Culture Diary w/c 14-01-2019

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 – A Lovely Word 7pm @ Everyman Bistro, Liverpool – FREE

Taking place the second Monday of every month, A Lovely Word is “Liverpool’s most eclectic poetry & spoken word evening”. Tonight join Yemeni-Scouse writer, spoken-word performer and activist Amina Atiq, co-writer (with Christine Bacon) of What Do I Know – which premiered at Liverpool Arab Arts festival summer 2018 – as she explores identity and politics in her work.

Tuesday – L8 Laffs: Sidewalk Stories 6.30pm @ Granby Winter Garden, Liverpool – £3

L8 Laffs continues this evening with Sidewalk Stories. This near silent 1989 tribute to Chaplin and slapstick (starring and directed by Charles Lane) was described on release by Roger Ebert as “endlessly inventive”. An opportunity to reconnect with quietly nuanced on screen happenings (as opposed to the bombast of blockbusters), Sidewalk Stories transports us to another era.

Sphynx-Jerwood

Wednesday – Jerwood Solo Presentations 2019: Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Kitty Clark, Sofia Mitsola @ Jerwood Space, London – FREE

This year’s Jerwood Solo Presentations – “a platform for artists to present a new and focussed body of work” – features Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Kitty Clark and Sofia Mitsola (work pictured above). Boakye-Yiadom’s audio and video installations deal with “cultural narratives” of resonance; Clark, meanwhile, works in sculpture, moving image, text and digital media to interrogate “ideals, anxieties, and aspirations” of the present; adapting Greek and Egyptian mythology, Mitsola’s paintings look afresh at the female figure. A chance to consider three artists who, say the Jerwood Arts team, are “at a crucial point in their thinking” and, therefore, their careers.

Thursday – Messengers by Bridget Riley @ The National Gallery, London – FREE

New work from octogenarian Bridget Riley is not to be sniffed at. For so long in the vanguard of British modernism, her creative output remains of acute interest, and this week sees the National Gallery unveil Messengers. Measuring 10 x 20 metres and painted directly onto the Gallery’s Annenberg Court, its title is inspired by a phrase Constable used when referring to clouds.

Annie Pootoogook, detail, courtesy the artist

Friday – Liverpool Biennial Touring Programme: Inci Eviner / Suki Seokyeong Kang / Annie Pootoogook @ Humber Street Gallery, Hull – FREE

If you missed the strong 2018 iteration of the Liverpool Biennial, don’t despair. This week sees the opening of the first in their touring programme of exhibitions in spaces across the North of England. Including Inci Eviner, Suki Seokyeong Kang and Annie Pootoogook (above), Hull’s Humber Street Gallery gets things underway in fine style.

The Mark Fisher Memorial Lecture 2019 6pm @ Goldsmiths University, London – FREE

When Mark Fisher died in 2017, he left behind him a body of work the import of which is still to be fully assessed. Considered “required reading for a generation”, writing in the Guardian, Simon Reynolds described Fisher’s K-Punk blog, in which he collected thoughts and opinion on the condition of the present, as “reanimat[ing] the polymath, autodidact spirit of the golden-age rock press, where music held a privileged status – but film, TV, fiction and politics were in the mix too”. This year’s lecture – Capitalism is the end of world – is given by Jodi Dean, Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

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Saturday – Artist’s Talk: Kevin Crooks 1pm @ Artlink Hull – FREE

Since 2017 artist Kevin Crooks has been documenting (through photography, film and audio) the experience of individuals and community groups in the port cities of Hull and Liverpool. Updated for his current exhibition You’re Only Here for the Culture to include accounts of people in the aftermath of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture and Hull’s time as UK City of Culture, here Crooks discusses his artistic process.

Discussion: What was Art School? 1pm @ the Bluecoat, Liverpool – £3

In their current (and very poignant) exhibition at the Bluecoat – The Art Schools of North West England – John Beck and Matthew Cornford present photographs and ephemera relating to 30 sites of art and education in the region. This afternoon’s panels explore the exhibition’s themes and set out to answer questions including “where were the art schools and what has happened to them, what is the role of art education and [what is] the place of art in contemporary Britain?”

School_of_Science_and_Art,_Technical_College,_Barrow-in_Furnes_-_3O4A8795_MED

Sunday – Tigran Hamasyan 8pm @ RNCM, Manchester – £25

After more than a decade spent living in the US, Armenian musician Tigran Hamasyan’s response was to record An Ancient Observer. On the 2017 record (and its companion EP For Gyumri), Hamasyan reflected on his return home to an Armenia full of contrasts between the ancient and the modern. The resulting album is itself one of contrasts – drawing on everything from classical Baroque dance to hip-hop.

Mike Pinnington

Media/images, from top: Tigran Hamasyan; Sofia Mistola; Annie Pootoogook; Kevin Crooks; The Art Schools of North West England

Posted on 14/01/2019 by thedoublenegative