I suppose for all the staff having to work late at the various galleries it was frustrating but for the rest of us this was a really good night. We made it to a few places, all quite busy and a good atmosphere. Lets do it again, maybe on a smaller scale.

Knowing that we'd need plenty of energy for the night ahead we took in some lovely Korean food from the (noodleless) Noodle bar at Static - taking another look around the Ssamzie store as well of course.

A quick drive out to Ceri Hand's gallery for the Jen Liu exhibition which looks really good though the potato-powered battery was a bit slow to light up this trainer (sneaker).

After parking the car back at home we went onto the Tate just in time to see Wolfgang Flür (ex-Kraftwerk) reading a couple of chapters from his autobiography 'Ich war ein Roboter' with a video from his current project sandwiched in between. He described the time that Kraftwerk first performed in Liverpool in 1975, something he'd always dreamt of as a fan of the Beatles and other UK bands. Unfortunately their performance at the Empire coincided with Paul McCartney's Wings also playing in Liverpool so although Kraftwerk were very popular here the Theatre was far from full.

Its great being able to walk back from the Albert Dock to the city centre via the new Chavasse Park and Liverpool One, I love it.
Also providing a far more direct route to the Bluecoat via College Lane, The Display Centre and garden, the barbecue and music was still in progress but the poncho-making had finished which was a shame.

So we went onto Red Wire where bands were performing covers of Daniel Johnston songs to coincide with the current exhibition there. This was taking place in the basement and we enjoyed very different performances from 'A Cup of Tea' and 'Man in the Dark'.

Finally, where better to finish off an art crawl than 3345 Parr Street. It was the launch of the excellent exhibition of photographs of Jazz and Blues Legends by Terry Cryer. The band playing at the time was Ernie's Rhythm Section'

Everywhere we went it was quite busy, everyone seemed to be having a good time. Of course, there's loads of places we didn't get to. Its a real shame to miss so much, I think I would rather see more frequent late night events maybe concentrating on one area each time.

'In an Ideal World' features over 20 artists in St Brides church in Percy St. Official close date is the 30th October so I got there just before the end. The show was curated by Alice Lenkiewicz under the Toxteth Art Gallery banner.

There's a good collection of works by mostly local artists: 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, Ken Bullock.

St Brides is not a gallery though, its a church and its cold, dark, damp and untidy so a bit of an obstacle course and not the best conditions for viewing art. Better than nothing though, gallery space is always in short supply.
 

Title Author Genre - Winter Lights 2008 launches 28th October
Title Author Genre
By Michael Pinsky
Tuesday 28th October 2008, 7.30pm
Join the Biennial for a reception with refreshments at the Mount Vernon Hotel, Irvine Street, L7 and celebrate the launch of the latest works in the Winter Lights series.

Title Author Genre takes the form of three animated neon sculptures placed in the three Liverpool neighbourhoods of Garston, Kensington and Kirkdale.

Graffiti helps define our neighbourhoods and artist Michael Pinsky has worked closely with all three communities drawing inspiration from some of the graffiti tags that currently exist on streets and buildings. The process of transforming these marks into neon motifs and creating illuminated sculptures alters the way we think about them. Whilst some visitors only see abstract calligraphic shapes, others will recognise their origins or even have authored the tag they refer to.

Begin the trail and view the works as they are switched on in each neighbourhood:

6:30pm Rotunda, 115 Great Mersey Street, L5 2PX
7:30pm Mount Vernon Hotel, 1 Irvine Street, L7 8SY

Details of Title Author Genre in Garston are yet to be announced!

Title, Author, Genre is part of the Winter Lights series, a Liverpool Biennial project developed in collaboration with Rotunda, Garston Cultural Village and Metal

Elizabeth Willow at Folk and Fiction
Friday 17th October 2008, 11 Wolstenholme Square, Liverpool L1.
Photo and Text by Tony Knox

As part of the Independents Biennial was a performance from Elizabeth Willow at the Folk and Fiction event at Wolstenholme Projects ,

Willow wearing a Victorian dress with feather sewn onto it and with a doll-like facial expression , she sat down on the swing gently rocking back and forth surrounded by her hangings,
Williow spoke softly as she read from a book of birds and when continuing to swing in silence this appeared strangely haunting and whimsical, and completed the ambiance of the stunning vocals of the Lizzie Nunnery music set with Duncan Stuart. A eventful evening's view and experience.

Text and image by Tony Knox
http://www.tonyknox.org.uk

Lis Edgar, the proprietor of Gostins gallery was a close friend of the late Richard (Dick) Young and collected several of his artworks as well as sketches, books and even paintbrushes.

