A very good review of the Biennial, by Japanese art journalist Toyoko Ito. Its written in Japanese, the title is "The Beatles City transformed into Contemporary Art Megalopolis"

Toyoko writes for several respected Japanese art magazines and posts reports on her website fogless.net

Not surprisingly she highlights all the Japanese artists involved in this Biennial and includes the Independents and A Foundation.

Referring to the Made Up theme she welcomes the surreal imaginings of the artists, a refreshing change after so many years of conceptual work responding mainly to the real world and current affairs, this is more fantasy with a hint of ecology. (I'm paraphrasing, not a literal translation)

Link to full article
www.fogless.net

Please, please donate more stepladders, the installation was looking very sparse and sad last time I looked.

Hopefully over the weeks it will grow but there were only a dozen when I was there, greatly overshadowed by the architecture and the various Urban Strawberry Lunch paraphernalia. Hardly a 'forest'

Yoko Ono invites you to donate a step ladder for inclusion in a new work for Liverpool Biennial’s MADE UP exhibition. Over the ten weeks of the Biennial, with your help, a forest of ladders will grow inside St. Luke’s Church. Liverpool Skyladders invites us all to find space for dreams and the imagination under the open skies.

(Sky)ladders, big and small, metal and wooden, new and old, can be delivered to

USL St. Luke’s Church, Leece Street/Berry Street, Liverpool
Monday to Sunday between 10am and 5pm

Following the Biennial, the artwork will be donated to charity.

For further information or to promise a (sky)ladder please contact skyladders@biennial.com

www.biennial.com

‘In an Ideal World’ exhibition at St Brides Church (Liverpool) is curated by Alice Lenkiewicz and brings the art work of the Toxteth Art Gallery group with other art practitioners who have contributed.

Review - ‘In an Ideal World’ exhibition at St Brides Church (Liverpool, UK) curated by Alice Lenkiewicz.
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Photograph Copyright of Artists.
24 September 2008.
Lenkiewicz has brought together creative professionals who work in a range of diverse media. The collection exhibited in this show embodies a broad spectrum of the cultural and artistic interests explored in contemporary art.

It is a fascinating and unpretentious exhibition with art from Richard Gustavo, Caroprese Hoyos, Tracy Dunn, Alice Lenkiewicz, George Lund, Arthur Roberts, Joel Bird, Janine Pinion, Sarah Ryan, Mary Fitzpatrick, Stephen Osu, Raymond Watson, Richard Ashworth, Barbara Jones, Danny John, Christine O’Reilly Wilson, Mark Owen, Wendy Williams, Ilsa Parry, Iain Yell, Barbara Harrison, Susan Sharples, Theresa Potter, Lee Donnelly, Carl Fletcher and
Ken Bullock.

From abstract expression to digital video art each piece is intriguing in their own conceptual and aesthetic content, but the nature of contemporary art is re-addressed and contextualised in the alternative and iconic setting of St Brides Church, which still functions as a space of religious worship.

At the private view, George Lund presented a new live art piece synonymous in his guise as the ‘Funkadelic Chicken’. A creature derived from his philosophical ideologies. He transcended into an energetic dance to a new song aptly titled ‘Animal Utopia’, sung by Tracey Dunn and mixed by Elwyn.

For further information on the exhibition, ‘In an Ideal World’, contact the Curator, Alice Lenkiewicz, at poetshideout@yahoo.com.

The exhibition runs from 20 September 2008 to 30 October 2008 at St Brides Church on Percy Street (Liverpool, UK) and is part of the international events in the city of Liverpool during the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2008.

‘In an Ideal World’ Exhibition, St Brides Church, Percy Street, Liverpool, L8 8LT, UK.

Opening times: Wed – Sun, 12.00 – 17.00.

Additional information available from the Independents Biennial website at:
http://www.independentsbiennial.org/2008events/221-ideal-world

George Lund presented a collection of new work with some retrospective. This was a solo show titled ‘Serendipity’ (Phase 1) at the Liverpool Centre for Arts Development (Liverpool, UK).

Review – George Lund, Serendipity (Phase 1) Solo Exhibition. Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
George Lund presented a collection of new work with some retrospective. This was a solo show titled ‘Serendipity’ (Phase 1) at the Liverpool Centre for Arts Development (Liverpool, UK).

The exhibition concept was on the theme of serendipity and all it constitutes as a fortuitious accident, something that is meant to be. Lund's exuberant creativity and vision coincided aesthetically with the idea to the exhibitions programme.

The collection of his work was formed by his take on iconic art by Dali, Van Gogh, Suret, Picasso and others, along with his own recognisable paintings developed on the theme of the ideal world. These images are produced in mixed media and paints on canvas.

The palette is vibrant with a fusion of layered textures in compositions, both narrative and figurative, but stylised in a naive abstract expression. The work is a pleasure to view and indeed encourages the sense of frivolity and the ideal, as intended in the romantic ideas.

Lunds trademark of the ‘Funkedelic Chicken’ can be observed throughout this series. A hydridised creature from his philosophical texts on the theme of ‘Animal Utopia’.

The exhibition venue is an alternative space. The Liverpool Centre for Arts Development presents a cultural setting for contemporary art in both business and educational setting.

Lunds show launches the ‘Serendipity’ exhibitions programme, as Phase 1 with another one to follow of a group show with work from Jo Derbyshire and others, as part of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2008.

For further information on the art by Lund go to:

George Lund:
www.lundart.co.uk

Independents website:
http://www.independentsbiennial.org/2008events/380-serendipity

The exhibition runs from 15 September 2008 and was intended to close 26 September 2008. However, in the launch week an incredible interest has been shown with a high number of members of the public attending, so it has been extended to 30 October 2008. This is appointment only and to organise a visit contact the artist, Lund, on +44(0) 07833381368.

