|
|
 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”.
Continue reading "Tracy Lewis - Recipes of Desire" »
 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.
Continue reading "Quiescence by McCoy Wynne" »
 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.
Continue reading "In the Dock - Albert Dock" »
 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.
Continue reading "19 Days Dances With Boobtubes" »
 We had lunch with George Bush today. He didn't say much, he was too intent on solving his rubik's cube.
Continue reading "Lunch with George Bush" »
 Look out for Otto Karvonen's traffic signs, dotted around the city centre.
Continue reading "Wobbly Prospects" »
 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.
Continue reading "Stuart Ian Burns Biennial 2008 Review Part 1" »
 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"
Continue reading "Biennial Review by Toyoko Ito on fogless.net" »
 Please, please donate more stepladders, the installation was looking very sparse and sad last time I looked.
Continue reading "Skyladders - Yoko Ono at St Lukes" »
 ‘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.
Continue reading "In an Ideal World at St Brides" »
 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).
Continue reading "George Lund - Serendipity at LCAD" »
 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.
Continue reading "Emin Returns - With Her Bird" »
 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.
Continue reading "Point of Contact in Huskisson Memorial" »
 There's a lot of artwork in Lewis's department store windows during the Biennial, quite often mixed in with the 'fashion'.
Continue reading "Artwork in Lewis's Window" »
 Not really a review as I arrived late, they switched off the lights and locked the doors before I'd got very far
Continue reading "Bloomberg New Contemporaries" »
 It must be the Biennial because the popular Caravan Gallery is here, or rather it was.
Continue reading "The Caravan Gallery - Been and Gone" »
 Apologies for lack of postings here. I have been going round but with little time to write. Here starts a quick catch-up...
Continue reading "Enter the Biennial" »
Quite positive but a bit nasty about the John Moores Winner (which I quite like) and, of course, no mention of the Independents
Continue reading "Telegraph's Richard Dorment Reviews Biennial 08" »
The 'Totally Free' critical review catalogue of the Liverpool Independents Biennial 2006 is now available here as a pdf file. You'll need Acrobat Reader to read it but everyone has that now don't they?
Download (PDF - 1.1mb) Click on Download or Right-click and 'save link as'
Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006, Potting Shed Goes Psychic, Walk the Plank Theatre Production Boat, In association with the Bluecoats, Part of Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006, 10 November 2006.
Co-written by Jean-Paul Debuffet and Lucia Andrea Sweeney.
Saturday 12 November 2006.
Transvoyeur artists performed at the ‘Cosmic Cabaret’ on Walk the Plank Theatre Production Boat, Liverpool, England on Friday 10 November 2006. This live art programme was managed in collaboration with Walk the Plank and Bluecoat Art Centre (Liverpool, England), as part of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006 and in association with the performance programme of the Liverpool Biennial 2006. It was presented as ‘… a Cosmic Cabaret featuring paranormal activity of a musical, magical, dancical, theatrical, and mystical nature...’.
The artists from Transvoyeur included Agata Alcaniz, Jo Derbyshire, George Lund, Tony Knox and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, as well as guest artists participating, such as June Rose, Andrew Hodge and many others.
Sweeney presented a performance called ‘Boudicca’s PMT in the 21st Century’. This has previously been in Berlin, London and Liverpool, 2005-2006. This live art is one that has evolved with each rendition, reciprocal to the context of the spatiality and urban culture. This opened with artist dressed in white medical coat and a white mask reversed to the back of her head. This produced a dual profile. Sweeney walked into the audience and conscripted a male and female volunteers. She guided each to sit either side of her on the stage and passed them sheet of text. She introduced the text as ‘Athena Review Vol. 1, No. 1 from The Annals by Tacitus (AD110-120) Book X1V, which describes the Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61). This was a translation from Latin to English describing the rise and fall of Boudicca.
She instructed the two volunteers to commence reading the ancient text and to continue until the last page. The male and female started to recite, at times in unison and others a cacophony of words that conflicted when out of synchronisation. She draped over the two figures a mass of gold chiffon. She then stood reversed, with the white mask on the back of her head peering towards the audience.
Dressed in white medical coat, she stood arms outstretched while the rendition of the historical events of Boudicca was imparted to the audience. She then turned and knelt to the ground. She collected a mass of paper on the floor in front of her. On these were printed biological diagram studies of the female’s reproduction system. The artist folded layer by layer each sheet to form paper aeroplanes, which she threw with vigour into in to the air and audience. To reside back, composed and calmly fold another.
She then on the adjacent side took from her side a palette and pot of blue paint. She emptied the contents to the palette. She disrobed from the medical coat and with two hands pressed to the palette covered her palms in paint. She then applied this to her whole body, working up the arms, across the breasts and down her abdomen, stretching precariously to cover her back and finally her legs.
