Yes, you really can eat the insects. With parental permission of course...

Edible Insects
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Family activity with staff from World Museum Liverpool's Bug House.

Places are free but numbers are limited. Please collect a ticket in advance from the Information Desk.

Suitable for families
1.30-4pm, World Museum Liverpool
Treasure House Theatre

Good to see Liverpool artist, Paul Elliker, selling well on britart.com. Paul had a painting in the John Moores prize exhibition last year and I'm the proud owner of a small pen sketch version of this much larger canvas called 'For my Husband'.

I went to the viewing of the Liverpool Hope University Fine Art & Design Degree show last Friday at the Cornerstone building. I arrived late so missed the speeches and prize givings and, worst of all, the drinks! There's lots to see, ceramics, textiles, fashion, design, sculpture, painting etc. I had trouble finding the paintings which are at the end of a corridor on the 2nd floor.
The students have come up with some great ideas and put a hell of a lot of effort into the creation and display of their works. Here are just a few of the cards I picked up.
Do try and call in this week, the show ends on Friday June 3rd.

Sometimes Biennial exhibitor, Cory Archangel, might have a weblog. As he says: "hello!!! welcome to my NEW! web log (ok...to be fair this really isnt a web log, its more a plain old webpage in RSS blog format) but ayway --> i will be posting all my new projects, and eventually the old ones too!!!"

Nick Sykes, Colourist Painter: An Interview

‘It’s about loss; loss of your hopes, dreams, illusions and coming to terms with that and finding beauty in what’s left . . . ‘

Nick Sykes, 2003

Serene and stimulating are words which immediately spring to mind when looking at the paintings of artist Nick Sykes. Nick has been painting in Liverpool since graduating from John Moore’s University. Over recent years Nick has been involved in various artist-led projects and several group shows including the Liverpool Biennial - his primary interest, however, is painting.

Kaye: You have been described before as a ‘Colourist’ whose work deals with ‘not quite abstract landscapes and experiences’. How does this fit with your own interpretation of your work?

Nick: ‘I work with colours and composition to achieve a feeling of harmony and beauty in the painting. I chase shapes and spaces around the canvas until I have discarded and distilled the excess information, to give the painting life. They are not intended to represent a specific event or place, but to suggest’.

Kaye: The titles you give to your works are enigmatic in themselves, what is their significance?

Nick: ‘The titles are taken from things that have stayed in my mind over the years, from a question on a housing benefit form (Does anyone care for you on a regular basis?), through to song lyrics and emotions. These are attached to the paintings in the sense that they are all part of the same thing’.

Kaye: You mention loss as a dominant theme in your paintings. How is this conveyed?

Nick: ‘It’s the things that are painted out, or lost colours suggested, that matter more and make the painting work. I am not afraid of mistakes and imperfections, as it is something else to react to and keeps the dialogue going . . .’

Kaye: As a prolific painter, you have produced a large body of work over the years – do you have a favourite piece?

Nick: My favourite painting is ‘Every Day Takes Me Further Away From You’. I think this piece contains strong colours and moods which are both powerful and evocative. It has a contemplative quality which makes sense of what my work is about’.

Kaye: Your distinctive painting style has been consistent throughout your painting career, do you envisage this changing in the future?

Nick: I think my paintings will continue to be primarily about colour, as the palette I use is carefully selected for the reactions these evoke in the viewer. My work may become less minimalist as it evolves, but as an artist you never really know until you start working on a new piece – which is exciting’.

Nick has exhibited in London, Dublin, Munich and New York, and his work is held in various corporate and private collections, including those of fashion designer Paul Smith and chef Raymond Blanc. He has recently moved into Parr Street Studio’s, you can contact him there if you would like to see his latest work!

Kaye Kent MA

The city centre is completely packed with people wearing red shirts advertising a brand of lager and queueing to get into pubs showing a football match taking place in Istanbul.
But more strange than that was this short event at FACT by the artist collective known as Foreign Investment. It says here...

'internationally renowned for their elaborate and uncompromising performative interventions into festivals, art institutions and the wider urban environment'

so I was worried it would be a bit scarey but it was quite tame really. Three of them sat at the front while short films of their performances were shown on the screen. Every so often they broke in with short speeches using megaphones or handed out cigarettes (stamped with the 'foreign investment' logo) and sweets to the audience.
There's a lot of humour in the work and one unplanned piece when we were watching a film shot during the Biennial of Lewis Biggs and others at a meeting looking bored and trying to ignore the artist next to him painting her toe nails red ,blue and yellow, when who should walk into the Box but the man himself! Excellent timing.
Its a shame it didn't go on longer but we were all in a hurry to take our places in front of the tv screens for the big match.

