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| November 2008 »
Hope you recognise the line from the dreadful old songThe Smallpox Room by Barbara Jones in Lewis's Window You could easily miss this as you walk past Lewis's, there's no big orange cube on the wall just a small sign in the window and its a display of fabrics and wallpaper. The difference is that the design comes from electron microscope images of diseases such as smallpox and anthrax but you wouldn't know that if you hadn't been told, its very pretty. You can read the artists statement hereI dare someone to go into Lewis's and ask for 'half a dozen rolls of smallpox wallpaper and an anthrax cushion please'
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They have taken down the large boob picture that was on St. Lukes church. Not to appease the old moaners but to replace the one that was damaged by the weather at the Bluecoat.
Its a shame, I'll miss it, I was walking past there the other night when one of a group of late night revellers called out loudly and scouserly
"Ay, look at that big tit over der"
Imagine my delight, dear reader, as I realised that, for once, it was not me being referred to.
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I said last night that I thought the colour in the paintings at the Kif gallery were not as bright as I expected. Tom from the Kif has been in touch to explain...
" We are aware that the posters on display are not as colourful as the originals intended them to be, but our idea was to exhibit them in the style and environment that they were
intended for, i.e. wallpaper-pasted to a hard surface to advertise a musical event. All of the posters on display have been used in this format in different parts of the world when they were originally created. Just to let you know that the prints that we have available to buy from the exhibition do reproduce the vibrant colours of the originals."
Thanks Tom. Again I should have read the handout more thoroughly although I don't think it says the above explicitly it probably infers it and I'm a bit thick.
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There is now a link to this blog direct from biennial.com's front page and from afoundations highlights page so I am now the Official Unofficial Biennial Blogger!
I'm also getting a lot of comments/feedback from artists and curators so I'm going to have to be careful what I say, I'd hate to offend anyone. I'll also have to ensure I get to see and mention every exhibition, oh gawd, what have I started!
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'Vishnu to Woodstock' at KifDid well today, thought Kif on Parr St was closed again but you just have to knock on the door. This is the case with a lot of the small independent places of course, sometimes there's a bell or intercom. Kif is part of the LivingBrain collective (or vice-versa?) of artists and musicians. Seems to be a few of these cropping up lately which is all good so far as I'm concerned.
One of the Kif artists, James Pagella, was there working on designing a poster but he broke off to chat about the place and the exhibitors. There's pictures by Keith Connolly from NYC, member of No Neck Blues Band; the Canadian Kerry Hodgson; Steve Krakow aka Plastic Crimewave as well as Pagella and other Kif artists and the 'mega-weird' W van Duyn. As you may suspect all the pics have a music/poster/psychedelic/fantasy thing going on but the colours seemed a bit muted to me, perhaps they'd just faded over time but when I was a young hippy dude in the '60s the colour of these things seemed a lot brighter.
 Kif
LETS Create at ArtSpeQ QuigginsAs mentioned earlier, this was curated by Lis Edgar of Creative LETS which according to the handout "is an organisation that aims to give all artists, from all disciplines, a platform for their work." Sounds good. So there's pictures in various media as well as sculptures and even fashion designs.
HORTUS botany and empireat the Travelodge building in Old Haymarket (near the tunnel entrance).  This falls into the 'must see' category because its just so different form the run-of-the-mill gallery exhib. The space is three floors of large rooms which will eventually become office space. From the entrance you go up to the mezzanine then down different stairs to ground level then down again to the very dimly lit basement. Its spooky down here, there are strange noises and voices saying 'parsley' coming from speakers on the walls, there's also the Global Feed project. At first glance you think this exhibition is just about plants and pictures of flowers but there's a lot more to it, there's a big greenhouse full of holes and pictures of a snowman with a candle on his head!
Oh, and the Parsley installation takes its title from a brutal massacre in 1937 in the Dominican Republic during which Creole Haitians were murdered if they were not able to pronounce "parsley" (perejil) in the appropriate Spanish manner, by rolling the "r". Thanks to Billy for pointing that out (glad someone reads the literature). Seems bizarre but no more so than any other 'ethnic cleansing'.
