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

'4th Liverpool Biennial a success'

I'm quoting the Biennial there.
I am sure it was a success, certainly was from my point if view but they're very quick to reach this conclusion and don't provide any statistics to back it up.

4th Liverpool Biennial a success

27/11/06

Liverpool Biennial 2006 has now closed. Many of the artworks commissioned and created specifically for Liverpool as part of International 06 will never be seen again. Some works are being shipped overseas back to the artists or to be shown elsewhere. The good news is two of the works will be staying longer in Liverpool due to their popularity (more information coming soon).

The festival has surpassed all expectations thanks to the support of stakeholders, the vision and work of our partners and the involvement of Liverpool's community. The festival has benefited the local economy greatly as well as promoting Liverpool worldwide.

The Liverpool Biennial 2006 festival website remains, as a record of the event including information on International 06 artists.

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

From the new old-style biennial.com...

Fibreglass Boats for sale

27/11/06

The boats from International 06 artist Matej Andraz Vogrincic's work in St Luke's Church are for sale. They are approximately 80cm high, less than 5 meters long and 2 meters at their widest point.

Please contact Raj Sandhu, raj@biennial.com (0151) 709 7444 for more details.

The boats are for sale for £50 each. You will need to arrange your own collection from St Luke's Church, Leece Street, Liverpool. Assistants will be on hand to help up to Friday 1st December.

The boats can be used as garden furniture but would need further fibreglass strengthening if they are to be used in water.

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.

Music, Cains Beer and lots of other stuff at the Final View of the Packolocker exhibition in 52 Roscoe Street tonight, Friday November 24 2006 from 18.00 to 21.00.

Also, don't forget the Living Market tomorrow will include creative recycling workshops for all ages.
Noon - 18.00

For more info call Beccy Williams on: 0151 727 0487
Or email info@sackitoff.net

More from John Brady...

Dear Independents,
We are now working on the special edition souvenir post-Independents critical review publication and would like to consider images for inclusion in it.

If you have an image of an artwork or art-event you would like to be considered for the publication please forward a LOW RESOLUTION image (no more than 800x600 pixels) to
indie_biennial@btconnect.com
This email address is now dedicated for the reception of images.

Please do not send images to our other email addresses.

When sending an image include 3 items of information, namely
(1) title of artwork/event,
(2) the name of its creator, and
(3) the name of the person who took the photograph.

The deadline for receipt of low resolution images is midday on Monday December 11th, 2006.

From John Brady....

PARTIES

All independents are independent, but some are more independent than other (independents). There were 3 maps so 2 parties will come as no surprise.

Tonight - Friday November 24 2006
Crack Zombie @ museumMan, 25 Parliament Street

Starts at 21.00 till forever
Bands include; The Toxic Pijin, Bow and Arrow Kramer
VS.Kramer vs.Godzilla, and more. DJs include Tony Loco
The Mulliner Nannies, Oddity plus MCs

Projections By Noise Club & Toxic Pijin

Also Featuring Crack Cave and Glen of Tranquility

More details check out www.myspace.com/crackzombie

£3 Door Donation
BYO

Tomorrow - Saturday November 25 2006
No Excuses also @ museumMan, 25 Parliament Street

19.00
Will feature the following lovely people:
Tony Loco
Oddity
Coli
Stav
Bass Kid

www.myspace.com/noexcuses

Thanks to Billy for bringing this to my attention

As part of the BBC's Simon Schama's Power of Art the artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard have been commissioned to present a series of seven podcasts about Liverpool.
The first is the the artists talking about their connection to Liverpool and their Silent Sound work for the a-foundation and Liverpool Biennial 2006.

Each episode will feature a single guide who will pull sharp focus onto a particular area or aspect of Liverpool, with participants including the band To My Boy, entrepreneur Gary McClarnan and Ceri Hand, Director of Exhibitions at FACT. The podcasts will be available to subscribe to or download as individual episodes from this page and various podcast directories including iTunes.

