Culture Diary w/c 27-10-2014
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday-Tuesday – Liverpool Irish Festival: New Irish Shorts 1 & 2 6.30pm @ FACT, Liverpool — £9.80/7.80
Part of a series of screenings for Liverpool Irish Festival, catch IndieCork Festival ‘s showcase of contemporary short films. Expect UK premieres and a full array of categories — including comedy, drama, experimental and, for the first time this year, animation — plus a Q & A with some of the featured directors.
Tuesday — Private View: COMBINES #6 6-10pm @ MODEL, Liverpool — FREE
MODEL’s sixth and final (the gallery closes forever next month) experimental three-person exhibition opens this Tuesday, and is bound to be fantastic. Liverpool’s only contemporary, independent gallerist, curator and artist Joe Fletcher Orr teams up with sculptor and long-term collaborator Calum Crawford, plus Leeds-based, self proclaimed “online collector” Doug Bowen: expect a mash-up of anarchic and irreverent ideas and materials (open Wednesday to Sunday 12-6pm or by appointment). See our feature on MODEL here!
Wednesday – NORTH: The Great Debate 7-9pm @ Manchester School of Art — £5.95
How can the creative industries create a prosperous, successful Northern economy? Thrashing this out tonight in Manchester’s Stirling Prize nominated art school — and as part of Design Manchester Festival — will be Robert Yates (Assistant Editor of The Observer), Sir Richard Leese (Leader of Manchester City Council), Lou Cordwell (Founder and CEO of Magnetic North), Professor David Crow (Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor at Manchester School of Art), and Caroline Norbury (CEO of Creative England).
Jinx Lennon And R.S.A.G. + Clinic Djs 8pm @ Static Gallery, Liverpool — £6.50
Liverpool Irish Festival present a ‘storming’ double-headliner gig this Wednesday, in “outlandish” (Irish Times) Irish folk/spoken word performer Jinx Lennon, plus multi-instrumentalist and “maverick” (Hot Press) Rarely Seen Above Ground (R.S.A.G., above), one of Ireland’s top drummers. Expect psychedelic electronica, synth and drum effects in the intimate surroundings of Static Gallery.
Thursday — Exhibition Opens: Haunted House 10am-5pm @ The Grundy, Blackpool — FREE
Did you know that Blackpool’s favourite art gallery is meant to be haunted? Playfully moving contemporary artworks next to and around its historic collection displays, by the ‘phantom’ and unseen hand of the curator, expect a supernatural and surprising show this Halloween with critically-acclaimed artists including Susan Hiller, David Hockney, Aura Satz and Susan Phillipsz — whose piece, Lowlands, won her the Turner Prize in 2010. One of our Unmissable Autumn Exhibitions!
Exhibition Opens: They Used To Call It The Moon (above) 10am-6pm @ Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art, Gateshead — FREE
As the nights grow longer over the autumn months, the spectre of the moon is ever present and seems to be the perfect subject for this sci-fi inspired exhibition. Packed with lunar mythology, conspiracy theories, utopian and dystopian visions, lunar maps and photographs, we are treated to an international perspective on the endless artistic inspiration the moon and the new space race can arouse. One of our Unmissable Autumn Exhibitions!
Take 5: Ben Casey 6.30pm @ TwentyTwenyTwo, Manchester — £5 Including A FREE Drink
Design Council brings its popular talk series to this year’s Design Manchester festival. Utilising a simple format – inviting a designer to share five insights (spending about five minutes on each one, opening up to the floor for five questions, and for a £5 ticket — expect design educator and director Ben Casey to share insight on how his agency The Chase has achieved creative and commercial success.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Queen of the Track Presents Witch Bitch 8pm tip late @ 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool — £5
Hell yeah! Celebrate the unholiest night of the year with our fave feminist arts zine Queen of the Track – playing the best of female, queer, and trans music, from Alectronik, AKASA, Brewski Beat, Onika, in special collaboration with Jell, and party animals and DIY-art punks DJs Chew Disco. What will you dress up as?
Friday – In Conversation: Trevor Paglen & Prof. Stephen Graham 5.30pm @ Newcastle University, Fine Art Lecture Theatre – FREE
Interested in surveillance, militarisation and urban life? So are these guys. In association with They Used To Call It The Moon exhibition (see Thursday), artist, author and experimental geographer, Trevor Paglen, will be joined by Professor Stephen Graham (Cities and Society at the Global Urban Research Unit, Newcastle University) to chat about very real issues of a science fiction nature. Part of Newcastle University’s Public Lecture Programme.
Saturday – David’s Drop In (Homotopia Festival) 2pm @ Fallout Factory, Liverpool — FREE
You might recognise “frightening” (the Guardian) performance artist and anti-drag queen David Hoyle from Chris Morris’s Nathan Barley; he’s better known as the Divine David, whose stinging social commentary – ‘targeting both bourgeois Britain and the materialistic/hedonistic gay scene’ — has seen him perform at Soho Theatre, Chelsea Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Victoria & Albert Museum. Here David presents a series of ‘drop-in’ performances during his new exhibition. Expect a punchy exploration of mental illness, addiction and gay culture.
Sunday – Ai Weiwei: Monthly Poetry Readings 2pm @ Yorkshire Sculpture Park Chapel — FREE
In association with Ai Weiwei’s poignant exhibition at YSP, join the team for a unique reading of poetry from Ai Weiwei’s late father, Ai Qing. A radical activist, ardent Communist, and one of China’s great modern poets, Ai Qing wrote over 20 lyrical and narrative poems — as well as 1,000 short poems – in free verse, on a broad range of topics, including the poor, political activism and naturalist observation.
