Interviewed by his nemesis, confessing insecurities, and returning to THOSE fairy paintings: Denise Courcoux sees an alternative side to the Godfather of Pop Art as he is appointed Citizen of Honour in Liverpool…

“I haven’t been taken seriously as a painter; as seriously as some others have.” It comes across as touching, rather than gripey, to hear a man who’s just spent an hour reflecting on the highlights of an artistic career spanning 60 years confess his insecurities. Sir Peter Blake’s interviewer, art historian and curator Richard Cork, is likely someone who has contributed to this self-doubt; the pair had a bitter public spat in the letter pages of The Guardian after Cork’s critical review of the 1977 Hayward Annual, featuring work by Blake. Blake’s allusion to their old animosity adds frisson to a cordial in-conversation; you can’t help but wonder what’s bubbling under the surface some 40 years on.

Blake is at the Museum of Liverpool on the occasion of being appointed a Citizen of Honour in Liverpool. It’s a fitting accolade given his close relationship with the city over the years; from winning the John Moores junior painting prize in 1961, to his retrospective at Tate Liverpool in 2007, to his razzle-dazzled ferry for the 2016 Liverpool Biennial – which it has just been announced will be a bright speck on the Mersey for a further two years. Not to mention a certain album cover for four “jolly little chaps”. At nearly 85, Blake has been in his self-defined “late period” for 10 years already, with no plans for retirement. He cheerfully proclaims it his opportunity to go “a bit barmy” in the manner of Picasso or De Chirico, and afford himself the right to do whatever takes his fancy.

The interviewer beckons Blake back to the very beginnings of his artistic career. An early childhood of the evacuations and rations of World War II meant art entered his life at the age of 13, when he enrolled in art school at Gravesend Technical College. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art in the mid-’50s, where after a first year of intensive life drawing he was “let loose” as a painter. Popular culture was a major influence from the start. Blake describes drawing on experiences from his working class upbringing in Dartford: wrestling and fairgrounds, music hall and jazz clubs. He has been referred to as the Godfather of Pop Art, but Blake takes a broad view of the movement as a transatlantic force – with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg in the US, and in the UK Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi and himself all there at the beginning. He describes the particular impact of Kurt Schwitters’ collage works on his own practice; Blake would go on to curate a Schwitters-inspired exhibition, About Collage, at Tate Liverpool in 2000.

Cork is disarmingly enthusiastic as he coaxes an anecdote from a self-deprecating Blake about his lunch with Marlon Brando (“he was very grumpy, he didn’t want to be there!”). The audience, too, are keen to hear about his brushes with 20^th century pop culture greats, asking about his student Ian Dury and a reticent Andy Warhol (“most of our meetings were monosyllabic”). It’s a stellar cast of characters, much like those gracing Blake’s most famous creation: the cover design for those aforementioned jolly little chaps The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It’s such a ubiquitous image that it’s easy to disregard what an undertaking the project was. Cork describes it as a “monumental sculpture”: an assemblage of life-size cutouts and waxworks from Madame Tussauds. Blake considers he made it much more complicated than was necessary; a reflection probably influenced by his meagre payment of £200 after his dealer signed away the copyright to it. “It’s a sore point that died away, but it’s all come back recently”, Blake half-jokes, as it currently celebrates its golden anniversary year.

As the 1960s drew to a close Blake was “exhausted” by London, and moved to the West Country. His worked changed direction dramatically during the ’70s; it’s this period that drew Cork’s contemporary criticism. Blake’s pop cultural subject matter gave way to an unexpectedly sentimental approach, including watercolour illustrations for Alice in Wonderland, and Richard Dadd-inspired fairy paintings. We learn that Blake has been revisiting some of his old half-finished fairies of late, transforming them into tattooed ladies; a mirror of the tension between urban and rural in his career. Despite the insecurity about critical validation, Blake considers his an “extraordinary life”, and cites one of his own heroes in summing up: “I’ve done an album cover for Brian Wilson. I think I’ve achieved every ambition… I’ve been very lucky.”

Denise Courcoux

Denise saw Sir Peter Blake and Richard Cork in conversation at the Museum of Liverpool, 23 April 2017 — a Liverpool Biennial event delivered in partnership with Museum of Liverpool, with support from Hard Days Night Hotel

From 25 May to 16 June 2017, Liverpool celebrates The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the most influential album ever made – on the 50th anniversary of its release on 1 June 1967 during the Summer of Love. See the full programme of city-wide events here, in addition to BBC programming here

#SGTPepper50

Images, from top: Sir Peter Blake and Richard Cork in conversation, courtesy Dave Thompson / PA Wire. Sir Peter Blake’s Dazzle Ferry, courtesy Mark McNulty

Liverpool Biennial – a free festival of newly commissioned contemporary art from around the world – returns this summer, with big names including Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Mark Leckey referencing the past, present and future. As the team reveal their full programme this morning, let The Double Negative be the first to give you the scoop…

The specifics of the ninth Liverpool Biennial have officially been announced this morning. This Biennial will be based on the theme of Time Travel and be split into six episodes: Ancient Greece, Chinatown, Children, Monuments of the Future, Flashback, and Software. Each episode, said festival director Sally Tallant at press conferences in Liverpool and London, is a like a fictional genre: confined within itself, but still overlapping with other works to create a mesh of cross-disciplinary art in locations throughout the city. Visitors to the 14-week festival can look forward to a wide-ranging and sometimes bizarre mix of ancient and futuristic sculpture, performance art inspired by medical marvels, a look into the art of smuggling, and an abundance of fantastic fringe events.

Some of our favourite announcements, out of an imaginative programme led by 40 artists, included the news that the Edwardian Adelphi Hotel will be giving full use of their swimming pool to Danielle Freakley for an exclusive set of swimming-costume-clad performances; Coco Fusco will be delivering a TED-style lecture on human psychology whilst impersonating Dr Zira from Planet of the Apes (1967); and the ancestor of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral architect Edwin Lutyens, artist Marcos Lutyens, will be performing — where else? – in the cathedral’s Lutyens Crypt.

Time travel continues via a reference to Liverpool’s neoclassical buildings from the 1800s — which heavily incorporate the distinguished style of architecture produced by the Greeks before the first century AD. The Ancient Greece episode will be exhibited primarily at Tate Liverpool and National Heritage building The Oratory (located in the grounds of the Anglican Cathedral). National Museums Liverpool will be loaning pieces from its Ince Blundell collection to the festival, focusing on how flawed restorations can transform art to give it an entirely new meaning. Described as a “spacetime collapse in the context of Ancient Greece”, pieces include Celine Condorelli‘s time portals, and a permanent wall installation by Betty Woodman (below) which will be unveiled outside the magnificently art deco George’s Dock Ventilation Tower.

The Chinatown episode will be held — you guessed it — throughout Chinatown’s pubs, restaurants and supermarkets, which should make for some interesting eating and drinking experiences. This celebration of Chinese culture, interestingly, draws attention to the speculative future economics that the New Chinatown development will bring to the area — which is home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe. Iranian exiles and artistic trio Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian (main picture) focus on the themes of smuggling and the trade of illicit objects through the Liverpool docks in their political project The Eighth Of A Kind (2014), which includes shipping all of their possessions over to the city. Meanwhile, Samson Kambalu’s photography of the Welsh Streets will tackle Toxteth’s ongoing abandoned housing struggle with the Council.

The Children’s episode, held at the Victorian Cains Brewery and dockside Open Eye Gallery, will incorporate Turner Prize nominated artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd (below), whose bonkers new production, Dogsy Ma Bone, takes inspiration from one of her favourite cartoons: Betty Boop’s A Song For A Day (1936), where she nurses giraffes, hippos and billy goats back to health, and Bertolt Brecht’s 1928 socialist critique, The Threepenny Opera. Wanting to star a cast of youngsters, Chetwynd is holding auditions (apply here) for under 14s this Sunday.

