Culture Diary w/c 14-09-2015
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the arts listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday – Last Day: Eva Grubinger: Black Diamond Bay 6-8pm @ Institute Of Contemporary Art (ICA), London – FREE
Taking its title from the 1979 Bob Dylan song and the imaginary city in Joseph Conrad’s novel Victory (1915), Black Diamond Bay is the third instalment of four intriguing pop-up projects by fig-2, ICA studios and Outset. Exploring the appeal and uncertainty of reaching out and exploring unknown territories, Berlin-based artist Eva Grubinger traverses psychological landscapes in an ambitious installation that contemplates the power of escapism, adventure and the need to test one’s limits.
Vinyl Station x Warp Records 6.30-9pm @ Metal, Liverpool — FREE (Booking Essential)
A chance to listen to new albums in their entirety, with friends, ahead of their forthcoming releases, this great idea by the teams behind Metal and Bido Lito! this week introduce a Warp Records special: Battles’s La Di Da Di and Darkstar’s Foam Island. Presented by DJ Bernie Connor plus guests, expect a music lovers atmosphere in a really unusual, historic train station/gallery venue.
Tuesday – Elsewhere Cinema Presents Tropical Malady (2004) 7-9pm @ A Small Cinema, Liverpool — £4
‘Sumptuous and scary, and a brilliant adventure in structure and style’ (The Guardian) — director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s award-winning and exhilarating Thai romantic psychological drama is not one you’ll forget in a hurry. Divided into two parts, we delve into the captivating romance of two men and watch the surreal existence of a soldier lost in a forest who is plagued by the spirit of a shaman, a talking baboon and the ghostly image of a tiger.
Wednesday – Richard Dawson And Asiq Nargile 7.30pm @ The Kazimier , Liverpool — £10 ADV
With only a handful of UK tour dates this September, the Kazimier is one of the lucky few to play host to one of the most original musical duos out there. Originating from very different music backgrounds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne-based guitarist and troubadour Richard Dawson, and Georgia-based Saz (long neck flute) player Asiq Nargile, combine intricate riffs and poetic sensibilities to produce a body of work that is ‘witty, bawdy, surreal, disquieting, nostalgic, brash and fearlessly individual’ (The Quietus).
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Zanele Muholi: Vukani/Rise 6-8pm @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
As part of this year’s Homotopia programme of events, South African photographer Zanele Muholi brings together four of her most prolific projects – Faces and Phases, ZaVa, Brave Beauties and Mo(u)rning – with each exploring issues of gender, race and sexuality within South African society. Tonight, join the opening celebrations for a night of steam punk cocktails with speeches and a performance from Odidiva.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Friday – Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival @ Grizedale Forest, Cumbria — FREE / Ticketed Events Vary – See Here For Prices
Headlined by ground-breaking digital artists Marshmallow Laser Feast, who present what’s sure to be a incredible virtual reality experience with In The Eyes Of The Animal, this year’s festival looks to be perhaps the best yet. MLF are just one of its many artists, filmmakers and technologists to take over this Lake District forest: new commissions that push new approaches to art-making and digital invention. Expect Drone Schools, Late Night Drive-Ins (Moonrise Kingdom, Predator), treks and trails, micro-biology laboratories, and an impressive group show about living alongside ‘non-humans’.
Exhibition Opening: Lesions In The Landscape 11-6pm @ FACT, Liverpool – FREE
As the result of a three-year-long research project with neuro-psychologists, Martin A. Conway and Catherine Loveday, the devastating effects of amnesia are brought to the fore in this new multi-screen installation by artist Shona Illingworth. Drawing new parallels between the disorientating and unsettling experience of memory loss and the sudden evacuation of the inhabitants of St Kilda in the North Atlantic in 1930, we are forced to confront issues of identity, space and the innate capacity to imagine the future.
Saturday – Exhibition Opening: Susan Pui San Lok: RoCH Fans & Legends 11-6pm @ QUAD, Derby – FREE
Inspired by fan uploads of different media adaptations of the 1950s epic, The Condor Trilogy by author Louis Cha (RoCH stands for Return of the Condor Heroes if you were wondering), artist Susan Pui San Lok showcases a host of newly commissioned single and multi-screen film works for both the gallery and online before heading to Manchester’s Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art. Here, we explore the landscapes and archetypes featured in the enthralling fantasy worlds of the Wuxia genre: warriors, heroes and the reoccurring theme of weightlessness.
Sunday – Last Day: The M+ Sigg Collection: Chinese Art From The 1970s To Now 10-5pm @ The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester — FREE
An extraordinary exhibition of extraordinary proportions – this is the last day to see the only UK showing of the most comprehensive collection of Chinese artworks in the world, which spans 40 years of boundary-pushing creativity before making the pilgrimage to its home in Hong Kong’s new M+ museum. Brought together by Swiss collector Uli Sigg, the emergence of contemporary art in China – from Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan to Cao Fei, Zhang Peili and Weg Fen – is charted in stunning detail and in all is political, provocative and subversive glory.
Heather Garner
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