Now most of these items are up for sale, a rare chance to purchase works by the popular Liverpool artist. The gallery is actually part of Lis's Collage shop on the first floor of the Gostins arcade, with paintings hanging in the adjacent corridor and also in the next-door cafe.

 The paintings in the cafe are all by John O'Neill, another popular local artist who paints Liverpool life in all its colourful, larger than life attitude alongside the more peaceful but still vibrant views of Sefton Park and its Palm House.

There was a Dick Young retrospective at Cornerstone quite recently, his paintings and drawings also capture Liverpool but not today's regenerated version, rather the more bohemian scene of 30 or 40 years ago.
Don't miss the collected items in the display cabinet inside the shop, some cool sketches.

Realms and Realities
Gostins Gallery
19.09.2008 - 29.11.2008

I'm sure the Liverpool Medical Institution is one of the most unnoticed big buildings in the city. Its that curved place on the corner that everyone dashes past on their way to the Everyman. Now at last there's a reason to look up and take notice.

Transmission is Barbara Jones' artwork inspired by historical aspects of Liverpool Medical Institution, one of the oldest medical societies in the world.

This site-specific installation consists of a continuous vinyl printed image of disease cells which invades the building.

These tiny universes of cells are my starting point from which I explore the dynamics of abstraction and question traditional notions of beauty.

The work is only viewed from the outside. Its very rare for anyone to venture inside the building anyway, I worked on the campus for over 26 years and never saw anyone go in or out but then I was just rushing past to get to the Everyman.

(I'm not serious of course, LMI is a world class conference centre with its own lecture theatre available for hire and as such is in constant use but the entrance is at the back)

Transmission by Barbara Jones
Liverpool Medical Institution
20.09.2008 - 30.11.2008

Lots and lots of artworks by artists from all around the globe are crammed into 2 rooms for The Salon at 11 Wolstenholme Sq. until Sunday 19 Oct.

Artists: Saleh Addonia, Sarah Andrew, Matt Blackler, Jennifer Blake, David Caldwell, Phoebe Cope, Tomas Cyhitski, Rossen Darskalov, Kelly Dearsley, Oliver Dungey, Massimo Franco, Luke Hekate, Bill Howard, Angie Jack, Sayshun Jay, Fred Lindberg, Leigh Niland, Brian O’neil, Simon Ould, Lucy Pawlak, Matt Roberts, Laura Scalabrelli, Amos Shain, Lateefa Spiker, Christoph Steger, Julien Thomasset, Jaime Valtierra, Jessie Wade, Lorna Wadsworth, Amanda Whittle, Adam Williamson, Charlotte Young

We arrived too early, things were still being assembled, you could spend ages here, a feast for the senses, clever projections, strange models, assemblages of found objects, scary etchings and good old drawings and paintings. Hurry - it finishes on Sunday 19th October

Selected by The Projection Gallery and Mission Studios, in association with The Art Organisation and Liverpool Biennial Independents 2008.

Tracy Lewis creates amazingly intricate metre square collages made from found natural materials. Lewis uses lots of dried red roses and other flowers in her work to create circular compositions that she calls “Life Cycles”.

TRACY LEWIS : Recipes of Desire
Titos and International Galleries, Slater Street.
8.10.08. – 19.10.08.
Open 11am – 18.00 daily (closed Mondays)

The driftwood-framed mirrors using materials found on the Crosby coastline where successful and skilfully executed, Lewis has recently relocated Back to the north after being based in London is an ex- Paralympics British Olympic athlete (silver medal winner)

Text & Photo: Tony Knox

www.tracylewis.co.uk

Quiescence by McCoy Wynne. 7 - 12 October 2008 at 11 Wolstenholme Sq.
Photographic exhibition of quiescent places awaiting their planned regeneration.The exhibition is a collaboration of photographers Steve McCoy and Stephanie Wynne.

A very nice exhibition indeed, I was delighted to see the large images, unmounted and unframed. You can appreciate the photography much better that way. Great use of light and colour makes for a more uplifting view what could be really gloomy subject matter.
There's a book too.
The exhibition closes on Sunday 12 October, there's another chance to meet the artists then.

Over the past 5 years they have responded to buildings and environments that are about to undergo a change of use.

Accompanying the exhibition will be a sonic experience composed by international sound artist Kumo. Half heard distant sounds were apparent as the spaces were photographed and the photographers commissioned Kumo to produce a piece in response to the images. www.myspace.com/kumosolo

email: stephanie@mccoywynne.co.uk

www.mccoywynne.co.uk

A book to accompany the exhibition entitled 'Quiescence' will be available at the venue and online at
www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/349672

Sadly, already missed one or two short exhibitions but glad I caught this one today. 'In the Dock' closes on Saturday 11th. Its a nice little show organised at short notice when the space became available very recently.

