Culture Diary w/c 19-06-2017
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the UK – and most of it’s free!
Tuesday – Shirley Baker: On The Beach 10am–5pm @ Grundy Gallery, Blackpool — FREE
Perfect artwork for a heat wave, eh? Catch Salford-born photographer and social documentarian Shirley Baker’s glorious shots of holiday makers — Blackpool juxtaposed with the Côte d’Azur – reflecting two very different views of the 1970s. See it until 19 August.
Exhibition Opening: Lancaster University Degree Show: 53 More Things To Do In Zero Gravity 6.30–8pm @ The Peter Scott Gallery, LICA Building, Bowland Annexe, Lancaster — FREE
Get to see lush drawings from our Class of 2017 nominee Alexandra Francis (pictured, below) — “one of the most gifted and intelligent young artists Lancaster has produced” – in addition to final work from all the creative, and we expect very proud, Lancaster Uni graduates. Show continues until 27 June.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Wednesday – Premiere: David Jacques: Oil Is The Devil’s Excrement 7—9pm @ The Bluecoat, Liverpool — £4/3
“Ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see; oil will bring us ruin. Oil is the Devil’s excrement…” Artist David Jacques’ new animated short film, Oil is the Devil’s Excrement, screens tonight; taking on capitalism, weird fiction, karaoke and biopolitics. If you liked the dystopian nature of the Bluecoat’s current exhibition, Larissa Sansour: In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain, expect to like this.
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: The New Observatory 12.30—8pm @ FACT, Liverpool — FREE
With a huge variety of works attempting to re-evaluate the way we observe life around us — including animation from Jackie Karuti (There Are Worlds Out There They Never Told You About, 2016, main picture and below), and alternative maps from Yu-Chen Wang (I Wish to Communicate with You, 2017) – expect an ambitious collaboration with international artists, the Open Data Institute and FACT this Thursday. Don’t miss the artist talks and lectures happening today only, from 12.30pm, plus performances from 6-8pm. Show continues until 1 October.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: Portraying A Nation: Germany 1919–1933 10.30—5.30pm @ Tate Liverpool — £12/10
Rather grim but essential viewing, Tate’s new top-floor shows present two contrasting sides to pre-Hitler (or Weimar Republic) Germany: the glamour and the poverty. Expect surreal, sensual portraiture from painter Otto Dix: The Evil Eye (pictured, below); and documentary, photographic portraiture from ARTIST ROOMS: August Sander, and his series People of the Twentieth Century. Until 15 October.
Saturday – Marshmallow Laser Feast: IRIS 10.30-11.30am @ The Lowry, Salford — FREE
Our favourite laser-wielding creative studio have returned to the North-West with a new show (video, top); if you haven’t seen it already, take the opportunity today, or (last chance) Sat 8 July, 10.30–11.30am. Turning The Lowry’s Lyric Theatre into a kinetic canvas of sorts, expect an immersive blast of light, sound, colour and technology that feels out the space around it. Read our interview with the artists here.
Liverpool(e): Mover, Shaker, Architectural Risk-Taker Curator Tour @ RIBA North, Liverpool – FREE
Going to press, the time for this event has yet to be confirmed, so keep an eye out for updates. Expect to see RIBA North’s brand new building AND its inaugural exhibition, entitled Liverpool(e), through the eyes of curator Joseph Sharples. How have architects of different periods been challenged by some of the most important sites in Liverpool?
Sunday – Analogue Experimental 11am @ BFI Southbank, London — £80
Are you an artist filmmaker? Then this workshop is for you: a rare opportunity to work with small gauge photochemical film formats — including 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm – under the watchful eye of expert tutor James Holcombe, from London-based moving image lab no.w.here. Expect to see lots of experimental films, in addition to shooting, processing and viewing your own Super 8 footage — plus lunch and refreshments. Remember to bring your own camera if you have one!
Laura Robertson, Editor
Images, from top: Class of 2017 nominee Alexandra Francis, of Lancaster University; image courtesy the artist. Jackie Karuti, There Are Worlds Out There They Never Told You About, 2016, courtesy the artist. Part of The New Observatory, Gallery 1, at FACT, Liverpool, 2017. Otto Dix, Reclining Woman on a Leopard Skin 1927 © DACS 2017. Collection of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. Gift of Samuel A. Berger; 55.031.