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Just got back from the Magnet club having watched Anthony Padgett's live art performance. Not sure if he was celebrating religions or taking the piss, it was a good laugh but he seemed quite earnest that the audience should join in and pray to the little plastic doll. A couple from the audience dressed up and raced a mixture of gods round the room in remote control cars and we all joined in the inter-religious disco dance. People who are offended by a picture of a part of the body being hung from St Luke's church should definitely try and see this show. Except you can't because it was only for one night but he's showing 'DivintyLand' Interreligious Themepark at the Quakers Meeting House on saturdays.
 
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Tim Marlow on the Biennial on FIVE at 19.05 Thursday.
Late night events in the Independent District this weekend involving those zany transVoyeur people. more details
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Donna has been in touch to let me know there is a lot more to her Carbon Dating exhibition inside Boodle & Dunthorne and the security guard is a very,very, nice man, Here's a couple of pictures, the globe is made out of charcoal and diamond dust  
There's more info & pics here. Thanks Donna.
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Just realised I forgot to mention my visit to the LOOP Gallery over a week ago!
Loop is a brand spanking new, cutting edge, state of the art(ha-ha) gallery for abstract art in Princes Dock. Its just a short walk North along the prom from the Pier Head so I went there after the Tate and 'the Abba house'. The curators have done well to attract some big names to the very first exhibition which is called 'Ten'. Ten Artists, Ten Paintings for Ten weeks. Not all the names were familiar to me but I recognise Terry Duffy, Maurice Cockrill, John Hoyland and Julie Jones. The work which seems to attract the most attention is by Jason Thompson, its painted on 2 pieces of wood which are hinged so you can (carefully) open it to reveal a second version of the picture thats on the front piece (hope that makes sense).
Although opening to coincide with the Biennial the gallery should continue and the pictures are for sale, they won't be cheap so things must be looking up here if expensive art is being sold on a regular basis, don't think thats happened on Merseyside for a long time.
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Not a good start today. I went to the Kif gallery in Parr St. but it wasn't open. Maybe I was too early, anyway I'll call again as 'Vishnu to Woodstock' sounds right up my street. So I went onto the LETS Create at the ArtSpeq in Quiggins. What I could see through the windows looked interesting but the doors were locked, probably as it was lunch time so another return journey required.
Donna Berry at the JewellersHad more success at Boodle and Dunthorne on the corner of Lord St/Nth John St. I think its just the display in the window on North John St. If there's more inside let me know, jewellers shops are unknown territory for me and I was intimated by the sight of the huge bouncer just inside the doorway.
Anyway, Donna Berry is famous for her artworks made out of toast! (You can see some on the walls of the Magnet restaurant) and, glad to say, she's found a use for all the burnt bits. She's mixed carbon & resin and sculpted it into torso or bust shapes and here they have diamonds draped around them. Its called 'Carbon Dating', clever eh?
 'Phoenix VI Trio' by Donna Berry
Ten by Ten at EggspaceLate lunch at the excellent Veggie/Vegan 'Egg' bistro in Newington. There's always weird (and I mean that in a nice way, weird is good) stuff on the walls here and they call it Eggspace. Not sure whats going on here and there's not much info to hand but its lots of small square pictures. I reckon they're all 10cm squares (10x10) and approx 100 artists have submitted 10 squares - thats 10x100=1000 which looks about right. Then they're all stuck on the walls in big rectangles so there's roughly 5 rectangles of 10x20 which from a distance look like chaotic murals. (note to self - should have taken a photo you idiot)
Anyway there's every kind of picture, lots of photos mostly local scenes, crayoning, drawings, cartoons, watercolours, badges, road signs! and, sad old git that I am, I recognised the pictures of the naked Gaynor Sweeney - great stuff.
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Continuing with my Sunday adventures. You will recall I started with coffee and angels at The Quarter cafe then across town to the Cornerstone then to Lime St. station. So I thought I may as well pop across to the Walker for a second look at the John Moores. I didn't have the stamina to look at the Stuckists again!