During these actions, the male and female continued to read the ancient text. Sweeney curled into a ball, stretched her arms forward, head still down she clawed at the ground. As her hands draw close to her body, she released a piercing and merciful scream. Several times the shrilling lament was released from her lowered body. The force of the energy expelled the affliction, grief and anguish expressed in the text by the male and female read.
A woman, Boudicca, who is remembered in the canons of history who led the Iceni rebellion against the Romans, after her husband, Prasutagus, as king of the Iceni, died. The Romans went against their word and Nero was ruling in Rome and the Britons were forced to endure huge taxes, conscription and inhumane treatment at the hands of Roman authorities. The peaceful treaty after Prasutagus death was forgotten and for more wealth, the Romans invaded the lands of the Iceni. Boudicca was flogged her daughters were raped. The essence of a females strength is re-represented in the ideologies in this text of 21st century constructs of gender politics. Sweeney presented a captivating and poignant performance, as the female, as the lover, the matriarch and femme fatale to avenge what was lost. Her body painted blue similar to the Ancient Britons preparing for war. George Lund, an associate artist of Transvoyeur, was the male who volunteered in this live art by Sweeney and the female was Sharlene Squires, a Play Writer.
Derbyshire conceived and directed a production with a group of artists titled ‘Seasons – When the City Speaks’. The performance opened with digital photographic stills projected as a backdrop. These images are created by Andrew Hodge, a photographer, whose collection of images are iconic of the city of Liverpool.
A performer, Sweeney seated on a chair. She commenced reading a monologue. A text written by Derbyshire of her experiences of the city of Liverpool combined with historical and popular culture references. These structured into the ‘Seasons’ and titled ‘When the City Speaks’. Some moments later Derbyshire enters the scene carrying art materials, which she spreads across the floor. A collection of paints, brushes and so forth. She departs at each the orator states a seasons to return with a canvas representative of each term and another artist enters the scene adjacent to the placement of the canvas. These canvases a combination of mixed media, painting and collage. Photographs and text mixed with abstract and figurative representations.
These form the foundation of a visual dialogue cognitive to the subject being read aloud. On conclusion of the monologue, Derbyshire disappears from the scene and the four artists sat next to her canvases start modifying the surface of each.
The reader invites members of the audience to come forward and contribute to the seasons on the canvases. The artist, Derbyshire, compares the seasons within the structure and semiotics of her art formed by her experiences and lineage against the urban spatiality. The idea of time and space is explored and as something has a natural progression in evolution of a place, so too is that of the human creatures intervention. The invitation for the audience to contribute continues with this innate sequence by modifying the spatiality of the canvas. An intervention of historical and natural cause and effect and the linear concept of time by human experience. The performance finalised with each member of the audience interacting with the art and becoming part of the creative seasons of each canvas. This piece was intrigued the audience and the live art became a type of ‘happening’ in the creative process.
This production is an organic piece that has evolved from previous performances in Liverpool and London. The first explored at the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England, and then re-examination in he socio-urban and cultural context of London. The project evolved from Derbyshire examining Liverpool as a World in one City through the seasons with a historical, personal and social perspective. Through collage and performance, with an interior monologue narrated by Sweeney, the audience were invited to participate and add to the four collaged canvases Derbyshire had prepared for the performance. Each canvas represented a season in the City, with Derbyshire as the social historian examining Liverpool from a personal perspective. The canvases themselves originally looked like an enlarged page from a journal or a scrapbook where Derbyshire references and archives what has happened over the last year. Through each progressive stage the audience become part of the visual dialogue in the series of canvases.
Knox and Alcaniz presented a new twist on the performance conceived by Knox. The piece had evolved to include the collaboration of Alcaniz to sing in Spanish the theme tune to the 1960s series of Spider Man. The scene was set with Alcaniz, as the orator/singer and projected on either side a digital short movie by Knox showing asserted demise of ‘Moth Man’, a guise created by Knox in earlier projects on the concept of the super hero in post modern life. The Moth Man character moves through some woodland, digs a whole and then disrobes to reveal the person underneath. The items of the costume are then buried in this film.
Knox entered the scene through a back door from a shed between the two projections. Alcaniz sat to the right towards the audience. The performance involved Knox in normal attire, but the reverse to the film transpires. He is in his normal clothing, but undresses to show underneath not Moth Man, but a poorly made costume of Spider Man. The unkempt nature of the Spider Man costume is something reflective of this comic book hero in a child’s perceptions. Knox posed in iconic super hero stance, synonymous with those produced in comic books and through to the male gender form in the canons of ancient sculpture. He then moved through the space, mingled with the audience, and resided with in them to watch the digital film of the interment of the Moth Man costume. During these transitions in the performance by Knox, Alcaniz continues to sing the theme tune in Spanish of Spiderman. Knox returns to the stage from the audience and Alcaniz then changes her tone and starts to insult this dishevelled Spider Man in Spanish with explications of disbelief, “Ooh! La! La!?.
