The auction to raise funds for Arena Studios last night seemed to be a great success. The art was good, there was a big crowd, every piece was sold for anything between £10 and £200 many of them real bargains and it was all great fun.

Well done to all involved.
(I didn't overspend this time, I sat on my hands)

Its difficult enough for any artist to find a place to exhibit their work. Its doubly difficult if you are a student or recent graduate. So if you are a student or recent graduate working in time-based media - no chance! But at least Sean Hawkridge at Static gallery is doing his bit to help. He's set up a venture called Skylight Projects (no website to link to yet) and last night was their first 'Thursday Show' which aims to give artists working in time-based media (video, performance, sound, web-based practice and installation) the chance to air their work to their peers, artists and visionaries (that's me).

The first exhibit just after entering the gallery was an untitled, mixed media work by Rebecca Key which I think was the empty wine bottles and drinks cartons left over from last weeks Hirst exhibition. Reminiscent of Hirst's own 'rubbish' piece that was binned by a cleaner at the Eyestorm gallery a few years ago. Should have called it 'After Hirst'.

There were two pieces by Zoe Langdell; a video called 'Reading Room' in which fellow students and friends were filmed reading extracts from books and papers. Small sections were at normal speed so I could catch a few words then it would spring into fast-forward mode then back to normal again. The second was a collection of mp3 recordings of the artist's 'Degree Diaries'. I put on the headphones and selected some at random.

Rhian Russell's 'Untitled' is a rather cute piece. An old very basic cine projector with the film looped over a reel nailed to an overhead beam is showing a short film onto a very small area of the wall. Its only about 15 x 10 cms and appears to be the artist moving across frosted glass, I could just make out the hands and arms.

'Easy Listening' by Gordon Culshaw and Jamie Torode is anything but 'easy' listening. A large metal sheet bangs against a rail and the 'clang' is amplified through a huge speaker above my head. It keeps on banging because an electric fan is directed at it so its never still. There's another sheet of metal on the floor to amplify peoples footsteps as they walk in and out and another couple of contraptions for making strange noises. Its a great bit of lo/hi tech interactive fun that looks like it was designed by Heath Robinson.

There's a 'Kylie Remix' video from Medlo (medlo.net) which is just that - a remix of Kylie Minogue video(s) which now I can't get out of my head!

Sean Hawkridge contributed a work of his own as he wanted to experiment with the latest technology. 'Aeroplanes Landing' is a short film taken that morning at Liverpool airport with his mobile phone, then loaded onto the mac laptop and projected onto a screen.

Unfortunately, the show was for one night only. So if you weren't there, you've missed your chance. But, hopefully, the Thursday Show will be a regular event. I'm certainly looking forward to more and the artists can only benefit from the experience.

Friday 29th - Arena Studios Charity Art Auction

Support Liverpool's largest and longest-standing studio group in their hour of need.
Your chance to bid on original artworks in a variety of media by over 30 of the best artists in the city.
Viewing from 6pm - Auction starts 8.30pm - Live Music into the night - Refreshments Available

All artwork sold is available to take home on the night. Cash or cheque.
Daily Post Story

Saturday 30th - RAW Explosion at Loop

On Saturday April 30th from 12.00 noon until 18.00 the Loop Gallery are presenting a live event entitled RAW at 12 Princes Dock.
Free & Open to the public.

Glenn Humphrey will produce a large abstract painting
Music is provided by Frakture, the local free improvised music project
Barbara Jones will be photographing the event
Jason Thompson will be in charge of the video and
Julie Swallow will provide the textual element.

Full Details

Adrian Searle's reviews in the Guardian are always a good read. Yesterday he reviewed Glasgow's first International Art Fair and the following caught my attention...

'Glasgow is the only city in Britain that has a strong enough community of resident artists to approach an international standing independent of London. Most other cities in the UK are places where artists come from, but which, if they are ambitious, they leave as soon as possible. This is not cosmopolitan snobbery, but a fact of life. One can be a novelist anywhere, but artists need a community of like-minded souls, a structure for showing and earning a living, and a good enough reason to stay. During the 1990s, Glasgow precariously achieved the right microclimate for such a situation to be possible. In part, this was the result of the liveliness of Glasgow School of Art, cheap rents and the existence of sympathetic and artist-run spaces, such as Transmission, where work could be shown. For reasons that remain opaque to me, Edinburgh is not nearly so interesting.'