Liverpool Art Tripper
Power of Art

Liverpool Biennial
Executive Director £45-50k

Liverpool Biennial is a charitable agency engaging art with people and place, and promotes the UK's festival of international contemporary visual art. Following its extraordinary record of achievement and growth in the last 6 years, the Trustees are now seeking a senior member of staff to lead the company's development as a business to the level of success reached in its artistic programme.

Liverpool Biennial will deliver a major contribution to the European Capital of Culture 2008. The challenge to this post is to make that contribution sustainable.

For more information email jobs@biennial.com
Closing date: 3 January 2007.
Interviews week commencing 15 January 2007.

Job Description, Application form etc. on the website
http://www.biennial.com/content/AboutUs/JobOpportunity.aspx

Tonight there will be a rare screening of Hollis Frampton's film Nostalgia (1971) USA, 31 mins, 16mm at Arena Gallery, 82/84 Duke St, L1
as part of the programme of events for the Bracket This III exhibition.

Frampton's film marks a point of transition in his career as an artist as he moves from photography to film and expresses the difference between the two media. Photographic images are placed on to an electric hotplate, as they burn into nothingness a narrator reminisces about the subjects they record. Still images (memories) appear and then are destroyed in fire, as the 16mm projector whirs at 24 frames per second, impossibly fast to recognise any single frames.

Also - Lawrence Jordon's beautifully surreal animation inspired by Joseph Cornell's 'Boxes' - Our Lady of the Sphere, USA, 1969, 10 mins, 16mm, - 'The mystical Lady with the orbital head moves through the carnival of life in a Surreal Adventure'. (www.lux.org.uk)

The screening will start at 21.00

Before the programme there will be a screening of a new film by Dave Bamford.

Via independents website forum...

Just in case you forgot, nomination deadline for Independents board is this weekend. Just to repeat what has been said elsewhere.

Deadline for receipt of additional nominations November 26th, 2006.

Nominations for Board membership are being accepted at:

mail@independentsbiennial.org

If you are nominating yourself, please include all your contact details. If nominating a.n.other you must have their consent. In this instance include both sets of contact details. Please note from the Draft Document, in addition to the nomination process, an election is proposed for two artist Board places.

Goshka Macuga - Sleep of Ulro
Discussion

Thursday 23rd November - 18.30

Speakers
Chris Bernard - Spiritualism in Liverpool
Leander Wolstenholme - Manchester Museum Curator of Botany
Sally O'Reilly critic and curator
Goshka Macuga - artist

Admission is free.

Greenland Street is open Wednesday–Sunday, 12.00 - 18.00
late night Thursday until 20.00
Admission is free

67 Greenland Street
Liverpool L1 0BY
Tel: +44 (0)151 706 0600

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

Thursday 23 November will be the last Supersocial for the season, presenting a performance by turntablist Phil Jeck along with
dancers Andrea Buckley and Paula Hampson. Followed by Iaspis director Maria Lind in conversation with artist Olivia Plender.

This event is kindly hosted by the Art Organisation at 52 Roscoe Street, starting at 18.00. Dinner served at 102 Seel Street around 20.00

Welcome!

Cecilia Andersson

www.ruc.com/werk/current/current.htm

From Nathan Jones at Mercy / BracketTHIS

Okay, our residency at Arena is rolling to an end, just one last historic and life changing experience to come.

)BracketTHIS( 3: THE LONG GOOD BIENNIAL

Friday 24th November, 20.00 till midnight.
Arena Gallery, Duke St, Liverpool
(Off the end of Slater St, by the Monroe pub)
FREE
Cheap drinks, charming, lovely.

featuring:
Kinetic Fallacy
www.myspace.com/kineticfallacy

Wave Machine
New project from the people who brought you Sizer Barker. ("Strange and wonderful," NME, "A wonderful, idiosyncratic thing," The Guardian.)

The Roseville Band
New project from the people who brought you Crosbi. (“Here's to the new breed” Record Collector, “Soaring, rich, dynamic, four-to-the-floor” Gigwise)
www.myspace.com/therosevilleband

Barbieshop
New project from diva-doyennes who brought you 1up, DNA orchestra, Strange Brood. A cappella classics.

