Culture Diary w/c 18-09-2023
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – Drawing with coal: Liverpool to Silesia @ Editions Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
Featuring the work of artists Jordan L Rodgers and Paul Romano, Drawing with coal engages with and opens a conversation between Silesia, Poland, and Liverpool.
MADE IT 2023 @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE
Manchester-based Short Supply’s annual MADE IT exhibition was established to showcase recent artist graduates from the north west and this year travels to Liverpool for the first time. On display at The Royal Standard until 6 October.
From the archive: Read more about Short Supply
Tuesday – I, Daniel Blake 7.30pm @ the Playhouse, Liverpool – £11-£26
Part analysis of the criminally unfair benefits system, and all rallying cry, Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or-winning, Cannes-standing-ovation-inducing realist drama I, Daniel Blake comes to the stage. As the marketing copy tells us “With people living in poverty in the UK, this is not fiction. It is reality.” Urgent drama for difficult times.
From the archive: Read our interview with the film’s producer, Rebecca O’Brien
John Moores Painting Prize 2023 @ the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool – £5
2023 iteration of the prize that counts David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Mary Martin, and Rose Wylie among its winners – to which number it has just added Graham Crowley (below) – continues.
Wednesday – Dementia-Friendly Screening: Back To The Future 12pm @ FACT Liverpool – £4.30
Watching old films helps people with dementia reconnect with memories – this screening is open to all, but especially for those coping with its effects. Arrive early for chat, free tea, coffee and biscuits ahead of the wild ride offered by Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 blockbuster, which sees teen Marty McFly team up with his pal, the scientist Doc Brown, for time traveling escapades.
Manchester Collective: Different Trains 8pm @ Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester – from £9
Different Trains, the first of Manchester Collective’s 23/24 offerings, continues its run. Inspired by composer Steve Reich’s childhood memories of railway journeys, expect a live score for strings interspersed with field recordings and fragments of spoken word.
Thursday – The Mirage – An Evening of Art and Music 6pm @ Bridewell Studios, Liverpool – FREE
One night only opportunity to catch abstract painter Gareth Kemp’s never before exhibited large scale 2018 triptych, playing backdrop to performances from bands Me and Deboe & Puzzle. Elsewhere in the once derelict police station’s spaces, Kemp’s fellow artist Nick Sykes shows a selection of new and old works.
From the archive: Read our review of Gareth Kemp’s 2022 exhibition, Light Sensitive Area Ahead
Persona 8.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
Screening of Ingmar Bergman’s psychological study of an actress (Liv Ullman) experiencing emotional breakdown, and the nurse – played by Bibi Andersson – fighting to reach her. Considered by many to be the director’s masterpiece, the film was named in Sight and Sound Magazine’s top 20 Greatest Films of All Time.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: Helene Appel: Among Trees, Among Sand Grains @ The Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Wirral – FREE
What happens when an everyday object is reproduced on a 1:1 scale in paint? What new life does it take on and what is left of its previous incarnation? Sitting between abstraction, realism, and sculpture, Berlin-based artist Helene Appel paints quotidian items such as car headlights (above), envelopes and tree bark, asking us to reconsider our relationship with the world.
Saturday – British Ceramics Biennial in venues across Stoke-on-Trent – FREE
The British Ceramics Biennial covers the spectrum of what we think of when we think of ceramics. Including a plethora of exhibitions, look out for Fresh Talent in the shape of artists Dorcas Casey, Nico Conti and Leora Honeyman, each awarded residencies in the previous festival; an examination of marginalised histories by Neil Brownsword; and William Cobbing’s Social Substance at AirSpace gallery, which sees a series of new video, sculpture, and performance works explore identity through clay – a material positioned here as a “social, communal, material force”.
Sunday – Last Chance To See: JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters @ Tate Liverpool – £10/FREE for Members
Subtle yet thought-provoking, this inspired pairing of perhaps the UK’s most famed painter with contemporary electronic music producer, DJ, and artist Lamin Fofana might at first seem counter-intuitive. But Fofana’s soundscape addressing themes of movement, migration, alienation and belonging complements brilliantly the treacherously choppy waters (top) so famously depicted by Turner, opening up new space for contemplation. A near perfect combination of old master with new perspectives.
Mike Pinnington
Images: JMW Turner, Waves Breaking Against the Wind © Tate; Light Industry by Graham Crowley; MCR Collective Different Trains artwork; H.Appel, Car-Light, 2023