It would be great if Liverpool could do the same. I can't really see it though, not for a very long time anyway. The Biennials and 2008 help but its not enough, artists need more public support, preferably by buying their works.

Full article

CulturEuro Seminars: EU Funding Opportunities for the Cultural Sector

EUCLID, the official UK Cultural Contact Point, appointed by the European Commission and the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, are pleased to announce that we are once again running our popular series of CulturEuro seminars for the arts and cultural sector, providing information and a summary of existing and future opportunities to access funding from the European Union.

The CulturEuro seminars will be held in 19 major cities, including Liverpool on Wednesday 4th May (at the Blackburne House).

The seminar will be covering the full range of EU funding programmes, including the Culture 2000 programme, other trans-national funds, programmes for "third countries", and the Structural Funds (the seminar will cover remaining opportunities from the current round as well as a brief outline of the proposed new Structural Funds programme from 2007).

The registration fee per person is £66 + VAT. The seminars will run from 1:30pm - 5:00pm. Delegates will receive a full information pack including notes on the presentations and extensive contact details.

For full details of the CulturEuro seminar series and to book online, please visit www.euclid.info/uk/seminars

CHRISTINA MACKIE WINS BECK'S FUTURES 2005
Mackie's work is characterised by an interest in the connection of objects - specifically made and complete in themselves -and how their being and meaning can be transformed by relativity, by their placing. Her work might use any number of different materials, and is also driven by an interest in translating the abstract -emotion, thought, intangible sensibility- into a more concrete and visible form. Through layering different elements, she seeks to create a new dynamic, to suggest relationships between different objects that might evoke an 'emotional landscape'
Link

'Contemplating One's Navel', surely the phrase was invented for this guy. He is (or rather was) obsessed with the body. "I had to try out [try on] my body, test my body, find my body, use my body, day by day". This was from the late 60s / early 70s and is a bit of its time really. So he filmed himself pulling all the hairs from around his navel till its completely bald. I don't think that video is shown here but you can watch him burn the hairs from his chest with a candle or rub a live cockroach into the skin of his stomach. There's also the infamous 'Seedbed' where he's masturbating (all day for several days!) under the ramped floor of an art gallery.
All of Vito's work starts with text so there's masses of typed, printed or handwritten pieces on the walls as well as still photographs. The first things you see on the wall as you enter gallery 1 are some concrete poems.

All this bodily stuff is not really to my taste. I can see that in its day it was groundbreaking and challenging and influenced and inspired a lot of artists and performers so, if you have any interest in art history, you have to go and see it. But standing in a modern gallery watching this long black & white footage of an old wanker (literally and metaphorically) is really dull.

As you walk up the stairs to gallery 2 you see that Vito has moved onto more installation work using objects and sound rather than his body. I quite like the one of the long table which extends out of the window, thus becoming a sort of diving board.

From around 1980 he moves onto architecture. The Acconci studio was set up to create public art, furniture and mobile architecture. Now, this I like. Some of the studio's very latest designs are on the walls outside gallery 2 and inside you can watch videos about some of the projects whilst 'sitting' in cool-looking but uncomfortable Vito-designed seats. I'm not sure that many of these projects ever actually get built but they stretch the imagination and have a sense of humour.

Of course, I could not resist calling into the Media Lounge to create some music on the Macs using samples of Vito's voice and adding instrument tracks using Garageband software. Then copied to CD, great fun.

The exhibition is subtitled Self/Sound/City and runs till June 12th 2005

Yannick Boussemart at Liverpool Academy of Arts.Yannick is a Frenchman living in Birkenhead. No wonder his paintings are so abstract! There's also a mix of media, batik on silk, oil, acrylic on canvas or board and most are brightly coloured even using luminous pigment on some works. The frames of unstained softwood are interesting too. I find a whole room full a bit overpowering but individually they're nice enough.

I managed to get into the press tour of the new £35 mill. extension to the Liverpool Museum today. Now known as the World Museum Liverpool, its really impressive. Its built round a central atrium with a glass roof, there's a new ground-level entrance (no need to climb those 39 steps any more!) with a new cafe and shop. The Treasure House Theatre is a groundbreaking feature, it seats up to 80 visitors, mainly aimed at school parties and family groups who can watch shows and re-enactments of some of the stories surrounding the collections.

There's a large area all about bugs. The huge spider pictured here actually moves above your head, but only slightly, it had to be toned down a bit as it was just too frightening.