She stands from her chair and points to his stomach and genitals, shaking her head in disapproval. The vilification of the character departs the scene and the final stages of the digital video projection conclude. During the performance, the audience exploded into a rapture of whistles and applause at the undressing on the onset of the performance to change taunts and jeers at Alcaniz’s derogatory insinuations.
The modifications in Knox’s performance change the constructs of the female inclusion and considers the roles of gender and sexual politics to the societal precepts and conventions of masculinity imbued in the hero.
The evening of events and performance at the Cosmic Cabaret of the Potting Shed was a fusion of conceptual performances through to theatrical, dramatized and musical recitals. It was an eclectic mix of different forms of live art. Other artists to this event included Mandy LaRomero, Jo Docherty, The Gang with Dorrie Halliday, Lisa Wrigley and many others.
The platform presented the artists of Transvoyeur and others the opportunity to present art of an alternative nature and expand on the philosophies of the Transvoyeur artists in their practice to examine and explore socio-cultural parameters and cognative in ethos of ‘Cabaret Voltaire’ (The Cabaret exhibited radically experimental artists, many of whom went on to change the face of their artistic disciplines; featured artists included Kandinsky, Klee, de Chirico and Ernst … Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has been formed whose aim is to create a centre for artistic entertainment … The idea of the cabaret will be that guest artists will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings. The young artists of Zurich, whatever their orientation, are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds. -Zurich, February 2, 1916).
Further information can be viewed at:
Transvoyeur: www.transvoyeur.co.uk
Walk the Plank Theatre Boat: www.walktheplank.co.uk
Chaosmos at View Two. September 16 - October 21 2006
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney (Transvoyeur)
07 October 2006
During the preparations of the first live art event at the View Two Gallery of the Performance Art Platform, I and other artists from the Transvoyeur group were fortunate to meet with Chris Boyd and other artists from the Chaosmos Exhibition on the top floor of the gallery. This exhibition was exceptional and beguiled most of the audience who viewed it, including myself. As an artist, I have worked with a multitude of media from robotics, holographic, digital media and performance, but the digital short films by Boyd captivated me. The work at the Chaosmos Exhibition was set on ‘addresses the complex inter-relationships between creation and destruction’ (October 2006).
Deep undertones resonate through the space, pulsating underneath our senses, as if from below. Momentary classical strings gently reverberate. The visualisations are a fusion of fractalised bodies undulating through the spatiality and temporality of time.
The piece is profound and stirring and cuts into our preconceptions of origin and evolution, not only of ourselves, the human creature, but from the inaugural onset of time itself, the planet. The imagery is sensual and emotive. It imbues a sense of our physical entity and existence, where we have come from and ultimately leaves one with a sense of reflection and retrospective. An awareness of the moment, now, as if standing on the precipice of contemplation of where humanity is going. It is both sexual and spiritual, the fundamentals that drive life forward. It is provocative, yet intrinsic, and touches on the core elements of human consciousness and perception of time and space and our roles within the socio-historical edifice.
As I watched the writhing and cascading bodies, genomic re-reproduction of digitalised forms. I see my heritage, my self and my progeny in that one moment. It captures the viewer, but gets inside and holds them at that moment where time seems to stand still. The split second of awakenings and realisations cognitive, as ‘I think, therefore I am’ (Descartes), E = mc² (Einstein); Eureka (Archimedes); 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds', Oppenheimer. The sentience is embodied in Boyd’s visualisations.
As a young and upcoming artist, Boyd is extraordinary. Indeed the standard of art in the Chaosmos exhibition inspirational. My last thought after viewing his work was ‘this young man will go far’. His work is good, in the meaning of gut instinct and art criticism, ‘good’. For all my explications, here of trying to elucidate his work all seem futile and I would recommend you go to view it yourself.
Boyd is Boydism.
http://www.myspace.com/boydism
 Transvoyeur Artist in Field Fund Project, Tony Knox Artist in Residence, Sunday 26 November 2006, Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Tony Knox was the Artist in Residence for the Field Fund Project at De La Salle School in St Helens, England. This programme was funded by the Gormley Trust and in association with St Helens Borough Council and Liverpool Biennial Education Programme. Support artist, Lisa Barry, worked along side Knox with the teachers and students.
Over the course of several months, Knox worked with the students and the teachers on the subject of the hero in contemporary life. This theme forms a core element of much of his work and synonymous with Moth Man guise. The students researched and developed a series of characters and scenarios which they filmed and edited under the erudition and guidance of Knox. A collection of three digital short movies were produced by the students of bewildering, amusing and entertaining content.
The digital short movies have since been screened on the BBC Big Screen in Clayton Square, Liverpool, England, from Friday 10 November 2006 to Thursday 23 November 2006 so members of the general public can share in the creative explorations of the students.
