Culture Diary w/c 12-08-2019
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 – New Writings: Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting to This Is England by Matt Glasby 7pm @ BFI Reuben Library, London – £6.50
The term Britpop is met with many a sneer, derided for its easy association with end-of-the-pier acts such as Ocean Colour Scene, Menswear and Kula Shaker. Prior to its co-opting by the mainstream, Cool Britannia and worse, however, the nascent movement also produced louche, sexually ambiguous homegrown pop. For an audience who’d grown tired of sludgy Grunge, it was a breath of fresh air. In his book Britpop Cinema, Matt Glasby makes the case for a filmic rejection of US culture; tonight the author and critic gives an illustrated talk, exploring Trainspotting to Shaun of the Dead.
Tuesday – Chto Delat’s The Songspiel Trilogy: Screening 6pm @ CCA Glasgow – FREE (booking required)
Albeit an unexpected medium for exploring political oppression, this triptych of pin-sharp musicals from Russian art collective Chto Delat show that singing and performance can be just as critical as any documentary. Expect short screenings of Perestroika Songspiel: Victory over the Coup (an ironic look at the real 1991 uprising that marked the end of the Soviet period), Partisan Songspiel: A Belgrade Story (about the Roma people being forcibly evicted), and Songspiel: The Tower (charting the general public’s fierce opposition to a new, 403-meter-high skyscraper in Petersburg). Be sure to check out Chto Delat’s free, concurrent CCA exhibition, Times, Lines 1989s: an alternative timeline of Glasgow’s history from the last 30 years.
Apocalypse Now: Final Cut 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool (+ nationwide) – £12.20
Francis Ford Coppola’s revered reimagining of Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, now has a Final Cut – restored from the original negative by the man himself. Coppola’s preferred version of his Vietnam War epic (this year celebrating its 40th anniversary), this never-before-seen edit pushes its run-time over the three-hour mark and can be considered definitive. Tonight’s screening includes a Q&A between Coppola and Steven Soderbergh (recorded at the Tribeca Film Festival in April).
Wednesday – Make A Zine! 11am-4pm @ Leeds Print Workshop – £40
At the excellent Leeds Print Workshop, and run by expert printer and zine maker Joanna Wilkinson, here’s a chance to create your own mini-magazine/book in a day. Welcoming beginners alongside those with existing printmaking or bookbinding skills, you’ll use sewing, letter stamps, stickers, photocopies, collage and typewriters to make a completely unique publication.
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Made It 2019 6pm @ Paradise Works, Salford – FREE
A good visual or fine art degree means supportive staff, a group of peers to talk things through with, bounce ideas off and compete with. But how to maintain momentum afterwards? Consider how few artists continue to make art post-university. Curated by graduate collective Short Supply, Made It 2019 steps in to fill the gap after the bursting of that particular bubble, giving North West artists – from Manchester School of Art, the University of Central Lancashire and University of Salford – some post-grad promotion. Crucially, there is also fiscal reward (Curator’s Choice wins £100), and the incentive of further exhibiting opportunities later in the year. Read Introducing: Short Supply
Laura Wilson Screening and Talk – Trained On Veda 6-8pm @ Site Gallery, Sheffield – FREE
What’s a loaf of bread got to do with choreography? It’s all about the moves. For her 2016 Site residency, artist and researcher Laura Wilson learned how to bake bread; her resulting performance Fold and Stretch saw three female dancers pull and pound a mass of dough equivalent to their own body weight. Tonight, she discusses the project with collaborator and baker Martha Brown, owner of Forge Bakehouse; expect a dive into Wilson’s interest in how history is contained in everyday materials, trades and craftsmanship.
Friday – Eraserhead 8.40pm @ HOME, Manchester – £9.50
With David Lynch exhibition My Head is Disconnected in situ at Home Manchester until the end of September, how better to complement a visit than by seeing his cinematic oeuvre too? Tonight sees the screening of Lynch’s debut feature, Eraserhead, a darkly surreal film which continues to intrigue more than 40 years after its release. Followed in quick succession by Dune and Blue Velvet, we wish those of you making a weekend of it pleasant dreams.
Saturday – Liverpool Horror Festival 12pm @ Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool – £8-£18
The horror genre is currently experiencing something of a high water mark both in terms of mainstream popularity and critical credibility (just read our recent opinion piece, Post-Horror? Give Audiences More Credit), but it seems to have been coming for some time. 2013 saw Liverpool Horror Club stage their first ever festival, and this year’s iteration runs from this afternoon through to midnight. Although the programme is fairly mysterious at time of print, we do know you can expect screenings (including 1989 cyberpunk cult classic, Tetsuo: The Iron Man), industry panels, performance and readings.
Sunday – Exhibition Closing: As seen on screen: Art and Cinema @ the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
Speaking to the Guardian’s Sean O’Hagan in 2014, the great collage artist John Stezaker outlined how and why he is drawn to using publicity stills shot for actors. Specifically, the “melancholy attached to the faces of actors that did not make it and to images that were destined to disappear”. Another who has mined the language of Hollywood to great effect is Cindy Sherman; her series of Untitled Films Stills ventriloquize the world of the 50s studio system in deliciously uncanny fashion. But art has drawn on cinema since its very inception. Exploring such rewarding conversations is the name of the game for Arts Council Collection show, As seen on screen, which comes to a close this Sunday. Read our review here.
Mike Pinnington and Laura Robertson
Images, from top: Chto Delat; Short Supply; Laura Wilson’s Trained On Veda; Liverpool Horror Festival
Feature image: Chto Delat, Perestroika Songspiel: Victory over the Coup
