Culture Diary w/c 26-06-2023
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – Monday – Liverpool Biennial & Independents Biennial Ongoing – FREE
This iteration of the Biennial brings world class contemporary art to venues across the city, including Tate Liverpool, FACT, Open Eye and the Bluecoat, as well as so-called ‘found spaces’, such as the Tobacco Warehouse, Cotton Exchange and more. In parallel, the Independents Biennial draws attention to and celebrates the creativity that already exists in and around the region.
Read our review: Liverpool Biennial: A Reckoning
Tuesday – LUYANG SCREENING EVENT 6.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – FREE
Visitors to FACT Liverpool are currently being greeted by something that looks very much like a videogame arcade. In fact, that is exactly what LuYang Arcade is, with additional, initially hidden depths. To glimpse beneath the façade, you can gain more insight into the artist’s thinking with screenings of three of LuYang’s short films: Uterus Man (2013); LuYang Delusional Mandala (2015); and Electromagnetic Brainology Brain Control Messenger (2018).
Wednesday – Exhibition Opening: Look Up 4pm @ West Tower, Liverpool – FREE
Great use of the city’s 40-storey tall West Tower, Liverpool Radicals presents the aptly titled Look Up, an exhibition, which, says the blurb, embodies “the radicalism and creativity that define our city.” Including work by a trio of self-taught artists: Lost Hills, Steve Randall, and Alan Murray
The Last Rider 8.45pm @ FACT Liverpool – £12.20/concessions
Documentary tracing the incredible journey of cyclist Greg LeMond, who faced – and beat – near insurmountable odds (including betrayal, childhood sexual abuse and death) to triumph at the 1989 Tour de France. One of the great comebacks of sporting history.
Thursday – SealSkin 7.30pm @ Everyman, Liverpool – £15-£19
This updating of the selkie myth – in which shapeshifters can take on both seal and human form – from programme curators Tmesis Theatre kicks off Physical Fest. Expect a story of betrayal, power, otherness and loss – all seasoned with the award-winning company’s trademark physicality. Worth noting that on Saturday you can also join Tmesis for a creative writing workshop.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: The Case for Forcing: Luke George 6pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE
The latest in The Royal Standard’s quick turnover run of shows programmed for the Independents Biennial, The Case for Forcing constitutes Liverpool-based abstract painter Luke George’s most recent body of work. Reflections on and of the modern environment, George’s paintings instil “a sense of the strangeness in the seemingly normal.”
Saturday – Sheeptopia Festival 12pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £20
Absolute banger of a lineup curated and headlined by all round good eggs, Stealing Sheep. Here, the local faves foreground female and non-binary talent who, they say, “have been inspiring us,” to add up to a “utopian all-day festival experience”. Alongside the sophisticated pop of Stealing Sheep, you can look forward to cool indie-rock from The Orielles, the Japanese folk dance-inspired stylings of Yama Warashi, singer-songwriter Alice Low and more.
Saturday & Sunday – The Great Midsummer Spectacular @ Grosvenor Park, Chester – Ticket Prices Vary
Among other things, Shakespeare’s Athens-set comedy is transported to Chester’s Grosvenor Park. Running from this Saturday until 27 August, expect open air gigs, comedy, theatre and more
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: SealSkin promo; LuYang, Material World Knight (2018) still. Courtesy of the artist; The Last Rider trailer; Sheeptopia Festival poster
