Culture Diary w/c 16-02-2015

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

Monday — The War On Drugs 7.30pm @ o2 Academy, Liverpool — sold out

Topping many end-of-year music polls, the Philadelphian-based (now solo) artist presents his ‘deep, languorous’ (The Guardian) third album, Lost In The Dream, as part of a sold-out UK tour. With tickets like gold-dust, you might just have to settle with listening at home…

Tuesday — Discover Tuesdays: Love Is All: 100 Years Of Love And Courtship (2014) 6pm @ FACT, Liverpool and other Picturehouse Cinemas nationwide

Currently celebrating its DVD release, we’d guess seeing Kim Longinotto’s celebration of 100 years of cinematic love and courtship actually on the silver screen will be way more enjoyable (preferably on the back row). A clever mix of BFI and Yorkshire Film Archive footage brought to life by the romantic croonings of singer/songwriter (and former member of Longpigs and Pulp) Richard Hawley. Hear Mark Kermode’s review here.

Wednesday — Exhibition Opening: Mackintosh Architecture 10am-5pm @ RIBA, London — FREE

After the terrible fire at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art last year — destroying his finely crafted library — this exhibition devoted to the artist’s architecture and style could not be more timely. With 60 original drawings on show, alongside watercolours, models, films and portraits, this is a treat for his fans, and a glum reminder of what’s been lost in Glasgow.

Wednesday — Exhibition Opening: Mackintosh Architecture 10am-5pm @ RIBA, London -- FREE

Place, Pornography & Paranoia 10am-9pm @ FACT, Liverpool — FREE (16-25 year olds only; book via email zoe.moyden@fact.co.uk)

Creative and experimental talks and workshops exploring technology, art and mental health. Designed by and for young people in response to FACT’s anticipated exhibition, Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age. Expect experimental filmmaking, interactive discussions with artists who use pornography and technology in their practice, and live poetry, music, prose and comedy.

Richard Dawson 8pm @ Shipping Forecast, Liverpool — £8

Hailed by The Quietus as a maker of ‘difficult music’, 33-year-old singer-songwriter Dawson is somewhat of a rising star. Newcastle born and bred, and signed to Weird World Records (who also boast Hookworms on their books) his album Nothing Important was released last year to significant critical acclaim. Worth checking out.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Thursday — Exhibition Private View: Cornerhouse Projects: Full Stop 5.30-7pm @ Cornerhouse, Manchester -- FREE

PICK OF THE WEEK: Thursday — Exhibition Private View: Cornerhouse Projects: Full Stop 5.30-7pm @ Cornerhouse, Manchester — FREE

Yep, you heard correctly: Cornerhouse is closing, soon to physically merge with the Library Theatre into the brand-new HOME (read our interview with director Sarah Perks about all the changes here). Morphing into something different may be the end of an era, but it doesn’t have to be a ‘full stop’, as this exhibition suggests. Here, Cornerhouse hand over the public exhibition spaces to their hardworking gallery invigilators to investigate the building from top to bottom. A rare chance to highlight the work of creative ‘double-jobbers’ — artists who moonlight as front of house staff — who are the backbone of our arts institutions, not just here, but up and down the country.

RONIN | SING FOR YOUR SUPPER | JOEY FOURR | WET ROOM DJS 8pm @ the Kazimier Garden, Liverpool — FREE

Get down to the Garden on Thursday (don’t forget your coat) for a Wet Room Records hosted evening: expect Italian ‘instrumental surf’ and ‘horror-scape’ from Ronin, folk-pop melodies from Sing For Your Supper (who include members of Stealing Sheep, The Weave and Wizards of Twiddly), and lo-fi noise pop from MiLK Records’ Joey Fourr.

Friday — Exhibition Private View: BamBamBam #3  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 third iteration, expect this boisterous project to highlight the work of project instigator Mike Aitken, Ellie Barrett, Joseph Hulme, Elizabeth Flanagan McCormick, Marianne McGurk, Rachel Marcroft, Flis Mitchell, Theo Vass and Brandy & Bailey’s Filthy RnB Droppin’ Eagle Time.

Sunday — History Is Now: 7 Artists Take On Britain PLUS Bruce Asbestos: A/B Testing 11am-7pm @ Hayward Gallery, London -- standard full price £10.90 / FREE

Hooton Tennis Club Single Launch Party @ Shipping Forecast, Liverpool — £5 entry/ ticket & 7″ vinyl bundle £7.50

Signed to Heavenly Recordings (along with the afore-mentioned Stealing Sheep), HTC present their first single, Jasper/Standing Knees, this Friday. As they’re also one of 12 shortlisted for the GIT Award, see for yourself whether they deserve the acclaim — read Joshua Potts feature on the award and nominees here.

Saturday – Exhibition Opens: Mat Jenner: Dreams Time Free @ Grand Union, Birmingham — FREE

Happy fifth anniversary, Grand Union: celebrate with Mat Jenner’s new exhibition and social space, where visitors can listen to his collection of commissioned one-off 12” dub plate records by 115 contemporary artists. Only accessible at the gallery – “not replicated, broadcast or digitally disseminated” – listen to new audio works by artists including Heather Philipson, Julia Crabtree and William Evans, and Turner Prize nominee Tris Vonna-Michell.

Sunday — History Is Now: 7 Artists Take On Britain PLUS Bruce Asbestos: A/B Testing 11am-7pm @ Hayward Gallery, London — standard full price £10.90 / FREE

Two very different exhibitions to check out at Hayward: a precursor to the 2015 General Election in the main gallery’s History Is Now, presenting ‘a radical new way of thinking about how we got to where we are today’. Expect forward thinking artists including theorist and filmmaker John Akomfrah and Turner Prize nominated Roger Hiorns, who often works with dazzling blue copper sulphate crystals. Plus you get to see cheeky digital artist Bruce Asbestos, who has his own online TV show, The Social Media Takeaway, and makes video work based on our online behaviour.

Keen to hear what’s happening in Liverpool January-March 2015? Download the PDF version of our NEW, printed Culture Diary here!

See Liverpool As We Do: Our New Quarterly #CultureDiary. Courtesy The Double Negative Magazine

 

Posted on 16/02/2015 by thedoublenegative