Culture Diary w/c 22-01-2018
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the North of England and the rest of the UK – and loads of it’s free!
Tuesday – Exhibition Opening: Glenn Brown: Come To Dust 6–8pm @ Gagosian, London – FREE
Anyone who names one of their paintings after a CSS song (Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above (2017), pictured below) is alright in our book, quite frankly. Tonight, painter Brown unveils his first major exhibition in London since 2009; expect inclredibly detailed and rich oil paintings, drawings and sculptures referencing literature, religion, art history, and “the ineluctability of death”.
Wednesday – Psycho (1960) – Hotel Hotel! 6.30—8.30pm @ Nottingham Contemporary — All Films £5/5 For £20
Part of a new season of classic films about or based in hotels and motels, tonight’s feature is set – of course – in a place that encapsulates everything that could go wrong: The Bates Motel. If you haven’t already seen this voyeuristic thriller, do: it’s still as hair-raising nearly 60 years on, thanks to Hitchcock’s experimental film techniques (don’t miss the double exposure of Anthony Perkins’ grinning, murderous face with a human skull) and Bernard Herrmann’s electric score.
Writing On The Wall’s Jigsaw Book Launch 7—8.30pm @ Studio2 Parr Street, Liverpool – FREE
We’ve been honoured to work with Writing on the Wall this last 12 months, teaching on one of their writing courses. This is the third anthology – entitled Jigsaw – published off the back of all that new writing. Expect live readings of the stories, poems, reviews and observations from Liverpool-based students and an opportunity to buy the book.
Thursday – Master Class: Jake Chapman 7–9pm @ Zabludowicz Collection, London – FREE (Booking Required)
Join enfant terrible Jake Chapman (below) – of artist duo Jake & Dinos Chapman – tonight as he discusses his clever, explicit, funny and, at times, childish work, which include painting over priceless Goya prints, and making model villages of Nazi atrocities. Expect an insight into his favourite commissions, and into his experiments with printmaking, painting and sculpture.
Friday – Dear Esther Live 8pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic Hall — £18.50/14.50
Who is Esther and where is she? Why is this lonely, gruff man stuck on an abandoned Hebridean island, writing letters to her? What are the strange, alien markings that cover shipwrecks, abandoned cottages and cave walls? If you love gaming, strings, sopranos, storytelling, and just plain bonkers experiences, this is for you: a live, apocalyptic murder-mystery from BAFTA-nominated narrator Oliver Dimsdale and BAFTA-winning composer Jessica Curry (below).
Saturday – Manchester Collective: The Edge Of Fantasy 7.30pm @ Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool — £18–5
A contemporary string quartet taking on the theme of fantasy, expect Manchester Collective to whisk you away to Eastern Europe tonight with a section of frenetic and hallucinatory tales; including Leoš Janáček’s Kreutzer Sonata – based on Tolstoy’s tragic, 1889 novella about a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who is drawn to a handsome violinist – and Henryk Górecki’s folk-influenced, brooding Quasi una Fantasia.
Sunday – The Prince Of Nothingwood (2016) 1pm @ Storyhouse, Chester – £8.50/6
Described by Sight & Sound as “a careful, affectionate and intelligent journey through contemporary Afganistan”, Sonia Kronlund’s debut documentary about charismatic, cult filmmaker Salim Shaheen is getting plenty of praise. Expect a behind-the-scenes look at his 110 film-oevre, his tough life and joyous approach to creativity.
Pandora’s Box (1929) Live Accompaniment + Intro 1.30pm @ HOME, Manchester – £7/5/5.50/4
Starring iconic flapper girl Louise Brooks as Lulu – showgirl, seductress, and the ruin of all men left in her wake – this controversial sexual melodrama from Weimar-era theatre and film director G. W. Pabst’s seems to epitomise his attitude to film, famously stating: “What counts is the image”. Enjoy Brooks’ striking performance alongside a live musical accompaniment by silent film musician and composer Stephen Horne.
Laura Robertson, Editor
Images, from top: video of Sonia Kronlund discussing her film The Prince Of Nothingwood (2016). Glenn Brown, Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above (2017), oil on panel. Jake Chapman portrait, courtesy Nic Serpell-Rand Photography. Still from Dear Esther. Still from Pandora’s Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks
