Culture Diary w/c 09-02-2015
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday — Madlove Gathering 2 5.30pm @ FACT, Liverpool — FREE (booking recommended: email emily.gee@fact.co.uk)
‘If you could design your own asylum what would it be like?’ In anticipation of FACT’s major exhibition on mental health, art and technology (Group Therapy, 5 Mar-17 May), artist and activist the vacuum cleaner has been travelling the country looking for collaborators and ideas for a ‘Designer Asylum’. Anyone with experience of or an interest in mental health is invited to join in: tonight, artists involved so far present their ideas on how to create a ‘positive space to experience mental distress… and enlightenment’.
Tuesday — Exhibition Opens: Barbara Kruger: Early Works 10am-6pm @ Skarstedt London — FREE
We love a bit of Kruger: here, Skarstedt present seminal early works (1980s) by the American artist, including her infamous. insightful, provocative and playful large-scale black and white photographs with bold Futura statements. Expect her work to still pack a punch, even after all this time — what’s more relevant than challenging the cultural constructions of power, identity and sexuality?
Wednesday — Artists’ Union England Hustings Event 2015 6-8pm @ Chelsea College of Arts, London – AUE Members £3 / non-members £5
“What do Ed Vaizey and Chris Bryant have hanging in their front rooms?”, asks artist Bob and Roberta Smith. Well, indeed; with the general election fast-approaching, this is the perfect moment to see all three battle it out live, alongside Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter (spokesperson on DCMS matters in the House of Lords for the Liberal Democrats), and Martin Dobson Green Party (spokesperson for Culture Media and Sports and Parliamentary Candidate for Liverpool Riverside). Expect the Artists’ Union England’s (AUE) version of Question Time. Read Richard Whitby’s feature on AUE here.
Thursday — Exhibition Opens: The Quiet 10am-9pm @ FACT Liverpool — FREE
Billed as an immersive installation recreating the atmospheric conditions of the calm before the storm, artists Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen present a collection of many objects — a particle machine, tropical plants, meteorological instruments, sailors’ storm glasses and a shark oil barometer — working together to create a ‘pre-storm environment’. Read more on the artists and their past collaboration with contemporary dance at FACT here.
Exhibition Private View: Launch Pad: For Posterity 6-8pm @ Castlefield Gallery, Manchester — FREE
How do we rate ‘making’ in contemporary visual art? A new exhibition curated by CG associate member Lucy Harvey, expect to see work by CG Associate members Rosanne Robertson, Richard Proffitt, Cherry Tenneson, Fliss Quick and Hannah Leighton-Boyce, all looking at traditional crafts. A chance to analyse the transformative ways in which artists ‘invent and reinterpret history, place and language’ through sculpture, installation, film and performance.
Friday — Exhibition Opening: Only in England 10am-5pm @ Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool — FREE
“Don’t take boring pictures” — the motto of acclaimed British photographer Tony Ray-Jones, and one he stuck to throughout his short career. Showcasing more than 100 images by the artist alongside friend and peer Martin Parr (who met Ray-Jones at Manchester Polytechnic in 1970), both artists’ body of work reflects English customs and identity in their own unique, innovative way; often using humour to capture the spirit of eccentricity. As Ray-Jones died from leukaemia aged just 30 in 1972, this is a poignant and fitting tribute.
Exhibition Private View: BamBamBam #2 6-9pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool — FREE
‘Encouraging artists to take greater risks’, according to our editor Laura Robertson for a-n news (here), this bumper gallery takeover from The Royal Standard studio artists sees 21 innovative exhibitions in as many days (over three weeks — bam, bam, bam, geddit?). In its second iteration, expect this boisterous project to highlight the work of Ulysses, Ellie Barrett, Hannah Bitowski, Sophie Bower, Madeline Hall, James Harper, Michael Lacey, Jo Marsh, Laurence Payot and Laura Rushton.
Orchestra Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp / Boodle AM Shakes / Unicursal / Wax Museum DJ’s / Paul Tarpey 7.30pM @ Drop The Dumbulls, Liverpool – donation entry
We trust tastemakers and all-round good-eggs Drop The Dumbulls to offer us an evening of quality madness: tonight is no exception. A showcase of live tropical post punk and DIY noise, Geneva-based independent orchestra OTPMD headline, bringing with them an unexpected, beautiful and graceful avant-garde sound.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Saturday – Opening Weekend @ The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester — FREE
Fall in love again on Valentines Day: FINALLY, the Whitworth unveil the results of their major £15m redevelopment. Expect 10 (yes, 10) opening exhibitions, including work by Cornelia Parker and Cai Guo-Qiang (the latter in a new landscape wing); performances by Video Jam, the Hallé Youth Choir, and Nico Vascellari in collaboration with the French musician, Ghédalia Tazartès; author Jeanette Winterson on art; a fire and light show; and an afterparty led by DJ Dave Haslam. We can’t wait. Read Sara Jaspan’s interview with director Maria Balshaw on all the exciting changes here.
Sunday — Last Day: Julio Le Parc and Reiner Ruthenbeck 10am-6pm @ Serpentine Galleries, London — FREE
Your last chance to see the ‘elegant, charming, fetchingly simple’ (the Guardian) duo exhibitions of sculptor and conceptual artist Reiner Ruthenbeck, 77, and Argentina’s Julio Le Parc, 86 (pictured, above). The first big UK shows of the two ageing artists are ‘long overdue’, continue the Guardian; expect a kaleidoscopic exhibition of optical tricks that play with relationships between artworks and the spectator from Le Parc; Ruthenbeck changes space using everyday objects like crumpled paper and fabric, channelling architecture, iconology, perception and sound.
Keen to hear what’s happening in Liverpool January-March 2015? Download the PDF version of our NEW, printed Culture Diary here!