In an echo of the ever-popular Dazzle Ferry, produced by Peter Blake for the 2014 Biennial, creative studio Hato have been commissioned to redesign Arriva buses, alongside Ana Jotta and Biennial Associate Artist Frances Disley, which will run through Liverpool and the Wirral for three years. The first bus will be designed in June 2016 with help from the children of Liverpool, so keep an eye on Biennial updates if you have any budding Picassos willing to join in. In sharp contrast, Koki Tanaka will be reflecting upon a photography book he found in radical Liverpool bookstore News From Nowhere, depicting the city’s youth student strike in 1985.

Monuments from the Future, meanwhile, is an episode focusing on anachronisms through sculpture, with the Granby Four Streets, Liverpool ONE, Clarence Dock and Cains Brewery all listed as venues. Expect a planet-inspired piece by Arseny Zhilyaev, and a collection of neoclassical sculptures being flooded atop of a new monument in Clarence dock by Lara Favaretto, which is said to signify the persistence of memories. 

Fittingly, Flashback will also look back into the past, just not in a way you might expect. Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni present The Unmanned 2045 — the year predicted that machines will overtake humans, and how that affects our past and present — at the soon to be redeveloped ABC Cinema (located opposite Lime Street Station) and Open Eye Gallery. Krzysztof Wodiczko will be giving voice to the marginalised through photography at FACT, and the Ellesmere Port-born, Turner Prize winning Mark Leckey will present found amateur footage of a Joy Division gig he went to as a teenager, entitled Dream English Kid.

The final episode, Software, wants you to download the Biennial with the help of Oliver Laric. The artist wants to 3D-scan the Walker collections to create a free, 3D online gallery. Expect artworks created inside the open-world video game Minecraft; an app processing the interactions between humans and non-human species developed by Ian Cheng; and Lucy Beech‘s (above) look at rare medical condition Morgellons syndrome: the delusional belief of having a bodily infestation of fibres. Venues for this edition include FACT, The Oratory, the Bluecoat and, of course, the World Wide Web.

Extra Biennial partner events include a Frieze weekend (8-9 October); 46 Bloomberg New Contemporaries at the Bluecoat; and the 29th John Moores Painting Prize, starring the work of 54 artists (until 27 November), with the grand winner being announced 7 July. Suzanne Treister (above) will be showing her futuristic new work HFT The Gardener at the ERC gallery (LJMU School of Art), starring a fictional character in a high frequency bunker and 174 other scientific and botanical pieces.

In addition to the official programme, The Double Negative will be widely distributing a special Biennial Fringe Edition of Culture Diary to keep you up-to-date on all the alternative Fringe highlights — including a Domino Records’ Portrait of British Songwriting exhibition at Bold Street Coffee; Mexican street art at Corke Gallery; conferences from Goldsmiths University of London and LJMU; a DJ party hosted by the aforementioned Mark Leckey; and an extensive film programme at FACT every Thursday throughout the Biennial, co-curated by Steven Cairns of the ICA and Picturehouse Cinema. Are you hosting a fringe event? We want to hear about it! Please follow this guide and get in contact before 6 May.

Vanessa Wheeler

Read more about Liverpool Biennial 2016 programme here or tweet about it using the official hashtag #Biennial2016

Can’t wait until July? The next scheduled Biennial warm-up event is their Secret Visit @ The Brewery Tap on 13 May 2016 at 6pm as a part of Liverpool LightNight 

Want to add your event to the Biennial Fringe Culture Diary? Please follow this guide and get in contact before 6 May 2016

Biennial will be recruting volunteers and mediators soon; if you would like to get involved, check the website for updates

Awkwardness, arts activism, and the HIV virus as a “clever trickster”: David Graham discusses this and more with the artist behind Homotopia festival’s focus exhibition…

The global pandemic of HIV and AIDS takes centre stage in John Walter’s visually arresting, in your face artwork Alien Sex Club. Shown at Ambika P3 in London earlier this year, Walter’s vibrant work — which takes the shape of a ‘cruise maze’, a spatial form common to sex clubs and gay saunas – is currently at Liverpool’s Homotopia festival: the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans combined arts organisation in the North of England.

However, this headlining exhibition is by no means exclusively for or about an LGBT audience. Walter is adamant that his work is not solely aimed at this community; statistics show that gay men remain one of the groups most at risk of HIV in the UK, yet heterosexual people accounted for 45% of new diagnoses in 2012.

Meeting Walter, one realises that he is his work personified. Aesthetically, he is the human equivalent of a dazzle ship, wearing a different, brightly patterned shirt saturated in colour at each of our interviews. His densely layered creative vision has been formed from collaborations with Dr Alison Rodger, senior lecturer and honorary consultant in infectious diseases at University College London; filtering out confusing medical terminology in order to make the work accessible and palatable to an audience old and young. Walter professes to be an “artist activist” and an “image breeder”; his work is a reminder or a wake-up call for everyone that thought HIV and AIDS were part of the past.

Alien Sex Club has taken shape at a triad of different locations in Liverpool: soft sculpture the Walker Art Gallery, discussion and alternative tarot readings at The Bluecoat, and a large focus exhibition at Camp and Furnace.

Walter describes each location as an “entry point”; the “safest” of which is the Walker. In true Walter fashion, Pug Virus — a vibrant pink, imposing inflatable fabrication — jolts the senses as one ascends the gallery’s grand staircase. The placement of this benign, friendly blancmange-like structure is skilfully juxtaposed with the neighbouring Victorian paintings on display. Pug Virus is the perfect precursor to Alien Sex Club as it sets the tone for the more exuberant elements of the exhibition; or as Walter notes, “it sets the brain on a weird trajectory.”

Walter admits to walking a sensitive tightrope with his choice of subject matter; he plays with the viewer through his work but by no means trivialises the fundamental complexities of sexual health. His knowledge, credibility and “respect for the virus as a clever trickster” is reflected in the esteemed support he has received from health professionals and collaborators as well as funding from The Wellcome Trust. Walter’s artistic relationship with HIV/AIDS in the form of Alien Sex Club is more than a casual fling; it is a manifestation of a long-term, meaningful engagement with theoretical and empirical research for his PhD.

Walter’s exhibition at Camp and Furnace is by no means conventional but more of a sensory experiential event. One is greeted by friendly invigilators who reassuringly explain the narrative and journey that you are about to embark on; befriended by and temporarily becoming the custodian of a well-dressed marrow, you enter through an ‘immunity curtain’ before descending into a multi-sensory labyrinthine structure. Walter rejects minimalist subtlety for a maximalist assault on the senses; the traditional gallery space is replaced by, Walter says, a “clubby, grubby” atmospheric gay maze, contextualising the significance and growth of HIV/AIDS amongst this demographic.

Walter by no means superficially touches on this theme, but unashamedly and unapologetically confronts the transmission of the virus in order to bring the on-going issues of HIV/AIDS to the forefront of our consciousness. The slightly abstract, somewhat peripheral advertising campaigns of the 1990s are in complete contrast to Walter’s strategy and USP – disseminating a serious message through play, fun and colour.

Less is more is not part of Walter’s artistic vocabulary. He goes in with a fully-loaded visual canon, ready to eradicate myths and misconceptions, and resulting in a sensory overload of neon, audio, digital and printed works, colour and performance. His determination to avoid preaching is achieved through a stimulating range of work; as a result, Alien Sex Club deserves multiple visits to fully appreciate and comprehend the evolution and threats that HIV and AIDS pose as well as the promising advances in medical technology.

Walter has a reputation for producing seductive worlds that, in his words, “cause awkwardness”. This was evident on the opening night, as a diverse group of hesitantly giddy visitors descended into the neon lit depths of the ‘alien’ space; reinforcing, one hopes, Walter’s ethnographic aims for the work and his on-going research.

Although Alien Sex Club will close its doors at the end of November, the resulting discourse will inevitably and unfortunately continue as the fight against HIV/AIDS is not over. The legacy of Walter’s magnum opus is already tangible. Free HIV tests have been available during the exhibition; a welcome and important service accessible outside of the confines of conventionally daunting medical environments.

Alien Sex Club is an ambitious project whose future is unknown beyond Homotopia. Walter describes it as a “kit”, but queries whether it could become a HIV Roadshow in its current state and scale. Once prompted, the artist considered the effectiveness and logistics of separating his work into smaller “pods” or “capsids” in order to roll it out to a wider, receptive audience, thus extending its potential and longevity.