In The Dock
Unit C18, Albert Dock
27.09.2008 - 11.10.2008
Curated by Christine O'Reilly Wilson, 5 local artists (members of Liverpool Contemporary Artists) present a variety of abstract work, mainly painting, mixed media and installation, in which opulence of colour and texture seek the sublime.
Open daily 12.30 - 16.00 from 27th September to 11th October 2008 inclusive.

Artists: Christine O'Reilly Wilson, Jane Hughes, Wendy Williams, Richard Ashworth, Barbara Harrison.

A good review of Derek Culley and Anna Marie Quinn's exhibition at the Linda MacCartney Centre. Its breast cancer awareness month, the show ends on 16th October 2008 - go see it.

"19Days" dances with "boobtubes"
The Linda McCartney Centre
25.09.2008 - 16.10.2008
Exhibition: "19Days" follows 19 Days of RadioTherapy for Derek and "BoobTubes" is Anna Marie's quest to raise awareness for breast cancer.
Review by Sandra Gibson for Catalyst Media

We had lunch with George Bush today. He didn't say much, he was too intent on solving his rubik's cube.

He's been puzzling over that thing for weeks now day and night and not made any progress at all - not surprising I suppose.

He's in the cafe at Tate Liverpool and is (of course) an artwork by Alison Jackson

Its easily missed, you could fool a few people, I'm sure several diners hadn't noticed him until Minako started flashing her camera at him - then a few others followed suite.

Look out for Otto Karvonen's traffic signs, dotted around the city centre.

To me they are faintly amusing signs, in artspeak they are "designed to prompt us to question the nature of reality and our own beliefs"
This one is at the top of Greenland street, you'll need the Biennial map to find them all. About a half dozen I think.
Link

Stuart Ian Burns Biennial review Part 1. What is definitely new is that this definite structure has lent a coherence to proceedings so that everything feels unified and properly curated rather the individual venues doing their own thing under the Biennial banner.

Here then is the biannual Liverpool Biennial review. The theme for 2008’s International show is Made-Up which of course has the double meaning – the scouse term for being happy and the actual process of creating a piece of art. Artistic Director Lewis Biggs says it’s also “a celebration of the ways in which artists use imagination” and that he wanting to bring work which doesn’t just “traffic in information” but allows the artists to show their deep seated passion for what they do, and create something “totally new”. What is definitely new is that this definite structure has lent a coherence to proceedings so that everything feels unified and properly curated rather the individual venues doing their own thing under the Biennial banner.

So unlike previous years were the work has spread across the city and even with the help of leaflets it was difficult to get a fix on everything, this year a proper guide book come catalogue has been produced with an excellent clear map in the back and all of the different venues and public pieces placed on a trail, marked in pink and clearly signposted in the real world. I walked the trail today and it was a breeze if a bit of a slog by foot, the only times when I got lost having more to do with my lack of sense of direction than deficiencies in the map.

Unifying all of the venues in the one guide too means that even in the unofficial venues, information about the work is close at hand, the page on the right offering an excellent reproduction of each piece, and on the left a carefully judged explanation. Plus it's small enough to fit in the span of the hand and tactile enough to be flicked through. I quite enjoyed walking into each venue, guide in hand, the art lover's equivalent of a sword and shield, ready to do battle with whatever conceptualism the artist wanted to throw at me.

A new visitor centre has been installed at the old ABC cinema on Lime Street and though the Annette Messager piece in the old screen two (or is it three?) is interesting (a meditation on time and cinema with ghostly cloth flowing across seats and a sinister skeleton). There's a shop for refreshments and merchandise. Putting the Biennial’s embassy in such a central position is a great choice, somehow giving it a prominence lacking in previous years. It's also an excellent chance to enter the building for the first time since it closed ten years ago (has it really been that long?) and tut at the state its in.

Memories of seeing It's A Wonderful Life for the first time on the big screen and not wanting to see it on the small screen ever. Going on an almost date (neither of us seemed sure if it was one) to see Smilla's Feeling For Snow with a girl called Theresa who was on crutches after she'd fallen off a bollard one night when I was walking her home from night class. Spending most of The Lost World: Jurassic Park with a small child kicking me in the back trying to hear the thing over the din of the family sitting in front of me making sure they were all getting the same share of popcorn. Good times.