Culture Diary w/c 24-07-2023
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – The Drawing (Paper) Show @ Bridewell Studios and Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
Drawing – so often seen merely as the preliminary steps before the ‘real’ art is made – is, quite rightly, celebrated in and of itself here, with the joyous return of The Drawing Paper. A publication last seen in 2015, 2023 sees it return in earnest with 50 artists (both local and global) foregrounding drawing for drawing’s sake in this exhibition, and a special, new edition of the Drawing Paper.
Further Reading: In Pictures: Drawing(Paper)Show 2023 – Curators’ Picks
Tuesday – Exhibition Closing: Maeve Thompson: Rabbit Holes in the Playing Field @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE
Last chance to see this first solo show for Maeve Thompson, an artist working across sculpture, film, field notes and installation to explore themes of personal histories, place and the urban and organic mundane.
Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) 9pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
Debut documentary from Anton Corbijn, exploring Hipgnosis, the design studio behind iconic album sleeve artwork from Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin to 10cc and Paul McCartney. Includes archive footage and interviews with some of the many musicians the innovative, ground-breaking studio worked with over the years.
Wednesday – The Utopia Strong + Daniel Thorne 7pm @ Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool – £15
Steve Davis, Kavus Torabi, and Michael J. York are The Utopia Strong. Of their self-titled debut, Torabi has said that the electronic innovators “didn’t expect the music to sound so ecstatic and positive… Without wanting to puncture the mystery, there really felt like an element of magic at play.” Now touring in support of follow up album, 2022′s International Treasure, they’re joined on the Liverpool leg by Immix Ensemble’s Daniel Thorne.
Thursday – Book Launch: Vestige 6-8pm @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool – FREE (Booking Required)
“I forget every kiss we shared. Surely there were so few…” Inspired by the real-life breakdown of photographer AJ Wilkinson’s 25-year relationship with his soulmate, and with words of heartbreak and solace by Open Eye’s Poet-in-Residence Pauline Rowe, tonight sees the launch of their resulting book, Vestige. Expect a night of live readings, live music and reflection, as the two authors are joined by our co-founder, Laura Robertson.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: Biennial 2023: Y Bala: Anna Jane Houghton and Abbie Bradshaw 6pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE
The Royal Standard’s whirlwind of Biennial programming continues this Friday with the opening of Anna Jane Houghton and Abbie Bradshaw’s Y Bala. An exhibition employing performance and sound to ‘activate ambient and tacit histories of space’, key themes include folklore, folk-horror and the body in landscape.
Sight & Sound Top 10 – 2001: A Space Odyssey 8pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
It’s no surprise to me that Stanley Kubrick’s love letter to losing your mind in outer space while coming face to face with the key to humanity sits pretty in the latest Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll. Topping the directors’ list and placing sixth with the critics, with 2001, I realised film could also be art. And while there’s no bad time to watch it, now seems apt, given current debates raging about AI. No less than a masterpiece.
Saturday – Renaissance Rediscovered @ Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
New permanent display of the Walker’s Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art. Featuring more than 200 works, expect painting, sculpture, decorative art objects, prints, and drawings. Headline names include Michelangelo, Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt; in addition, new research has taken place to reconsider histories that have previously been excluded.
WIMIN Festival 11am @ Lock & Quay, Bootle, Liverpool – £24
With 80% of women stating they feel unsafe in Liverpool’s music spaces, events foregrounding the conversation are crucial. One of those is WIMIN Festival, headlined this Saturday by Katy J Pearson. WF director Holly Tulloch explains that the goal “is to challenge the status quo and foster an environment where women can thrive in the industry without limitations or barriers.” To which we say a resounding hear, hear. Plus, more creative opportunity and diversity results in a win for all.
Sunday – The Red Queen & Other Monsters 3pm/7pm @ Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot – £3-£30
From Medea to Electra, prominent women of mythology and literature – so often seen through a patriarchal lens – have rarely fared well. Of late, such figures have been revisited and reimagined, as they are in this Ink and Curtain production, which gives refreshing voice to new and different perspectives.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Nutsa Gogaladze, In the garden (2023); Squaring the Circle trailer; AJ Wilkinson, Vestige (2023); still from 2001: A Space Odyssey; Rembrandt, Self-Portrait as a Young Man © Gareth Jones