Historically, Homotopia festival has successfully launched an educational aspect to their portfolio in the shape of Project Triangle: developing hate crime awareness and homophobic bullying resources. Although Walter will be working with local health organisations — such as Sahir House and The Armistead Centre — whilst the exhibition is open, there are no plans for Homotopia to engage with schools focusing on sexual health using Walter’s work as catalyst point.

Although censorship is advised in parts for a younger audience, in my capacity as an artist teacher in secondary education it is disappointing that Homotopia has not linked the mandatory Physical, Social, Health Education (PSHE) requirement of the curriculum to their education programme. The demand and need certainly exists.

The headline-grabbing and alarming slogan Silence = Death was commonplace in the early years of HIV/AIDS, instigated by activists and disseminated via the media. Now, Homotopia’s optimistic mission statement, ART = LIFE, injects vitality into the arts. With Alien Sex Club in mind, perhaps this simple equation should be refined to Art + Education = Life?

Nonetheless, John Walter’s Alien Sex Club is a highlight of Homotopia’s thought-provoking offer. Just as the festival has evolved over the past 12 ground-breaking years, Walter’s work celebrates the huge steps that have been achieved to secure a healthier and safer future.

David Graham

This article has been commissioned for the collaborative #BeACritic project — an annual programme of mentoring and commissioned critical articles for North-West-based writers, initiated and supported by The Double Negative, Liverpool John Moores University and Arts Council England. See more here

See Alien Sex Club at Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, until 29 November 2015 — FREE

See Homotopia festival at venues across Liverpool until 1 December 2015 — ticket prices vary

All images courtesy Rob Battersby, with thanks

If you go down to the woods today… you’ll find the latest in virtual reality experiences with digital art pioneers Marshmallow Laser Feast…

When you’re about to interview one of your favourite artists, it’s a great excuse to remind yourself of their best work. Scrolling through Marshmallow Laser Feast’s Vimeo channel is a recommended, almost spiritual experience: the studio – founded by a modern day holy trinity of Memo Akten, Robin McNicholas, and Barney Steel — create fantastical, incredible worlds through ridiculously cutting-edge installations, performances, film and design, using the latest tools at their disposal — which have so far included lasers, 3D animation, and virtual reality systems.

And they have been making these unreal experiences for commercial and creative clients all over the world. Delivering early projection mapping and CGI for Vodafone and Saatchi & Saatchi four years ago, Marshmallow Laser Feast have gone on to make Tron-esque car adverts for McClaren, and shoot laser beams around Bono’s head (something we all wished we’d done, admit it) at the Super Bowl.

Their art projects are arguably even better. The most well-known have included the musical, vibrating Laser Forest created for STRP Biennale (Einhoven), which we saw at the Barbican (London); and The Measures Taken, a collaboration with the Alexander Whitley dance company that focused on our increasingly uncomfortable, powerful relationship with technology. The former substituted trees for giant tuning forks, allowing visitors to ‘shake’ them and therefore make their own orchestra of sound; the latter was a trick to the eye, an artificial entity out of thin light rays that seemed to ‘dance’ with a human. Both dazzled, confused, and ultimately entertained greatly.

And now, Marshmallow Laser Feast turn their attentions to Grizedale Forest (Cumbria) for this weekend’s Abandon Normal Devices (AND); a strange choice for a festival of art and tech, one may think, as the Lake District isn’t exactly known for its connectivity. Their new commission, In the Eyes of the Animal, has come out of Project Daedalus, a long-term, collaborative research project (with MLF, AND and the University of Salford) into drones as production tools.

“There’s something about drones”, enthuses co-founder Barney Steel, chatting on the phone to me this week, “that makes you see a different perspective on the world. That’s probably one of our main interests… you can experience the everyday from a completely unusual perspective.”

NESTA funded, the teams consolidated their energies into a “really focused period of time” were they researched what was possible. Which led to what is now one final outcome: In the Eyes of the Animal utilises drones amongst other tech to create a heightened, virtual reality experience of Grizedale Forest from the perspective of its creatures. Essentially recording a bubble or full-sphere view of the landscape, by flying drones out over and through the trees, wearers of special VR headsets get ‘inside’ that sphere.

It is, says Steel, “kind of like a glass elevator”. If so, Steel is the new Willy Wonka: his enthusiasm is palpable . “You actually get a sense of vertigo… you’re not making content for rectangles; you’re actually making immersive bubbles that transport people out of their bodies.”

One part of the process involved scanning multiple parts of the Cumbrian forest using an architectural laser called Lidar. Creating a 360 degree scan, “like a laser measurer”, the gadget moves up-down-up-down whilst rotating, capturing images around it. MLF then swapped this for a panoramic camera, taking high resolution, 360 degree photographs from the same point. Combining both allowed the team to rebuild the forest in a computer games engine, as Steel describes it, “into a world made out of dots” that “you can fly around”. Ironically, wind is the enemy when using this tech outside; despite being cutting-edge; the equipment recalls working with early cameras, as everything you want to capture has to remain still, or the image blurs.

As with most MLF projects, collaboration was key. The team also created 3D models of insects with the Natural History Museum’s (London) Imaging and Analysis Centre — CT scanning the inner bodies and brains — and photogrammetry of owls, buzzards and frogs with commercial company FTFX.

“If I was a sculptor, I would totally be using this stuff to scan nature and then manipulate it afterwards”, says Steel. “We’re taking control of the eyeballs and ears, and exploring touch as well. Once you have control of the human senses, then you can kind of take people anywhere… a virtual world that feels tangible and real.”

In the Eyes of the Animal, then, is ‘remoulding’ these human senses into another, non-human body. How do these creatures see the world? What was that process like?

“Life as a human feels so concrete. Like there’s nothing beyond the limits of our senses… yet we know that there’s a whole load of stuff we don’t see. If you look into the world of insects, dragonflies have got better eyesight; they see at 300 frames per second compared to our 24 frames per second.

“Midges can sense the C02 from 50 metres away, they can sense the heat of your body… when you start to think about that in terms of a simulation, it starts to get really interesting.”

Counting “daydreaming” as one of his specialist areas of expertise at Marshmallow Laser Feast, Steel is also a hands-on animator. One of Steel’s strongest childhood memories is of drawing pine cones in the study under his art teacher-dad’s tutelage, giving him a confidence in observation. This led to a career in photography, illustration, and animation; gathering a real understanding of what’s possible with the tools (and tech) available.

“Even with our installations, we’ve always been into making an immersive experience; now, virtual reality provides such a powerful platform to explore abstract areas of sound, etc., the whole company’s shifted into using those tools. It really is the dawn of a whole new platform. It works so well.”

Marshmallow Laser Feast want to eventually use this technology they have trialed at AND Festival to save the rainforests of Indonesia, which are currently being chopped down to make way for palm oil production. MLF’s plans are to scan one colossal tree down to the electron microscope detail as one seamless, 360 degree journey, charting all of the connected, rich ecosystem that lives and depends on it to survive; building an interactive ‘sculpture’ that responds to the user’s touch. Wouldn’t it be awful if in 100 years this artwork outlived the rainforest it was documenting?

“The ecosystem is completely unique, and it’s taken such a long time to get to the point that they are now. When you chop them down, it’s not as if they can just grow back – its game over.”

It was this exploration of complex themes that produced The Measures Taken: the aforementioned collaboration with dancer and choreographer Alexander Whitley. When we interviewed Whitley back in 2013, he said of the collaboration:

“It appeals to broader questions and themes in the contemporary world; our communication is increasingly being mediated through technology, and it is affecting not only the way we interact with one another but also the way we move and think; just think about how our gestures are incorporated into devices these days. It seems like a really fertile area.”

How did Steel see the process?

“It’s this idea of extending performance beyond the limits of your body; so using tech to translate those movements into something completely detached from your body. For instance, when you slap water, you see the ripples pouring off…

“There was one discussion that didn’t translate into the final performance, about how we swipe with our thumbs, unlocking our phones… people are completely hypnotised… [The Measures Taken] is a liberation from the chair, into a full body experience of that computer world; you regain your physicality, but beyond that, if you go beyond the limits of your body, you can be anything you want: Lawnmover man (!), or something we cant imagine yet… Ultimately, I see a world where we are more physical.”

