Happy New Year! Culture Diary w/c 04-01-2016
What’s hot this first week of 2016? Our pick of the arts listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…
Monday – Gallery Talks 1.10pm, 1.30pm, 1.50pm and 2.10pm @ Tate Liverpool – FREE (Just Drop In)
Back at work? Shake off the cobwebs during your lunchtime with a reappraisal of Tate Liverpool. There’s loads of new work to peruse — their Constellations series (first and second floors) has some of the world’s finest modern artworks on show; whilst the Works to Know by Heart season includes the vibrant Matisse in Focus (ground floor), and provocative An Imagined Museum (top floor, £8/6 — including Bridget Riley’s Fall (1963) (pictured)).
Tuesday — The Fear Of Thirteen (2015) 6pm @ FACT, Liverpool — £10.50-7.50
A gripping first person account of being on Death Row from British director David Sington. Constructed over four-days of intense interviewing, and casting out a multitude of twists and fundamental questions, expect prisoner Nick to weave a complex tale that is part crime drama, part monologue, part meditation on the redemptive power of love.
Wednesday — Reading Is Power Shared Reading Group 1pm @ Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool – FREE
As part of the VGM’s Knowledge is Power exhibition — which focuses on treasures from Liverpool’s private and public book collections that chart its emergence as one of the most dynamic cities in 18th-century Britain — join Richard from The Reader Organisation to explore stories and poetry by great writers in an informal, friendly setting.
Comma Press Short Story Course 7pm @ The Bluecoat, Liverpool — £150 For Six Monthly Sessions
Ever fancied writing a short story? But never got started? Now’s your chance to commit ideas to paper. Led by our publisher of the year, Comma Press’s prize-winning, BBC Radio 4 endorsed writer Sarah Schofield (published in various Comma Press collections, plus Spilling Ink Flash Fiction Anthology, Litfest’s The Language of Footprints, Synaesthesia Magazine, and others), you’ll be in good hands. As part of The Bluecoat’s aim to provide more writing classes and courses this year; watch this space.
Thursday — Bookmarks: Forums 6.30-7.30pm @ FACT, Liverpool – FREE (Booking Required)
Continuing the themes of their current — and at one point viral — exhibition Follow (read our review), join FACT’s artists, writers, curators, hackers and designers for an informal discussion group, around a provocative resource (which will then be placed into the Bookmarks Resource Space), to talk about what social media, online identity and celebrity culture really means. Continues 21 Jan, 4 and 18 Feb.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: Supermarket Sweep: Bonus Round! 6-8pm @ P E R I C L O, Wrexham — FREE
If, like us, Supermarket Sweep with Dale Winton used to make up an embarrassing amount of time in your childhood, then you need to make your way to Wrexham this week. Curated by Owain McGilvary and Yan White and a response to what we all see in our trip to the supermarket, expect to see an exciting array of upcoming artists including Beth Fox, Joe Fletcher Orr, Lucia Quevedo, Jack Strange and Kate Turner & Alex McNamee. Exhibition continues until 20 Feb.
Exhibition Opening: Moments of Zen 6 – 9pm @ Turf Projects, Croydon, London — FREE
Remember ‘moment of zen’ from The Daily Show? Channeling the boundaries between art and comedy, expect artists Harry Meadley (Leeds) and David McLeavy (fresh from LEVEL 3 at Spike Island and Funhaus at TOAST, Federation House respectively), plus pop star (last year supporting Lady Gaga on her North American Tour) Hatsune Miku, attempt to similarly ‘contemplate the profound in the stupid and the stupid in the profound’. Exhibition continues until 20 Feb.
Saturday – Glasshouse Exhibition Tour 2-3pm @ The Bluecoat, Liverpool – FREE
One of the UK’s leading glass artists, join creative director of Melt Designs Jennifer Barker as she leads a tour of The Bluecoat’s current (soon to close) exhibition, Niamh O’Malley: Glasshouse. Expect a discussion of the processes and aesthetics of O’Malley’s beautiful video, drawing, print and sculpture works. Exhibition continues until 10 Jan.
Sunday – Last Day: Bedwyr Williams: The Starry Messenger 10am-5pm @ The Whitworth, Manchester – FREE
What would it feel like to be a tiny pebble caught in a terrazzo floor? Or to float through the infinite enormity of the cosmos? Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams continues his rise to artworld stardom with a re-figuration of his 2013 Venice Biennale installation. Expect sound and light guide you through amateur space exploration, alongide new drawings and wallpaper drawn from the Whitworth’s collection.
Laura Robertson