The art produced by the students was exhibited at the 5agallery in St Helens from Wednesday 01 November 2006 to Saturday 25 November 2006. This included masks and characters created by the students, photographs and digital video media. It provided an insight to how the work came to fruition and the exceptional creativity of these young people.
Support was provided by St Helens Borough Council Arts Development Unit by Cath Shea and Sean Durney. The project was part of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006.
Further information on this project can be viewed at www.fieldproject.co.uk
 Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006, "The Spatiality of the Post Modern Female", Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006.
Co-written by Jean-Paul Debuffet and Lucia Andrea Sweeney.
Saturday 28 October 2006
On Friday 27 October 2006, the final Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006 at the View Two Gallery (Liverpool, England) was presented. Researched and managed by the Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, UK Projects Co-ordinator of Transvoyeur, there was a selection of artists from the city and internationally. The artists included Jeimy Marisol Martínez Galavíz, Seasons - When the City Speaks (Alison Bazely, Laura Baxter, June Hobson, Peter Worthington, and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, conceived and directed by Jo Derbyshire) and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
The first performance art piece was by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney. This was titled ‘Boudicca’s PMT in the 21st Century’. Firstly performed in Berlin and then London, 2005-2006. This live art is one that has evolved with each rendition, reciprocal to the context of the spatiality and urban culture. This opened with artist dressed in white medical coat and a white mask reversed to the back of her head. This produced a dual profile. Sweeney walked to one side of the room and whispered in to an audience members ear. She requested this message to be passed through the audience members as in the game of ‘Chinese Whispers’. When the chain was concluded on the other side of the room, she requested the male to speak aloud what was said.
Sweeney then asked the first member of the audience, who was female to stand, and the last, who was male, to join her at the front. She guided each to sit either side of her and passed them sheet of text. She introduced the text as ‘Athena Review Vol. 1, No. 1 from The Annals by Tacitus (AD110-120) Book X1V, which describes the Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61). This was a translation from Latin to English describing the rise and fall of Boudicca. She instructed the two volunteers to commence reading the ancient text and to continue until the last page. The male and female commence recitation, at times in unison and others a cacophony of words that conflicted when out of synchronisation. She draped over the two figures a mass of gold chiffon. She then stood reversed, with the white mask on the back of her head peering towards the audience.
Dressed in white medical overall and trousers, she stood arms outstretched while the rendition of the historical events of Boudicca was imparted to the audience. She then turned and knelt to the ground. She collected a mass of paper on the floor in front of her. On these were printed biological diagram studies of the female’s reproduction system. The artist folded layer by layer each sheet to form paper aeroplanes, which she threw with vigour into in to the air and audience. To reside back, composed and calmly fold another. After some time and the pile of printed biological studies expired, she curled tightly into a ball. During these actions, the male and female continued to read the ancient text. Sweeney curled into a ball, stretched her arms forward, head still down she clawed at the ground. As her hands draw close to her body, she released a merciful scream. Several times the shrilling lament was released from her lowered body. The force of the energy expelled the affliction, grief and anguish expressed in the text by the male and female read.
A woman, Boudicca, who is remembered in the canons of history who led the Iceni rebellion against the Romans, after her husband, Prasutagus, as king of the Iceni, died. The Romans went against their word and Nero was ruling in Rome and the Britons were forced to endure huge taxes, conscription and inhumane treatment at the hands of Roman authorities. The peaceful treaty after Prasutagus death was forgotten and for more wealth, the Romans invaded the lands of the Iceni. Boudicca was flogged her daughters were raped. The essence of a females strength is re-represented in the ideologies in this text of 21st century constructs of gender politics. Sweeney presented a captivating and poignant performance, as the female, as the lover, the matriarch and femme fatale to avenge what was lost. As Shakespeare captured in his writings ‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned’ and Boudicca epitomized this.
The next performance to follow was Jeimy Marisol Martínez Galavíz a visual, performance and sound works artist from Mexico. She walked over to the piano in the View Gallery and raised the lid to the strings. She bent with poise into the piano, her head lowered to the strings. The audience looked on curiously. Then she intoned a musical note, not a choral or recognisable song, but tones emanated, scaled and alternating in no rhythm. There were interludes of silence, but during these moments it was realised the reverberations of her own voice on the inner strings of the piano resonated.
Intonations of a duet between instrument and artist, reciprocal sounds forming a duality in this intervention. The disjointed tempo of the process crescendo from the soprano inflections to hysterical screams and equally the strings echoed back. She moved across the scale of the piano strings and each responding by chord and note against he energy of her voice. The audience sat bewildered and entranced by this strange interaction with our notions of artist, musical instrument and structured sound. She rose from the piano, faced the audience, and left the performance platform.
