Culture Diary w/c 13-05-2024
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – Exhibition Continues: Infinite Encounters @ Liverpool Cathedral – FREE
Group exhibition Infinite Encounters has been curated with the senses in mind. Actively engage with conceptual artist Rasheed Araeen’s ever-changing sculpture, Zero to Infinity, and breathe in the sweet fragrances of Frances Disley’s Holodeck Program 106. Myriam Thyes’ video work Mutable Worlds presents the viewer with an interactive journey, while Neringa Naujokaite’s Horizon considers the urban environment through sound. From the Archive: The Big Interview: Rasheed Araeen
The Banned Book Club: Taking a Stand Against Book Bans 7pm, Online – £3
This year’s Writing on the Wall Festival, inspired by Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (and subtitled Fahrenheit 2024) leans into its timely and urgent theme here, as this online talk addresses access to – and it’s a sign of how far to the right we’ve swung in recent times that I say this – banned books. Dr. Torsten Reimer, University Librarian and Dean of the University Library, and Laura Sill, Head of Acquisitions, at the University of Chicago discuss an initiative that ensures readers access to free eBooks of banned titles.
Fargo 8.50pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8.20
“This is a true story” a title card tells audiences at the beginning of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo, their 1996 film about frustration, small town plotting, kidnap and murder. It’s a simple conceit and an intriguing beginning to a great neo-noir film, back in cinemas as part of Picturehouse’s look back at the brothers’ oeuvre.
Tuesday – Cola 7.15pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £13
Emerging from the ashes of Ought – whose barnstorming debut More Than Any Other Day recently turned 10 (!) – Cola are that band’s Ben Stidworthy and Tim Darcy, with Evan Cartwright (US Girls/The Weather Station) joining on drums. Named for the sugary addictive soft drink synonymous with rotten teeth and the so-called American Dream, their moniker also stands for Cost of Living Adjustment – an indication that these are people in touch with the world. New record, The Gloss, is out next month.
Wednesday – Shallow Grave 30th Anniversary Screening 8.45pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
30 years? How did that happen? Director Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave’s trio of flatmates (baby Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox and Christopher Eccleston) come into an unexpected windfall – and come face to face with the consequences of greed and betrayal.
Thursday – Exhibition Opening: Would You Land an Airplane There? Susan Leask: New Sculptures 6pm @ Bridewell Studios & Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
Sculptor Susan Leask, who repurposes found materials and unconventional material such as polystyrene packaging, introduces new works that “hint at stories, thoughts and places” at the Bridewell. Read Jon Barraclough’s new profile of the artist.
Friday – Wolfgang Flür 7.30pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £24
Kraftwerk’s drummer between 1973 and 1986, Wolfgang Flür’s performance MUSIK SOLDAT – including videos and images from shows past and present and, of course, electro – arrives in Birkenhead.
Saturday – Casey Orr Artist Talk and SEPN NW Meet-Up 2pm @ Open Eye Gallery – FREE (RSVP)
For more than a decade, Casey Orr has travelled the country with her pop-up studio, photographing young people on Saturday afternoons. An exploration of fashion, culture, identity and the ritualised nature of weekends out with your mates, here, Orr discusses the first retrospective exhibition of her work (currently on display at Open Eye Gallery) with the Socially Engaged Photography Network’s North West coordinator, Liz Wewiora.
Sunday – Last Chance To See: Lāsma Poiša: I became a mother @ Warrington Museum & Art Gallery – FREE
Winner of the Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival Prize in 2022 and shortlisted for 2023′s BJP Portrait of Britain 2023, photographer Lāsma Poiša describes her candid series I became a mother as “a personal journey into a universal female experience of metamorphosis, evolution, and recovery.” Catch the exhibition, which closes today, while you can.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Rasheed Araeen, Zero to Infinity, installation shot; Fargo trailer; Cola/The Gloss; Susan Leask (sculpture detail); Casey Orr