And physicality is what connects all of Marshmallow Laser Feast’s best work. As we strap on our VR headsets and comfiest walking shoes this weekend in Grizedale Forest, we’ll be hoping for that physical, out-of-body experience promised. We can’t wait.

Laura Robertson, editor

Abandon Normal Devices Festival opens today until Sunday 18-20 September 2015 — see their full programme of free and ticketed events here

See MLF speak about their creative and commercial processes in person at the next Kin Social — Constellations, Liverpool, 6 October 2015, 530-8pm. Free, booking essential!

See sneaky peeks of MLF’s #intheeyesoftheanimal on Instagram

More on marshmallowlaserfeast.com

Poznan’s Malta Festival is a diverse and compelling experience set in a city with the same qualities, finds Emma Sumner…

Crammed with castles, cathedrals and boasting two clockwork goats as its mascots, the Polish city of Poznań is one of the country’s oldest, largest and most vibrant cities. Situated midway between Berlin and Warsaw, Poznań was once Poland’s capital city and remains a diverse and energetic metropolitan full of character and history. Every June, for around three weeks, it flourishes with a methodically curated collection of cultural activities: the Malta Festival, and the reason for my first visit to this captivating city.

Named after a lake on the outskirts which played host to its first editions, the Malta Festival has been running for 25 years and pleasantly invades all corners of Poznań. Unafraid to tackle life’s big questions, this year’s theme, New World Order, was curated by British (Sheffield-based) artist and writer Tim Etchells. A founding member and artistic director of the experimental performance group Forced Entertainment, Etchells’s programme included, unsurprisingly, a lot of performance; including the intimate and playful Tomorrow’s Parties. Set on a minimal stage, illuminated only by a string of coloured lights, two actors shared their musings on what the future might hold for various global and trivial matters in a comical, yet relatable hypothetical future guessing game.

Etchells’s former students from The Amsterdam College of Arts Mime presented Schwalbe, which seemed to comment on people’s desire to be amongst others and the safety which many often feel from being part of the crowd. Performing an exhausting hour-long physical performance, Schwalbe and a group of local volunteers ran continuously in a tight circular motion like a school of fish, with only the occasional individual breaking out to prove their individuality.

If live art wasn’t your thing, New World Order had a provocative programme of films to watch, including Greek new wave from Georgos Lanthimos in Kiel (2009). A curious portrayal of the lives of three children — who are kept in isolation from the outside world and taught a bizarre set of morals by their wealthy parents — played in the courtyard of the city’s Old Ballet School. Lanthimos’s intriguing topic maintained the audience’s attention despite the cold and rainy weather.

The Malta Festival hub occupied one of Poznań’s larger city squares this year: at Plac Wolności (Liberty Square) I found a stage, relaxation area and pop-up bar and restaurant, playing host to festival goers who wanted to meet, discuss or watch performances. It perfectly illustrated the festival’s serious but social vibe, and it was good to see how locals participate in the event.

Dipping outside of the festival for a bit, I sampled more cafe culture at the Stary Rynek (Old Town Square): after being badly damaged during World War II, it is now restored to its former glory — so much so, TripAdvisor calls it ‘one of Europe’s nicest’ historical town squares. A big part of the nightlife here, Stary Rynek is home to some of the Poznan’s most highly acclaimed restaurants, including Brovaria, a unique brewery/hotel/restaurant with a great atmosphere, food and excellent in-house beer.

It is also home to those aforementioned clockwork goats, who emerge from the Town Hall’s clock tower at precisely 12 noon everyday to a fan fair of trumpets and cheering crowds, to lock horns in their daily tussle. Just off the Old Town Square is the baroque Parish Church of St. Stanislaus, which although unassuming from the outside, dazzles visitors who enter with its large amounts of decorative gold leaf, ornate statues and grand organ.

For those looking to explore Poznań’s outer suburbs, the city’s green and yellow tram system runs a regular service and even has a tourist line served by historical vehicles, and is perhaps the best way to explore both the city and the Malta Festival. In the South West suburb of Łazarz, a small intimate garden space — surrounded by overbearing tower blocks, wild flowers and a dropping willow tree (a nominee for Poland’s Best Tree Award 2015) — provided a natural haven for festival workshops, art commissions and live music, including the jazz and blues-inspired Lord and the Liar, which drew a good crowd of Poznań residents from near and far.

Back to the city centre, and the consumer metropolis of the Stary Browar (Old Brewery) retail centre; not to shop, but to see The Art Stations Foundation, whose community-focused dance centre was — remarkably — built at the heart of this commercial development. Hosting an experimental set of dance performances from international performers, again as part of the Malta Festival, I saw the incredible Israeli duo All-Eaters. Performing completely naked and fully exposed to their audience, the dancers’ bodies intertwined to create various forms and situations; which on reading sounds erotic, but in reality was actually laugh-out-loud comical. Trafford Centre, take note: contemporary dance does work in a shopping centre.

In the same place, Art Stations Gallery seemed to examine the relationship between dance and visual art. The current exhibition, Let’s Dance (on until 18 Oct 2015), looks at how everyday movement and gestures have been developed by choreographers and in turn have influenced the work of artists. Including works by Dan Flavin and Vanessa Beecroft to music videos by Beyoncé and Jungle, the exhibition is an interesting look at the democratic nature of dance.

A diverse and compelling experience set in a city with the same qualities, Poznań’s Malta Festival is an ideal cultural trip for those interested in theatre or the arts. Its choice of festival venues — from town squares to gardens to shopping centres –provide any visitor access to a different side of Poznań than your everyday tourist would usually enjoy.

Emma Sumner

The 2016 Malta Festival will be constructed around the relationship between spectator and actor. The curator, Lotte van den Berg, is a Dutch artist who combines together theatre, performance and visual arts; more here

See the Let’s Dance exhibition at Art Stations Gallery, Poznan, until 18 Oct 2015

All images courtesy Maciej Zakrzewski, for Malta Festival, Poznan

Spaceship-like art galleries, epic waterfalls and vegetarian street food: if a modern, relaxing city break sounds good, look no further than the Icelandic capital…

Iceland in the summertime: 24-hour daylight, and just about warm enough for a light coat and sunglasses. Step off the plane in Keflavik anytime during June to August and all you can see are stunning black lava fields, purple lupins and green grass; this is, by all accounts, as far away from the winter experience as you can get, and one all travellers should try.

Our first visit to Iceland took us, inevitably, to the capital and largest city on the island: Reykjavík. Flying into Keflavik Airport, it was easy to buy bus tickets straight to the city centre, about 45 minutes away. Our first impression? It’s both pretty and barren, in a wind-blown, Nordic seaside kind-of-way. With a population of just over 120,000 people, this is a small place;  you can easily walk to all the main attractions within about 30 minutes. Despite being centred around just two rambling high streets, filled with boutique shops and alternative coffee shops, the fact that Reykjavík features an expansive harbour (above) surrounded by snow-capped mountains makes it feel exposed and exciting. Nature is never very far away.

Being greedy visitors, our first priorities are always good food and coffee, and there’s an abundance here. Take our advice and leave the puffin and whale for other tourists to eat — there are a lot of restaurants in the city centre that specialise in ‘traditional’ Icelandic meats, but we got the impression that the locals don’t really partake or approve of the ethical or environmental impact. Despite warnings about cost, we found a lot of variety and value for money, even along main high street Laugavegur (below). Check out the big breakfast specials that come with hotdogs (a national favourite) and pancakes at Solon (Bankastraeti 7a) for about £10; at the somewhat healthier cafe Durum (Laugavegur 42), £5 fry ups come with orange slices and the best local granary bread.

Coffee, we found out, is great everywhere: the best is at (surprisingly) Iceland’s oldest and largest chain bookshop, Eymundsson (Waterstones, take note). There are a few dotted around and it’s a great place to discover the best in Nordic Noir from a comfy chair. If you like your coffee to come music-free and accompanied by some local contemporary art, then the famous wood-clad Mokka-Kaffi (Skólavörðustíg 3A) is your best bet.