There's a good sized room housing a Buddhist exhibition which is excellent, unfortunately the Tibetan chanting wasn't turned on. Pictured here is the Bodhisattva of Compassion with 24 arms.
There seems to be loads of interactive areas where visitors can actually get hold of things, take out boxes of insects, plants, fossils from the drawers to get a closer look through the microscopes. There are boxes of costumes from different cultures that children and adults can dress up in.

Many will remember the gloomy small fish tanks in a corridor that was the aquarium in the old building, now there's a big bright blue aquarium with large tanks including one that has marine life from the Wirral and Anglesey coastlines.
There's even a Fair Trade Shop!
It opens to the public on Friday 29th April, it looked like there was still a lot of small jobs to finish before then but the builders and staff are working hard for something they've been looking forward to for a long time, good luck to them. It will be open 7 days a week from 10.00 to 17.00
www.worldmuseumliverpool.org.uk
Heritage Lottery Fund (they provided £32 mill of the £35 mill cost)

Rhizome.org to host second "Blogging and the Arts" panel Oh, I'd love to go to this but its in NY on May 17th. Anyone want to fund my expenses? I promise to report back.

Location:
New Museum of Contemporary Art / Chelsea
556 West 22nd Street

*** Rhizome.org Director of Technology Francis Hwang will lead a panel discussion on Blogging and the Arts. This panel, the second in a series hosted by Rhizome.org, includes painter and web-artist Chris Ashley, painter Joy Garnett, artist and programmer Patrick May, and writer Liza Sabater. The discussion will address issues such as ways that artists are using blogs to distribute their own work, and the influence of blogging culture on political issues of interest to those in the arts. ***

Felt like I'd travelled back in time today. This is all very 60s psychedelic. Every inch of wall (and door!) is covered in colourful designs and some are projected onto the floor while several huge screens show about 17 hours worth of old video footage of people with big hair disco dancing or doing there thang. Cool! Who needs LSD when you can sit in the middle of this room with the headphones on and blow your mind. Dig out your tie-dye T shirts and loons and get along there man.

Tate Liverpool has commissioned an exciting new work to complement the special exhibition Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era (which opens on 27 May 2005). assume vivid astro focus is both the pseudonym of a New York-based Brazilian artist, who prefers to remain anonymous, and the title given to the artist’s wide-ranging aesthetic project. In the past this has encompassed a broad range of different media, including video projections, wallpaper, T-shirts, tattoos, large scale installations and, at times, collaborations with other artists. assume vivid astro focus has shown at the Whitney Biennial, 2004 and Frieze Art Fair, 2004.

Some thought it was a hoax, some thought it may be a stunt to draw the crowds away from the Vito Acconci viewing at FACT. Others thought it was all a bit silly, especially after they'd visited the gallery. But, lets be honest, if you have a Damien Hirst print to show off you have to do something different, its an event rather than an exhibition.
'One Night Only' features one work from Hirst's acclaimed 'Romance in the Age of Uncertainty' series, originally shown at London's White Cube Gallery in September 2003. This original acquisition forms part of the Static collection, a new initiative by the Static organisation.
So it was 1 work for 1 night and only on show for 1 hour from 19.00-20.00.
I got there at 19.00 having ran up the road from FACT and there was a small crowd outside waiting for the doors to open. The picture was in the centre of the far wall with a security guard on either side and a camera crew in the centre of the room filmimg the whole event. The layout was such that people had to form a line and slowly file past the picture as if it were the Mona Lisa. And that's it, all you can do then is stand back and watch the people walking past the picture, then you watch the people watching the people...
I'm not sure what the picture is, looks like a lot of blood pouring into a phial. Not very exciting but I'm glad I was there. You can see the picture on the Static website

Support Liverpool's largest and longest-standing studio group in their hour of need.

Your chance to bid on original artworks in a variety of media by
over 30 of the best artists in the city.

Friday 29th April 2005

Viewing from 6pm - Auction starts 8.30pm - Live Music into the night -
Refreshments Available

All artwork sold is available to take home on the night. Cash or cheque.

Arena Studios, 82-84 Duke Street, Liverpool.

The Guardian today asked 50 leading arts figures what they would do for culture if they were running the next government.
The only Liverpool based person I could see was...

Deborah Aydon Executive director, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse
My policy would be to make culture absolutely central to everyone's life, and I would start at birth with something rather like the child's trust fund. Every child would automatically receive a voucher to enjoy a piece of culture once a year, to be redeemed at the box offices or in the galleries. This would also encourage families to get involved with culture. And, of course, give us lots and lots more money.