Liverpool University students Anna Dowd and Claire Lees recently interviewed Christine O'Reilly Wilson and Tom Palin for the Arts section of the Liverpool Student newspaper. The artists were both exhibiting in the 'Alumni' exhibition in Senate House and 68 Hope Street.
The exhibition finishes on Friday 27th May.

See you there....maybe.

World Museum Liverpool

The new World Museum Liverpool will be hosting a Latino-inspired singles night on Friday 3 June 2005 from 7-9pm.
Taking place in the stunning five-storey, glass-roofed atrium, the event promises to be a memorable evening. There will be tours of the beautifully refurbished World Cultures gallery, which contains a colourful section devoted to the Americas, the inspiration behind the evening. A salsa dancing demonstration will really bring the Latin theme to life, with an opportunity to learn some basic steps. Throughout the night there will also be a paid bar and the chance to try Mexico's national drink, tequila.

For those keen to practice their salsa moves there will be an after-party at Heart and Soul, Mount Pleasant Liverpool

Following my trend. As usual.
Link

Billy has reminded me that..
a) There are several nice e-cards such as this one on the Liverpool Museums Website.
b) There's a new exhibition at the Lady Lever Art Gallery titled Beside the Seaside: the British Impressionists

Sixteen paintings are on loan from Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery and from other leading UK galleries including Tate Britain. They cover themes such as: Bathing and Paddling, The Beach, Nature and The View. Pictures by some of the most prominent figures in British Impressionism are on show, including Charles Conder, Elizabeth Forbes, Edward Atkinson Hornel, Walter Richard Sickert, Philip Wilson Steer, Henry Scott Tuke, Laura Knight and Stanhope Alexander Forbes.

I will be adding Lady Lever to the gallery listings soon and hope to visit it soon too. From Saturday 28th there's also Picasso's 'Woman Seated in an Armchair' on loan from Berlin.

Here's a review of Terry O'Neills 'Celebrity' exhibition at the Walker. This is by Lisa Dawson and is on the BBC Liverpool Website.

MAN
museum
liverpool
berlin

BLUEPRINTS
a prospect
for the senses

an open
invitation to all

As part of the ongoing postal art programme,initiated
as Precipitations-London->NYC 2004, The London
Bienniale 2004,at The Lab Gallery NYC,Matt Semler
Director,Koan Baysa curator,now housed and exhibited
in Museum MAN Liverpool,and forming part of the arto5
x.change venue Arts Council of England March 2005
programme.
BLUEPRINTS is an invitation to send a blueprint on any
size format,postcard A4 etc(the contributor is not
limited by scale) to make up part of a quilt of images
that will ultimately be a blueprint of a theme
park,circus,funpalace.Images will be cojoined and
become a broad blueprint of the senses.An arterial map
of your response.
This will be shown as a Museum MAN project at Berliner
Kunstsalon September 2005.A limited catalogue shall be
printed with all participating artists.The work shall
be exhibited in Museum MAN during the month of
August.This project will make up the nucleus of a
further event for The London Biennale and The
Liverpool Biennial Independents 2006.
Please send your contribution to:

Adam Nankervis
Museum MAN
Top Floor
48 Rodney Street
Liverpool
L1 1AA
England UK

With Many Thanks and Kind Regards,
Adam Nankervis

*Please note-when sending a work for this
project-images,instruction,blueprints,can not,by the
nature and size of the project be returned.If there be
any concern please send a xerox copy of your
proposal.All contributions will be part of this
event.Again many thanks.

The cities of Liverpool and Milan compared in a lengthy feature in today's Observer, written by Tim Adams.

'The traveller from Liverpool [to Italy] finds that the hardest thing to adjust to is not the wealth but the optimism,' Ian Jack wrote, back in 1985. Given all the bottled hope in Liverpool, you could fairly say this was no longer the case. Now, it seems, the toughest thing to come to terms with is the sudden shift in style.

