Culture Diary w/c 29-09-2014

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Monday — Strand Of Oaks On Tour @ venues across the UK

Kicking off his tour tonight at The Hope in Brighton, Strand Of Oaks (aka the very beardy Timothy Showalter) presents his new album HEAL. Described as ‘an incredible work of personal art’ (The Quietus), expect great songwriting paired with vulnerable folk rock. Catch him next in Leeds, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and more.

Tuesday — Exhibition Opens: Turner Prize @ Tate Britain, London — £10/8.60/6

It’s that time again… The Turner Prize has launched the careers of some of the biggest heavyweights in the British art scene over the past 30 years. As three out of the four selected for 2014′s exhibition are graduates from the Glasgow School of Art, we have to ask, is this the UK’s best art school? See our Turner Prize 2014 Lowdown here.

The Occasion Hosted By Isabel Lewis 7-10pm @ Sefton Palm House, Liverpool — FREE (booking required)

A co-comission with Frieze and the ICA, Liverpool Biennial presents The Occasion: a ‘social meeting place that situates itself somewhere between a bar, a lecture and a salon’. Expect the Palm House to be transformed into a space for relaxation and well-being, with Lewis playing music, dancing, and providing scents by Norwegian chemist and researcher Sissel Tolaas.

Wednesday -- Exhibition Opens: Ai Weiwei 10.30am-5.30pm @ Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire -- £22.50/18/12.30

Wednesday — Exhibition Opens: Ai Weiwei 10.30am-5.30pm @ Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire — £22.50/18/12.30

Under house arrest in China since 2011, and suffering constant surveillance, impossibly Ai Weiwei continues to exhibit his work internationally. Here he presents his largest UK exhibition to date, planned meticulously online with the use of a 3D model of the estate. Expect photographs, sculpture and installation, including Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold, Ai Weiwei’s reinterpretation of the legendary bronze zodiac head statues from Emperor Yuanming Yuan’s Beijing imperial retreat.

Thursday — OpenCoUK @ venues nationwide — FREE (booking required)

Fancy having a peek around the most innovative creative, digital and tech businesses in the UK? Companies — including design agencies, game makers and fashion studios — in Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield are all taking part this year simultaneously; book your schedule now.

Grimmfest (until Sunday) @ venues across Manchester — Full Festival Pass £75; Day Passes From £20

With loads of special guests — including Steve Oram (The Canal, Sightseers, Cuban Fury) and Liam Cunningham (Let us prey, Game of Thrones, Dog Soldiers) — plus a bumper array of screenings — including Oliver Frampton’s ‘social realist terror’ The Forgotten, James Ward Byrkit’s ‘mind bender’ Coherence (starring Nicholas Brandon of Buffy fame), and ‘hysterical’ vampire comedy from The Flight of The Conchords team What We Do In The Shadows – fans of horror and cult films will be thrilled with this year’s Grimmfest.

Grimmfest (until Sunday) @ venues across Manchester -- Full Festival Pass £75; Day Passes From £20

Telepuppet TV 7-9pm @ FACT/Ropewalks Square, Liverpool — FREE

Part of EU project Connecting Cities, artists Ali Momeni and Nima Deghdani have made puppets equipped with cameras to documented the sights and sounds of the places that are special to Liverpool’s Iranian community. With live performances tonight as the square is transformed into a ‘giant interactive gallery’, see also Human Beeing on Saturday.

Friday — Gang: One Night Only 9-11pm @ CPP Car Park, Liverpool — FREE

‘In the car park after dark’, all we know about this one-night-only exhibition is that it showcases the work of nine artists from London, New York, Sheffield, LA, Wrexham, Edinburgh and Liverpool. One of those artists is former The Royal Standard studio member and sculptor Stephen Forge, whose beautifully rendered work channels, for us, natural quarries, brutalist architecture and… Blade Runner.

Saturday – HYDROZOAN 12-5pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool — FREE

‘Thinking about how nature is ‘networked’ through its food webs and environment’, artist Joey Holder references GM products, virtual biology, hottubs and aquatic creatures through ‘an extended virtual web’. Very strange and a great addition to this year’s Biennial fringe offerings.

Posted on 28/09/2014 by thedoublenegative