Culture Diary w/c 15-02-2016
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the arts listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday – New Art West Midlands 10am-5pm @ Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery – FREE
Selected by artists Sonia Boyce and John Stezaker plus the ICA’s Katharine Stout, this showcase of local graduate talent (from five of the region’s art schools) is now in its fourth year. Expect 43 merging artists, including Laura Haycock’s nude, Venus-style self-portraits, and Jakki Carey’s climate change film featuring a glacial lake in Iceland. Until 15 May.
Tuesday – PINS 7pm @ O2 Academy Liverpool — £8.05 + Booking FEE
If ever you were unsure of this Manchester-grown, all-female four-piece’s love of the Velvets, also note in your diary their Warhol Factory party planned for 4 March. Continuing their UK tour in the meantime, and channeling their own particular flavour of kick-ass Brooklyn punk, see Faith Holgate (vocals, guitar), Lois McDonald (guitar), Anna Donigan (bass), and Lara Williams (drums) in Liverpool, Leeds, Brighton and Bristol this week.
Wednesday – Glasgow Film Festival @ Venues Across Glasgow – £9.50/7.50/5 Per Screening; Internet Saver Deals Start At £42
Ever fancied seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark surrounded by ancient artefacts? Or wondered how the professionals do casting, costume or cinematic make-up? GFF isn’t just about seeing new releases, although that’s part of the pleasure. Expect a range of industry talks, masterclasses, and special screenings of old classics, in addition to see-it-first new works by the Coen Brothers in Hail, Caesar!, Disney’s Zootropolis and many more. Until 28 Feb.
The Other Room 7pm @ The Castle Hotel, Manchester — FREE
Expect contemporary poetry, sampling and field recordings tonight at this evening of writing as performance. See artist Vicki Bennett and digital writer Gregor Weichbrodt presenting The Fundamental Questions (performed by the audience); writer/artist Mark Leahy, previously seen ‘flat-head self-tapping’ at Chelsea School of Art last year; and University of London’s Will Montgomery, an experimental musician whose latest work is The crystal at the lips (Organized Music from Thessaloniki, 2015).
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Bridget Riley: Venice And Beyond, Paintings 1967-1972 @ Graves Gallery, Sheffield – FREE
One of the UK’s most famous abstract painters, it may be sometimes easy to dismiss Riley’s work as familiar — featured as it is in many books on abstract expressionism, colour and British art. You must, however, see her precise, hand-painted works live: they swim, undulate and warp before the eyes, giving the viewer a unique and thrilling sense of vertigo. Expect this new exhibition to focus on her breakthrough with colour from 1967 onwards.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: BLIND DATE / 12ø: Not As We Know It 6pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool — FREE
‘I like duvet days, walks on the beach, Cradle of Filth and prescription drugs’… and so The Royal Standard kick off their 10th anniversary year with an exhibition of artistic romance via creative partnership. Inviting artists Alfie Strong, Lindsey Mendick and Josef Zachary Shanley Jackson from Leeds’ collective (it’s all) Tropical to find their ‘dream dates’ , curator Rachel Cunningham Clark is playing Cilla; selecting the best matches from an online callout. In the venue’s project space, don’t miss Liverpool John Moores University graduate collective Muesli present their new exhibition Not As We Know It: a collaboration with London-based artist run space 12ø. See more of our Unmissable Exhibitions here.
Wax Or the Discovery Of Television Among The Bees (1991) 6.10pm @ HOME Manchester – £7.50/5.50/5
Selected by artists AL and AL to screen alongside their superb new exhibition Incidents of Travel in the Multiverse, this avant-garde feature film, directed by David Blair, follows a beekeeper who contemplates — what else — the universe. Roving, as the exhibition does, through science fiction, mysticism and surrealism, expect reflections on NASA flight simulators, archaeology, and bees who inject a television-type display into the protagonist’s brain.
I Am Thomas: A Brutal Comedy With Songs 7.30pm @ Liverpool Playhouse — £28-10
A new piece of comic theatre with a live score — from Told by an Idiot, National Theatre Scotland, Royal Lyceum Theatre and acclaimed poet Simon Armitage — following ‘loud-mouthed, smart-arsed and likable’ university student Thomas Aikenhead in 1696 Edinburgh. Expect a romp through the consequences of of conservative religion, blasphemy and capital punishment, via very black comedy.
Saturday-Sunday — Exhibition Opening: 2053: A Living Museum 10am-5pm @ Tate Liverpool — FREE
Out of all An Imagined Museum’s 70 exhibited artworks — by Andy Warhol, Barbara Kruger, Bridget Riley (pictured) and more — how on earth would you choose just one to save and know by heart? This is the challenge facing volunteers this weekend at Tate; the exhibition’s finale, all artworks have disappeared from the galleries and will be remembered through live performance only. A risky move to highlight art under threat (via real-life budget cuts, political indifference and terrorism), expect weird and wonderful recollections spanning live music, dance, poetry and more. Read our coverage here.
Laura Robertson