But the best policy comes from...

British Sea Power Musicians
The government must lead by example. Tony Blair could be forced to reform his university rock band Ugly Rumours. Easy! People would pay top dollar to watch tuff-tit Tony do his Jagger routine in ballet tights and the kind of jacket worn by a street-fighting 18th-century turnpike warden. The idea could be extended to the other parties, too. So Michael Howard could proudly represent his Romanian roots by buying an accordion and doing some of the turbofolk and Gypsy techno that is real big in the east. Charles Kennedy could enjoy a few drams and strut and holler with the Proclaimers. Just one tour would provide enough cash for endless arts-for-the-people. Come on, government. Lead by example!

On Saturday April 30th from 12.00 noon until 18.00 the Loop Gallery are presenting a live
event entitled RAW at 12 Princes Dock.
I met up with Loop Director Ian Johnson who gave me all the details of what sounds like a
really exciting 'happening'.

RAW?

"Its called RAW because thats what it is, its not polished.
It will be a spontaneous fusion of 5 artforms:
painting, photography, video, music and text all working off each other, creating an explosion of creativity."

The Artists?

"Glenn Humphrey will produce a large abstract painting
Music is provided by Frakture, the local free improvised music project
Barbara Jones will be photographing the event
Jason Thompson will be in charge of the video and
Julie Swallow will provide the textual element."

Spontaneous Chaos

"Its also the making of an exhibition, we'll be going in with no idea of what the end result will be but at the end of the day there will be an exhibition in the room.
People will be seeing the exhibition unravel, even the curating by myself and Loop co-director Arthur Roberts, will be spontaneous. It could be pleasantly chaotic."

The Exhibition

"Its a one day event followed by an exhibition of the day.
Everything has to be done in the 6 hour period from noon till 6pm, the painting will be hung, the photographs will be printed, the video on screen and the text on display somewhere.

The finished painting will later be donated to be displayed in the lobby of the 12 Princes Dock building that has been Loop's home since the start of the Biennial last year.

The event will be free, the public are welcome to just come and go or stay for the whole thing. There will be a reception at 7pm

The Monday is a Bank Holiday so it will be open to the public from the Tuesday 3rd until Saturday 7th May.
It may be extended depending on how soon we have to vacate the building for the new tennants."

Risk

"We are taking a bit of a risk with Loop Gallery's reputation here because the whole day and the end result could be a great success or possibly a failure with no in-between.
But if you don't take chances..."

The Future?

"We are still thinking about future plans, it may be that Loop concentrate exclusively on large, quality exhibitions for future Biennials."

I was in the Whitechapel area yesterday to have a look at this excellent idea. One of the nicest buildings sites I've seen in a long time. Hopefully more on the way.

Construction sites are providing the background for innovative paintings and drawings to give budding young artists the chance to display their art publicly.

The first project is underway with students from Liverpool John Moores University producing almost 150 square metres of art for the Milligan ‘Met Quarter’ development on the site of the city’s old post office.

Documentary Illustration students at John Moores University ’s School of Art & Design are the artists responsible for the first batch of designs, and more will follow from different young people as the seasons change in the coming year.

Full details here...

Laura Poole's Ceramics and Photographs are on display at the Domino Gallery in the Green Fish cafe until June. Good to see another recent graduate staging her own show in Liverpool. Laura takes small garments (vests, shirts etc.) and soaks them in clay, folds them carefully then fires them. The original garment is destroyed and you're left with a new white delicate, fragile ceramic version. There are several on display in the glass cabinets and there are monochrome close-up photographs on the walls as well as some ceramic tiles. The tiles are patterned by moving a scarf around on the soft clay before firing. All very nice and very reasonably priced.

Robyn Archer, aristic director the Liverpool Capital of Culture suggests that art is becoming stagnant (with an Australian bias) in an article reproduced by the Sydney Morning Herald:

"We do not wish to debate the hard issues. We only want to know we have enough cash with which to live well and see our kids live well. And we are happy with politicians who tell us that these are their concerns, too. Australia is a world of ordinary people, happy to gossip on talk-back radio, but not to value the structures and resources (including art) that allow us to develop our critical and analytical powers.

"A climate of this sort is not one to breed artists who will dig into the depths, who have the potential to inspire and awaken the hidden richness in us all. Superficiality and public deception do not provide fertile ground in which art can take root and grow."