Our favourite place for lunch was award-winning vegetarian restaurant Glo (108 Reykavik): think vibrant street food, fresh juices and homemade cake. As it gets later, The Dude-themed Lebowski Bar (Laugavegur 20a) does a mean White Russian; you can also get a beer and Burger of the Month (‘Jurassic Pork’ when we were there) for around £10. For something a bit more special, burst the budget at new harbour-side contemporary fish restaurant Verbúð 11 (Geirsgata 3); we went for a friend’s birthday and it was a really memorable way to sample the catch of the day, prepared with care and an artistic flourish.

In summer-time, it simply doesn’t get dark, which makes Reykjavík awesome for a night out. If beer and dancing is on the cards, we’d recommend Kaffibarinn (Bergstaðastræti 1); rumoured (we still don’t know for sure) to be owned by Blur’s Damon Albarn, and oozing dirty cool, it’s the best bar in Reykjavik for local ale (around £5 per pint), free bar snacks, and good conversation. Come midnight, the music gets cranked up and the chairs pushed back to make room for more jolly customers.

If you want to work off all that food, we’d recommend swimming: Icelanders love their thermal pools, and now so do we. There are 17 in Reykjavik alone (see this handy guide for ones near you). Heated by natural thermal energy (and offering a choice of temperatures from 38° to over 40°C, depending on how hot you like it), the pools are relaxing, quiet, really clean, and you can even sunbathe at the outdoor ones.

Once we settled in, we were keen to get a grasp of what art and culture was on offer in Reykjavik. Disappointed that our Rough Guide didn’t really cover local galleries and museums, we were pleased to see lots of free guides available in cafes and hotels, including WhatsOn. If you want to combine swimming with art (as we did), try the Reykjavík City Card, which for around £20 (48 hours), includes free entry to a selection of museums and galleries, all swimming pools, unlimited bus travel, a ferry trip to Viðey art island and other various discounts.

We visited Ásmundarsafn (above, Sigtún), the former home and studio of Iceland’s favourite modern sculptor, Ásmundur Sveinsson (1893-1982), it remains one of our favourite memories of the entire trip. Set in a sculpture garden of Sveinsson’s work, Ásmundarsafn resembles a glowing white spaceship crossed with an Egyptian tomb: Sveinsson took global inspiration and used government grants to build this space himself.

The £6 entry also gets you into Hafnarhús and Kjarvalsstaðir galleries that same day; we only had time for one, so chose Hafnarhús (Tryggvagata 17). An impressive contemporary gallery space and former fishery warehouse back at the harbour, it shows a range of experimental temporary exhibitions. While we were there, we saw a superb Richard Serra retrospective focussing on his environmental artwork, Áfangar, on the aforementioned Viðey island; Magnús Sigurðarson’s Process & Pretense, which utilised the huge gallery space to great effect with atmospheric and amusing performance, projected onto sloping walls; the terrifying Kathy Clark: bears; truths… (a tortured mind, say no more); and Kunstschlager, an artist-led studio group who lost their building last year, and now exhibit pop-up shows in various locations in Iceland and Europe. The latter in particular offered an entertaining and irreverent insight into the local contemporary art scene.

Another must-see is the award-winning Harpa Concert Hall; a relatively new addition to the harbour, there’s a great range of theatre, live music and performance on offer, in addition to being a beautiful building. Designed by  Danish architectural firm Henning Larsen Architects and Icelandic architectural firm Batteríið Architects, it’s a geometric glass hive that welcomes natural light in the day and dazzles with electric light shows at night.

Love street photography? Fótógrafí gallery (above, Skólavörðustígur), owned by artist Ari Sigvaldason, was a great find; filled with vintage cameras and Sigvaldason’s life’s work, you can buy limited edition prints and Polaroids from just £3, and can see many of the shots just outside the door — including the sci-fi-esque Hallgrímskirkja church.

So lastly, where to stay? Accommodation is notoriously expensive in Reykjavík, regardless of star ratings; expect to pay around £100 per night. We invested in a Hostelling International Card and got about 10% off; coming in at around £60 per night for a private room with bathroom. After staying at various hostels and guesthouses, we’d recommend you try Reykjavik City Hostel (Sundlaugavegur 34), which was modern and clean, and had a great community atmosphere; it was also very close to the Laugardalur outdoor thermal pool (below) and Ásmundarsafn gallery. The more trendy CenterHotel Klöpp (Old West Side, 101 Reykjavík) offered a well-designed room with good facilities and breakfast for around £110 per night; situated just off the main high street, it was really handy if not a bit noisy from passing party-goers. All accommodation we used — indeed, everywhere we visited — had free wifi.

If you’ve had enough of the city, we’d recommend getting back to nature whilst in Reykjavík; it is surprisingly close to many areas of outstanding natural beauty. As with the food, we’d avoid any puffin or reindeer hunting (real activities for tourists); instead, try any of the many tours to local waterfalls, islands and jaw-dropping landscapes. We did the Golden Circle tour in around six hours with the largest bus company, Grayline (approx £45 per person), and saw tectonic plates at Þingvellir National Park, got soaked by the Gullfoss waterfall, and ooed-and-arrrhed with the other tourists at the Geysir geothermal area.

In conclusion: if you are looking for a city break that combines entertainment with real relaxation, then Reykjavík is for you. An awe-inspiring trip and one well recommended.

Laura Robertson (Editor)

Sir Peter Blake’s Dazzle Ferry set sail today off the banks of the River Mersey. Heather Garner found her sea legs and discovered a joyous — and ever-so-slightly bonkers — artwork that brings history out of the textbooks…

“Prepare to be dazzled” greeted a cheerful attendee at the unveiling of Sir Peter Blake’s Everybody Razzle Dazzle today in Liverpool, and he wasn’t wrong. Despite the slightly nauseous feeling that accompanies the smell of fresh paint and the motion of the waves, this is perfect public art: interactive, joyous and ever-so-slightly bonkers.

The third in a series of ‘dazzle ship’ commissions by Liverpool Biennial, 14-18 NOW and Tate Liverpool, pop art legend Sir Peter Blake seems to be the ideal artist to redesign Mersey Ferry ‘Snowdrop’ in his inimitable style — not least because of his obvious connections to the city through his creation of the Sgt. Pepper record cover. The only one of the dazzle ships to be used as a working vessel, the ferry is a veritable collage of psychedelic pattern; you can’t miss the streak of vivid colour and striking monochrome as it darts across the Mersey. It even looks — as witnesses said today — like it’s sailing faster than usual.

Watching this moving artwork on the water, it is easy to see why the dazzle technique became an unlikely form of camouflage during the First World War that sought to baffle the eye and make the duty of judging distance, speed and direction for enemy U-boats and aircraft a more than tricky task.

No stranger to using transportation as a mode of artistic expression, Sir Peter Blake’s last expedition to Liverpool was in 2013 with a travelling double-decker Art Bus, promoting the work of some of Britain’s most exciting contemporary artists. While the Art Bus primarily functioned as a mobile gallery, the dazzle ferry IS the artwork. With this in mind, Everybody Razzle Dazzle becomes a participatory experience, an invitation to visitors to look harder at their surroundings and explore the artwork both inside and out.

Clever design features reference International Maritime Signalling in the form of flags; draped along the length of the ferry, each flag holds a pattern that represents a letter of the alphabet, thereby allowing words and communications to be formed through varying combinations.

For those that seek more than an impressive exterior, the dazzle ferry hosts a breezy display of information, curated by National Museums Liverpool, for visitors to engage with and, as director of 14-18 NOW Jenny Waldman states, “learn more about the rich maritime history of Liverpool and the Mersey Ferries during the First World War”.

And this is exactly what it does. It brings history out of the textbooks and museum spaces and into a technicolour present, demonstrating the unlikely role of art and design in modern warfare. Artwork during WW1 often sought to express the horrors and catastrophe of the war: here, we become aware of how it became a necessary and functional tool utilised to mislead and baffle the enemy.

