Culture Diary w/c 03-02-2020
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 – Isobel Campbell 8pm @ Liverpool Philharmonic Hall – £19/£16
It’s almost two decades since Isobel Campbell left Belle & Sebastien, and almost as long since her last solo album, but this Friday sees the release of ze newie, There Is No Other. “The main thing with this album was to find my own voice…” says Campbell, “a record without reference points. Any influences were sub-conscious. Even if what came up was strange or odd, it was just me.” Tonight’s show sees the Glasgow-born singer-songwriter and cellist play the Phil’s Music Room before a spate of further UK, then European, dates.
Parasite + satellite Q&A with Bong Joon Ho 6pm @ selected cinemas, nationwide – Prices vary
Freshly minted at last night’s BAFTAs as Best Foreign Language Film as well as Best Original Screenplay, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is previewed in cinemas this evening with the added bonus of a satellite Q&A. Those familiar with the director’s 2006 picture The Host (in which dumped military pollutants foreshadow sightings of a mutant amphibious creature) may be forgiven for assuming that this is a sequel of sorts. But, commenting on engrained social strata, the film is more satirical suspense thriller than ecological sci fi. Wherever it fits, it’s a fair bet that those BAFTAs won’t be the last of the awards garnered by Parasite. If you miss out tonight, don’t worry, it’s on general release from Friday.
Tuesday – Mishka Henner 11am @ the Whitworth, Manchester – FREE
When he was exhibited at the Open Eye Gallery in 2013, we called Mishka Henner’s Precious Commodities a must-see show. Known for his work with digital technologies, Henner pushes the bounds of what has traditionally been considered photography – in a good way. Using images drawn from the Internet, satellites and television, he collects and collages together the semiotics of the 21st century, questioning the value of photography and often exposing the traumas of late capitalism in the process. Catch him in conversation today.
Wednesday – Re-considering Kazan: An Illustrated Talk by Geoff Andrew + A Letter to Elia 6.10pm @ BFI Southbank, London – £13.75/£6
A director, producer, writer and actor, for a significant period of Hollywood History, Elia Kazan’s name was (and, in fact, remains) a byword for quality. Involved in the industry from the late 1930s, Kazan’s films as director include On the Waterfront, East of Eden and Baby Doll. Collecting Oscar nominations and wins with ease, tonight’s talk and screening of Scorsese’s 2010 doc kicks off a season of dedicated programming under the banner Elia Kazan: The Actors’ Director.
Thursday – The Drawing Show at The Bridewell 6pm @ the Bridewell, Liverpool – FREE
Drawing. As children, it’s something we all do and take pleasure in. Then, as adolescence, a bad experience with a teacher or something else gets in the way, most of us – almost inexplicably – stop. For those who don’t, it might become a starting point or an avenue elsewhere – painting, or sculpture, for instance. For others it is a means to an end, as evidenced by the opening tonight of Bridewell Studios’ latest exhibition, The Drawing Show. Including some of our own favourites such as Penny Davenport, Mike Carney and Jon Barraclough (above), we’re very much looking forward to how different practitioners respond to the ‘works on paper’ brief. For a double dose of Merseyside based visual art, stay local with OUTPUT OPEN 4.
Friday – Refractive Pool: Contemporary Painting in Liverpool Symposium from 9.30am @ The Capstone Theatre, Liverpool
Founded in 1957, September this year marks the latest edition of the biennial Liverpool John Moores Painting Prize. It is apt, then, to closely consider painting in the city the prize calls home. This is where Refractive Pool comes in, “a project exploring contemporary painting based practice in the Liverpool city region”. With presentations from Liverpool based artists James Quin, Joana Oliveira Guerreiro and Gareth Kemp as well as a panel discussion and intro from Refractive Pool’s own Josie Jenkins, key points up for discussion will be “environment, platforms to show work, audiences and relationships within the artistic community”.
Yelena Popova ‘The Scholar Stones Project’ @ the Holden Gallery, Manchester – FREE
Last seen by us in Paradise Works’ impressive group show Buffer Zones, artist Yelena Popova is back in Manchester with The Scholar Stones Project, an exhibition exploring the connections between the nuclear industry, landscape and the passage of time. Including painting, installation and large-scale tapestries, Popova has said: “I took a traditional Asian scholar rock concept (a stone for contemplation and an early form of engagement with abstraction) as the catalyst for my project: travelling around nuclear sites, learning about the decommissioning process and attempting to find a stone which represents the local landscape and my encounter with it.”
Saturday – The Work of Art in the Post-Human Age 10am @ Tate Liverpool – £5/£3
The future of art has likely been pondered since the dawn of art itself – certainly by generations long before our own. Today, though, it isn’t so much what medium, movement or discipline – rather, what happens to art on the cusp of the ‘post-human’ of this conference’s title. The event uses Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (from 1935) as its starting point to open lines of enquiry around originality, genius, beauty and politics.
Sunday – Horror Legends: Tobe Hooper from 1pm @ Stockport Plaza, Manchester – £23.50/£7.50
A day dedicated to the films of influential horror director Tobe Hooper. Comprising The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Salem’s Lot, the best of Hooper’s oeuvre, it seems, is to be found in Stockport. Staving off the Sunday blues with what former head of the BBFC James Ferman will no doubt have referred to as “an exercise in the pornography of terror”, we can only say bravo.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media from top: Isobel Campbell, Hey World; Mishka Henner (courtesy Mark McNulty); Jon Barraclough; Yelena Popova, Keepsafe (I and II), design for two Jacquard woven tapestries (2019)