The final performance was conceived by Jo Derbyshire with other artists and audience members participating. The performance opened with a performer, Sweeney seated on a chair. She commenced reading a monologue. A text written by Derbyshire of her experiences of the city of Liverpool combined with historical and popular culture references. These structured into the ‘Seasons’ and titled ‘When the City Speaks’. Some moments later Derbyshire enters the scene carrying art materials, which she spreads across the floor. A collection of paints, brushes and so forth. She departs at each the orator states a seasons to return with a canvas representative of each term and another artist enters the scene adjacent to the placement of the canvas. These canvases a combination of mixed media, painting and collage. Photographs and text mixed with abstract and figurative representations. These form the foundation of a visual dialogue cognitive to the subject being read aloud. On conclusion of the monologue, Derbyshire disappears from the scene and the four artists sat next to her canvases commence adding to the surface.
The reader invites members of the audience to come forward and contribute to the seasons on the canvases. The artist, Derbyshire, compares the seasons within the structure and semiotics of her art formed by her experiences and lineage against the urban spatiality. The idea of time and space is explored and as something has a natural progression in evolution of a place, so too is that of the human creatures intervention. The invitation for the audience to contribute continues with this innate sequence by modifying the spatiality of the canvas. An intervention of historical and natural cause and effect and the linear concept of time by human experience. The performance finalised with each member of the audience interacting with the art and becoming part of the creative seasons of each canvas. This piece intrigued the audience and the live art became a type of ‘happening’ in the creative process.
It is interesting in this series of three performances by the artists there is a consideration of the female role in post-modern society and culture contrasted to the canons of history and inherited concepts. There is a recognisable universality to these notions and regardless of time separating the historical figure to the contemporary female artist the fundamentals remains the same of the passion and zeal of the female in her many guises, as lover, matriarch, leader, professional and so forth. This does not remove the female from her status in contemporary life; rather it recognises the essence of her strengths and weaknesses in time and space, all which are integral to both genders, male and female, in her relationships of everyday existence and life. Indeed the ancient text on the subject of Boudicca, a canonised female figure, is recorded, inscribed and explicated by a male, Tacitus. Whether the war cry of an ancient female embodied in Sweeney’s personification to the screams from Galavíz, by tonality, function and rationale, we are presented by two woman who similarly test the preconceptions of spatiality in sounds and visual dialogue. Again, parallel to the fundamentals of Derbyshire’s monologue of shared experiences and understanding as a female living in the urban space of Liverpool.
The Transvoyeur Performance Art Programme 2006 was realised with the support of the Ken Martin (Director/Curator) and Sam Skinner (Exhibitions Co-ordinator) of the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England.
E-mail: transvoyeuruk@hotmail.co.uk
Website: www.transvoyeur.co.uk
Email: info@viewtwogallery.co.uk
Website: www.viewtwogallery.co.uk
Read Stuart Ian Burns' thoughts about his time as an invigilator during the Biennial. He doesn't say where he was exactly but I think I can work it out. Surprised I didn't bump into him.
Revealed and illuminated
Life - This past couple of months I've been working as an invigilator for the Liverpool Biennial. It's not something I'd done since I was university first time around, at The Henry Moore Institute, but it's interesting how, like swimming and riding a bike it's not something you forget how to do. Although by appearances it seems little more than standing in a gallery space making sure the public don't touch anything, it really is more than that....
More
Review of Transvoyeur Artists Agata Alcaniz and George Lund Part of Salon Exhibition, Curated by Grizedale, A Foundation, Blade Factory, Greenland Street, Liverpool, England, 01-15 November 2006.
Reviewed by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney and Tony Knox, Date of Review 16 November 2006.
Grizedale Arts, were invited by the A Foundation to take up residency during the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006. The have produced a series of exhibitions and art initiatives of exceptional curiosity on the concepts of art and space, society, culture and commodity. As part of this, a final stage was extended to Liverpool based artists to submit and participate in a Grizedale exhibition, titled Salon Exhibition.
The Salon exhibition was eclectic collection of diverse art and curated not in the preconceived style of pristine white walls and the usual curatorial precepts of spatiality aesthetics, each with it own locale and leading theoretically and visually into the the next. Here is an miscellaneous and chaotic collection of art, each placed in seemingly no specific order, but the interest is the actual testing of boundaries by this fusion and expanse of art. This is in effect a fusion, hybridisation of art in England, from Grizedale and Liverpool. Albeit the disorder, what we enter is a journey, somewhat disjointed, but enticed and guided through the space and itself the viewer to enquire and explore this layout.
There were some interesting pieces, recognisable by established Liverpool and Merseyside practitioners, such as Amanda Oliphant, Becca Bachouse, Claire Chambers, Birgit R Deubner and many more. All exceptional artists in their practice.