With a planned stay of two years and a full roster of events, Everybody Razzle Dazzle forms a visually stimulating way into Liverpool’s Maritime History, yes; but it’s also a live, sailing showcase of Blake’s fantastic ability as a designer and artist.

Heather Garner

See Everybody Razzle Dazzle until December 2016

Read about the Carlos Cruz-Diez dazzle ship here

All images courtesy Mark McNulty

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Wednesday — Exhibition Opens: Making It: Sculpture in Britain 1977-1986 10am-4pm @ Yorkshire Sculpture Park — FREE

Featuring over 40 British sculptors — including Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Cornelia Parker and Alison Wilding — who began to enjoy international recognition for their work in the late 1970s and ’80s, this is a real focus on the fantastic breakthroughs in conceptual and performance art.

Thursday – Herostratus (1967) 7.30pm @ A Small Cinema, Liverpool — £3

Infamous for Helen Mirren’s surreal rubber glove scene, Don Levy’s counter-culture classic follows a young poet (Michael Gothard) as he tries to turn his public suicide attempt into a mass-media spectacle. Part of A Small Cinema programmer Adam Scovell’s Flipside of British Cinema Season, this is a great chance to take a look at the new space. Read our feature on A Small Cinema here.

Bipolar Sunshine 7.30pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £10 ADV

Hopeless romantic? Fancy some ‘luxurious, eclectic indie pop’ (The Telegraph)? Former Kid British singer Adio Marchant continues his solo upward trajectory tonight with a three-piece backing band: expect an electropop/hip hop mash-up and soulful songwriting.

Milk & LIV-BCN Present BEACH BEACH 8pm @ Constellations, Liverpool — £5 ADV

The first fringe gig this year from Liverpool/Barcalona music festival (main event hitting Barca in June and Liverpool in July 2015). A Majorca-based four-piece currently touring their new LP The Sea, expect some good, old fashioned sun-soaked jangle pop. Support from Broken Men, Sankofa, Red Rum Club and A Lovely War, with DJ Sets from Calypso Bo and Fitza Laughter.

Everybody Razzle Dazzle @ River Mersey, Liverpool — FREE

British pop art legend Sir Peter Blake pays tribute this week to the WW1 ‘dazzle’ technique, by redesigning a beloved Liverpool ferry for Liverpool Biennial, 14-18 NOW and Tate Liverpool. You may ask why we need another dazzle ship (Carlos Cruz-Diez had a go last year), but when design is this good, maybe it shouldn’t matter. Check it out for yourself either as an observer on the riverbank or actually on-board — the ferry also plays host to a special archive exhibition. Until Dec 2016.

Friday — Ghostpoet 7.30pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £13 ADV

The Mercury Prize-nominated performance poet, aka Obaro Ejimiwe, delivers his version of forward-thinking post-hip-hop this week as part of an ongoing European tour (full list of dates and locations here). Promoting a critically acclaimed third album, Shedding Skin, expect a new alt-rock slant.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Saturday – The Storming (Part 1 & 2) by Humberto Vélez @ Cornerhouse, Manchester

Described as a ‘referential mass participation artwork’ by the venue, expect audiences, artists, community groups and DJs from Manchester’s past and present club scenes to storm the much-loved Cornerhouse venue before it heads off to its new HOME (see our feature here).

Exhibition Opens: Tricia Porter: Liverpool Photographs 10am-6pm @ The Bluecoat, Liverpool — FREE

A little-known collection of documentary black and white photography chronicling the development of the Liverpool 8 area, Porter’s work shows a close and vibrant community that have suffered at the hands of local authorities and developers. As the artist herself says, it’s an attempt to make ”a positive and meaningful statement about my neighbours who had all too often been treated as statistical fodder and sociological phenomena.” Until 5 Jul

The GIT Awards 7pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £5.50 ADV

A celebration of Merseyside’s new music talent from the Get Into This blog, a significant proportion of the excellent shortlist are already signed by Domino, XL and Heavenly Recordings (We Are Catchers, Lapsley and Hooton Tennis Club, respectively). Listen to our GIT 2015 playlist here.

Sunday – The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2015, main picture) 1.45/3pm @ FACT, Liverpool (And Picturehouse Cinemas Nationwide) — £10/8

Described by film critic Mark Kermode as ’a beautiful historical fantasia’, this is the latest from the less-celebrated (at least in the West, anyway) Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata. As he is best known for animating the devastating Grave Of The Fireflies (1988), expect a sensitive portrayal of the subject matter — in this case an ancient Japanese fable about a peasant who discovers a miniature girl growing inside a bamboo shoot, rendered in a stunning, washed-out watercolour effect.

We may not have a glitzy ceremony, but we do have an esteemed panel of judges. All year, our critics have been travelling the length and breadth of Britain, witnessing the best contemporary (and classic) culture on offer. Editor Laura Robertson asked them to name their winners of 2014: who will make the cut?

How to choose the best experiences from an entire 12 months? Looking back through the seemingly endless TDN archives, it struck me how much we’ve actually accomplished this year and how fantastic the standard of writing is from our growing team. One major highlight for me were 2014′s Big Interviews, including artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, a giant in the field of colour technology who’s no less feisty at 91 years of age, and David Bowie collaborator and ‘design provocateur’ Jonathan Barnbrook, in equal parts funny and searingly honest.

Over 2014, we said goodbye to H.R Giger and Tommy Ramone; we argued over whether Liverpool Biennial was political enough; we queued to see Martin Creed, Piet Mondrian and Anselm Kiefer. We dodged lobsters flying through the air, shivered in ice galleries and investigated the photography of Congolese slavery. We travelled to New Delhi, Skärhamn, Edinburgh, Pittsburgh, Paris and London. Some of us even voted for Scottish Independence.

Overall, it’s been an incredible year. I’d like to thank everyone who has supported us since our inception in December 2011, making The Double Negative a continuing, vital source of arts criticism and cultural commentary. And, for me, a pleasure to read.

SO NOW, THE AWARDS…

WINNER: BEST FILM

Nightcrawler

Nominated by Jack Roe

Quite simply, Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler is an excellent film. A film that comments on contemporary society and the media that fuels it, which provokes and even demands a reaction without relying on tired, romanticized perspectives and cliches. Come awards season Jake Gyllenhaal (above) will, rightly, receive plenty of attention for his haunting portrayal of Lou Bloom; but the power of this film was instilled by Gilroy’s fantastic, jet-black and subtly satirical script, and an approach to direction that leaves the viewer firmly detached from emotional attachment, allowing the themes and action to speak for itself.

WINNER: BEST ARTS FESTIVAL 

DaDaFest

Nominated by Jade French 

Disability art has been described as the last remaining avant garde movement. Not just through its intention to challenge social inequalities, but by forcing us to question our understanding of what it is to be an artist. This year’s DaDaFest exhibition, Art of the Lived Experiment, did exactly that and more. It showcased artists exploring the idea of how a disabling society cause disabled people to constantly change and adapt to the world, and in other words, to live life experimentally. What struck me most about Art of the Lived Experiment was DaDaFest’s intriguing transformation; from work simply by and for disabled artists, to artworks broadly exploring the experience of disability. This was reflected in that DaDaFest commissioned more non-disabled artists than ever before — a daring move but one which I believe paid off. I have no doubt this produced a more solid exhibition and has attracted bigger audiences.

As well as broadening the curatorial theme, DaDaFest also diversified its programme by the addition of an international conference exploring ‘art as a tool for social change’. Loaded with fierce debate and passion, it was truly engaging and a roaring success.

Art of the Lived Experiment couldn’t have come at a better time. With many disabled people in this country experiencing the most harsh austerity measures in recent history (look no further than the demise of the Independent Living Fund), DaDaFest 2014 through its exhibitions, performances and conference platformed important social issues, urging audiences to ask a vital question; is art a human right?

