Culture Diary w/c 15-01-2018
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the North of England and the rest of the UK – and loads of it’s free!
Monday — London Short Film Festival Continues @ Venues Across London — Prices Vary
Dubbed “The Best Short Film Festival in the World” (Guardian Guide), LSFF are currently celebrating 15 years of filmmaking talent. Today, expect industry panels on fundraising and commissioning, and several new shorts programmes themed on witches, human interaction, global politics and survival… Continues every day until Sunday 21 Jan.
Tuesday – SHE: Polo / Loux / Sequin Sally 7.30pm @ Jimmy’s, Manchester – £4
A night aimed at promoting women in the music industry, tonight’s SHE will host an intoxicating mix of indie, electro, neo-psych and cutting-edge pop – all hailing from the North of England. Expect sleepy dream-pop, anguished harmonies and a fair bit of shoegazing.
Wednesday – Curator Tour: Under Cinema 6.30—7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – FREE (Booking Required)
Our review (read it here) described it as “dreamlike and deeply poetic”, but what will you think of the 2018 Hugo Boss Prize nominee’s Liverpool exhibition (above)? Let FACT Producer/Curator Lesley Taker be your guide to Wu Tsang’s docu/art/pop mash-up: exploring identity and connection through non-traditional filmmaking. Exhibition continues until 18 Feb.
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Sophie Jung, Thusly 6—9pm @ Primary, Nottingham – FREE
“Now you take a piece of clay / Roll it into a lemon / Thusly / And stick your finger in.” A new installation from artist Jung, this is an experimental approach to text, film and sculptural language, asking how objects can be activated, whether as prop, performer or instrument? Commissioned as part of Primary’s Object Performance series, exhibition continues until 24 Feb.
Conversation And Exchange: Talking With Children 6—8pm @ The Bluecoat, Liverpool – FREE (Booking Required)
Join an expert team of creative practitioners from Liverpool and different European cities tonight – including the Bluecoat’s Head of Programme, Marie-Anne McQuay, plus Exhibition Manager of Kunsthall Stavanger Norway, Heather Jones – to learn more about and discuss their recent projects with young people. What are their views on alternative approaches to education, and how do artists currently develop projects for children?
Fugees: The Complete Re-Score 7–11pm @ Jazz Café, London – £11.50
To mark over 20 years since its release, a 16-piece orchestra have interpreted one of the world’s most famous hip-hop acts, The Fugees (above), and their multi-Platinum and Grammy-winning second studio album, The Score (1996). Back with more dates in 2018 due to popular demand, expect to be up on your feet with euphoric versions of Ready or Not, Killing Me Softly, and No Woman, No Cry.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Friday – Exhibition Opening: The Lost Words 10am–5pm @ The Foundling Museum, London – £11/8.25
A tantalising collaboration on natural wildlife, between award-winning author Robert Macfarlane and artist/author Jackie Morris, this latest show at The Foundling seeks to explore the results of a 2002 Cambridge University survey. Depressingly, the results of which found that British schoolchildren could identify Pokémon far more accurately than species of common UK wildlife. Expect watercolours and poems that are as varied as Britain’s landscapes and wild creatures. Continues until 6 May.
Saturday 20 January — Female Sexuality And The Male Gaze 11am—4.30pm @ The National Gallery, London — £26.71 (Booking Essential)
A popular day-long workshop by London Drawing Group delving into traditional concepts of nudity and the Male Gaze, expect debate around and sketching of some of the best paintings The National Gallery has to offer, with expert guide and resident LDG Art History Tutor Luisa Maria MacCormack.
Saturday 20 January — Women In Punk & No Wave Film And Music 12–5pm & 8–11pm @ BEEF: Brunswick Club, Bristol — £12 OTD/£7 Day/£7 Evening
A jam-packed day of films, talks and performances (and dancing!) looking at how Punk challenged 1970’s norms of femininity, expect to discuss voice as resistance, see new work by Irish feminist experimental and documentary filmmaker Vivienne Dick, hear DJs Delirious Rhythm and Queens of the Neighbourhood, and more.
Sunday – In The Cut (2003) & Post-Screening Discussion 1pm @ HOME Manchester – £7/5/4
Jane Campion’s erotic murder mystery/slasher stars Meg Ryan (above) as an English teacher who has an affair with hunky detective Mark Ruffalo – even though she suspects him of murdering another woman. But will she buck the trend and emerge from this relationship alive? Talk about the plot, the genre, and female protagonists in a post-screening discussion led by Maggie Hoffgen, Freelance Film Educator.
Laura Robertson, Editor
Images, from top: Wu Tsang, Under Cinema (2017), installation view of Under Cinema at FACT, UK; courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin. Poster for Fugees: The Complete Re-Score. Jackie Morris, Raven (2017) © Jackie Morris. Still from In The Cut (2003)