Its very unusual for me to actually dislike an artwork so I surprised myself by finding quite a high proportion of the JM exhib come into the 'can hardly bare to look at' category. Perhaps I'm getting more critical, if I ever start sounding like 'proper' art critic please shoot me. Of course, there's lots that I really do like and I voted for 'Morning' by Graham Crowley as my favourite. There are ballot boxes everywhere, the Artist who gets the visitors vote gets £1000 prize.
I've mentioned my lack of enthusiasm for the 1st prizewinner, if you've seen it you'll know its a big orange/brown coloured thing with a black grid and as I was passing it there was a woman standing in front wearing checked trousers in similar colours and behind her was a man wearing a checked shirt in the same colour scheme. A bit of serendipity that was almost interesting, I would have taken a photo of the scene only security were ready to pounce at the merest hint of a camera-click.
The BluecoatI returned home via Bluecoat Chambers in School lane. Don't tell anyone but there's a lovely little secret courtyard/garden at the back. Here you can see an unititled sculpture by Andrew Small
You should recognise it as the anamorphic skull from The Ambassadors painting by Holbein. I wanted to take the picture from different angles but there were too many lunchtime sandwich-eaters in the way!
Laird Galbraith at BluecoatWhile at the Bluecoat I went upstairs to Laird Galbraith's Open Studio (studio 55) and watched him paint for a while, allow plenty of time if you go here, he's an interesting character who can keep you talking for hours. You are also invited to contribute a photo for him to use as source material for the small scenes he paints onto a larger canvass (autobiographobia). See his website
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52 Roscoe Street
 Ah, OK, so when is it open exactly? (It wasn't open at 16.00 today)
Christopher Miller at Everyman Bistro
So I went to the Everyman, the ever-popular downstairs bar/bistro at the theatre in Hope St. There's always plenty of artwork on display there. Currently in the little niches in the bar area are some very clever small sculptures by Christopher Miller. In what's known as the 3rd room is an exhibition organised by dot-art, not part of the biennial but I had a look anyway so there.
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On FIVE on Thursday 30th Sept at 19.05I mentioned earlier that I had seen Tim Marlow and crew filmimg in several locations. This is a two-parter, I presume the second part will be the following Thursday. Watch out for it.
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or so Daisy Delaney tells me. She wouldn't say any more. Intriguing. I'll post here if I get any more news, so, er, watch this space.
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EvolveAfter coffee I walked all the way across town to the Hope University Cornerstone building
  For the next Biennial in '06 I'm going to invest in one of those pedometer things to record how far I've walked. Must be at least 150 miles over the 10 weeks, why are these leisure pursuits such hard work? The cornerstone is the old SFX School building, entrance round the back but don't drive too slow... 
This is fun, the gallery is covered in white paper and visitors are invited to draw on it, simple as that. Every so often a section is cut out and displayed in the gallery and replaced with another blank piece. There's supposed to be drawing materials available, I couldn't see any but I wasn't going to partake anyway, I'm such a coward! Don't expect any masterpieces but there's some quite skillful, amusing, awful attempts. This is a Big Draw 2004 event, part of the Campaign for Drawing, must admit, I hadn't heard of this but think its an excellent idea, you can't beat good drawing.
Lime St. Station Returned to the city centre via Lime St. This snap doesn't do justice to Choi Jeong Hwa's work called 'Happy Together', you need to see them to appreciate how big and bright they are. Much nicer than all the advertising hoardings below them.
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Oh dear, oh dear. Just been watching Rolf on Art. The BBC dumbing down? Never! Thank god for BBC4 though.
Been a strange sort of day, woke up late which is unusual for me but its been a busy week and it took me a while to figure out what day it was. Are we really only one week (i.e. 1/10) into this? Jeez! So, I eventually emerge to find this 'installation' entitled 'hoover and upturned bin' on my doorstep
and the Phil Hall have replaced the vibrant 08 flag 
with this boring Classic FM thing 
Whats going on!
Urban Angels at the QuarterTook my morning coffee at The Quarter Cafe on Falkner St. Its a very nice Bistro and their large coffee really is LARGE but I don't go there often partly because its so popular, I like somewhere quiet, where I can spread out my newspapers. But Sunday morning is quiet and I had the (non-smoking - hurrah!) area at the back to myself. So picture the scene - Quiet Sunday morning, the Observer mag., Large black coffee in a friendly cafe, both sets of cathedral bells ringing in the background and I'm surrounded by Angels! How cool is that?