WINNER: BEST APP

npr Music’s Songs We Love 2014

Nominated by Stuart Burns

Perhaps it’s a bit meta to suggest that a website designed to gather together a radio station’s favourite music of the year should be included in a review of the year. But since it was published near the beginning of December it’s all I’ve been listening to. National Public Radio is the US equivalent of the BBC (indeed it often features the BBC’s news correspondents in reports) and this year, as well as presenting the experts and presenter’s choices, they’ve created a browser app which allows visitors to listen to the tracks, all 302 of them, randomly and for free, with short reviews by those experts and presenters justifying their choices with links to various shops and Spotify just in case we like what we hear.

The experience is the online equivalent of dawdling in a very good independent record shop and listening to whatever choices the experts behind the counter are making; a constant stream of weaponised delight and surprise. Og Maco’s vocabulary and musically challenged U Guessed It isn’t really my sort of thing, but TV On The Radio’s electronic wall of sound Seeds comes quickly on and after that Sam Hunt’s good natured House Party. Taylor Swift’s here too with two songs (you can guess which ones). With so many tracks to listen to, I haven’t reached the end yet, and I’m using the limited number of skips sparingly so I don’t know if this is a limited engagement. Until then, I’ll keep opening this page and pressing play.

Ooh, Leonard Cohen!

WINNER: BEST ART FAIR EXHIBITION

The Collector: Helly Nahmad Gallery at Frieze Masters, London 

SPECIAL MENTION: Giant Spectacular, Africa Oyé, LIMF, Liverpool Biennial

Nominated by Peter Goodbody

My pick for 2014 is going to Helly Nahmad Gallery’s exhibition at Frieze Masters in London. Called The Collector, it was an installation of an imaginary apartment in Paris dating from the late ’60s. There were Miros and Picassos on the walls. There was a Giacometti sculpture on a coffee table. There were piles of newspapers, books and magazines covering just about every available surface. There was a B&W TV playing in the corner of the bedroom, and the bed hadn’t been properly made. There was the general accumulation of stuff that most of us collect over time. It was a snapshot of a day in The Collector’s life, although he wasn’t there and we knew nothing about him nor where he had gone that day. Except we did know about him; here was his life, style, likes and taste all laid out in front of us to be picked over and wondered about. It was a portrait of a person with no person present. It was genius and I loved it.

In my hometown of Liverpool, there were also many highlights: the Giants were spectacular, Africa Oyé was typically good and Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) really appeared to have come of age. The Biennial, too, had its moments of brilliance; the Dazzle Ship and Claude Parent at Tate Liverpool were inspired.

JOINT WINNERS: BEST PERFORMANCE

Clifford Owens/Ira Brand

SPECIAL MENTION: Tate Liverpool, Open Eye Gallery

Nominated by C. James Fagan

Starting with Clifford Owens: Better the Rebel You Know at Cornerhouse, Manchester, an honestly exciting and involving way of presenting performance work. Staying in Manchester and with performance, another highlight was Ira Brand’s delicate and poetic mediation on growing old that was A Cure for Aging (at Word of Warning, Z-arts).

Tate Liverpool also had an impact by presenting the work of Piet Mondrian, highlighting the relevance of the artist to a contemporary world. Plus they brought the beautiful work of Indian modernist Nasreen Mohamedi to my attention.

Finally, I’d like to mention that over the year Open Eye Gallery has curated a number of strong exhibitions that have approached the nature of photography from a totally different perspective. Maybe starting the year with one of my art crushes Gordon Matta-Clark may have swayed me, but they have had a very successful year.

WINNER: BEST EXHIBITING ARTIST

Phyllida Barlow

SPECIAL MENTION: Ming: 50 Years that Changed China, Penny Davenport, Hockney, Serial

Nominated by Linda Pittwood

This is hard! Pleasingly, there have been a lot of highs. This list isn’t even exhaustive…  My favourite exhibition(s) of the year has to be Phyllida Barlow’s more-or-less concurrent solo presentations at Hauser & Wirth Somerset and Saville Row, and at Tate Britain. Her drawings and sculptures have a joyous soul.

Other shows that I loved were Ming: 50 Years that Changed China at the British Museum – simply because I can’t see enough Chinese scrolls — and a show that couldn’t be more different: Penny Davenport at the Galley, Liverpool. I interviewed Penny and between her work and her words my mind went off in lots of fascinating, dark, intriguing directions.

In the cinema, I found Randall Wright’s film Hockney nothing new, but it was an enjoyable opportunity to revisit an artist whose work I know well, with an added (and very-funny) live broadcast of Hockney speaking from his home in LA at the end. And lastly, I’ve just got into the podcast Serial, which is essentially a long-form audio whodunit, really sensitively and cleanly delivered by Sarah Köenig.

WINNER: BEST RETROSPECTIVE

Hannah Höch

SPECIAL MENTION: Trade Gallery, Poor But Sexy

Nominated by Wayne Burrows

If one exhibition this year had to be singled out, it would be Hannah Höch’s retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery. If there were initial worries that the tidy institutional display somewhat compromised the subversive energies of Hoch’s best-known Dada period, these were allayed by the expanded sense of her achievement made clear by the longer view offered by the substantial showing of later works, ranging from the post-war abstraction of the 1950s and ’60s to the Pop-inflected landscapes of the early 1970s.

Trade Gallery in Nottingham had a good 2014, too, with a selection of Rachel Maclean’s toxic sugar-rush videos gathered to good effect in in Quick, Child, Run! and Mimei Thompson’s hallucinatory still-life paintings among the highlights of a strong programme that ended, hopefully only temporarily, this month.

In a year that saw innumerable cliches about the former Eastern Bloc repeated to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was refreshing to read Agata Pyzik’s Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West (Zero Books), a personal re-evaluation of the things lost in that transition, written by a Polish woman born just before the seismic change. Revisiting post-punk’s obsession with trans-European trains, Soviet concrete and Constructivism, Pyzik highlights how the East’s dreams of the West were not a one-sided transaction, and explores the many ways in which in which ’80s Britain and ’70s New York were less distinct from the realities of ‘actually existing Socialism’ than is generally assumed. It’s scattershot, partial and digressive, but endlessly fascinating stuff.

WINNER: BEST ACTOR

Matthew McConaughey

WINNER: BEST NOVELIST

George Saunders

Nominated by Joshua Potts

What a year it’s been for the former mahogany pin-up Matthew McConaughey. Bagging an Oscar for Dallas Buyer’s Club was a mighty feat, considering the competition – Chiwetel Ejifor and an increasingly scruffy DiCaprio headed better films, but none could match McConaughey’s ascendancy as the definitive Method Man of our time. He’s got a real darkness to him, his Texan drawl practically dripping gravitas; basically the anti-Christopher Walken, who always got by on the art of overplaying his vocal ticks to the point of self-parody. Yes, Day-Lewis might still beat him for sheer commitment (if we can believe he did make people call him ‘Mr President’ on the Lincoln set), yet McConaughey has become box-office plutonium, managing to keep the critical advocacy that’s followed his success with equal amounts of hosannas and disbelief.

Interstellar showed the family man beneath his inspired run of anti-hero personas. Not even a wormhole could warp the connection we feel to a father watching his daughter grow up on a computer screen. The ace in the hole, though, was HBO’s True Detective. As Rust Cole, the actor completely embodied one of the most nihilistic characters in recent memory, which is saying hell of a lot these days. If time is indeed a flat circle, then long may the McConaissance fight for the whiplash of the unexpected, knocking the dials of a career in its prime.

Absurdity and tragedy are natural bedfellows in George Saunders’ bizarre portrayals of capitalism run amok. Nothing in our modern condition escapes him. Theme parks are arenas of professional suicide; families struggle to do the best thing under the worst circumstances; a boy rescues a man with Alzheimer’s; beating the fear of one’s moment of definition, and of seeing your life through another’s eyes. His short fiction is some of the greatest literary catnip to come out of America in the last decade. Superlatives are frankly a waste of type space. Just know that his latest collection, Tenth of December, lives up to and surpasses expectations, dissecting a climate of raging humanity and individualism in a way that leaves hope for the Little Guy at the bottom rung of the ladder. 2014 has seen a nascent alignment with Karen Russell, a Saunders protégée, come to the fore. The two of them could whip their country into shape faster than Obama drinks his morning coffee. Despite their inimitable style and narrative control, Saunders’ stories remind us of the power of the imagination above all else, never failing to take the reader by the throat. If you haven’t jumped on the band wagon, do so immediately.