I noticed the art intriguing of Agata Alcaniz and George Lund. Alcaniz had a digital video piece, which related to series of environmental performances she has explored over the past few years. Lund exhibited a piece titled ‘Transvoyeur’. A recognition of his involvement with the Transvoyeur Arts Group. The painting itself is set on his earlier research of urban culture of Liverpool and New York and formulated in his naïve style of painting. Both artists have formerly exhibited their art in the Transvoyeur Liverpool and New York exhibition at the View Two Gallery, Mathew Street, Liverpool, England, which will then tour to New York in Spring 2007.
The formula of Grizedale’s curatorial and creative precepts imbue as sense of the organic in manifesting the constructs and ideologies in post modern society and culture. I am curious to know there next stage in development, as the ethos seems to be one reciprocal to the space they reside and forms an intrinsic relationship between them and were they migrate.
 Review by Richard Smirke for the Metro newspaper, Monday November 20 2006.
www.metro.co.uk
Liverpool Biennial 2006:
Digital Art Show (3 stars out of 5)
Although a permanent archive will remain online, for the final week of the Liverpool Biennial, the Walker Art Gallery is providing the opportunity for anybody without computer access to peruse the first exhibition of International Digital Art, located at the digitalshow.co.uk website.
Containing 200 images and created by the people behind artinliverpool.com, it's a worthwhile endeavour. For those who prefer the idea of viewing art works from the comfort of their own home, however, the digitalshow website remains the choice location for couch potatoes.
Among the highlights are Dawn Hannah's striking images of headless animals (pictured), Leong Wan Kok's stunning comic art and Osvaldo Gonzalez's painterly depictions of surreal fantasy worlds. The overall theme of the exhibition is fun and it's apparent in virtually every submission.
Andy Council's Beer Monster - a genius mesh of drink cans, bottles and kegs - is just one of many illustrations that bring a smile to your face.
Unfortunately, not all of the works create such an impact. Some simply look like nondescript screensavers and it's hard to imagine anyone having the energy to scroll through all 200. Five minutes browsing can, nonetheless, reveal an abundance of riches, with the facility to rate
and comment on each work a nice 21st-century touch.
Richard Smirke
www.digitalshow.co.uk
Until Sun, Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street, Liverpool,
Mon to Sun, 10am to 5pm, free
Tel: 0151 478 4199
 I had been to the Tate right at the start of the Biennial but didn't have much time so just went round quickly. So returned again yesterday to have a proper look only to discover that, yes, I had actually seen everything the first time. There really is nothing much worth recommending.
Its definitely time to get away from all this Liverpool-based stuff. I'm not interested in some old woman dressing up just because its a metaphor for Liverpool transforming or an old video of striking Liverpool dockworkers or another documentary video about housing somewhere on Merseyside, not sure where, it didn't hold my attention long enough to find out.
The Liverpool's Top Ten video is quite amusing but the sort of thing that might have been produced by a local college rather than commissioned from an international artist.
Apart from that there's (yet another) video of fish watching a potato sinking and a collection of objects washed up on a beach in Malaysia thrown randomly onto a table. I was thinking of adding a few things, would anyone notice? Perhaps an 08 badge just to give it a Liverpool theme.
Also I'm not interested in someones old Arran sweater or quilt or whatever though nicely packaged in wooden boxes.
The builforcrime light show on the ground floor is indeed a crime. A criminal waste of a good exhibition space.
Biennial International 06 at Tate Liverpool until November 26 2006
 
GIFT at Museum MAN has been extended for a second week so there's another chance for you to go and choose an artwork which you can take in return for documenting what you do with it.
See full details here
We called in yesterday and chose something. There's over 100 items, ordinary, strange and interesting each with a statement from the artist.
We're looking forward to documenting our artwork over next few weeks.
GIFT by Daniel Simpkins and Penny Whitehead (pictured above)
Continues Thurs - Sat November 23-25 2006 12.00 - 18.00
at Museum MAN, 25 Parliament Street, Liverpool,
Adjacent to A Foundation Greenland Street Building.
Entry is free
 
Thank you so much, Shrew Collective! I have had that 'Ferry 'cross the Mersey' song running through my head since midday, aarggh.
Still its good to have an excuse to go for a ferry ride, the best view of the Liverpool waterfront is, of course, from the other side of the river.
We are greeted by a mini transport museum including this splendid old Wolseley Police Car still with its shiny little bell on the front. Then the large cafe area which houses the exhibition by The Shrew Collective, a group of artists, mainly Wirral-based and former Wirral College students I think who work in every kind of media.
 Most of the exhibition is upstairs where the natural lights helps illuminate the work especially Barbara Harrison's digital prints pasted onto the glass and Barbara Lambs transparencies.
The huge doll dwarfing Mrs J is by Jo Gomez.
There's some interesting works by Jan Brown and Diane Fraser-Bell. In fact its all quite interesting, could have done with more information about the works but didn't see any literature.
