Our cultural calendar is back in time for the party season, and Getintothis’ Sinéad Nunes is on hand with her top picks from this month’s arts programme.
Paul Elliman, The Day Shapes, 2018
Liverpool Biennial 2018: Closing Weekend
October 27-28, Various Venues, FREE
Don’t miss your last chance to see some of the incredible artwork on display for Liverpool Biennial 2018 at 18 different venues across the city, some you may never have been inside before.
For the final weekend, Liverpool Biennial organisers have teamed up with Sonic Yootha and Camp and Furnace to present a huge FREE closing party, to bid farewell to this year’s festivities, on Saturday October 27, 9pm – late.
Then if you’re hangover-free on Sunday (or perhaps very angry about your hangover) how does throwing rocks at a giant work of art sound? Artist Chou Yu-Cheng invites visitors to St. George’s Hall to engage with her work Chemical Gilding, Keep Calm, Galvanise, Pray, Gradient, Ashes, Manifestation, Unequal, Dissatisfaction, Capitalise, Incense Burner, Survival, Agitation, Hit, Day Light (2015) by destroying its flawless, gold plated surface, in an effort to highlight the superficiality of consumer culture. You can already see some dents from the artwork’s last exhibition.
LEAP Dance Festival
LEAP Dance Festival 2018
November 2-12, Various Venues, prices dependant on event
How often do you watch live dance (and I’m not talking about the kind you see in a club)?
Masters of commissioning and producing dance events across Liverpool for the past 25 years, MDI present LEAP festival. Whether you’re interested in a ballet inspired by Oliver Twist, a fun retelling of Romeo and Juliet experiencing their matrimonial mid-life crisis, or an award-winning, dark physical commentary on cultural mores and sexual taboos, there’s something for every taste.
Feeling inspired?
Theres also a full programme of workshops and discussions where you can have your say or have a go.
Victoria Gallery and Museum
Lecture: The Beauty of the Italian – Language, Creativity and National Pride
November 7, 5.30-7.30pm. Legate Theatre at VG&M, FREE
Did you know you can attend public lectures on a whole range of topics for free at University of Liverpool? English philosopher John Stuart Mill once wrote that it was not easy for an Englishman to learn the dolce far niente (“sweet nothings”) of the Italians. He also claimed that at times he could not find anything better than Italian to portray what he wanted to say.
Join literary critic and academic Dr Stefano Jossa as she explores the presence of the Italian language in foreign use, in order to investigate what, if anything, Italian can still express better than any other language. The lecture will be followed by an Italian themed reception.
Wrapped Up In Books: Anton Newcombe interview, Cath Barton talks novellas and more
Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster
Play: Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster
November 9-10, 5pm and 8pm, Everyman Theatre, £10-15
An amped up monstrous evening of beatbox, song, soundscape and battles – it’s Frankenstein as you’ve never heard the tale before. A brand new gig-theatre production by BAC Beatbox Academy, inspired by the original monstrous tale of power and persecution sees a dynamic vocal collective use nothing but their mouths and a microphone to present an electrifying poetic and political live concert of song, soundscape, improvised tracks and battles – exploring the idea of what makes a modern monster.
Homotopia Presents: John Waters
Homotopia Presents: John Waters: This Filthy World
November 10, 7.30pm, Liverpool Philharmonic, £27-33
John Waters’ one-man show is a vaudeville act celebrating the film career and tastes of himself, ‘The Pope of Trash’. Focusing on his early negative artistic influences and his fascination with true crime, exploitation films, fashion lunacy and the extremes of the contemporary art world, Waters’ live monologue elevates all that is trashy in life into a call-to-arms to ‘filth followers’ everywhere – a must for all fans of Pink Flamingos, Hairspray and Cry Baby.
Wake up Together: Ren Hang & Where Love is Illegal
Exhibition: Wake Up Together: Ren Hang & Where Love is Illegal
From November 15 (launch night), Tuesday – Sunday 10am-5pm, Open Eye Gallery, FREE
There are currently 72 countries around the world with laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people. This exhibition brings together Ren Hang’s photos and poetry, in which he expressed his depression whilst also capturing fleeting snapshots of same-sex intimacy. His images are charged with a playful freedom to experiment, a drive to exist in our own skin on our own terms – so much so that the Chinese authorities deemed his nude models posed in domestic, urban and natural surroundings to be pornographic.
In tandem, Where Love Is Illegal is the artistic result of Robin Hammond and his non-profit organisation Witness Change, sharing stories from survivors of punishment and oppression based on their sexuality and identity. Working collaboratively with participants, each self-directed portrait is accompanied by a personal account of the subject’s experience of discrimination, presented in their own handwriting.
Work by Julieta Ardenta
Exhibition: Broken Symmetries
November 22 2018 – 3 March 2019, 11am-6pm Tuesday – Sunday, FACT, FREE
Missed out on AURORA at Toxteth Reservoir? Don’t worry, because FACT‘s biggest exhibition of the year is still to come Broken Symmetries is the end result of a three year long collaboration with CERN, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and home to the Large Hadron Collider, so you can expect some fascinating science behind each artwork. Featuring new commissions by ten artists, all creatively exploring and visualising the complex notions of current fundamental scientific research.
Homotopia Presents: Alaska
Homotopia Presents: Alaska
November 23, 7-8.30pm, Open Eye Gallery, £5
Homotopia festival spreads it wings this year, showing a range of performances in unexpected spaces. Open Eye Gallery houses Alaska, a raw and powerful one woman performance by poet, writer and performer, Cheryl Martin. A whimsical trip to the moon describing one woman’s extraordinary story of how she survived growing up with severe depression, this is a show that will strike a chord with many (especially as I write this on World Mental Health Day). With one in four people estimated to experience mental health difficulties at some time in their lives, this is a story that has the potential to touch everyone, whether first-hand or through family and friends.
Exhibition: Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho
Exhibition: Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho: News from Nowhere
From November 23, Tate Liverpool, FREE
‘Sci-fi is always the fable of the present. By employing a way to look at the future instead of the present, we wanted to address current issues, especially in relation to what art is and what art could be.’ South Korean artists Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho explore what it means to be a human today, in their new film commission Anomaly Strolls, shot in-part in Liverpool and alongside an exhibition of other works, uses science fiction to question the role and importance of art to our present day society.
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