It's good to see some themes are global.

Off Topic I suppose but I *love* animation. Starting tonight for 3 Mondays on BBC4 - Animation Nation followed by an hour of Animation Shorts repeated on Saturday if you miss it tonight.

The last copy of Space Magazine (Stylish Living in Liverpool) has their list of 100 'hip' Liverpudlians.
Amazingly, I'm not in the list! Perhaps my hipness is just too much, it goes right off the scale. Maybe there's an age limit but oldie Alex Cox is in there and, anyway, what's so hip about him these days? A few Godzilla comics! (Only kiddin Alex).
Well if you want to see the full list you'll have to find a copy of the mag but for your info these are the guys in the 'Art & Design' category:
Jennifer Barker, Donna Berry, Lola Bodansky, Stephen Broadbent, Anthony Brown, Cathy Butterworth, Jayne Casey, Peter Chan, Richard Eastwood, Roy McCarthy, Penelope (The sculpture in Wolstenholme Sq.), Andrew Thomson and Dave White.

ANOTHER BUMPER YEAR
Liverpool's museum visitors grow

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has recorded its highest visitor figures on
record since the organisation was formed in 1986. For the second year in a
row visitor numbers to NML venues have peaked at more than 1.5 million, with
this year's count standing at 1,537,590.

Full details here.

SWALK was the big event at Bumpers on Feb 13th to raise money for the Tsunami appeal. It was a great night, well done and thanks to all involved.

Message from organiser, Sarah Allen...

'The SWALK charity event which included donations of original works of art for a raffle and an art auction has generated £4804.10 for Unicef.
Sarah Allen would like to thank the artists who donated works of art. Dave White, The Singh Twins, Tom Mcllwaine, Gary Daly, David Woods, Felicity Wren, Dorrie Halliday, Jason Jones, Tony Knox, Julie Jones and Colin Rodgers.'

Lots of pics here

Some forthcoming talks/events at Liverpool Tate...

Artist Talk: Sonia Boyce - Wednesday 20 April

Talk: Marina Warner and Jon Thompson discuss the Richard Wentworth exhibition which finishes on 24th - Saturday 23 April

Conference: Distortions: Psychedelia and Social Crisis - Friday 27 May

Talk: Converse, Perform, Video-Jockey - Friday 3 June

Quite right too! Really looking forward to the Summer of Love exhibition at Tate Liverpool. Got to wait till May 27th though.
Here's a clip from the Independent...

Now a major exhibition is to show they were an art form worthy of serious consideration. It will restage some of those projections with a soundtrack by Soft Machine, as well as show films of the performances at the Summer of Love exhibition at Tate Liverpool next month.
Full article

Here's a nice little show hidden away on the 6th floor of Gostins Building in Hanover St. Titled 'Day by Day', its by 4 recent graduates of Manchester now based in Liverpool and this is their first group show here.
There's Susan Gladwyn's 3D geometric structure glued to the wall.
Joanne Byrne's dark prints inspired by local derelict landscape.
Lucy Johnson's stripped down, flat coloured paintings and Nicola Fitzsimmons' repetitive folded coloured paper shapes.
Should be there for about a month, just get the lift to the 6th floor and there it is!

Or to be more precise, they're in the Hermitage gallery which is above St Petersburg Russian restaurant in York St. They've been created by Oleg Ikona, originally from the Ukraine who has received a hostile reception from the more conservative elements in his home country for daring to create icons that don't conform to the old orthodox style.
But Oleg does use traditional methods, the pictures are beautifully painted in tempera, its just that some of the iconic figures are more contemporary (the Queen for instance) and he has added some modern technology, bits of plastic, microchips, cell phone and radio. They are all interactive, you press a button and see or hear what happens.

I found it interesting and entertaining then later I found myself enjoying more entertainment in the Jacaranda bar. A young Japanese woman called Yoko (not Ono) had come over from Tokyo and sang some Beatles songs. The audience which included Winnie the Pooh really appreciated it!

The reviewers on Newsnight have all just been raving about the World Museum Liverpool which opens on April 29th. Its gonna be great!
Here's the blurb....

World Museum Liverpool – formerly Liverpool Museum – opens to the public on Friday 29 April 2005.

A massive £35 million project has doubled the size of the popular museum - an attraction in the city since 1853. World Museum Liverpool features expanded galleries and improved facilities including new features such as the World Cultures gallery, the Bug House where visitors will encounter giant model insects, a new Aquarium and the Weston Discovery Centre, Clore Natural History Centre and Treasure House Theatre with their thrilling hands-on experiences.