If, like me, you enjoy the wacky, left of field performances then get along to Static in Roscoe Lane on Saturday or Sunday night for the evenings of music, dance and installation entitled SOIL in STATIC. But don't wear your best shoes! There are literally heaps of soil all over the gallery floor, the dancers spread it around or roll about in it while singers and musicians perform.
The major part is called 'Dances through Topological Space' and is choreographed, designed, produced and performed by LIPA students: Sarah Charles, Claire Heffernan, Katy Jones, Nikki Irving, Jo Jeffries, Sunniva Skorve, Katie Sunderalingam, Virginia Taylor and Diane Tomasi. There's also a bit of opera sung by Sarah Helsdy-Hughes and the evening finishes with live music from 3 bands: Citizen, Escapist and The Kambo Trio. It starts at the Grapes pub in Roscoe St before moving on to Static. I missed the first hour last night so will be going back again to see the whole thing. An excellent collaboration between Static and LIPA, more please.
More details...

Portraits by Mark McNulty

Liverpool seems to have been taken over by photographers lately. These portraits of mostly local musicians was launched last night with booze and live music at the Metropolitan Bar in Berry Street. A noisy crowded bar is not the best place to view artwork but it looks pretty good, there's a large black & white photo of Annie (Norwegian pop star) and interesting pictures of Ladytron and Goldie Lookin' Chain. Pictured here (c. Mark McNulty) is Pop Levi who also performed on the night. Mark McNulty also edits the Plastic Rhino magazine which features his pictures. I don't think there's an end date set for the exhibition yet.

Terry O'Neill Celebrity

Yet more portrait photographs. These are in a new exhibition at the Walker by Terry O'Neill who has been taking pictures of celebrities for about 40 years. He had no formal training, it just happened that his first job was as a photographic technician with British Airways, learnt on the job and happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture some scenes that caught peoples attention.

What I like about these is that Terry is in control of the shoot, he tells the celebrities how he wants the picture to look. So we have Eric Clapton in a field rather than sitting in his mansion, Rod Stewart being snogged by a horse and Derek Jarmen dipping his toes in the surf near his beachside home. Other subjects include Bette Davis, Faye Dunaway, Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, The Beatles, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow etc.

'The glamorous exhibition consists of forty-three stunning portraits of the most famous faces from the last four decades and reflects O’Neill’s long and varied career. The photographs include musicians, models, royalty and an array of Hollywood stars new and old.'

Pictured here (c. Terry O'Neill) is David Bowie with some horrible beast.
Runs from May 21st to September 11th. I believe Terry will be giving a talk sometime but I don't have full details yet.

'On The Waterfront' is an exhibition of paintings by local artist Anthony Coldicutt which runs until May 27th at the Liverpool Academy of Arts
Several pictures seem to be about 'The Ghost of Scotland Road', St Anthony's Church. So the show was opened by Tom Slemen who writes the books about Liverpool Ghosts.
I thought some of the ideas were interesting and imaginative but I found the use letraset text on a lot of the pictures quite irritating.

As if you needed further evidence of how much I have my finger on the pulse of whats hip n happenin I thought I'd repost this old pic of me in my Blogger 'Hoodie'. Don't think I look the least bit sinister do I?
And I thought this 'Darth Tater' character looks rather cool. You can buy him from www.firebox.com if you're completely mad. I spotted it in today's Daily Post. The acting editor, Rob Irvine, has started his own blog. He says...

'What I want to do online is to tell you a little bit about what happens behind the scenes at the Liverpool Daily Post.
And it's here where you can share your views- tell us what YOU think should be making the news.
I will give you sneak previews of some of the news and features we have lined up for the Daily Post.'

Could be interesting, I've added it to my bloglines feed.

There are opportunities to trade at this years Africa Oye Festival in Sefton Park
Liverpool. The festival will take place on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th June 2005.

Anyone interested in selling Food, Drink (no alcohol), Art and Crafts, or any
other related items, then please contact Oye as a matter of urgency to register an
interest.

For all the details, and prices please email Paul Duhaney (Projects Co-ordinator)
africa.oye@btconnect.com
Africa Oye
www.africaoye.com

Bit short notice.....

FUTURESONIC 2005 EVNT Showcase & EVNT Competition
Friday 22-Sunday 24 July
at venues throughout Manchester

Futuresonic is launching a showcase and competition for new and ground
breaking events in an open festival strand at Futuresonic2005. Within
this three event promoters, programmers or curators will each be
awarded 1000 UK Pounds to stage an event as a part of the
Futuresonic2005 festival.

Send your event proposals in by 25 May 2005.