The artists (apologies for any omissions) :
Jo Swift, Barbara Harrison, Jo Gomez, Barbara Lamb, Fiona Sinclair, Ffion Davies, Sue Sharples, Diane Fraser-Bell, Steve Galloway, Amanda Oliphant, Jan Brown, Jacqui Chapman, Jane Copeman, Tom Grant, Mary Green, and Marie-Loiuse Williams.
 Birkenhead ferry terminal is not an ideal place for a Liverpool Biennial exhibition but the artists have responded well to the space and you have to take whatever venue you can find. Also its probably been responsible for dragging a few more people across the river.
After coffee and chips in the cafe we got the next ferry back, it was the long cruise version of the crossing. The narrator reminds us that because of tides, hidden sand-banks etc. the Mersey is a most treacherous river. Thanks for pointing that out on this windy day, shut up and put the music back on... 'cos this land's the place I love and here I'll stay...'
The Shrew Collective at Woodside Ferry Terminal
Birkenhead CH41 6DU (0151 330 1473/1458)
Open 7 days a week, 10 am – 16.30, free. Until November 26 2006
 
Steve Gent is a genius.
Seriously, an absolute bloody genius. My star of the Biennial.
Someone should give him shed-loads of money to exhibit in a capital city. More people should see this guys work.
Everything he does is just so, well, nice, tasteful and always so beautifully presented. His work looks simple but so much thought and care goes into the making and display of it.
And so prolific and diverse too. This is a solo exhibition of his paintings created by pouring bitumen onto vinyl or perspex which has a small electrical current running through it. Hence the title 'Static'. The electricity forces the liquid to move in random directions creating these delicate patterns.
Most of these works were created in the past few days. In October Steve shared the space with Ayane for another beautiful exhibition of Japanese influenced art and calligraphy.
He also currently has work in 52 Roscoe Street and has been involved in producing the graphics for the Art Organisation's venues as well as repairing and redecorating this gallery and invigilating his own exhibitions.
Go to this exhibition but more importantly get to see as many of his exhibitions as you can.
'Static' by Steve Gent at 34A Slater Street until November 25 2006
What a great image!
The photograph was taken by Peter Hagerty is of Birgit Deubner performing her 'Journey With Restraints' on November 11 2006.
She had made the wings from lead over a two week period of the Biennial before walking around the city streets with them on her back. They are really heavy and the weather was unhelpful to say the least.
"Journey with Restraints"
artist/ performance: Birgit R Deubner,
photography: Peter Hagerty
11/11/2006
Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006, " ... powerful and entertaining ...", Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006.
Co-written by Jean-Paul Debuffet and Lucia Andrea Sweeney (Edited by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney).
Saturday 21 October 2006
The third Transvoyeur Performance Art Platform 2006 was held at the View Two Gallery, Liverpool, England on Friday 20 October 2006. The artists an inspirational collection of performances from George Lund, Suzy Walker’s Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Jo Gough, Emma Sweeney and Lisa Jane Wrigley.
The first artist was George Lund in his synonymous guise as the ‘Funkadelic Chicken’. He danced and paraded to a selection of mixed alternative and electronic Funk music fused with abstracted annotations of animal sounds in particular that of a chicken. The age range of the audience this evening included a broader spectrum of young and older generations. All cried with laughter at the antics of the juggling and jiving alter ego of Lund, especially when he provocatively raised the upper garment of the chicken costume to reveal an artificial human bottom. His dancing he describes as “… a hybrid of Rudolph Nureyev meets James Brown’ (Lund). In Lund’s performance art there is the apparent satire of the jester, an element of Norman Wisdom, but from the aspirations of the alter ego and what appears as the asinine frolics of his character, it can be recognised from crescendo of mutual laughter in the audience there central relevance of his art is that idealised and that for quintessence of harmony and contentment. The philosophies he carries through in his utopian ideals in his paintings and other artwork are embodied further in his performances.
The next performance followed onto Wrigley. In collaboration, Wrigley performed a piece from the Play Writer, Sharlene Squire. This is a work in progress and interesting in concept that it takes from theatrical constructs of writer and performer, but the status of development places it in a live art context of one where it is evolving and comparable to the parameters of intervention, but here determined by the creative insight and direction of the writer. Wrigley presents a performance that is of a narrative nature and opens with a scene of a female patient and a psychiatrist. The performance is one set on the source of origin of creation and cosmology through matriarchal dictates of the female gender and institutional structures of western religion in terms of Christianity. Inferred through the expositions and neurosis of the female patient we are presented with a text and performance that both deconstructs and reconstructs in an abstracted framework of these societal precepts in the canons of philosophy and the human creature within the universe. The performance explodes into a personification of the assertions.
From cosmological to the Biblical, the subjective and objective of the philosophical intent is tested in the audiences perceptions of the text and performance, whether interpretation is derived by direct understanding to the cosmology, the abstraction and inclusion of Adam and the females position shifting in the fusion and transitions allows for miscomprehension. A suggestive element of the Oedopus complex, the mother and son syndrome, incest. Not intended, but this response and interpretation one which is reflective of a postmodern culture desensitised by intrigue of mass media and consumption of the extreme. The performance has a universality and empathy of insight on the subjects touched in the text, but the conceptualisation further exposes the dispositions of contemporary society. This was a provocative and compelling performance by Wrigley with a profound and enlightening text produced by Squire.
