Culture Diary w/c 07-06-21
Welcome to Culture Diary – a roundup of the current arts, design, film and music events that have taken our eye. Loads of new shows have either opened or reopened recently. So, if you’re itching to hit the galleries and museums, we’ve got you covered. We’re also conscious that many are happy to acclimatise that bit more slowly, so we’ve included some choice online options, too. Stay safe everyone!
DJ Paulette Presents Together 7 – 11 Jun @ Homeground, Manchester – FREE
Homeground, the new outdoor space from Home MCR, is an incredibly welcome and well-timed addition for summer. Its offer includes music, cabaret and comedy – and tidy-looking food and drink, natch. Programming continues this week with DJ Paulette Presents Together; the legend Paulette provides the vibes herself, from 5.30pm tonight (Tuesday).
The Last Bohemian: Augustus John @ Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral – FREE
Amid the wealth of contemporary art on offer, some more traditional exhibitions can easily get lost. But The Last Bohemian: Augustus John presents something of an oasis in the hubbub, especially for those favouring the figurative. Britain’s leading portrait painter at the turn of the twentieth century, John moved to Liverpool in 1901 to take up a teaching post at the Liverpool School of Architecture and Applied Art (now part of the University of Liverpool). This exhibition explores the artist and his time in the city.
John Moores Painting Prize @ the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, continues – FREE
Placing painting front and centre, the John Moores Painting Prize continues. Featuring the work of 67 different artists, the exhibition illustrates the ongoing relevance and vitality of the form, which we have explored in a dedicated series of articles ranging from memoir to short story. Read Co-Founder Laura Robertson’s response to China category prize winner, Li Qing’s The Window (pictured above).
Gary Zhexi Zhang: Cycle 25 @ Bloc Projects, Sheffield – FREE
Legal and financial machinations aren’t the most obvious of departure points for an exhibition but try telling artist Gary Zhexi Zhang that. Interested in knowledge systems and technical systems, along with the politics and desires that shape their pursuit, Zhexi Zhang turns to found artefacts for an exploration into their occult foundations. Cycle 25 – which refers to the number of the current solar cycle – considers the hypothetical influence of the sun on terrestrial markets, a practice whose beginnings can be traced back to the first modern economic crisis in 1825.
The New Bauhaus: The Life & Legacy of Moholy-Nagy, Wednesday 6pm, Online – £5
In 2019, the Bauhaus celebrated the centenary of its founding. The legacy of the radical German art school (which operated from 1919 until 1933), in both its teachers and students, is remarkable. One of those spoken about in hushed tones of reverence is Hungarian-born László Moholy-Nagy, whose Utopian intent was to train artists to live “happier lives in modernity.” This odyssey in film tracks the life and career of Moholy-Nagy, who journeyed to the US fleeing Nazism’s crackdown, transplanting Bauhaus ideals to Chicago, at a so-called New Bauhaus.
Communicating A Crisis, Thursday 6pm, Online – FREE
Chaired by Open Eye Gallery curator Mariama Attah, this online talk asks how, via photography and visual culture, we might communicate the immediacy of the climate crisis. Attah will be joined by Joycelyn Longdon from Climate in Colour and West Coast Photo festival commissioned artists Mishka Henner and Vaseem Bhatti for an evening of conversation, presentations and audience Q&A.
Dark Days, Luminous Nights, Until Thursday @ The White Hotel, Salford – £12 General / £10 Concs / £5 Salford Residents
Five years ago, artist Simon Buckley set to work on a series of photographs that would come to be known collectively as Not Quite Light. The intent was to reconsider his home city of Manchester. Fast forward to today and the photographs form part of a new collaborative immersive audio-visual work with Manchester Collective, called Dark Days, Luminous Nights. Blending music, dance, photography, and film, catch Dark Days… until Thursday.
Read A Tale Whose Time Has Come: Dark Days, Luminous Nights
Lake Turner + Sam Wiehl, Saturday @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £12.50
Long one of our favourite creatives, Sam Wiehl must also be one of the most versatile. From visual art to the music video, now Wiehl has teamed up with electronic musician Lake Turner (whose debut album Videosphere was released late last year), for a new immersive work debuting live (yes, live, in real life) this weekend at Future Yard. The duo will be ably supported by Lo Five in this limited capacity, socially-distanced show. Those unable to attend in person can stream Turner + Wiehl via Kompakt.
Mike Pinnington
Images & media, from top: The Last Bohemian: Augustus John trailer; Li Qing, The Window (2018); The New Bauhaus: The Life & Legacy of Moholy-Nagy trailer; Simon Buckley, from the series Not Quite Light