These are Dorrie Halliday's Urban Angels they are digital artworks (mainly photoshop I guess). I like them but some are wielding guns which isn't very angelic but I read somewhere that Dorrie has actually been visited by angels so she's knows more about them than me. There's also some nice stuff on display by Tony Smith - 'Ludicrous, Fantasy and Folly' and David Knopov's 'The Way We Look'. All these are for sale by the way.
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Liverpool Artists Past and Present
Went to the Private View last night. A bit off my patch this place (349 Smithdown Rd), took the motor and avoided the alcohol. Its a very nice 'slightly bohemian' cafe with gallery that hosts regular exhibitions. This features local artists past (e.g Adrian Henri) and present (e.g photographer Ben Zuhlcke).
Chatted to the curator Lis Edgar who has been busy working on this and the LETS Create show at Quiggins (haven't seen that yet) as well as doing her own artworks. The Henri and Young pieces may be familiar to regular galleristas. Personally, I love the big colourful canvasses by Maxine Trainer, I saw these at the Fine Art Degree Show in Myrtle St this summer and was well impressed. I'm no expert of course but I think she could go far (you read it here first). The gallery has a yard where, amongst others, are these cool sculptures by Paul Bearman.
 
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BBC Newsnight Review 24 SeptemberJust been broadcast, on the whole, a favourable review. They thought it was patchy but I suppose a festival of this size and scope with a fair degree of independence is bound to be patchy. They were more excited by the Bloomberg Contemporaries (as was I) than the more established artists in the Tate and they were moved by the Yang Fudong and Jill Magid video works in FACT and Tate and Bonnie Greer waffled on pretentiously as only she can. (actually thats not true, there's many others who can waffle just as well)
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Myrtle is a group of artists who all graduated from Liverpool Community College this year, the college is in Myrtle St. you see. They held a degree exhibition at the Artspeq gallery in Quiggins which I enjoyed.
The Tunnels are The Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre in Smithdown Lane opposite the police station.
 Ok, you have to pay up to £3.50 for the tour but if you haven't seen these tunnels before they're quite fascinating. Joseph Williamson employed many local people in the 1820/30s to build these tunnels seemingly just for his amusement or maybe to keep people in employment, he was known as the King of Edge Hill but later as the Mole of Edge Hill. Its a great story, you can read more on the ' Friends' website.
What I wasn't expecting was that the artworks had been created specifically to suit the venue so we have stalagmite type sculpture and various small things to fit into some of the many niches in the sandstone. Jane Hughes' 'After the Banquet' echoes the piles of found earthenware around the site. Barbara Galt's 'Joseph's Men' is memorable partly because its brilliant whiteness illuminates the gloomy space. Note: you might want to take your own torch otherwise you're dependent on the guide picking out some of the hidden gems. I've only mentioned a couple of the works but they're all interesting, new-graduate output seems to have a quality all of its own, je ne sais quoi, and the whole experience is one to remember. (and my guide was very nice too!)
This exhibition finishes on 17th Oct.
So if you've been following this blog and paying full attention you will have learnt about Henry Tate yesterday and Joseph Williamson today. There's a lot more to Liverpool than pop music and football you know!
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On my way to the Williamson Tunnels (more later) this morning I took in the Peter Corbett Retrospective 1987-2002 at The University Senate House in Oxford St. More info & a couple of pics here
I do like these pictures as individual items but seeing a whole room full of them I felt a bit like he'd got the one good idea then did it to death over a 15 year period. Only the shape of the frames (there's a couple of big round ones) breaking the monotony. That's my only criticism and anyway they must be good most of them are priced around £6,000 if you're interested.
Oh, the other thing is that this being the Admin building for the Uni, you have to push your way past queues of students waiting to explain why they can't pay their tuition/halls fees just yet. Just push them out the way, they're used to it, I worked at the University for many years so I know.