Plus special guest. (“No, not telling you.” Financial Times.)

email info@showmercy.co.uk

From the Independents website...

On Max Zadow : Abled Artist
by Tim Birch

"I haven't got an art degree and there is a certain amount of snobbery around that… I came to this through work first of all as a journalist with BBC News & Current Affairs."

So states Max Zadow as we meet inside the FACT café. Well used to teasing out a narrative then, Max outlines his backstory.
"I have a long history with the Biennial. My first commission was when I pitched an idea to White Diamond [Liverpool-based art organisation and periodical publisher of an art fanzine]. It was a digital art piece. I hate it now but at the time it meant quite a lot to me. So each time I try to do something for the Biennial and this year there are quite a few pieces which have ended up being used in the Biennial. It's been a good way of coalescing activities -of giving them a focus, a place for premieres, a space in which they can be seen and a focus for collaboration."

More...

The 2006 Red Wire Open is this Friday, November 24 2006 at 19.00

This is the final show at Red Wire Gallery this year, and the first annual Open Submission.

Exhibitors are
Bob Milner
Adrian Pritchard
Jayne Lawless (featured on poster)
Oliver Braid
Pui Lee
Rhian Russell
Janie Nicoll
Eleana Louka
Michael Branthwaite

Promises to be a great show with submissions nationwide.
Address is
Red Wire Gallery
Carlisle Building
67-69 Victoria St

www.redwireredwire.com

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

Give Them Enough Rope.
Ambitious Works...

At The Projection Gallery 17th-26th November 2006

As artists and curators we find that we learn by making, this includes making our own mistakes, This show involves a series of Pieces which try to tackle the idea of ambition, whether it be through the actual construction, making or issues which are being tackled.
Gallery opens 12.00 - 18.00 Thurs-Sun
For further information please email gilesmonkey@hotmail.com

'Wireless' at 11 Wolstenholme Square
18 - 26 November 2006
Open Sat/Sun 18-19 Nov 12-18.00
Wed 22 - Sun 26 Nov 12-18.00
Closing Party Sat Nov 25 18.30 with Live music

The culmination of a project giving artists based in and around Liverpool and Manchester the opportunity to meet and work together for one week. All applicants were guaranteed entry into the project and the 23 participants have worked together in an effort to create an exhibition which makes the best use of a 19th Century building which, though very dilapidated, contains multiple layers of history.

The building at 11 Wolstenholme Square in Liverpool has been the venue for 2 other exhibitions over the course of the Biennial. This event has allowed participants the opportunity to spend a greater period of time working in the building thereby giving them the opportunity to respond more directly to it.

Part of the Gene Culture Exhibition at the Slaughterhouse Gallery last month was a cut-up of one of a series of Andrew Taylor's poems . The idea was to allow/invite the visitors to the exhibition to contribute to the poem.

Now Andrew has posted the results on his website.

This link will get you to the poem:
http://www.andrewtaylorpoetry.com/photos.html
The italicised lines are from the contributors.

www.andrewtaylorpoetry.com

VIRTUALLY GRIZEDALE AT GREENLAND STREET
Saturday 25 November, 17.00

The Work of Art in the Age of Agricultural Post-Production
An evening soiree

An illustrated talk by Grizedale Arts' Deputy Director, Alistair Hudson, with food preparation by Grizedale Director, Adam Sutherland and

FREE BEER!

The talk will detail Grizedale Arts' programme, the diversification of the arts institution and its projects at Lawson Park farm in the English Lake District, the villages of Toge in Japan and Nanling, China.

PLUS – come and talk about your work! 6 x 5 minute slots available for artists and art students in Merseyside to talk and show slides or images.

As a side dish there will be a little something from Mr Bedwyr Williams and a conceptual digestif by Bryan Davies and Dan Robinson (Thinking Space for The North, Leeds).

ADMISSION FREE!!!

