Culture Diary w/c 20-05-2024
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – Pit and the Pendulum 6.20pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
A timely screening of Pit and the Pendulum from Roger Corman, who died last week, aged 98 – it was the director’s second (it must be said loose) adaptation of the work of Edgar Allan Poe. With a script from Richard Matheson and typically outlandish performance from Vincent Price, Corman brings it all together to produce a film full of shocks and rich in atmosphere. It screens again on Thursday should you miss out tonight.
Tuesday – Last Chance To See: Would You Land an Airplane There? Susan Leask: New Sculptures 6pm @ Bridewell Studios & Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
Sculptor Susan Leask, who repurposes found and unconventional materials, 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.
Peace for Palestine 7pm @ the Quaker Meeting House, Liverpool – £5
As we watch the genocide unfold amid the cruelly obtuse and unhelpful doublespeak of so-called ‘leadership’, it is to others that we must look to keep the pressure for positive change on. In this spirit, Peace for Palestine (programmed as part of another superb and socially conscious WoWFEST), brings together author, Kamila Shamsie, Basma Ghalayini, Editor of Palestine+100 and performance poet Amina Atiq to discuss ’the roles that we can all play in demanding peace for Palestine’.
Wednesday – Webinar: Socially Engaged Photography 5pm Online – FREE
Hosted by Norway’s national photographic space, Preus Museum, and Open Eye Gallery, this fascinating-sounding webinar – with promised insights from artists from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden – looks at both the opportunities and challenges faced by socially engaged photographers in the Nordic region.
SixBySix Social: At The Match, by Colin McPherson: Book Launch and Exhibition 7pm @ Ropes & Twines, Liverpool – £6.50
Photobook At The Match celebrates two decades of football images from When Saturday Comes’ sterling team of photographers Simon Gill, Colin McPherson and Paul Thompson. Of the 120 matchday pictures featured, McPherson contributed 43 of them – a selection of which make up this new Ropes & Twines exhibition.
Thursday – Liverpool School of Art & Design Degree Show 5pm @ John Lennon Art and Design Building, Liverpool – FREE
Featuring Architecture, Fashion Design & Communication, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Illustration, History of Art & Museum Studies and Interior Architecture, this Thursday sees the opening of the 2024 LSAD degree shows. A good heads up for names we may see producing great, challenging work in the near future, and a barometer of the quality we should expect, LSAD’s degree show is a fixture in the city’s cultural calendar.
At The Match: Book Launch and Artist’s Talk 6pm @ Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead – £5
See Wednesday’s SixBySix Social entry, above.
Crywank 7.15pm @ Quarry, Liverpool – £13
In the pantheon of band names to ruin careers before they’ve even begun, Manchester’s Crywank must be up there with Selfish C*nt. Their blend of anti-folk ‘mostly sad songs‘ has, nevertheless, inspired a loyal following more than willing to forgive – and perhaps even embrace – the initially jarring moniker.
Friday – Exhibition Opening: Life at Arena 6pm @ Bridewell Studios & Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
Launch of an exhibition from the current roster of members of Arena Studios and Gallery. The opening includes work by 15 artists accompanied by DJs.
Publication Launch: A Machine to Unmake You 4pm @ FACT Liverpool – FREE
Artist Melanie Crean’s current FACT exhibition A Machine to Unmake You considers the lives and experiences of incarcerated veterans. It’s sobering work, which looks at the myriad cultural and societal forces that results, for some, in enduring the justice system. Tonight’s publication launch includes a panel featuring ‘system-impacted’ artists who have taken part in Crean’s project.
Saturday – Exhibition Opening: The Ties That Bind @ The Atkinson, Southport – FREE
Including work by François Antoine de Bruycker (above), Linda Stein, Gillian Wearing and Laura Knight, this new exhibition explores how artists take inspiration from family life, working relationships, love stories and community, across paintings, ceramics and sculpture.
Ibibio Sound Machine 7.45pm @ Future Yard, Birkenhead – £20
Blending disco, post-punk, Afro funk and electronica, Ibibio Sound Machine’s is a winning party-hard formula. Catch them this evening hot on the heels of the launch earlier this month of fifth album, Pull The Rope.
Sunday – Eyes Wide Shut 4.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8
An underwhelming last act or – as Sight & Sound would have it – ‘Kubrick’s misunderstood masterwork’? When it was released just months after his death in 1999, the reception for Eyes Wide Shut was mixed. Did the director’s swansong do him and his towering career justice? Twenty five years on, however, his tale of sex, power and jealousy can be viewed with fresh eyes.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Pit and the Pendulum trailer; Susan Leask: New Sculptures; At The Match publication; LJMU Degree Show promo artwork; Crywank; A Christening Party, by Francois Antoine de Bruycker (1816–1882)
