Culture Diary w/c 26-11-2018
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!
Monday – Curator Talk: Manuela Moscoso 6.30pm @ John Lennon Art and Design Building, Liverpool – FREE
With Biennial 2018 over and dust still settling over the announcement that director Sally Tallant is leaving for pastures new, all eyes turn to tonight’s talk with Biennial 2020 curator Manuela Moscoso. Currently senior curator at Mexico City’s Tamayo Museo, Moscoso is also part of Zarigüeya, “a programme that activates relations between contemporary art and the pre-Columbian collection of the Museo de Arte Precolombino Casa del Alabado, Ecuador”. First chance to hear how this might transfer to the context of the UK’s largest festival of contemporary art.
Tuesday – Life Honestly on tour 6.30pm @ The Stoller Hall, Manchester – £25
Founded in 2015 by Sam Baker and Lauren Laverne, The Pool – whose remit is “interesting, inspiring, original content for busy women” – are touring their debut book, Life Honestly. Tonight, the tour hits Manchester, with contributing authors Zoë Beaty, Viv Groskop, Kat Lister and Tobi Oredein. Their interests and expertise include news journalism, comedy, arts and popular culture – so, many bases covered.
Wednesday – Powers of Ten & Particle Fever 6.30pm @ FACT, Liverpool – FREE
New FACT exhibition Broken Symmetries “brings together artists who aim to understand and question the physical world by navigating the shifting realities of modern science”. These complementary back-to-back screenings programmed by the University of Liverpool’s Literature & Science Hub look to help audiences see through the eyes of those involved in grand scientific projects and exploration.
Representing the People: Léger, Socialism and the Public Art 6pm @ Tate Liverpool – £5
Using examples from Tate Liverpool’s Fernand Léger exhibition, writer and journalist Owen Hatherley (whose books include The Ministry of Nostalgia, The Chaplin Machine: Slapstick, Fordism and the Communist Avant-Garde, and Trans-Europe Express) explores the influence of society and politics on modernism. Léger, empowered by the thrust and dynamism of the machine age, and a member of the communist party, should prove a fascinating and fitting subject.
Thursday – Cinema Paradiso: Shorts Programme 7pm @ Paradise Works, Salford – £4
These are exciting times for artist film: Rachel Maclean’s first feature Make Me Up! is available to watch on the iPlayer; Channel 4’s Random Acts continues to thrive; the winner of the Jarman Award announcement is this Tuesday. Tonight, meanwhile, sees Home Manchester’s Artist Film Weekender get underway at Paradise Works. Expect ten screenings, including Douwe Dijkstra’s portrait of Brazil, Green Screen Gringo (above), as well as live performances, sound installations and, sensibly, complimentary soup.
Friday – Immix Ensemble: INTONE by Laura Cannell and Ella Finer 7.30pm @ Tate Liverpool – £5
Immix, the “new music ensemble who focus on collaborations with innovative musical voices from across the UK with a focus on artists from the Merseyside area”, bring their 2018 programming to a close tonight with a new commission from Laura Cannell, performing alongside artist Ella Finer. The new work draws on musical traditions across the spectrum – from the 15th century idea of vocals as instrumentation, to ideas of duration found in artistic movements such as fluxus. New works by Immix’s composer-in-residence, Andrew PM Hunt, and artistic director Daniel Thorne also feature.
Saturday – Williamson Art Gallery at 90 11am @ the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead – FREE
This has been quite the year for big anniversaries in Merseyside artistic institutions. Perhaps overlooked, though, has been the 90th of Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery and Museum. Visit this Saturday for a day of celebration and the opening of two new shows – an exhibition of Wallasey born Hunter S. Thompson illustrator Ralph Steadman, and a retrospective of local artist Will Penn.
BOY AZOOGA presents LATE NIGHT CHRISTMAS KUNG-FU 7.30pm @ District, Liverpool – £10
1, 2 Kung Fu!, debut album from Cardiff’s Boy Azooga (below), was greeted this year with positive reviews to match the joyously optimistic vibe of the record. The band’s leader – if they have one – is Davey Newington, drummer for Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon. “The whole point of Boy Azooga” says Newington, “is to be a celebration of loads of different types of music. I wanted the album to be more like a mixtape or something. We wanted to include loads of contrasting styles.”
Sunday – The Image Book (2018), On General UK Release
Now 87, the veteran auteur best known as one of the figureheads of French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard continues to be remarkably active. Incorporating both cinema and reportage, essay film The Image Book (his fifth this millennium) – “A mediation on the nature of images and the West’s relationship with the Arab world” – was well received at Cannes earlier this year, where octogenarian Godard appeared via Facetime at a scheduled press conference!
Mike Pinnington
