Building until 8th June Kirkby Gallery: Five Five of the best painters living or working in Knowsley until 1st September Lady Lever Art Gallery: Whistler and Pennell: Etching the City Two of the most influential and innovative etchers until 7th October Merseyside Maritime Museum: Black Salt Revealing the contribution Black seafarers have made to maritime events until 2nd September Museum of Liverpool: Tales from the city Stories, objects and memories from Liverpool’s LGBT+ community until 13th October
Liverpool Central Library: Frankenstein 2018 until 17th August This May, Liverpool Book Art will be curating a third major exhibition of Book Art in the city’s Central Library. Following the great success of 2016’s ‘Shakespeare Now’ exhibition, organisers have decided to celebrate the fact that 2018 marks 200 years since the first edition of Mary Shelley’s‘Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus’.
EXHIBITIONS
Walker Art Gallery: Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art until 3rd June Works on show include sculptures by artists such as Eduardo Paolozzi, Anthony Caro, Phillip King and Tim Scott, alongside paintings by Bridget Riley, Tess Jaray, Joe Tilson and Richard Smith among other leading names.
The Godfrey Pilkington Gallery: Project Zei until 29th June Held in the heart of St. Helens at The Godfrey Pilkington Gallery from May 12th – June 29th, Zei will showcase their creative collaborative exchange project and will inform and give insight into hidden and unseen archival documentation stretching back 70 years between St Helens and it’s German sister city, Stuttgart.
Tate Liverpool: Ken’s Show: Exploring the Unseen Curated and conceived by Art Handling Manager, Ken Simons until 17th June
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum: People of Oxton A portrait project by local photographer, James Deegan until 24th June
Victoria Gallery & Museum: New Perspectives Inspired by unseen collections at VG&M until 27th October
Tate Liverpool: OPAVIVARÁ!: Utupya Physical and audio-visual installations. until 24th June
Warrington Museum & Art Gallery: Haecceity: Tracy Hill Ink screenprints and gallery wall drawings until 16th June
The Atkinson: Viking: Rediscover the Legend The most significant Viking treasure hoards ever discovered in Britain until 7th July
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum: Emilie Taylor: Edgelands Contemporary engraved scenes of women within post-industrial British landscapes until 3rd June
Tate Liverpool: Life in Motion: Egon Schiele and Francesca Woodman until 23rd September Both artists are known for their intimate and unapologetic portraits, which look beneath the surface to capture their subjects’ emotions. Schiele’s (1890–1918) drawings are strikingly raw and direct. He had a distinctive style using quick marks and sharp lines to portray the energy of his models. Woodman used long exposures to create blurred images that captured extended moments in time.
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum: Wirral Met College, BA Fine Art Degree Show 2018 The culmination of three years of study until 10th June
Editions Ltd: Carol Miller - Memoir in Lanscapes until 7th July Using imaginary landscapes as a unifying metaphor, the work reflects the emotional impact of unexpected events and the consequence of choices which unconsciously relinquish personal needs and desires in order to conform.
WHAT’S ON > COMING
Tate Liverpool: Spaces: Imagining Inclusion and Belonging 4th – 10th June Join Tate Exchange for a week of activity and workshops that will discuss social inclusion and exclusion within education.
Exhibitions Staacks: Marine Lake Series by Derek King Examining our relationship with the Lake PV, 1st June, 7:30 Cass Art: Vincent Kelly Prints, drawings and etchings 4th June - 1st July Chester Art Centre: Marc Chagall Original Lithographs and Etchings One of the 20th century’s best-loved artists 6th June – 11th July Tate Liverpool: Made From Light: The Art and Science of Renewable Energy The art and science of sustainable energy 11th – 17th June Studio Arts: Making a Splash The culmination of a sixteen week course 11th June, 5:30-9pm Martin Luther King Building: Terrace Tapestries 32 World Cup Nations represented 14th June – 15th July Tate Liverpool: Under the Surface with Festival31 A week of activities that will explore the experiences of refugee artists 18th – 24th June Williamson Art Gallery & Museum: Cynosure An exhibition of local photographers and Neil Hulme 20th June 28th October
Camp & Furnace: The Art of the Football Shirt 14th - 28th June Showcasing a curated selection of over 100 sartorially sound, obscure and vintage football shirts.
Camp & Furnace: I Don’t Love Soccer Because Soccer Has Never Loved Me a critical look at “the beautiful game” 29th June - 15th July
Markets and Fairs Liverpool Cathedral: The Open Culture Summer Arts Market 2nd June, 10am-6pm Prescot Parish Church: The Producers’ Market and Arts, Crafts and Gift Fair 2nd June 11am-4pm
Albert Dock Colonnades: Common Ground 14th June - 15th July Captures the work of three photographers across different decades and offers a unique insight into how the football community has evolved.