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BBC - collective - liverpool biennial 04The BBC Collective, which is well worth subscribing to by the way, features the Biennial this week and I'm right chuffed because it includes a link to this blog!
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Anyone out there spotted any more of Daisy Delaney's windmills? Daisy Delaney Windmill blog post
There must still be a few surviving. If you see one send me some pics and I'll post them here.
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You have to feel sorry for the staff at some of these places. There's a couple have to guard the little red house at the Pier Head and listen to Abba's Dancing Queen repeating non-stop all day and passing through FACT today the whole building echoed to the sound of someone singing Happy Birthday VERY loudly and VERY badly. He was obviously performing for the Infinite Fill Zone I suppose the people working there at least get a laugh out of it.
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Here are a couple of sculptures to look out for at the Albert Dock
This is The Puzzle by Satch Hoyt. Its actually one of three works called The Triangle, the other two are The Labyrinth in the Tate - which really is a huge labyrinth made out of raw (and rather smelly) cotton that you can walk through - and The Quiz which is in the Maritime Museum (haven't seen that yet)
This is The Pole of the East by Huang Yong Ping. There's a hawk atop a crown and a soldier on each sign. There are 17 countries indicated and they're all to the East of Liverpool (and Britain). The top two are Afghanistan and Iraq so methinks there may be a political statement being made here but if you don't get that at least you'll know which way is east from the Albert Dock.
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 I don't object to the Tate charging for their special exhibitions and I'm a member so I don't have to pay, I get more than my money's worth from my annual subscription. But I really wasn't expecting them to charge for the biennial exhibitions and neither, it seems, is anyone else as ones enjoyment of the first room is spoiled by the sight of the 'orange-shirts' continually dragging people back to the till and loudly proclaiming that you have to buy a ticket. Not the staff's fault of course, just doing their job.
I don't know of any other venue that's charging except perhaps the Williamson Tunnels but thats not normally a gallery. Surely for 10 weeks every 2 years they can forego the £4 charge. I guess that the Tate Galleries have to be self-financing but they were founded by Henry Tate who made his huge fortune locally with his Tate & Lyle sugar company which, of course, was a by-product of the slave trade (before Tate's time to be fair) and now rots the nations teeth.
Coincidentally, Tate & Lyle today announced that annual profits could exceed expectations (of a mere £207 million). Ok rant over. You can read more about Henry Tate etc. at
Founder of Tate Gallery Dies - Brief Article
Liverpool's Heart of Darkness...
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Even as I write this I am trying to watch the live streaming of this Splice Live / Talkaoke event.
Splice LiveBut there's nowt appearing yet. Its supposed to feature Bill Drummond hosting an auction in the portacabin / community centre in Sheil Park.
And don't say I should get off my backside and go and see it live, I've been out all day researching other stuff on your behalf (see later posts) and its me Tea Time! I've got one hand on the laptop and the other is stirring my risotto. And, anyway, webcasts are more interesting, partly because they very rarely work properly (or at all). Also, I grew up in the Sheil Park area and not sure I ever want to go back there! Drat it, my risotto's sticking, must go.
Update at 20.20: Never did see anything, shame. I hope the event itself went ok.
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Many people are unhappy with the guide booklet for various reasons. One of them is the lack of a cross-reference to the numbers that appear on the map. Now the ever-busy Stuart Burns has created a map key which you can download from his blog at
http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/2004/09/liverpool-biennial-map-key.html
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NuBlu Hotspots Liverpool
According to this report "The Arts Festival’s Independent District will be the first area in the UK to be boasting true metropolitan wireless broadband services. Anyone with a computer, laptop, PDA or mobile phone which is wirelessly enabled, can use the broadband services. For the duration of the Biennial, the service will be free of charge"
I did spot a notice at the Coach Shed at the weekend, I'll go along with my laptop and try it out. Of course, FACT has always had wi-fi hotspots, the Rear Window cafe sometimes looks more like an open plan IT office. It would be interesting to know if any other venues are enabled? There's another small research project for me!