John Millard, keeper of World Museum Liverpool, says:

“Visitors will find the new World Museum Liverpool awesome and exciting. It has exhibits covering millions of years, around the world and into space.There are familiar friends from the old museum, like a great totem pole from north west America and there’s a new aquarium and thousands of new exhibits. It’s a huge expansion for the museum and I hope people will find not only lots to see and get excited about, but also lots to do in the new museum.”
The launch of World Museum Liverpool marks thecompletion of Into the Future, a £45m capital development programme across three NML venues - Museum of Liverpool Life, Walker Art Gallery and Liverpool Museum.

Into the Future has been made possible thanks to a £32 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the largest grant ever awarded to a museum project.

Commenting on the opening, HLF’s Chair Liz Forgan says,

“HLF funds projects that transform historic buildings and collections but also reach out to new audiences and provide innovative and exciting learning opportunities for everybody to enjoy. World Museum Liverpool is an example of just that and it will make a fantastic addition to Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations. We have worked hard to revitalise and rejuvenate the museum sector in the last 10 years, investing over £1 billion. The fact that Liverpool has been able to develop a new and exciting national museum is a reflection of that commitment and enthusiasm and one of which we are very proud.”
A new ground-level entrance and central glass-topped atrium will give access to the museum galleries, café, shop and education facilities.

Visitors will go around the globe in World Cultures in the former Upper Horseshoe Gallery - not open to the public since the May 1941 Blitz destroyed the old museum. The new gallery has more than 1,500 amazing artefacts from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania (Australasia and the central and south Pacific).

The Bug House displays a giant model spider and fly and lots of real insects – some alive and crawling! The Weston Discovery Centre features objects from the museum’s rich and varied archaeology and ethnology collections. Visitors will be able to handle objects up to 5,000 years old, use computer interactives and take part in special activities.

The Treasure House Theatre is another hands-on groundbreaking feature. Up to 80 visitors at a time join special events in the theatre featuring the museum’s world-class archaeology, ethnology and natural science collections.

There will be exciting collection-linked music and dance performances, video conferences linking up with people and places around the world and fascinating lectures by experts.

The brand-new Aquarium complexshows live fish and other creatures in their underwater habitats. The spectacular entrance gallery features a circular South American river display leading to other attractions including coral reef displays, rocky coastlines, smaller aquariums and the all-new interactive Living Laboratory.

One of the present museum’s most popular attractions, the Natural History Centre, doubles in size as the Clore Natural History Centre. The world of plants, animals, rocks and minerals is explored through hands-on exhibits.

The new galleries are home to 20,663 objects, many of which are on public display for the first time. In total the development provides over 5,000sqm of new public facilities, more than doubling the former museum.

Strange problem with my web server since yesterday. Although I can update the blog I can't upload files. Very annoying.

Coast Exhibition at 5athegallery. I mentioned this nice gallery and exhibition in St Helens a while ago. Seems its going well, they've sent me a new press release which you can read in full here.
Here's a bit of it...
The coastal theme for the exhibition was purposely chosen to link to this year’s theme for Liverpool - Year of the Sea - in it’s count down to becoming European Capital of Culture 2008. Liverpool ’s maritime themed year is part of the ‘SeaBritain 2005’ festival - a year which will celebrate Britain as a seafaring nation and highlight its maritime heritage, which is an initiative led by VisitBritain and the National Maritime Museum .

One of Liverpool's most distinctive pieces of art is moving to a new home.
Superlambanana is being put on a low-loader and moved from the Wapping area of the city to Tithebarn Street.

The seven-tonne sculpture has been outside the Joseph P Lamb and Sons building for several years, but the site is now being redeveloped.

It will be placed outside the John Moores University Avril Roberts learning resource centre in the move on Thursday night.

Councillor Mike Storey, leader of the city council, said: "Superlambanana has become a Liverpool landmark.

"It was always intended that it would move around the city. It has been in Williamson Square , is in the south end of the city and is now moving to the north of the city centre."

Superlambanana was designed by Japanese artist Taro Chiezo as part of the Artranspennine '98 festival.

BBC link

This is an exhibition of the pictures by the five winners of the Jerwood Photography Awards 2004. They are all aged under 30, each received an award of £2000 and had their work published in 'Po