Full details www.futuresonic.com/EVNT

In the Atrium of the Liver Building until this Friday (20th). I'm often in two minds about this sort of thing. Its a very worthy project, working with young and old people, getting them together to aid understanding and dispel fears. The photographs are good, the photographers have caught the mood of the subjects and its all well presented.
But, at the end of the day (sorry about that) its still a load of photos of people and as I've said before, I'm not excited by documentary type photography. And what about us middle-aged people? I'm feeling neglected.
The preview last night was quite lively with speeches by several of those involved including one brave youngster and the project was managed by Alex Corina

I went to Church last night. Shock, Horror! Don't worry, I was there to watch a film. This interesting building in Park Lane is the Swedish Church which now welcomes all Scandinavians to their social & religious events. There's coffee mornings, language lessons, internet access etc. and a monthly film night which is organised by Sirpa Simonen-Peck under the LiNCinema banner. Last night it was Sibelius (Timo Koivusalo 2003) and I really enjoyed it. I'm ignorant of the political history of the region, there was obvious tension with neighbours, especially Russia at times. They had to rename Finlandia as Fantasia for a while.
Its a fairly typical church hall, hard wooden seats obligatory, there was quite a good crowd there and drinks and cake were available.
The current season has finished but will restart in the Autumn and I'll post details on the listings page.

Or is it an 'installation'?
Spotted near the Cabin Club last night.

The hype continues...

The Liverpool Culture Company is to announce its delivery plan for the coming year to an audience including representatives from government, parliament, business and the media at the House of Commons on Thursday (19 May), at an event sponsored by Lord Owen.

Independent research has estimated that Liverpool will benefit from 14,000 jobs, £2 billion of inward investment and 1.7 million new visitors as a result of the European Capital of Culture title.

Link.

I spent the whole of Saturday with my daughter visiting galleries in London. Starting with the 'Knit 2 Together' at the Craft Council. Some amazing work here, all knitted, very skillful.
Then across to the Whitechapel Gallery for the Robert Crumb exhibition. It was very busy here (it finishes next week) and a few people insisted on standing close up to every single work to read the whole cartoon, they're probably still there now! It was good to see so many original drawings, you get a better appreciation of the skill involved. There's an area where visitors can do their own drawings inspired by Crumb. Someone had drawn 3 pages full of amazing stuff, naturally someone else had scrawled 'fucking show off!' on it, hehe.

In Princelet St, off Brick Lane there's Fordham. Here we found an exhibition called 'Illumination'
'The exhibition presents work by six artists from different cultural backgrounds (Japan, UK and Israel) exploring the universal themes of light and dark with emphasis on the importance of darkness as investigated in the seminal Japanese text, In Praise of Shadows (1933) by Junichiro Tanizaki.'
It was a nice little exhibition.

Next we went up to Bethnal Green area to meet up with Daisy Delaney and friends. Daisy was in Liverpool for the biennial when she was installing small windmills on vacant posts around the city. It was good to see her studio and catch up with her latest plans.

We all went to a private view at Hotel and then another at the Approach. The Approach is a pub with a gallery on the first floor. Its a thought provoking exhibition of works by Evan Holloway entitled 'Analog Counterrevolution'. Its handy having the bar downstairs, we were able to spend the rest of the evening discussing the artwork over a pint or two.

It may be a bit quiet here for a few days as I'm visiting London. I may blog from there though, if I have the time and inclination.

This is at ArtSpeQ Quiggins until the end of May (afternoons only - noon - 17.00). It features the fashion designs of Luisa Dawn D'Arte and abstract paintings by Simon Yorke.
Luisa says...

'My collection of wear is bohemian in style, the garments are fused together with fine lace, embroidery, net and the most delicate materials. My latest collection is a unique range of Victorian inspired, contemporary bridal wear.'

And Simon says...

'My work is inspired by my beliefs and has been influenced by my travels through Cambodia and Vietnam. I try to incorporate everything I do, think, speak and create into my Buddhist practice. I try to represent the stripping away of ego and the negative emotions that hide the true Buddha nature that is innate in all of us.'

There's a few small fashion units in Quiggins now so Luisa's work doesn't look at all out of place here. Its certainly not everyday wear, indeed some items would only ever be seen on the catwalk. Luisa does a lot of commissioned work for wedding outfits etc. and this is a good example of her style of work. Interesting.

EVERTON FC and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have joined forces to stage an art competition.

Art students from JMU are being asked to come up with new works which reflect the Club's illustrious past and dreams for the future

"Everton, the People's Club, is not only one of world football's oldest clubs but it is forward-thinking, pioneering and hugely ambitious.

