Culture Diary w/c 02-03-2015

tUnE yArDs

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

Monday — Think Cinema Presents: The Blood Of A Poet (1930) 6.30-10pm @ Frederik’s Bar, Liverpool — FREE

No stranger to the avant-garde, director Jean Cocteau’s 1930 masterpiece perfectly embodies the Surrealist’s joy of absurdity and dream-like imagery (think talking statues and moving paintings). Divided into four episodes, the story unfolds of an artist who is transported through a mirror and unwittingly hurled into another dimension leading to a series of bizarre and imaginative events.

Tuesday – Sleaford Mods 8pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £10 ADV

Until last year, this Nottingham-based punk-hop duo has (not so quietly) existed under the radar of the mainstream music machine. This year no one will escape the snarling ‘austerity-age invective’ (The Guardian) of Sleaford Mods. Bringing their cutting comic lyrics and venomous social commentary to Liverpool tonight before heading off on a UK tour (see here for more dates), expect nothing less than the visceral anger of the Sex Pistols and the poetic observations of John Cooper-Clarke.

Stray Dog (1949) 6pm @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool — £5

To coincide with the highly successful Metamorphosis Of Japan After The War Exhibition, Open Eye Gallery are to host a series of fortnightly film screenings in celebration of the golden age of Japanese cinema during the 1950/60’s. We are treated to three stunningly original films, including Stray Dog, Good Morning (17/03) and Pigs and Battleships (31/03), each exploring the social, political and domestic settings of Post-War Japan. Opening tonight with crime thriller and film noir, Stray Dog, we are taken through the criminal backstreets of Japan in search of detective Murakami’s stolen gun.

Wednesday – Exhibition Opening: Leon Golub: Bite Your Tongue 10-6pm @ Serpentine Gallery, London – FREE

Wednesday – Exhibition Opening: Leon Golub: Bite Your Tongue 10am-6pm @ Serpentine Gallery, London – FREE

You won’t find a bland still life here: American figurative artist Leon Golub held the belief that art should be relevant. Spanning 54 years between 1950 and his death in 2004, ‘Oppression, violence and the misuse of power’ are repeated themes explored throughout his artistic career that (sadly) have more relevance than ever.

Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Group Therapy 11am-6pm @ FACT, Liverpool – FREE

Digital technology can sometimes (and perhaps unfairly) get a bad rap in the ongoing discussion about mental health issues: being blamed for exacerbating this already complex issue. FACT’s latest exhibition seeks to explore this connection between metal health, technology, and the political and social values that affect us all. Through the use of art, design and research we are invited to contemplate our own mental well-being in the hope of bringing about a broader understanding.

PICK OF THE WEEK: ¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival 2015 6.30pm @ Cornerhouse, Manchester — individual tickets £12/ on until 9 March

Unbelievably, this is the 21st edition of Cornerhouse’s beloved film festival, and will be split into three parts this year (owing to their much anticipated move into new building HOME). Opening with dark farce ¿Quién mató a Bambi?, and introduced by director Santi Amodeo, celebrate the start of the festival in the café bar with post-screening drinks. As always, expect ¡Viva! to be an energetic and enthusiastic introduction into the Spanish-speaking film world, with debut features from first time directors, ‘One Hour Intros’ and director Q&As.

tUnE-yArDs 7.30-10pm @ Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool — £15

Signed to the always experimental 4AD, New England-native Merrill Garbus – AKA tUnE yArDs – is not something you hear every day. Perfectly blending ‘Haitian-inflected groove voodoo and self-aware cultural politics’ (Rolling Stone), Garbus is bringing her inimitable style to the stunning venue of the Cathedral Well to inject child-like play and explosive colour to this cavernous venue.

Friday – Exhibition Opening: Leonora Carrington 10-5pm @ Tate Liverpool – £8 (include entry to Wilkes)

Friday – Exhibition Opening: Leonora Carrington 10am-5pm @ Tate Liverpool – £8 (include entry to Wilkes)

To coincide with the UK 2015 Year of Mexico celebrations (Carrington’s adopted home) Tate Liverpool explores the eccentric dreamscapes of one of Surrealism’s most famous members. Expect to see designs for film and theatre, poetry, sculpture and paintings that depict a personal symbolism of hybrid forms, imagined creatures and fantastical landscapes that question the boundaries of reality and demonstrate the unlimited boundaries of her creations.

Exhibition Opening: Cathy Wilkes 10am-5pm @ Tate Liverpool — £8 (includes entry to Carrington)

Cups, plates, baking parchment, biscuits, cloths: although it may sound like the mundane items on a shopping list, these are just some of the everyday objects that 2008 Turner Prize-nominated artist Cathy Wilkes transforms to create the fascinating large-scale sculptural installations that she is best known for. The largest exhibition of her works to date, we are confronted with notions of loss, transformation and materiality in the form of installations, paintings, drawings, and archive material.

Exhibition Opening: György Kepes  10am-5pm @ Tate Liverpool – FREE

Art, photography and science converge in the work of innovative artist, photographer and designer György Kepes whose endless experimentation became the precursor to the digital imagery that we enjoy today. Running alongside the perhaps more recognised works of Cathy Wilkes and Leonora Carrington, this exhibition presents 80 photographs, photomontages and photograms by the man who inspired and influenced the likes of Hans Ulrich Obrist, László Moholy-Nagy and Saul Bass.

Saturday – Last Night: Educating Rita 7:30pm @ Playhouse, Liverpool -- £12-£25

Saturday – Last Night: Educating Rita 7.30pm @ Playhouse, Liverpool — £12-£25

As part of the Playhouse 2015 Spring Season, Willy Russell’s beloved play has returned to Liverpool after 13 years in the form of director Gemma Bodinetz revived and acclaimed production. Featuring an all Liverpudlian cast, once again we are drawn back to this story of self-improvement and self-discovery. A working-class girl driven to better herself through education, Educating Rita is still proving to be ‘a class act’ (The Guardian).

Henry Moore: Back To A Land 10-5pm @ Yorkshire Sculpture Park – FREE

As one of the founding patrons of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, it seems very fitting that this should be the setting of a new major exhibition of the work of Henry Moore. Curated in collaboration with his daughter Mary Moore, his formidable yet familiar sculptures are set against the Yorkshire landscape to explore the vital connections that lie between these abstract forms and the nature that surrounds them. Featuring rare drawings, notes, sketchbooks and personal artefacts, new light is shone onto one of the 20th century’s most prolific artists.

Heather Garner

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 02/03/2015 by thedoublenegative