For further information please contact hilaryt@afoundation.org.uk
0151 7094180 / 0151 7060600

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

The Projection Gallery Hosts:

Give Them Enough Rope

A showcase of ambitious works at the Projection Gallery, 2 Roscoe St.
17th-26th November 2006
Private View Thursday 16th November 19.00 - 21.00

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 the previous exhibition being pulled by ulterior means, but collectively they endeavoured to realise an exhibition of worth.

Each artist from Liverpool and New York researched and produced new art for this exhibition, as one of the inaugural concepts of the Biennial and Independents in 1999 was that during the international platform of the different arts and cultural events it should be contemporary and innovative art presented. This ethos all the Transvoyeur artists have believed in too and significantly, with those members who have a history with previous Biennials.

 
The exhibition of Transvoyeur is on the first floor of the View Two Gallery. You enter the space from a flight of stairs at the main entrance and immediately presented with a projection a projection of a series of images that show strange and surreal architectural structures. These are a collection of images produced by Raphaele Shirley and documentation of architectural maquettes, constructed and deconstructed to explore ideas of time and space. These images references the primary source of her own creative insight in the temporality and spatiality of virtual urban structures, as well as an element contributed to PAM (Perpetual Art Machine), which is a database of digital materials of which she is a co-founder with Aaron Miller, Chris Borkowski and Lee Wells.

Adjacent to this New York artist piece is a large-scale photographic portrait of veiled gold face with menacing eyes peering through. This is by Tony Knox and part of the recent developments of his Moth Man character, an alter ego of wrestling character.
From this entrance area, the space bends around into a larger area where two further large-scale photographs by Knox are exhibited. Moth Man by the Pyramids, with two Egyptians on camels in the background bewildered with this strange gold winged character jumps across the stones with the pyramids as a backdrop. The next image of equal scale show the character armed flayed in the night with a row of streetlights arching away in the distance. During this Biennial, Knox is the Artist in Residence at the Field Fund Project in St Helens, part of the Anthony Gormley initiative introducing arts to alternative audiences at the De La Salle School.

 
Facing these images of Knox is a large reproduction print of a newspaper by Gary Sollars. This is a pseudo newspaper and titled ‘Get Wired’. The concept derived on the satire of news credibility in a socio-cultural context of postmodern society and where intrigues from the critical to banal are abstracted to the humorous rationale. Sollars was a short listed artist in the John Moores Prize this Biennial too.

There art continues down a long wall to two explorations by Jo Derbyshire. One is a large painting in mixed media of abstraction face with undertones of Picasso-esque influence and similar the other, but in pastels, a fusion of mass of faces peering inwards and outwards of the two dimensional surface. These are describes as psychoanalytical studies of form and tone and within the layers of each abstracted composition of the human face or head something different to be discovered and realised by each viewer’s perspectives.

Next are four large paintings by George Lund. A combination of the figurative and abstracted in an explosion of colour and hue, which he is synonymous with his art. These are formed in a naïve style and the subjects a commentary on the socio-politic climate of the global affairs, including relations of the human creature with ecological matters, the prevalence of war overseas and the common denominator of unjustifiable justified to result in destruction.
For Lund who generally touches on the sublime in previous art and imbued in his palette has retained the tonality and range of colour he is known for, but here he delves into topical issues that effect us all in contemporary life. Lund has recently been one of the commissioned artists by the Liverpool Culture Company with a limited edition reproduction of his art on merchandise relative to the city, arts and culture.

We move down further into the space and next there is an immense wall installation. This is a collaborative piece by all the New York artists (i.e., Lara Allen, Michael Ricardo Andreev, Chris Borkowski, Rodney Dickson, Stephan Fowlkes, PJ Cobbs, Aaron Miller, Raphaele Shirley and Lee Wells). It is composed by a collection of large sheets of paper, each distinct, but discernible with layered media to each. Each New York artist has contributed to each section of paper with one final artist constructing the final surface and image. One that is perceptible in style to their practice.