The Old Police Station: Makers Market 3rd June The Royal Standard: Postcard Auction 8th June, 6-8pm Bombed Out Church: Bombed Out Market 24th June, 11am-6pm Old Christ Church: Bohemian Summer Festival 29th June – 1st July Liverpool Central Library: Liverpool MakeFest 2018 30th June, 9am-5pm
Bluecoat Display Centre: The Miniaturists 16th June – 28th July An ever growing palette of metal colouring and finishing techniques, findnig new ways to work with images in a variety of metals, including copper, brass, zinc and gilding metal.
SOON Talks & Tours
Creative Edge: Artistic Methodologies for Social Justice Symposium Talk 1st June, 2-9pm Creative Edge: Transmission Lifelines: Modern Slavery Talk 1st June, 5-6pm Tate Liverpool: Quiet Hour Viewing 2nd June, 10-11am EHU buisiness & Law Building: Fabric of Protest Talk 2nd June, 3-5pm Creative Edge: Votes for Women? Don’t Make Me Laugh Talk 2nd June, 6-6:30pm The Arts Centre EHU: Reverb Performance 3rd June, 6pm Walker Art Gallery: Talk Tuesday Talk Every Tuesday, 1-2pm OUTPUT gallery: Film screening: Stalker (1979) Film 7th June, 6-8pm The Serving Library: Liverpool Biennial 2018: Forensic Aesthetics – Eyal Weizman Talk 7th June, 6:30pm Tate Liverpool: Planning the 100 Year City Talk 9th June, 2-4pm Wirral Open Studio Tour, 2018 Tour 9-10th June The Arts Centre EHU: ArtsEqual Talk 13th June, 9am-9pm Tate Liverpool: Talk: Deborah Levy Talk 13th June, 6-7pm FACT: Curator Tour with Lesley Taker Tour 13th June, 6:30pm
OUTPUT Gallery: INPUT on OUTPUT gallery’s future programming Planning 16th & 17th June Bluecoat: Artist’s Talk: Serena Korda Talk 22nd June, 6:30-8pm Tate Liverpool: Food Rituals Talk 23rd June, 2-7pm Walker Art Gallery: In The Style of Nicolas Poussin Talk 24th June, 1-3pm Tate Liverpool: Curator’s Tour: Life in Motion Tour 26th June, 4-5pm Tate Liverpool: Swap Shop Engage 27th June – 1st July The Tapestry: Liverpool Artists’ Network Meeting – Presentations Special Meeting 27th June, 6:30-8:30 Cass Art: The Big Draw Festival 2018 Taster Session Engage 28th June, 12-7pm The Serving Library: Liverpool Biennial 2018: Outside the Hit Factory – Alexander Provan Talk 28th June, 6:30-7pm Constellations: Disco Sócrates Performance 30th June
Classes & Workshops Kirkby Gallery: Portrait drawing demonstrations with Philip Garrett 1st June, 10am-3pm Silver Zebra Studio: 3 day in-depth fused glass course 1st-3rd June Victoria Gallery & Museum: New Perspectives Workshops 2nd June, 1-4pm Tate Liverpool: Herb Ghost Printing 2nd June, 2-4pm
Summer Arts Marekt 2018 2nd June, 10am-6pm Over 200 contemporary artists, designers & makers selling work at Liverpool Cathedral on 2 June 2018 alongside Vintage and Food Fairs.
Sefton Park Palm House: dot-art: Sketching in the Palm House 3rd June, 10am
Tmesis Theatre: Physical Fest Workshops: Physical theatre & the Playful performer 10th June
Sefton Park Palm House: Sketching in the Palm House 3rd June, 10am
Cass Art: Quilling Workshop 10th June, 10:30am-3:30pm
Hope Street Ltd: dot-art: dot-art Club (6 Week Block) 3rd June, 10am Faith Bebbington Studio: Wood Carving 34d June, 11am-4pm Studio theatre: Cegin y Capel: The Chapel Kitchen 3rd June, 1-2pm Stanley Park: North End Sketch Club Every Wednesday, 1-2:30pm ROAD Studios: Deviation: a Surreal Life Drawing Event 6th June, 7-9pm Hub Studios: Life Drawing Classes 7th June, 10am-3pm Tate Liverpool: Exploring Life in Motion Through Drawing and Monoprint 7th June – 5th July Williamson Art Gallery & Museum: Make and Explore Every Thursday, 10am Make Baltic: Not Your Granny’s CrossStitch! 9th June, 9-3:30pm Make. North Docks: Introduction to Woodwork: Wine Rack 9th June, 12-4:30pm
Silver Zebra Studio: 3 Day in-depth Fused Glass Crash Course 15th-17th June Arty Mix: Acrylic Painting Introduction 16th June, 10:30am Make. North Docks: Intro to Lino Printing 16th June, 12-4pm Victoria Gallery & Museum: New Perspectives Workshops 16th June, 1-4pm Tmesis Theatre: Physical Fest Workshops: Trance Masks- Simone Tani 17th June The Art Box: Freemotion Embroidery 12st June, 10:30am Arty Mix: Colour & Composition acrylic Workshop 23rd June, 10:30am Make. North Docks: Introduction to Woodwork: Tool Box 23rd June, 12-5pm Tmesis Theatre: Physical Fest Workshops: Improvisation for Performers 24th June Sefton Park Palm House: dot-art: Sketching in the Palm House 24th June, 10am Bluecoat: Creative Feltmaking 24th June, 11am-4pm