Liverpool Centre for Art Development (LCAD), 2a Franceys Street (off Brownlow Hill), Liverpool, L3 5YQ, UK.
Viewing by appointment only. Please contact George Lund on 07833381368.
Photographs Copyright of the Artist.

Tracey Emin visited Liverpool again on Thursday to unveil her work which was commissioned by Liverpool Cathedral and her Roman Standard bird was back on its perch just in the nick of time.

The work entitled 'For You' is a pink neon piece in the well of the Cathedral just below the huge stained-glass window (so, unlike the bird, should be safe from thieves).

Its a simple but nice and effective piece with the words 'I felt you and I knew you loved me'
It is one of several works in the Cathedral showing as part of the Independents Biennial and should be there until 30 November 2008.

This is a lovely installation by Japanese artist Satoru Tamura which you can see flickering in the evening darkness as you walk along Hope St.

There is no statue in the Huskisson's Memorial at present but the plinth is being put to good use as a small cable moves back and forth along a small piece of railtrack. As the bare wire touches the track a circuit is created and 50 small lights switch on, then off, then on etc.
Huskisson was MP for Liverpool and famously was the world’s first railway casualty as he fell under Stephenson’s Rocket at its inauguration and died with a speech in his pocket celebrating the glory of James Watt and technological progress.

Point of Contact by Satoru Tamura, a Jump Ship Rat project at Huskisson Memorial 10.00 - 22.00 until 30 October 2008

There's a lot of artwork in Lewis's department store windows during the Biennial, quite often mixed in with the 'fashion'.

As part of the Independents there's works by the group of artists from Tate SOUP and Leeds Peripheral as well as some of Anthony Brown's 100 Heads series.
The artwork pictured below is by Stephen White who also has a piece in the Liverpool International Artists Exhibition on the 3rd Floor of Novas CUC. It's the one made of half a tonne of spaghetti.

It just occurred to me that the biennial is the only time that Lewis's shop window is of any interest to me.

Not really a review as I arrived late, they switched off the lights and locked the doors before I'd got very far

I had been really careful not to step on this work, its made of corrugated cardboard but when I returned the next day people were walking all over it like it was latest thing in floor coverings, it was well battered. No good if you're wearing high heels I reckon.

And this was even before the opening party had started!...

It must be the Biennial because the popular Caravan Gallery is here, or rather it was.

It was in the front courtyard outside the Bluecoat (a bit more up-market than previous visits!) for the first few days of the festival before moving onto Portsmouth. I think Liverpool was their driest stop of the whole Summer.
You can find out more and buy some really funny stuff on the website:
www.thecaravangallery.co.uk

Apologies for lack of postings here. I have been going round but with little time to write. Here starts a quick catch-up...

So the Biennial 2008 opened, of course, on time but maybe a few things not entirely in place. Its all very slick and polished these days but still with a few rough edges (thank goodness).
Press accreditation was taking place at the former Rapid paint shop in Renshaw Street in the midst of painted walls and floors by Richard Woods - 'Innovation - Investment - Progress'

There's a lot of Independents exhibitions at Novas CUC so they've stuck a nice big red banner on their wall.

Quite positive but a bit nasty about the John Moores Winner (which I quite like) and, of course, no mention of the Independents

No event of this scale or ambition wholly avoids moments (well, stretches) of boredom and silliness, but after two days there I felt I’d seen more work of real quality than I did in the whole of last year’s Documenta.

Link

He's not impressed and no mention of the Independents...

The problem here is a lack of flair and vision, and the redundancy of a lot of the art being shown. There are doubtless too many biennials. And there is probably too much mediocre art that nobody, not even the artist who made it, needs.

Link

I suppose we are obliged to do these things but maybe the couple of hours in St George's Hall would have been better spent looking at some of the exhibitions.

Drinks and canapes and a few (thankfully) short speeches by Paula Ridley, Lewis Biggs, Richard Corke and the Secretary of State for Culture, Andy Burnham MP. Someone cut a red ribbon and off we go.

These two sporty cars were outside St George's Hall on Friday for the official opening of the 2008 Liverpool Biennial.

Apparently they've been going around all the European Biennale. That's all I know about them.

The Art Fund is bringing Queen and Country to St George’s Hall, where it will be on display from 5 September until 31 October 2008.

Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum , Queen and Country was created by official war artist Steve McQueen in collaboration with 137 families whose loved ones have lost their lives in Iraq .

The work commemorates British servicemen and women who have lost their lives in the conflict and consists of a cabinet containing a series of facsimile postage sheets, each one dedicated to a member of the armed forces killed in Iraq . Corporal Ben Nowak, a Royal Marine from Speke in Liverpool , is one of the soldiers featured in the work. He died aged 27 in a bomb attack near Basra , Southern Iraq .

Until the stamps are officially issued by Royal Mail the artist considers Queen and Country to be incomplete. The Art Fund is spearheading the campaign to gain public support for the project and visitors to St George’s Hall will be invited to sign The Art Fund’s online petition asking Royal Mail to publish the stamps. Mr Michael McEvett, Corporal Nowak’s uncle, is one of the 13,000 people who have so far signed the petition in support of the campaign.

Steve McQueen was born in London in 1969. He won the Turner Prize in 1999 and was awarded an OBE in 2002. His first feature film Hunger won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year and he has been selected to represent Britain at the 53rd Venice Biennale.

Queen and Country by Steve McQueen
5 Sept - 31 Oct
St Georges Hall
Opening times tbc

Image: Corporal Ben Nowak, Royal Marines, died 12 November 2006 aged 27

www.biennial.com