The black and white heraldic status denoted by Andreev on a bed of collaborative colours and tones. The geometric overlays recognisable of Fowlkes on the chaotic fusion of stratum by other associate artists. The military symbolism and group portrait by Wells in a spatial composition of a world formed by the contributions of the others. On another sheet expletives and foul language pervade the surface combined with commentaries of current socio-political content.
These are perceived to be those conveyed by Dickson. An Irish artist, previously based in Liverpool and now New York, whose work considers the extremity and inhumanity of warfare and the socio-culture sections of society that survive on the periphery of such. Equally so, as one studies each part that forms the whole of this installation we observe the cognitive form by each artist from Allen, Borkowski, Miller and Shirley. The installation is fascinating. It is a hybridised narration of not only each artist’s concepts, but also a collection and amalgamation of the universal ideologies that permeate the globalisation of art, culture and society.

The next piece is a wall installation by Sweeney. A performance artists who works in different media from live art, digital video, photographic and those of a more scientific content. We are presented by two large-scale images, which on first analysis make her form seem obscure. Then it is realised the artist is shown lying on a table legs upwards with a mirror in-between her legs that reflects her genitals.
These two, although similar, are positions symmetrically opposite to each other. One is black and white, her arms out of perspective only her shoulder can be seen with her head bent down peering towards the viewer. In the neighbouring image that is colour, one arms can be observed released upwards with a meat baster. On both images to her left is a glass bowl containing fish. There is a space between these two life size portraits and placed is a large pedestal with a glass bowl containing live gold fish.

Across the top of this large wall composition are three further photographic studies. Over the black and white portray reversed is an image of gold fish in a bowl and similarly reversed in colour. Next to this, an explicit photograph of her hand pulling apart her underneath and inserted is the meat baster. The third and final image is an overlay of the two previous ones and this positioned over the coloured image of her. The overt image of the insertion is actually shrouded with draped white voile that falls to either side of the pedestal. The material similar to that covering her head and table in the live art photographic stills.

This installation by Sweeney is titled ‘Darwinian Donations (DIY)’, a social commentary of genetics practiced by some in everyday life to realise offspring. The style of the composition and image has Renaissance undertones of the draping and tonality, but the harsh white embodies the clinical resolve of genetic intervention where the understanding is evolved and permeates down through societal erudition. Sweeney in the coming months is due to commence collaboration with one of the world’s top geneticists in the research and development.

Then there is the art of Charles Nuttall. An arcade machine on first observations, but the graphic design and signage refer to ‘Moth Man versus Nutcracker’. This is a collaboration piece by Nuttall and Knox. Nuttall adapted the concept of Moth Man and combined with his own wrestling character of Nutcracker transformed the spatiality of these characters from the performance context into the realms of digital video gaming media. Members of the audience could interact with this piece by becoming either character to fight in a wrestling tournament with already recognised wrestling characters from the World Wrestling Federation. Further to these two characters was also the option to select digitalised characters of the artists as they are normally seen, aka Knox and Nuttall.

There were then three separate digital video installations by Alcaniz, Byrne and Shea. The digital video media of Alcaniz was a performance intervention set in the context of the Liverpool as the European Capital of Culture. These were three environmental art performances are derived by action, intervention and visual dialogue on concepts of urban space, culture and ecology. In various modes, she collects each piece of garbage in the public space and replaces it with a piece of sliced lemon.
A long and arduous process, but the meticulous actions of the artists in this film present an element of the susceptibility of the human relationship with space, whether relative to the urban environment or the planet overall. The environment performance is an ongoing project which aims to explore and analyse culture in terms of waste as the residue for societal expression.
These films are derived from the live art interventions in location targeted and representative of Liverpool as the Capital of Culture 2008.

The rendition intrigues the viewer to what we normally take for the obvious, but while curiously captivated by the actions of the artist, we are further motivated to the reasons and objectives of this live art intervention captured in the film. This piece is a profound expression of a topical subject and relative to the government adverts, we observe late of a night on television of the prospects of global warming. Alcaniz touches a nerve in a subtle, but innate sense, rather than the repetition of these government information services were we become desensitised.

