Culture Diary w/c 25-05-2015
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Tuesday – Speak Out, Act Up 6.30pm @ Nottingham Contemporary – FREE
This two-day screening event acts as a necessary creative platform to confront issues of race, homophobia and AIDS through a series of thought-provoking films. Kicked off tonight by director Marlon Riggs’ film essay, Tongues United, which encounters the marginalisation of two gay black men, it is followed by director Isaac Julien’s poetic consideration of Harlem poet Langston Hughes. The event will be rounded up on day two (28/05) with the showing of United in Anger: The History of Act Up – a film documenting the story of the AIDS activist movement, Act Up, that aims to tackle corporate greed and social indifference in the long battle against injustice and inequality.
Wednesday — Cheap Thrills Presents The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue (1974) 7pm @ A Small Cinema Liverpool – £5 / £4
Another evening of exploitation and B Movies from Christopher Brown’s Cheap Thrills season, tonight sees a cult North-West classic paired with a special pre-reel for your viewing pleasure. Shot entirely in Manchester and the Lake District, and heavily influenced by Night Of The Living Dead, Jorge Grau’s horror follows the hunt for two hippies accused of a series of Manson family-like murders. Unbeknownst to the policeman who chases them, the real culprits are zombies, brought to life by chemical pesticides being used by local farmers.
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Liverpool School of Art and Design Degree Show 5-9pm @ John Lennon Art and Design Building — FREE
The first of this week’s graduate exhibitions, see the illusionistic film installations of one of the North-West’s top Fine Art graduates Meg Brain (read the full Class of 2015 article here) alongside many other graduating students of Architecture, Fashion, Graphic Design and Illustration, Popular Music Studies and Spatial Design, across five different floors. (Open until Friday 12 June 2015, 10am-6pm)
The Saints 8pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £12 ADV
This Aussie punk band can truly lay claim to the title of punk pioneers; their epic debut, (I’m) Stranded, came out before anything by the Sex Pistols or Buzzcocks, and just a little after The Ramones. Now, 39 years and 15 albums later, The Saints bring their relentless riffs and drawling vocals to The Kazimier in support of their 2014 LP Lauded King of the Sun/Midnight Sun. Described as one of the ‘most undeniably important bands Australia has ever produced’ (the Guardian) it’s little wonder The Saints have reached legendary status.
Friday – Fear Of Missing Out Conference @ Institute Of Contemporary Arts, London – Single tickets £12 each (£10 ICA Members and Concs)/ 2-4 events, £11 (£9 Concs) / 5-7 events, £10 (£8 Concs)
A three-day event discussing anxieties and social conditions in a post-digital age, here, academics, social thinkers and theorists – such as Hito Steyerl, Karen Archey, Erika Balsom, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Helen Hester, Olia Lialina – discuss topics from Artificial Intelligence to the Anthropocene, daring to look to the uncertain future to seek possible action and change. The event will coincide with the 9/11 Trilogy presented by the ICA and BRITDOC, which includes a series of film shorts by the journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras as well as an in conversation between the artist and chair of the event, Hito Steyerl (30/05).
Exhibition Opening: Liverpool Hope University’s Fine Art and Design Degree Show 5.30-8.30pm @ Cornerstone Campus, Liverpool — FREE
The second of this week’s graduate exhibitions, see one of the North-West’s top Fine Art graduates, Ant Hamlyn (read the full Class of 2015 article here): a sculptor inspired by the sensory language of funfairs, arcade games and other playful encounters. Hamlyn exhibits alongside many other graduating students of Fine Art in Hope University’s red brick gallery space and adjoining studio spaces. (Open until Friday 5 June 2015, 10am-4pm)
Exhibition Opening: Lynn Hershman Leeson: Origins Of The Species (Part 2) 6.30pm @ Modern Art Oxford — FREE
Exploring concepts as far reaching as privacy in the age of surveillance, the relationship between real and virtual worlds, and the variability of identity, American multi-disciplinary artist Hershman Leeson was one of the early explorers of interactive and installation art. In this major solo show, Leeson allows science and art to converge in her latest site-specific work, The Infinity Engine – an installation that mimics the conditions of a genetics lab — in order to raise discussion surrounding the ethical and experimental implications of genetics that face society at large.
Saturday – Exhibition Opening: University of Cumbria’s Degree Show: EPHEMERA 6-9pm @ Caldewgate, Newcastle Street, Carlisle — FREE
The third of this week’s graduate exhibitions, see the post-apocalyptic, Orwellian installations of one of the North-West’s top Fine Art graduates, Jacob Jones (read the full Class of 2015 article here), alongside many other graduating students of Fine Art, at what will be the last ever Degree Show at Caldewgate. (Open until Sunday 7 June 2015, 10am-4pm)
De La Soul 9pm @ O2 Academy, Liverpool – £28.12
Three years since the release of their last full length album, the legendary Long Island hip-hop trio stop off in Liverpool tonight before heading off on a handful of UK tour dates (see all venues here) as they gear up for the release of their up and coming album, And the Anonymous Nobody. With bouncing beats and an epic back catalogue to draw from, expect a ‘rambunctious celebration of all things De La Soul’ marked by their unchanged ‘playful and rebellious spirit’ (The Guardian).
PICK OF THE WEEK: Nepal Fundraiser: Manakamana (2013) 6.30pm @ A Small Cinema Liverpool – £3
With the unimaginably tragic events of the recent Nepal earthquake, tonight’s screening of directors Stephanie Spray’s and Pacho Velez’s ‘contemplative’ (BFI) documentary couldn’t be more poignant. The film, shot entirely inside a cable car above the breath-taking Nepalese landscape, captures the intimate conversations of villagers as they make their ascent to the mountain top temple that lends its name to the film. The screening will be opened by Huyton resident Edward Rydall to talk about his experience as a teacher in Nepal during the earthquake. All ticket sales will be donated to Rydall’s Nepal fundraising campaign.
Sunday – INPRINT Print Fair 12-5pm @ Camp And Furnace, Liverpool — FREE (bring spends)
Selling a huge variety of limited edition prints, posters and accessories, meet artists, designers and creative organisations from all over the North-West — including The Double Negative! — this Sunday and feel the positive vibes attached to this blossoming scene. Get involved with some interactive print workshops, the ‘in conversation’ on DIY publishing with Bido Lito, Queen of the Track and Chella Quint, as well as food, drink and music.
Piccadilly (1929) 6pm @ FACT, Liverpool – £10
Described by Martin Scorsese as a ‘bold, beautifully crafted, completely modern picture’, Piccadilly is one of Britain’s most important and provocative (yet unfairly overlooked) silent films. Following the career ascent of protagonist Shosho from scullery maid to showbiz star, a bitter love triangle unfolds revealing undertones of erotic obsession, forbidden love, betrayal and murder.
Heather Garner
Keen to hear about the best art, design, film and music events happening in Liverpool April-June 2015? Download the PDF version of our NEW, printed Culture Diary here