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Proper Title 'Musique Majestic' by Peter Johansson (Sweden)
You just can't resist going inside this piece unless you hate Abba's 'Dancing Queen' which is playing loudly and non-stop. Its completely covered in bright red paint inside and out. Its a pre-fabricated building like something from IKEA and is a reflection on the notions of pre-fab culture for which Sweden is known. Try and get to see it before the storms and sea spray spoil its shiney exterior.
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Guardian Unlimited Arts features - Scouse stew
He says its boring then lists several things he seemed to enjoy. I agree with him about the John Moores winner though, that is boring.
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Well, if you try and use the word 'conservation' 5 times in one paragraph, you're bound to get it wrong at least once. It happens all the time, I've seen loads of press items and leaflets referring to the Conversation Centre in Liverpool. I actually think its a great idea, people could meet there and talk about Conservation, say, or spelling.
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18th September, 2004 - 20th September, 2004
3pm - 6pm
I am in a wedding dress, distributing handbills to find husbands and wives. I sing Love Me Tender for each candidate. If they want to marry me, we complete a wedding ceremony, with declarations, signing our names and photographs etc. Your chance to get hooked and hitched in one of Tsuneko Taniuchi's acclaimed Micro-events.
In front of St Peter's Church
So I turn up at 16.30 ish on 20th wearing me best clobber and all nervous with anticipation and the bride doesn't show! Maybe it was the lousy weather or maybe she saw me coming and hitched up her wedding dress and ran as fast as her legs could carry her in the opposite direction.
Ah well, maybe she'll be back in 2 years time. I will wait for you my lovely. (There's a thought. Wonder what she looks like)
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Liverpool Biennial 04 PROGRAMME : Events
 Apparently there are about 1,000 unused signposts in Liverpool. Daisy Delaney has been putting windmills on top of them. I don't know if she's hoping to do a whole 1,000 or just a few, the Biennial Centre have little info about this. Anyway I've spotted 5 so far, the one above is in Roscoe St. I saw 2 in Hardman St but they'd gone by the time I came back with my camera. There were 2 at the top of Duke St. but they soon died, I wonder if they were blown from their perch or were they pushed? I think they're brilliant, its a shame they're so short-lived.
  
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So, early evening I go to the Walker to see the John Moores. Loads of good stuff here, thought the first-prize winning pic was a bit dull to be honest but love some of the other award winners. Also had a look at The Stuckists Punk Victorian while I was there, worth a visit.
I then had to dash across town to get to the Bluecoat in time for the Beethoven & the Headbangers. Glad I made it, it was great fun
Then a quick look at the exhibition here which included a video of the Headbangers and Aleks Danko's 'Rolling Home', these are small blue houses made out of vinyl (I think) which were rolled through the city centre before being placed inside.
Now to the Tate
where the top two floors are dedicated to Biennial works. I particularly like 'Swirl' by Valeska Soares, this is a sort of infinite ballroom because its all mirrored, there are 3 large chandeliers in the middle and a couple of people were performing. Also the Curator Game looks fascinating, I will have return to see the game being played Details
The long walk back up Jamaica St. in the dark is a bit spooky but worth it. The Bloomberg New Contemporaries fill The Coach Shed
I didn't see any coaches but there is a tank parked outside!
Anyway, there's many varied artworks here for your enjoyment and amusement. At the far end of the road (Greenland St.) is The Blade Factory which is the new home to the Jump Ship Rat gallery which I'll return to at a later date.
The other end of Greenland St. is The Buddleia Building
cant think why its called that! Again, loads of stuff here, including "We go Round and Round in the Night and are Consumed by Fire" by FLUX; works from Transvoyeur (Anglo American Cultural Programme) and "Journeys By River City Artists"
The next street is New Bird St. where I saw 'The Transparent Eyeball' which includes this lovely greenhouse
and Cory Arcangel was performing his 'Beige' nintendo music
Next door is 'Footprintsinthesnow' or 'FunnelVision' a sort of Museum in a Wardrobe by Rick Myers.
The bars were cunningly disguised as ice cream vans so it was a long time before I got a drink but made up for it and got home very late and had nightmares about a group of giant bats singing and dancing to 'Bat out of Hell'! 
