Culture Diary w/c 19-08-2019
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 – Opening: Third Space @ Artlink Hull – FREE
The son of an English mum and Moroccan dad, Hull-based Karim Skalli uses his photography to “[explore] identity through formative spaces”. Working narratively to interrogate and revisit the spaces and places in which he grew up, this project demonstrates the myriad conflicts and juxtapositions that can forge one’s identity. “I aim to understand my relationship with space, identity and familiarity,” Skalli has said.
Tuesday – Hail Satan? 6pm @ FACT Liverpool – £12.20
Speaking to Oscar-winning producer Mia Bays recently, I asked what films were on the horizon that we should be looking out for. At the top of her list? “We really love a film called Hail Satan?, by Penny Lane, which comes out at the end of August, that’s really terrific. It’s about the foundation and expansion of the Satanic Temple; the importance of separating church and state. It’s deeply political and very, very timely.” Since then we’ve been looking forward to it ourselves – catch it today.
Wednesday – Chance and Control: Douglas Dodds Lecture 5pm @ the Old Library, Chester – £3
Chance and Control (which continues until 8 September) celebrates 50 years and more of computer-generated art. It features early trailblazers Ben Laposky and Frederick Hammersley alongside artists practicing today, tracing the field’s development. Tonight you can hear from Douglas Dodds, Senior Curator at the V&A (who initiated the show), as he discusses the thinking behind the exhibition and the significance of the works and artists included.
Thursday – FrightFest @ the Prince Charles Cinema and Cineworld, Leicester Square, London – £210/£70/£59/£38
Dubbed “The Woodstock of Gore” by none other than Guillermo del Toro, since 2000, FrightFest has been presenting and celebrating the best in horror and fantasy cinema, scaring the bejesus out of the most hardened of audiences. 2019’s iteration sees the screening of twenty premieres, including the Soska Sisters, who have reimagined David Cronenberg’s Rabid for the twenty first century. Del Toro is represented (in producer mode) by the André Øvredal-directed Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.
Peter Broderick and Friends Play Arthur Russell 7pm @ 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool – £15
Cellist, composer, producer, singer, many a musician is indebted to the visionary yet obscure Arthur Russell (who died from an Aids-related illness in 1992). One such musician is Peter Broderick who, in 2017 was invited by his former Efterklang bandmate Rasmus Stolberg, to play a set of Russell’s songs at a festival in Denmark. Repaying the debt somewhat, in December last year an album – labour of love, Peter Broderick & Friends Play Arthur Russell – was released, the tour of which arrives in Liverpool tonight. Check ‘em out.
Friday – Manga Symposium 10am @ the British Library, London – £15/Concs
One of the few times I had something confiscated from me at school (I was unnaturally well-behaved) was Manga Mania, a publication showcasing some of the best manga, including Akira, Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. This year, a slew of exhibitions and events would have made adolescent me very happy indeed. The latest, complementing the ongoing Manga exhibition currently on display at the British Museum, is this symposium, which sets out with a simple question: What is Manga? by looking at the past, present and future of the artform.
Future Yard 1pm @ venues across Birkenhead, until Sunday – £40/£25/£20
The inaugural outing for a new music festival, brought to you by the folks behind Bido Lito! Used to seeing its neighbour across the water well served by the likes of Sound City, LIMF, Threshold and Psyche Fest et al, Future Yard sets its stall out with acts ranging from local to international. Anna Calvi and Bill Ryder-Jones headline, while Matt ‘Forest Swords’ Barnes presents PYLON, “a brand new installation project exploring the possibilities of tech and traditional instrumentation”. With weekend tickets going for £40, this is highly affordable Bank Holiday fun.
Saturday – OUTPUT OPEN 3 12pm @ Make Hamilton Square, Birkenhead – FREE
OUTPUT gallery decamps to Birkenhead for the weekend with group show OPEN 3, featuring ten artists based in or hailing from the Wirral. Selected from an open call, artists exhibiting include the likes of Vanessa Grundy, Mike Carney and Joseph Cotgrave. Pop along to get a look also at the venue – new creative hub, Make Hamilton Square.
Sunday – Closing: Sixteen @ Tate Liverpool – FREE
“Portraiture is a mysterious pursuit,” writes Joshua Turner in his TDN review of Craig Easton’s photographic project, Sixteen, which asks: ‘what’s it like to be sixteen years old now?’ This touring exhibition, constituent parts of which are currently on display in venues across Liverpool (including Open Eye Gallery, where you can catch it until 29 September as part of A Portrait Of…) comes to a close at Tate Liverpool today.
Mike Pinnington
Images, from top: Hail Satan?, 2019, film still, dir. Penny Lane; Karim Skalli, Artlink Hull; Soska Sisters’ Rabid, 2019, film still; Golden Kamuy, by Noda Satoru © Satoru Noda/SHUEISHA; Scott McCrory for SIXTEEN, courtesy the artist
