Culture Diary w/c 28-10-2019
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 – The Shining 8.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £7.70
Halloween must be around the corner (or, perhaps more accurately, lurking behind the door with an axe), because “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” Spawning myriad references, it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between Simpsons Treehouse of Horror pastiche and Kubrick’s (highly successful) dalliance with the genre. Adapted from Stephen King’s novel of the same name (and that’s where key similarities end, says King) it stars Jack Nicholson (on fine form) as a recovering alcoholic father who goes mad from cabin fever in a remote haunted hotel. With Shelley Duvall as his terrorised wife (who reportedly almost quit the production) and Danny Lloyd as his psychic son amply supporting.
Tuesday – Back to Black: Black Radicalism with Kehinde Andrews 6pm @ Waterstones Liverpool One – £2.50/£3.50
Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University and author of Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century, join Kehinde Andrews this evening for this in-conversation with Madeline Henighan, director of Writing On The Wall. Tracing black resistance to slavery and colonialism and discussing figures such as Marcus Garvey, Angela Davis, the Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter activists of today, Andrews’ book is an urgent and crucial insight into society’s problem with race and racism.
Wednesday – Book Launch: Present Tense 6.30pm @ Tate Liverpool – £2
Join us for the official launch of Present Tense: A decade since Liverpool EU Capital of Culture… What now? Hear from us, the book’s editors, Laura Robertson and Mike Pinnington, and two of our superb authors, Jacob Bolton and Stephanie Bailey. Enjoy an evening of live readings, drinks and conversation about a decade of change to Liverpool’s cultural landscape. Through eight new essays on the city’s past, present and future, Present Tense (available on the night if you want to get your hands on a crisp new copy) features daring new voices in art criticism, alongside acclaimed writers from some of our favourite (and the world’s biggest) art publications. Join us in the pub afterwards if you fancy.
Exhibition Opening: David Ogle: A Horizon Collapsed 6pm @ Standpoint Gallery, London – FREE
We’re big fans of Liverpool-based artist David Ogle, last seen in an exhibition of works responding to the landscape, elements and environment around the Sefton coastline. Here, in new works, Ogle combines sculpture, video, photography and drawing, developing the theme: “I am fascinated by the ways in which natural landscapes can evolve and change each time you visit them” he has said. “The work in this exhibition seeks to question our fundamental attachment to these places and the constituent elements that bring meaning and resonance to confronting them.”
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Joana de Oliveira Guerreiro 6pm @ OUTPUT gallery, Liverpool – FREE
An exhibition which is the very definition of timely (given it opens on the date that Boris Johnson erroneously assured his cronies he would deliver the UK from Europe). Joana de Oliveira Guerreiro’s paintings and animations deal with Brexit, its ironies, absurdities and peculiarities. Conceived and produced during a residency in Valladolid, Spain – supported by CreArt: a creative network of European cities, of which Liverpool is part – de Oliveira Guerreiro (previously a military strategist for NATO in Brussels no less) will no doubt bring to bear her experiences and relative distance to the gift that refuses to keep on giving. Expect much snark and side eye from OUTPUT’s final show of 2019.
Exhibition Opening & Afterparty: you feel me_ 6pm @ FACT Liverpool – FREE
Liverpool’s FACT concludes a year of female-led programming with you feel me_, a show that ‘invites you into a world free from division and bias, imagined by artists’. From VR experience to space-set neon-lit restaurant, the exhibition includes Rebecca Allen, Anna Bunting-Branch, Megan Broadmeadow, Phoebe Collings-James, Brandon Covington Sam-Sumana, Aliyah Hussain and Salma Noor, comprising ‘a collection of immersive artworks about power that create a space for healing’.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: Sof’ya Shpurova ‘Low Human Activity’ @ the Holden Gallery, Manchester – FREE
A touch surreal and full of rich narrative implications derived from mysticism, poetry, religious iconography and family history, Russian artist Sof’ya Shpurova’s paintings (above) are on display at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Holden Gallery from this week. Discussing the work in this, her first solo exhibition, in a recent interview, Shpurova said: “there is a consistent theme of ‘hiding’, possibly because I’ve been so scared recently. I guess there has been a conflict in conceiving a project of this nature, a large solo exhibition where there is nowhere for me to hide”.
Saturday – Exhibition Opening: Fanspeak @ Castlefield Gallery, Manchester – FREE
As the blurb for this new exhibition points out, Fan Speak might be defined as ‘[the] slang or jargon present in fandom, particularly the acronyms, in-jokes and obscure terms used among readers and writers of science fiction fanzines’. Taking this as their departure point, eight artists (alongside Salford Zine Library) respond with sculpture, painting and video to interrogate pop culture references and, dare we say it, obsession. Selected by Nottingham Contemporary’s Sam Thorne and curated by Manchester-based Shy Bairns collective, look out for works by Kurdwin Ayub, Lydia Blakeley, Maya Ben David, Graham Dolphin, Ashley Holmes, Owen G Parry, Beth Emily Richards, Rosa-Johan Uddoh.
Sunday – ROOT-ed zine Issue 9 Launch 1pm @ the Bluecoat, Liverpool
Founded in 2018 by artists Amber Akaunu and Fauziya Johnson, ROOT-ed Zine responds to ‘a lack of representation in university, media, galleries and museums’. Relevant as ever, the duo’s latest issue – which focuses on Black History Month, LGBTQIA+ concerns and mental health – explores how three of the biggest challenges of our times interlink and overlap in contemporary society.
Mike Pinnington
Images from top: The Shining; Present Tense; Sof’ya Shpurova: The clay veined girl holds trem-bling skin. (me as a retort); ROOT-ed Zine