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I started at FACT in the afternoon. In the Media Lounge there's a very popular project by Cory Arcangel called Infinite Fill Zone. You can stand in front of a camera with a 'totally rad' backdrop and perform whatever you want (within reason) and you get to keep the video, for free!! There's even costumes for you to use. Needless to say, I didn't have the guts to take part.
In Gallery1 at FACT there's a ten screen video installation by Yang Fudong with music by Jing Wang which is lovely and in Gallery2 there's part of Jill Magid's project where she was filmed by CCTV cameras as she walked round the city centre (you can see the rest of this at the Tate). I didn't like the way this flickered quickly through still shots, it hurt my eyes. Mind you don't miss the small room with the TV screen in the corner.
 Then just down the road is the Open Eye gallery, here is The Mersey Valley Case by Francesco Jodice who investigated a series of UFO sightings on the rural fringes of the Mersey Valley. Some nice photographs but otherwise didn't hold my interest, I'll probably return though to watch the film when I have more time.
Then its a looong walk over to the Independent District in Parliament St/Jamaica St, most people seem to be using Taxis to get here. There are a lot of exhibitions in this area, artists were still putting the finishing touches to some works so I just had a quick look round and will be back this evening. Had a look at Dave White's Cars in the Garage (appropriately) in Jordan St. (next rd down from New Bird St.) 
Also the Caravan Gallery is parked in this area (at present anyway, I suppose it might move on) 
A long walk back home now and I'm shattered but don't worry, your intrepid blogger will be out on the road again this evening.
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Too tired and hung over to say much just now but I do remember spotting a few famous faces at the previews last night...
- Angela Eagle MP in the Walker
- Lloyd Grossman (TV presenter and NW Art thingy) in the Walker and FACT
- Mike McCartney (Photographer brother of Paul) in the Tate
- Tim Marlow (ace TV Arts presenter) talking to camera just about everywhere. Don't know what the program is but they tell me its broadcast on Sept. 30th.
- Badly Drawn Boy and family playing on the slides at the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhib.
Warning! Those slides are dangerous! They're quite big but too narrow for adults, even slim ones like me. I came to an abrupt stop two-thirds of the way down and was wedged like a cork in a wine bottle. My hips are still sore!
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Nothing to do with the Biennial (at least I don't think it is), I just think its great. On the soon-to-be-demolished college building, corner Seel St/Colquitt St.
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The Banners are up and strange things are starting to appear on the streets of Liverpool.
 
The bomb is in Wood St. I think the artist is trying to tell us this area often looks like its just been bombed. Bit obvious that :)
(Edit) OK, I was wrong. Happily the artist has a much more optimistic view. The Bomb thing is called 'Seed' and suggests the potential for regeneration that follows destruction. In May 1941, 681 enemy planes dropped 870 tonnes of high explosives and over 112,000 firebombs on Liverpool. Read more at ic Liverpool - Bomb will signify Seed of renewal
And, Oh Dear, Yoko Ono's trying to be controversial again with pictures of tits and, er, things. The title is My Mummy was Beautiful. Most people on the streets don't notice these signs but the staff of M&S were itching to get out there and measure up for bra (34C I reckon) and pants.
 
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From the Biennial site...
Art alerts! Stay switched on...24 hours a day
Receive invites to Independent district parties, live art and private views
Text the word PARTY to 80151
Vote by TEXT for your favourite artist and on the city’s BIG CULTURAL ISSUES
All proceeds to arts education. Texts cost 25p + standard network charge – max 4
art alerts per week during the festival.
No charge to cancel your subscription at any time – Text QUIT to 80151
Available on all networks. Terms and conditions apply: www.afoundation.com
So, of course, I did. I'm a sucker for these things. Got a txt back to say...
"You are now switched ON for 24hr underground culture alerts"
oo-er. Hope they don't txt me at 3.00 am though, I'm not that much of a party person.
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Now I am getting excited!
Of course, modern design rules that the overall look is more important than function. So we have white text on pale blue and purple on maroon = totally illegible (in parts anyway). Otherwise OK.
NOTE Some things listed in the guide may be subject to change or cancellation. The Biennial Website has up-to-date news.
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Got my invite to the previews on Friday.
2-9 pm, hope |