The next performance included Jo Gough and Emma Sweeney with acoustic guitars, who performed a collection of their own musical compositions combined with some popular music. The selection was one noted of female experience in love and life. The audience was captivated by the powerful voice of Sweeney and the enchanting harmonies of Gough. The range of vocals by the artists was exceptional and their presence intoxicating, as the audience were engrossed in the musical renditions. Sweeney and Gough have distinct vocal ranges that are full of energy and vigour.
The last performance was the group managed by Artistic Director by Suzy Walker called ‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and living in Paris’. The artists in this group in the performance are three females and a male. A selection of songs from the famous singer-songwriter Jacques Brel captivated and beguiled the audience. The songs contain poignant poetry by Brel and have been covered from David Bowie to Nina Simone. They annotate the socio-political environment of Europe in 1950s and 60s. The performance represents Brel’s astonishing song writing and those relative to war are all the more poignant in the current global climate. The performance was a combination of physical theatre, poetry and dance to imbue the concepts of Brel’s relative to contemporary society. The performance was implicit of contemporary ideologies and experiences, as well as immensely entertaining.
The range of performances considered the theatrical and narrative in the history of performance art within a cabaret formula, but the concepts imbued relativity to the post modern in culture, art and society. From the distinctions of the gender status through history, each with a philosophical critique. Whether the male role deconstructed and redefined in the Lund’s alter ego of the Funkadelic Chicken and idealised utopia of the lost masculinity in socio-economic terms of the past decades. Wrigley and Squires analysis of the cosmological and genderisation of institutional constructs and ideologies. Sweeney and Gough’s compositions of the female experience of relations. Through to the comparative themes of Brel’s work by Suzy Walker and her artists.
Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, UK Projects Co-ordinator and Artist from Transvoyeur, who researches and manages the performances events stated: “The feedback from these performances was exceptional. People expressed how they immensely enjoyed each performance. Many commented on how different each performance has been, but equally powerful and entertaining?.
The Transvoyeur Performance Art Programme 2006 has been realised with the support of Ken Martin (Director) and Sam Skinner (Exhibitions Co-ordinator) of the View Two Gallery, 23 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England.
www.transvoyeur.co.uk
www.viewtwogallery.co.uk
Review ... Transvoyeur International Exhibition: Liverpool and New York 2006, Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006,
at View Two Gallery, 23 Matthew Street, Liverpool, England,
Monday 23 October 2006 - Saturday 04 November 2006.
Co-written by Jean-Paul Debuffet and Lucia Andrea Sweeney Wednesday 25 October 2006
The Liverpool and New York Exchange Programme of Transvoyeur 2006 was eventually launched in the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006 at the View Two Gallery, 23 Mathew Street, Liverpool, England, on Tuesday 24 October 2006.
The artists in this exhibition include:
Liverpool Collective:
Agata Alcaniz, Brendan Byrne, Jo Derbyshire, Tony Knox, George Lund, Charles Nuttall, Catherine Shea, Gary Sollars and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
New York Collective:
Lara Allen, Michael Ricardo Andreev, Chris Borkowski, Rodney Dickson, Stephan Fowlkes, PJ Cobbs, Aaron Miller, Raphaele Shirley and Lee Wells.
The collection of art is a series researched and developed by the Liverpool and New York artists over the past two years. This was intended for the week of the Independents Liverpool Biennial launch week, but was systematically removed and pulled hours before the opening. The philosophy though of Transvoyeur has always been one for positive and constructive energy to realise projects and exhibition of an exceptional impetus in contemporary art and practice with mutual respect and support of each collaborative artist in the international groups. Albeit this negative outcome on the onset of the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2006, the artists from Liverpool and New York the most constructive course of action was to research other outlets and open the exhibition later during this cultural time in the city of Liverpool.
Through the professional support of Ken Martin (Director) and Sam Skinner (Exhibitions Co-ordinator) of the View Two Gallery space the exhibition was realised. The doors opened at 6.00 pm for the private view.
Many people from the arts community, local and international, attended to view the art, including members of the public. Some visiting from London, Edinburgh, Paris and Barcelona. The comments expressed from different members from the public and international arts community, included
‘The best exhibition I have seen during this Biennial’
‘The work all very strong and immensely diverse, but it works cohesively. Excellent show’.
‘I remember seeing the work of Transvoyeur artists in the Independents Liverpool Biennial 2004 and it was provocative and thought provoking work then. This new work is again strong?.
The Transvoyeur artists are elated with the positive feedback, due to the difficulties encountered at the onset of |