"It will be interesting to see how the students reflect this in their work."

Interesting indeed, Everton, the peoples team? haha. Latest score Arsenal 7 Everton 0

Link.

Regular readers will know that although visual art is my first love I'm also into all the other arts, especially music. So its good that View Two Gallery have an increasing number of music evenings and its mostly chilled-out acoustic stuff by new local bands. Tonight's headline band were the not-so-acoustic Blackout who were preceded by Zuko and Duncan Stuart and Richie Vegas on the decks. All very nice and there's always nice people there. I met a lovely woman called Alex tonight, hence the title of this post, Hello Alex (again).

This art blogging is a solitary task you know, nobody (except me) wants to go to every exhibition. I see familiar faces here & there and we chat and catch up with news and then move on and thats fine with me. But every so often I meet a newcomer and we chat and move on and I think 'I hope I bump into her again'. But it rarely happens, people don't get out enough, especially to gigs in galleries.

Anyway there's some new artwork on the walls by Lisa Cole Kronenberg and I particularly like the new pieces by Gabriella Trynkler. Matt Wilde's paintings are still there though quite a few of them are sold, he's very popular.

My plan yesterday was to visit a couple of places in Mancs city centre before going out to the Lowry for the Jerwood Drawing Prize but having spent half an hour in the Magma shop and other such places there wasn't time to get to Salford and back.
I finally made it to Will Alsop's Supercity exhibition at Urbis though (it ends on Sun. May 15th). I was a bit disappointed, having paid £5 I expected a bit more. Perhaps it was because I'd read so much about it and already seen so many of the images in the media. I was also distracted by the large group of design students having a tour of the place. I know I shouldn't complain, I should be grateful I'm free to go to any gallery at any time but its a pain having to wait for the group to move on before I can see anything and I don't always want to hear the tour guide's opinion on everything and I've got no chance of getting a go on any interactive stuff!

I went to the Triangle to buy some stuff at Muji and accidentally found a new art shop/gallery called The Art Lounge next door. They have some top artists including Dave White, Temper, Charlotte Latham and Dinah Dufton. Very nice.

At Manchester Art Gallery until May 30th is 'The Sleep of Reason' by Stephen Dixon. Quite interesting though I'm not a big fan of ceramics as political statement, especially when its the same old Blair-as-US-poodle, Bush-as-gun-toting-cowboy, etc. etc.

'Stephen Dixon's Lavishly decorated ceramics make scathing political commentaries on the world in which we live.

Drawing on rich English satirical tradition from Hogarth to Spitting Image, he creates complex works questioning the ethics of our times. The themes of global politics and the balance of power, monarchy and national identity, environmental destruction and the 'march of progress' are explored in Dixon's powerful works. The exhibition takes its name from Francisco de Goya's etching on nightmares The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters'

A dozen black & white photographs all featuring St John's beacon. Not very exciting, I'm afraid. Also this was billed as a joint exhibition with Geraldine Fox but I couldn't find any of her work.
Ends May 28th.

FACT - CURATOR (New Media) Link. Michael Connor's off to London. Is there any of the original staff left? These New Media guys don't like to get stuck in a rut do they.

Tate Liverpool - Development Manager (maternity cover)
No Link! Here's some of the blurb...

You will be responsible for running a busy department covering Public Sector fundraising, Corporate Sponsorship, Corporate Membership, Events and the Tate Liverpool Members scheme. As one of the six members of Tate Liverpool's Senior Management Team, the role has responsibility for making a significant contribution to running the Gallery overall.

Tate Liverpool - Information Assistant - casual
Link. No doubt, I would be told I'm too casual!

Full details on the liverpool.gov website

Working within the Liverpool Culture Company as part of the Artistic team, this role is to co-ordinate all aspects of the visual and public art strand of the artistic programme.

This post is fixed term until the end of 2008.
Closing date: 3 June 2005

The railings around St Lukes have been covered with old photographs for a few days, I don't know how long they'll be there. They're pictures from the war to commemorate VE Day, some of them are of the church but there are other Liverpool scenes too.

There was a bit of a Euro Fest in Williamson Sq and Queens Sq yesterday with dancers from Cork, Spain, Latvia and Liverpool performing. Pictured here are the Dandari Riga (Latvia) Folklore Group. It was good fun, there were tables and chairs set out all very 'continental'. Shame it was cold and windy.