Culture Diary w/c 14-02-2022
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 – Jules et Jim 18.20 @ FACT Liverpool – £7.90
The 1962 love triangle drama, Jules et Jim is, perhaps, not the valentine’s day viewing the uninitiated might imagine; it stars Henri Serre and Oskar Werner as the titular lifelong friends, each besotted with Jeanne Moreau’s Catherine. More an analysis of the complexities of love and friendship than traditional romance, it is nonetheless affecting and effervescent. The iconic Truffaut film celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
Tuesday – Asian futures, without Asians: An illustrated presentation by Astria Suparak 19.00, online – FREE
“What does it mean when so many white filmmakers envision futures inflected by Asian culture, but devoid of actual Asian people?” This is the question/departure point for Spike Island’s UK premiere of artist and curator Astria Suparak’s lecture, which grapples with what they describe as “a fungible ‘Asianness’ in futuristic sci-fi”. An historical problem stretching back to the dawn of Hollywood, it persists in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises (see 2016′s Doctor Strange, above), and in Western adaptations of anime classics such as 2017′s Ghost in the Shell, to name a few. The lecture is followed by a Q&A between Suparak, and programmer and researcher Jemma Desai.
Wednesday – Journeys Through The Tate Collection @ Tate Liverpool – FREE
This major collection rehang includes more than 80 works selected to address the impacts of the global movement of people – whether that be on individual artists or in the formation and nuances of art movements from the time of modernism to the present day. Split between the titles The Port & Migrations, and Global Encounters, expect a spread of the familiar and less so, including from Sonia Boyce, Ellen Gallagher (below), Piet Mondrian, Carmen Herrera, Donald Rodney, Naum Gabo and more.
Thursday – The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme @ venues across the UK
While it’s great that Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car has attracted serious Oscar attention with nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature and Best Screenplay, The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme represents broader opportunities still to engage with the country’s cinematic output. This showcase, bearing the title What Lies Beneath, includes a selection of films curated with dark psychological depths in mind. We can’t wait to dive in.
Friday – Bruce Asbestos: OK! Cherub! @ Bluecoat, Liverpool – FREE
Liverpool’s Bluecoat has, of late, been making tremendous use of its beautiful courtyard, by way of an introduction or preface to what you might find within, once you cross the threshold of the gallery proper (see Simon and Tom Bloor’s Platform from last summer). This Friday it’s the turn of Bruce Asbestos, whose OK! Cherub! – a collection of large-scale inflatable sculptures including a worm, frogspawn and a giant arm – look set to surprise and delight visitors of all ages.
PISSARRO: FATHER OF IMPRESSIONISM @ the Ashmolean, Oxford – £13.50
Celebrating a central figure in Impressionism, this exhibition spotlights Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), a father figure to a younger generation of artists – Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne among them. The latter referred to him as “a father… A man to consult and a little like the good Lord.” Leaving his mark on the worlds of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, PISSARRO: FATHER OF IMPRESSIONISM includes works spanning his career.
See On Our Radar: Art Exhibitions 2022 for more
Saturday – Angharad Williams: Picture the Others @ MOSTYN GALLERY – FREE
The first institutional solo show for Welsh artist and writer Angharad Williams, Picture the Others (above) will include film, painting, sculpture, and text in a semiotic exploration of power, control, and violence. Taking the form of a gallery-spanning installation, the new commission will seek to question the relationship between the individual and wider societal structures.
Sunday – Last Chance To See: Future Ages Will Wonder @ FACT Liverpool – FREE
FACT’s complex and nuanced group show, Future Ages Will Wonder, ponders ‘new ways of understanding who we are and where we belong’. Read Our Review: “A praxis centring on the power of the imagination.”
Last Chance To See: Jocelyn McGregor: Mantle @ Castlefield Gallery, Manchester – FREE
There is a terrible, uncanny and grotesque vibe (in a good way!) to the work of Jocelyn McGregor. As the exhibition blurb states: “A monstrous and fragmented body comes back to haunt the viewer.” Drawing influence from folklore, surrealism, horror and supernatural fiction across sculpture, installation, and animation, with Mantle, the artist’s first major solo exhibition, expect an exploration and dismantling of the ways in which female identity is bound up with nature, the home, and the machine.
Mike Pinnington
Images, from top: Doctor Strange (2016); Ellen Gallagher, Bird in Hand (2006) © the artist; 2022 Bruce Asbestos – OK! Cherub! Production Sketch © the artist; Angharad Williams, Picture the Others, 2022. Courtesy of the artist