Byrne's work uses a technique of remix which reconfigures work in different conditions so that the work is always specific to the event/space of it's showing, for example the 16mm film '12 Stone 4' was shown as a video at the Tate but as an installation at the Pompidou. Similarly the work in this show is drawn from other work but is reconfigured for this show, for example 'On the Edge of the Estate (the Beacon)' was the central panel of 'Another Day' at the Ormeau Baths gallery in Belfast but is here re-edited and a new transfer for this show. It is here shown with 'On the Edge of the Estate (Penmere)'

Both were made on the edge of council developments (the beacon being one of the largest council estates in Europe). Both are constructed in this abandoned undeveloped edge, a place of danger and beauty, where usual rules of conduct fall into the shade and mythologies of freedom and fear co-exist.

'On the Edge of the Estate (the Beacon)' was produced on 16mm film using a modified camera to give very long exposures producing a deep star field. This is attached to a rig which revolves once every 24 hours against the movement of the Earth giving a celestial perspective where the movement of the Earth is apparent and the stars remain relatively still. 'On the Edge of the Estate (Penmere)' was shot next to the sewage works on a hot Summers day using a microscopy technique. In contrast to 'On the Edge of the Estate (the Beacon)' it is slowed down to reveal the motion of the gnats as they fly manically in their one day of life. Both reveal a change of human perspective at the edge of the everyday and the ordered. An attempt to produce a sense of perspective in which we are not the centre of the Universe.

Shea presents a digital video piece, which was researched and developed over a series of hypnotherapy sessions.
The concept of which to give-up art. This is not merely a performance, but a reality and addresses the role, purpose, function and rationale of an artists existence, not only in the professional and socio-economic realms of arts and culture, but considers the psychological and intrinsic motivations one that can construe the act of being an artist as a compulsion and innate ability; as the artist not only presents this film as an end product of the concept of art, but denotes the failure of the hypnotherapy and the urge to create a deeper ingrained urge which has been theorised and philosophised about since the institutionalised precepts and canons of art history.

The viewer is drawn into the personal experiences, passions and conflicts of an artist in post-modern life, as she exposes her aspirations and fears. The viewer becomes absorbed themselves into the psychosis of the artist and share in the artists temporal visions and emotions carried by the gentle timbre of the hypnotherapist voice, who cannot be seen, but heard.

The collection of work touched on a range of subjects in contemporary life, each compelling representations of the themes explored by each artist. It is an exhibition one could visit a second and third time and will realise something new
During the opening an many different members from the art community were present. Ian and Mina Jackson (Art in Liverpool Weblog and Gold Fish Gallery respectively) and Bryan Biggs (Bluecoat Art Centre, Liverpool, England).

The next stage programmed for this collection of art is to be exhibited in New York in early 2007.

Further information on the exhibition is available from:

Transvoyeur UK
Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney (UK Projects Co-ordinator)
Mobile: +44(0)7944733576
E-mail: transvoyeuruk@hotmail.co.uk
Website: www.transvoyeur.co.uk

View Two Gallery
Ken Martin (Director/Curator)
Tel. No.: Tel: 0151 236 9444
Email: info@viewtwogallery.co.uk
Website: www.viewtwogallery.co.uk

Its a strange one this. To my simplistic gallery-goer view its some quite nice artwork on the walls of the corridor on the 6th floor of an office block in Hanover Street. But according to the statements its so much more than that...

..the exhibition aims to draw parallels with our contemporary ability to disregard these values as and when it suits us. Therefore, within the framework of some of the work, ideas of imperialism are incorporated alongside comments on materialism, consumerism, alienation, globalisation and the cult of celebrity.

The exhibition aims to capture a sense of a globalised society at the beginning of the 21st Century. Each one of these artists uses portraiture to make a statement about the environment in which we find ourselves.. etc. etc. etc.

Maybe its somewhere in between. Too good to be hidden away up here but not so grand that it can attract a main gallery space. Having said that, I'd rather see this show on the ground floor of the Tate than the eye-damaging light bulb effort.

I particularly like David Hancock's 'I wear Black on the Outside' which is actually 2 paintings and Dawn Woolley's '9 Henderson Street' in which she has pasted pictures of herself living in a doll's house.