WINNER: BEST NEW GALLERY

MODEL Liverpool 

Nominated by Heather Garner

This year saw Liverpool Biennial return for a multitude of art, performance and pedagogical events that enliven the city with healthy (and often heated) debate. But this year, amidst the Biennial hype, one collective stood out and apart from the crowd and for this reason deserves nominating.

MODEL Liverpool, the temporary art space set up through their own initiative by artists Fran Disley, Kevin Hunt and Dave Evans, provided an experimental and artist-led exhibition space that, in my opinion, rivalled some of Liverpool’s more established galleries in their inventiveness. Not to mention their mentoring of up and coming arts graduates through sessions that intended to give those in need of advice, inspiration, support and experience the all-important kick from behind.

As a recent Fine Art graduate, it can sometimes feel that the larger institutions dominate the creative industries and the DIY spirit has begun to dwindle, but MODEL has proved that all is not lost for the independent spirit.

WINNER: BEST NOVEL

W.G. Sebald’s The Rings Of Saturn 

Nominated by Adam Scovell

No, he isn’t a new name, and this isn’t a new novel, but Sebald floated across my pathway several times before I actually sat down and devoured a whole chunk of his work earlier this year, specifically diving headlong into The Rings Of Saturn (1995). The idea that a walk within a perfectly harmless landscape can be the groundwork to branch into such topics as the slave trade, Thomas Browne and the holocaust, is such a simple one, but also one that is extremely difficult to get right without falling into the offensively tawdry. Sebald, of course, balances the subjects with ease and his work is an absolute highpoint for almost any type of writing; his is a product that can fall quite easily into academia, prose, journalism etc.

This also lead to discovering Grant Gee’s beautiful film about the book, Patience (Waiting For Sebald) (2012) which is itself a visual palette of ideas and yet another highpoint of what is possible when using film to make images and discerning more from the landscape than simply what is on its surface.  Considering the sheer bombardment of the more urbane obsessions of inner city creativity that often lurched into the blandly abstract, especially locally, Sebald’s writing and rural misanthropy was a much needed breath of fresh air and a real life-saver this year.

And last, but not least…

WINNER: BEST EMERGING CRITIC

C. James Fagan

Nominated by Laura Robertson

Chris Fagan has been a live art critic for The Double Negative for three years, and since then has provided unconventional and entertaining personal reflections on a wide variety of art and performance, that also manage to be consistently considered and eloquent. Thank you Chris for always being honest, balanced, and for your particular knack of taking the reader along on the (occasionally hair-raising) ride, arm-in-arm. Long may you brandish the pen!

So that’s it! From all at The Double Negative, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a brilliant New Year.

See you in 2015! x

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the arts listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK!

Monday — Exhibition Opening: Dazzle Ship Prints 10am-5pm @ Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool — FREE

Love Carlos Cruz Diez’s Dazzle Ship on the Liverpool Waterfront? See where the idea came from with this beautiful collection of four original woodcut prints by Edward Wadsworth: an Intelligence Officer for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War I and supervising artist for over two thousand British ships  painted in ‘dazzle camouflage’ in Bristol and Liverpool. Read our Big Interview with Carlos Cruz-Diez and In Pictures: The Making Of The Dazzle Ship.

Tuesday — Exhibition Opening: The Small Infinite 11am-5pm @ John Hansard Gallery, Southampton — FREE

Celebrating ‘the strength and endurance of the minuscule’ through themes as diverse as particle physics, the economic crisis, utopianism, hacking, virtual worlds and the materiality of film, this new exhibition (in partnership with Winchester School of Art) showcases many works from respected international artists — including Mark Amerika, Elif Ayter, Bill Balaskas, Sophie Clements, Susan Collins, Tim Head, and John Latham, whose One Second Drawings act as the exhibition’s gravitational centre.

Wednesday-Sunday – Wikimania Conference @ Barbican, London — Three day ticket £50; five day (plus Hackathon) £60; day ticket £30

Into all things Wiki? Discover a huge variety of projects that people are making with wikis and open content — including Wikipedia — at this huge (2000 people plus) conference, festival, meetup, workshop, hackathon, and celebration. Open to all, experts to beginners.

Exhibition Opening: Why War? 12-5pm @ Freud Museum, London — £7/4

Einstein once asked: ‘Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?’ As contemporary war coverage and debate screams on, and the 100-year anniversary of World War One is remembered, this timely exhibition reveals a little-known correspondence between Einstein and Freud on the subject of war, and the possibility of avoiding it. Through their letters, plus present-day responses from politicians, journalists, academics and artists (including by the East London Printmakers), expect to think hard about themes of propaganda, disillusionment and psychology.

Thursday-Sunday — Wilderness Festival @ Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire — £151.50

Described as ” a wonderland” by The Guardian, expect a laid-back, forest-set and family-friendly event this year as Wilderness celebrate their fourth birthday. The music bit comes from Burt Bacharach, Joan As Police Woman and Mount Kimbie amongst others; the rest of the substantial programme is provided by Banquests & Feats tents (including appearences from Angela Hartnett and Simon Rogan), Talks & Debates (Huff Post, Irvine Welsh, George Monbiot), Theatre (Shakespeare’s Globe, V&A), and an endless list of parties, wellbeing and outdoors activities (horse riding anyone?).

PICK OF THE WEEK: Private View: Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives 6–8pm @ WORK Gallery, London — FREE

Anyone who has ever seen a Kubrick film will know how fantastically disorientating and imaginative his fictional worlds are. Looking at three key film sets/ideas — the Discovery spaceship from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Overlook Hotel from The Shining (1980), and Huế City from Full Metal Jacket (1987) — this special exhibition features an extensive collection of original archival documents and photographs showing how Kubrick made these spaces come alive on screen. Showing alongside the publication launch of Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, Black Dog Publishing, a collection of essays on Kubrick’s 50 years of filmmaking.

Friday — Private View: BAA Project Launch & Exhibition 6-9pm @ Bury Art Museum and Gallery –  FREE

Featuring performances and talks from new North-West-based arts collective BAA — Clara Walsh, Helmut Lemke, Iain North, Jane Lawson, Kate Lucy, Klaus-dieter Michel, Kerry Morrison, Laura Gower, Lucy Aaronson, Sharon Walsh and Teresa Wilson — the exhibition shows the collaboration possible between artists from all stages of the career ladder. Interested? The group aims to use the wonderful new Bury Sculpture Centre for groups crits, discussion and projects from this autumn.

Private View: An Eye For The Unloved 7pm til late @ Mary Mary, Liverpool — FREE

Have you visited Mary Mary yet? If you like good coffee, vintage bikes and friendly people then you probably should. This launch is the perfect chance to pop by; a mini-exhibition of illustration, photography and short film about the ‘unloved’ or forgotten parts of Liverpool, including Roy McCarthy’s drawings of the Churchill Flyover and Myrtle Parade, Zoë Byrne’s graffitit photography and Ab Badwi’s portraits of Toxteth residents from the ’80s. Complimentary drinks provided.

Saturday – Futurecamp: A Post-Gender World 12-5pm @ Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge — FREE

What does the future hold? The last in this three-month long conference and artist residency aims to answer just that, closing an ambitious programme of fortnigtly talks, performances and workshops. Saturday’s event is dedicated to the complexities of social and philosophical interpretations of gender and identity; how and why are they formed and enacted? Talks and new performances come from d3signbur3au, Zackary Drucker,Berivan Erdogan, Rhys Ernst, Richard John Jones, Rachel Maclean, Anne McGuire,Tracey Rose, James Richards, Leslie Thornton and Jessica Wiesner.

Sunday — Sunday Roast With Live Jazz 12-7pm @ The Caledonia, Liverpool — £6

Like a good roast dinner? Like real ale? Like a friendly welcome and live music? Then get down to the Caledonia — a local pub loved by TripAdvisor, with a cosy vibe, great landlady and the occasional pub dog. Sax, trumpets and ‘mmmmm jazzzzz’ provided by Martin Smith and friends (taster here).