Culture Diary w/c 15-04-2019
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 – Exhibition On Screen: Rembrandt (Encore) 6.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £17.50
The name Rembrandt is synonymous with the term Old Master, and many think of the Dutch draughtsman, painter and printmaker as one of the greatest artists ever to have lived. This film, made on the occasion of exhibitions at the National Gallery, London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, interweaves elements of the two shows with aspects of his life story, seeking to “explore the truth about the man behind the legend”.
Tuesday – Art and Class: Is Everyone Welcome? 6pm @ Preston Playhouse – FREE
Ever felt like stepping into an art gallery or museum took some doing? What about if you’d like to work in one of them some day? For any of us who consider ourselves working class, this can be fraught with myriad concerns, largely around the question of whether or not we’re truly welcome in those spaces. This event asks the pertinent question: “How diverse are the cultural industries when it comes to social class?” Featuring insight from Dave O’Brien, author of the Panic! report on inequality in cultural and creative jobs and audiences, as well as artists William Titley, Rebecca Davies and Marlene Smith, The Double Negative will be represented by co-founders Mike Pinningon and Laura Robertson, discussing the Class IS A Big Deal strand of articles.
Wednesday – Tirzah 7pm @ 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool – £11
Produced by Mica Levi, Tirzah’s 2018 debut long player, Devotion, was voted album of the year by both Mixmag and Bleep. Described by some as compelling imperfect pop, this is layered, haunting music to mull over, appreciate, and it rewards with additional listens. Sophisticated in ways much of what we’d describe as pop absolutely isn’t, writing in the Guardian, Laura Snapes spoke of “texture and mood”, great descriptors of the sculpted sound achieved here by Tirzah and Levi.
Wicked Women: Reimagining Gender and Fairytale 6pm @ FACT Liverpool – FREE
The stories we are told as kids often inform and affirm the way we think about identity and gender. FACT’s recently opened exhibition featuring artists Ericka Beckman and Marianna Simnett deals with these tropes overtly, and tonight’s Wicked Women event explores “the female archetypes that are woven into our histories and contemporary society”. Artist Simnett is joined by Dr Francesca Sobande (Digital Media Studies Lecturer at Cardiff University), who focuses on issues concerning race, gender, digital space and pop culture, and the exhibition’s curator, Leslie Taker.
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Lucy Jane Smith 6pm @ OUTPUT gallery, Liverpool – FREE
OUTPUT gallery kick-off their latest run of shows tonight with Lucy Jane Smith’s first solo Liverpool exhibition. Including work developed by Smith on a graduate residency at Wakefield’s Art House (following the completion of a BA in Fine Art last year at LJMU), the artist focuses on the realms of politics, identity and authenticity. Working with cheap materials and found objects to produce collage, illustrations and installations, her aim is an art that finds ways to “connect with others, rather than a conduit for business and insincere networking”.
Friday – Back to the Future In Concert 7.30pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic – £25, £38.50, £48.50, £55
I was seven years old in 1985. I remember distinctly going to the cinema with a bunch of friends (and one of their parents) to see Back to the Future – with its shiny time-travelling DeLorean, triumphant underdog stories abound and youthful rebellion, it was a sure-fire hit. Today, the film remains meaningful to that first-generation audience, and no doubt others, who can this week experience it with a live orchestra. Conducted by Czech National Symphony Orchestra playing in sync with the projected film, there will also be additional music by BTTF’s award-winning composer Alan Silvestri.
Saturday – Radio Local: Wirral by Hunt & Darton from 8am @ Cherry Tree Shopping Centre, Liscard, Wirral – FREE
“Built with, by and for local people”, artists Jenny Hunt & Holly Darton’s Radio Local project takes the stories, news and jingles of said locals and broadcasts them live throughout the day in their pop-up radio station. With guest presenters, including artists/DJs Victoria Melody, and Siân Baxter, the “hyper-local” station uses art and performance to connect – via the broadcast – with communities, to draw out and platform ideas and creativity. Listen live on the day on site, or on Radio Wirral.
Sunday – Exhibition Closing: Medicine Now @ Wellcome Collection, London – FREE
A free museum and library, London’s Wellcome Collection “aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health”. One aspect in which it does this is through its often superb and thought-provoking exhibitions. One of which, Medicine Now, has been on display as part of its permanent exhibitions for the last 12 years, and is finally due to come down this month. Reflecting the interests of the field via topics including the body, genomes, obesity and medical science, it features work by Luke Jerram, John Isaacs, Ellie Harrison and from The Institute of Plastination.
Mike Pinnington
Images from top: Marianna Simnett, The Udder 2014, © Rob Battersby; Art and Class © the artist; Lucy Jane Smith; Radio Local/Hunt & Darton