Returning to that statement..

Leo Fitzmaurice’s work revolves around his relationship to design and us the consumer. Using the logos on carrier bags and celebrity featured magazines he obscures using felt-tip markers. In doing so Fitzmaurice shows his dissatisfaction with today’s media and commercially obsessed society.
In other words he has scribbled and doodled on a plastic shopping bag.

I’ll be your Mirror 6th Floor of Gostin Buildings, Hanover Street. Monday - Saturday 10.00 17.00
Curated by David Hancock and Richard Meaghan

Jemima Brown & Dolly, Gordon Cheung, Leo Fitzmaurice, David Hancock, Owen Leong, Andy Magee, Rui Matsunaga, Richard Meaghan, Stuart Semple, Hannah Wooll, Isabel Young

On Thursday 16 November, Supersocialites meet at the Monro pub, 92 Duke Street at 18.00.
Hosts are artists Marjolijn Dijkman and Inga Zemprich, with special appearance by Christian Sievers.
Welcome!
Cecilia Andersson
www.ruc.com/werk/current/current.htm

www.marjolijndijkman.com
www.faculty.cc
www.christiansievers.info

Here at artinliverpool.com we are delighted (as you can see above) that the Digital Show we created and curated for the Independents Strand of the Liverpool Biennial 2006 is now on show in the Walker Art Gallery.

You may recall that Digital Show is an online-only exhibition of digital artwork so we broke the rules slightly to account for the unpredictability of the internet and created an offline looping slideshow. Each image is displayed for 5 or 6 seconds so with 200 images it takes about 20 minutes to watch the whole thing through.

Its running on the kiosk next to the small shop outside the John Moores 24 exhibition and will be there until November 26 2006 when the Biennial ends.

The 200 digital images were submitted by 133 artists from 25 countries, they will, no doubt, be equally pleased to hear that their work is featured in a display at this prestigious gallery.

We are very grateful to everyone involved at National Museums Liverpool for facilitating this at short notice, especially Billy Fallows.

See the full Digital Show exhibition on the website:
www.digitalshow.co.uk

Visitors' Choice
John Moores 24 - The Walker Art Gallery

The £1,000 Visitors’ Choice prize in the John Moores 24 exhibition of contemporary painting has been won by Nicholas Middleton with 'Scene From a Contemporary Novel'.
Nicholas is pictured below receiving his cheque for £1000 from curator and judge Ann Bukantas alongside some of the visitors who helped choose the winning work.
His monochrome oil painting depicting a young woman in a rubbish-strewn street polled an impressive 709 votes out of a total of 5,063 cast by visitors to the exhibition between 16 September and 29 October 2006. Visitors could choose any of the exhibition’s 52 pictures.

Comments about 'Scene From a Contemporary Novel' on the Visitors’ Choice voting cards included: “Simply the best!” – “It has been very cleverly painted” – “LOVE IT!” – “Who needs colour to bring things to life?” – “All that is good about photo-realist painting” “The girl in the picture could well be myself … Very evocative”.

Ann Bukantas, the Walker’s curator of fine art and a John Moores 24 jury member, says: “This is a well-deserved Visitors’ Choice winner with its almost photographic detail which cannot fail to fascinate the viewer. When we were judging the competition we spent a lot of time looking at this remarkable painting which also says a lot about contemporary urban life.”

Born in London in 1975, Nicholas Middleton studied at London Guildhall University and Winchester School of Art. His exhibitions include Defining the Times (Milton Keynes Gallery 2000), The Discerning Eye (Mall Galleries, London 2004) and BP Portrait Award 2004 and 2005 at the National Portrait Gallery.

Nicholas was shortlisted for the BOC Emerging Artist Award in 2002, has shown four times in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy and was included in John Moores 23 (2004).

Second in the poll was Graham Crowley’s prizewinning painting 'Red Reflection' (454 votes) (pictured below) and third was Gary ‘Dollman’ Sollars’ 'When I Grow Up I Want To Go In There' (317).

John Moores 24 ends on Sunday 26 November 2006