Culture Diary w/c 26-10-2015
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the arts — and Halloween — listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday – Made You Look (2015) + Q&A 6pm @ FACT Liverpool — £10
With panelists — including design studio WellMade, illustrator Craig Robson and LJMU head of graphic arts Ian Mitchell — on hand to lead a discussion afterwards, tonight’s screening of documentary Made You Look promises a serious insight into the evolution of commercial arts. With so much of our lives now spent in the virtual, digital realm, what will become of the tactile objects we hold so dear?
Visible Award: Shortlisted Projects 10am-5pm @ Tate Liverpool Foyer– FREE
A European prize for socially-engaged artistic practice that’s been running since 2011, the Visible Award comes to Liverpool this year; celebrating some excellent international art projects. See nine shortlisted projects before the winner is chosen via open jury at Liverpool Town Hall (Saturday 31 Oct 2015); including Conflict Kitchen by Dawn Weleski and Jon Rubin, a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict.
Tuesday — FACTLab Hack Nights: APIs (Tumblr With Processing) 6-8pm @ FACT Liverpool — FREE
What are Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and how do you use them?! Find out tonight in this practical demonstration: bring your laptop, beginners welcome (although some processing or programming experience is preferred).
Jane Wenham: The Witch Of Walkern 7.30pm @ Everyman Theatre, Liverpool — £12-20
Inspired by events in a Hertfordshire village — and making all the women in the audience very thankful indeed that those days are over — Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s new play follows Walkern ‘witch’ Jane Wenham as she is blamed, and tried, for a tragic death. Until 31 Oct 2015.
Wednesday — North-West Writers Meet & Greet 5.30-8.30pm @ Harris Museum, Preston — FREE
We’ve long been of the mindset that there’s strength in numbers. So we’re hosting another writers’ social, this time with Blaze Arts Festival and the Harris Museum and Art Gallery! As always, it’s totally informal and open to all, whether you already write for magazines, journals, newspapers or blogs, or are just thinking about it. Come along, have a glass of wine, and talk about your writing with editors and like-minded creative practitioners.
Artist Talk: Emma Hart 6.30-8.30pm @ Grand Union, Birmingham — FREE
Clay hair in scrunchies and clay fists throwing punches, ‘a bum with knickers wedged up its crack’… these are Emma Hart’s glossy and irreverent ceramic sculptures, currently on show as big MOUTH at Grand Union. Hear from the artist live tonight with Harun Morrison (co-artistic director of Fierce Festival) and Kim McAleese (Grand Union programme director).
Thursday — Cheap Thrills Presents Trick ‘r Treat (2007) 7.30-9.15pm @ A Small Cinema, Liverpool — £5
A couple finds out what happens when they blow a jack o’ lantern out before midnight… A group of teenagers take a prank too far… Following five interwoven stories that occur on the same residential block, on the same night, enjoy this under-appreciated horror comedy tonight alongside Cheap Thrills’ uproarious themed trailers and drive-in adverts.
Friday — Psycho (1960) With Live Orchestra 7.30pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic Hall — £40-14
‘Psycho massages and strangles the ID of Anglo-American cinema out into the open where it can lie in its ugliness and pleasure for all to see’: so said our film critic Adam Scovell on Hitchcock’s infamous psychological thriller (read here). See it tonight as you’ve never seen it before: fifty years on from its release, in a big-screen presentation accompanied by a live performance of Bernard Herrmann’s brilliant, skin-prickling score.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Homotopia: International LGBT Festival @ Venues Across Liverpool — FREE
A bumper offer this year from a consistently ambitious and surprising arts festival. Yet how to pick highlights from such an extensive programme? The unveiling of Alien Sex Club is a must (artist’s talk tonight 6pm at The Bluecoat and full exhibition across Camp and Furnace and the Walker) which explores the relationship between visual culture and HIV; “England’s first lady of the double entendre” and Carry On legend Fenella Fielding introduces a madcap evening of duck apples, fangs and 1935 horror The Bride Of Frankenstein (Saturday, A Small Cinema); and who wouldn’t love a night of song and opera from Nigerian operatic diva and Homotopia favourite Le Gateau Chocolat (13 Nov, St Helens World of Glass). Festival continues until 1 Dec 2015.
Saturday — Exhibition Opening: Kawaii: Crafting The Japanese Culture Of Cute 10am-4pm @ James Hockey & Foyer Galleries, UCA Farnham, Surrey — FREE
Contemporary Japanese artists responding to the phenomenon of ‘cute’, or Kawaii, via traditional craft skills, expect a fascinating segue from princess fixations to the exploitative nature of sexual politics. Look out for the full-colour catalogue, plus seminars, lectures, workshops and exhibition tours. Until 12 Dec 2015.
Sunday — Build Your Own Camera With Rachel Brewster 11am-5pm @ The Bluecoat, Liverpool — £50
This is for all the photography fans out there who want to extend their creativity into their kit: learn how to build (and use) your very own working Konstruktor camera in a day. Plus, you get to take it home with you at the end of the workshop!
Laura Robertson