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 Event Project Manager, The Florrie Seeking an exceptional, creative and passionate person to join the team as Event Project Manager. DEADLINE: 8th June -Bid Writer, The Florrie Seeking a skilled and successful bid writer with outstanding communication and interpersonal skills DEADLINE: 8th June -LCR Activate Research & Innovation Coordinator (Full-time), FACT A bridge between FACT, the LCR Activate programme, the regional Creative and Digital Industries sector, and the wider innovation community. DEADLINE: 4th June -LCR Activate Research & Innovation Coordinator (Part-time), FACT The role is to support the FACT LCR Activate team (including the Head of Innovation and Digital Innovation Officers) in administrative duties relating to the LCR Activate programme DEADLINE: 4th June -Aurora Mediator (Freelance Position – self-employed), FACT FACT are seeking a knowledgeable, dynamic and experienced Mediator to ensure excellence in the communication and visitor experience of Aurora DEADLINE: 6th June -Youth Arts Co-ordinator, The Hive A unique opportunity for experienced Arts worker to take responsibility for the delivery of the Arts youth work programme at The Hive, Wirral Youth Zone DEADLINE: 4th June -Aerial Artist, The Black-E Seeking an Aerial Artist on a weekly basis to join our young person’s Circus Class for 3 hours on a Tuesday. DEADLINE: Ongoing
Liverpool Art Fair Sales Assistants Wanted Applicants will ideally have an arts background, with a proactive and positive approach and experience in retail or sales roles. DEADLINE: 13th June
Take Part: Zine & Photobook Fair 2018, Open Eye Gallery Join Zine-makers, publishers and photographers for a free all-day celebration of rare, hand made and self published books DEADLINE: 11th June
--Young DaDaFest Alder Hey Project Coordinator, DaDaFest Coordinate and ensure the smooth running of the Young DaDaFest’s Alder Hey project. The role involves coordinating workshops with artists, children and young people at Alder Hey hospital. DEADLINE: 4th June
Call out for artists/makers – Make It! In Libraries As part of the evolving library strategy for Wirral the Service is becoming more proactive in exploring new ways to address low engagement levels within specific sections of the community. DEADLINE: 15th June
--Placement and Volunteer Coordinator, DaDaFest Responsible for coordinating adult volunteers and work placements with children under 18 and adults as part of the artist development programme. DEADLINE: 4th June
AIR Open 2018 Following on from the success of last years open exhibition, AIR Gallery is proud to launch the AIR Open 2018. DEADLINE: 28th June --
-Festival Assistant, DaDaFest To provide assistance and support for the delivery of DaDaFest International 2018. The role involves supporting both the Festival logistics and the Festival marketing activity. DEADLINE: 4th June
Liverpool kids called on to get creative and Colour the Coach The six regional winners whose designs will be whittled down to a shortlist by a panel of judges before being put to an online vote. DEADLINE: 25th June --
-MDI is Recruiting: Artistic Director To ensure the organisation is a catalyst in the promotion of dance excellence and leadership locally, nationally and internationally. DEADLINE: 5th June
CreArt Open Call: Artists workshop in Zagreb The competition is open to 2-3 artists from Zagreb and 11 artist from other CreArt cities for the participation in art workshop that will be held 17 – 20 October DEADLINE: 29th June --
CALLS DIY Twin Town: Call for Participants Sharing models for regional working outside of the large cities DEADLINE: 18th June
CreArt Artist in Residence in Kaunas / Lithuania 2018 Kaunas, Lithuania invites 4 artists from the CreArt Network to work for one month in Kaunas AiR in the period of September 26 – October 26, 2018. DEADLINE: 20th June -ACS Studio Prize For a second year running, ACS is offering an artist the chance to win £6,000 to contribute to the cost of an artist’s studio in the UK. DEADLINE: 30th June
Oye18-FPAdvert:Layout 1
24/4/18
14:54
Page 1
TATE LIVERPOOL 24 MAY – 23 SEP 2018
Supported by
With additional support from Tate Liverpool Members
Francesca Woodman Eel Series, Venice, Italy 1978 (detail) © Courtesy Charles Woodman/Estate of Francesca Woodman