Culture Diary w/c 11-05-2015
What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday – Exhibitions Opens: Alice May Williams 10-5pm @ Jerwood Space, London – FREE
Newly commissioned by the Jerwood Space, this stunning audio visual installation, entitled An Unreliable Witness, is the first component of an ongoing and ambitious project by multidisciplinary artist Alice May Williams. Inspired by individual biographies and a personal recording of her grandmother, Williams will make a film of woven narratives throughout May. The as yet unmade film will be screened on Friday 26 June 2015 (exhibition continues until 29 August 2015).
Wednesday – The Fall 7.30pm @The Kazimier, Liverpool – £22 ADV
Before heading off on a UK tour (see here for dates), the inimitable Mark E.Smith and company snarl their way into the Kazimier tonight in support of their latest and ‘magnificent’ (the Guardian) album, Sub-lingual Tablet. As the equally revered John Peel once said about The Fall: “they are always different, they are always the same”; expect intense vocals and raucous riffs that have rightly afforded this post-punk cohort legendary status.
An Evening With Glenn Ligon: The Anxiety Of Influence 6.30-8pm @ Nottingham Contemporary – FREE
Ahead of Tate Liverpool’s summer exhibition of the same name, Nottingham Contemporary provides a glimpse of what we can expect with artist turned curator Glenn Ligon. Displaying the works of 45 major artists — including Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Andy Warhol and Richard Serra — tonight join Ligon to discuss why he chose to exhibit these inspirational artists and what it means to be influenced by others.
Thursday – Think Film Presents Red Desert (1964) 6.30pm @ A Small Cinema, Liverpool – £3
Set against a bleak and toxic industrial wasteland, a troubling and unforgettable tale unfolds in director Michelangelo Antonioni’s drama ‘of rare beauty and brooding erotic intensity’ (The Telegraph). As we follow the daily existence of disillusioned wife and mother, Giuliana, we helplessly watch as her latent affair with her neglectful husband’s friend leads her to a downward spiral of alienation, anxiety and, ultimately, the slow unravelling of reality.
Friday – Light Night Liverpool 2015 4pm until late@ Various Venues – FREE
Astrophysics, a garden party, samba and a ukulele club — get some rest before this one because you’re not going to want to go home early. This year’s principle sponsor, Liverpool John Moore’s University, plays core host to a one night arts and culture festival that packs in all that Liverpool has to offer in the way of late opening exhibitions and live performance at venues across the city (including Constellations, the Nordic Church, LJMU Open Labs and the Walker Art Gallery). We recommend getting down to LJMU’s Rodney House early to pick up your free festival guide and grab a few goodies on the way.
PICK OF THE WEEK: LOOK/15 @ Various Venues, Liverpool – FREE
Get your cameras out – LOOK International Photography Festival is here once again with a dynamic and wide ranging two-week programme of talks, workshops and exhibitions, at some unexpected sites across the city. From established artists to fresh faced newcomers, local and transatlantic artists – such as Jona Frank, Ab Badwi, Tony Mallon, Tom Wood and Casey Orr – are invited to interpret the umbrella theme of Exchange as an open door to wider concepts of women, memory and migration in the photographic medium. See more of our picks here.
Saturday – Tim Marlow on The Value of Art Plus Q&A 11-1230pm @ Tate Liverpool — SOLD OUT
Why does art matter? And what does it tell us about ourselves and the culture we live in? Promising no definitive answers, Royal Academy Director, writer and broadcaster Tim Marlow will discuss some of the art projects that have shaped his illustrious career. Helping draw all this from Marlow will be Tate Liverpool’s Artistic Director Francesco Manacorda, who will host an informal Q&A after the talk. Here thanks to the #BeACritic project – a collaboration between The Double Negative, Liverpool John Moores University and Arts Council England — Marlow is keen to encourage more critical discussion of the arts, and we can’t agree more.
The Speaking Trumpet 2-4pm @ Tate Liverpool – FREE
To complement Tate Liverpool’s Surreal Landscapes season, The Speaking Trumpet is a very appropriate title for today’s selection of surreal poetry readings. With a host of new writings to boast, join fiction writer Ailsa Cox and poet and Edge Hill University lecturer James Byrne for an afternoon of whimsical live readings inspired by the otherworldly painting of Leonora Carrington, and her 1977 Alice in Wonderland-inspired novel, The Hearing Trumpet.
Exhibition Opening: Open 1 10.30-5.30pm @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
As a result of Open Eye’s ongoing call for exhibition submissions and (satisfyingly) coinciding with this year’s LOOK/15, Open 1 is the first of three annual showcases of six selected artists, whose works take on the theme of social portraiture. In a bid to highlight collective and often political issues through the telling of individual stories, expect thought-provoking tales of imprisonment, protest, religion and self-expression.
Sunday – Last Day: Group Therapy: Metal Distress In A Digital Age 11-6pm @ FACT, Liverpool – FREE
This is your last chance to delve into the metal health issues that have been helped (and, some might say, exacerbated) by the technological society we find ourselves in today. Through artworks, research and design innovation from the likes of Melanie Manchot, Lauren Moffatt, Chris Marker, Kate Owens and Neeta Madahar, we are able to engage in an immersive experience that brings awareness of the societal issue of mental health but also asks us to reflect upon our own metal state. See here for our review.
Heather Garner
Keen to hear about the best art, design, film and music events happening in Liverpool April-June 2015? Download the PDF version of our NEW, printed Culture Diary here
