Liverpool artist Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney recently interviewd Orlan the performance artist who uses her own body and the procedures of plastic surgery to make "carnal art". Here's her story...

Meeting Orlan in Paris
by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney
(Photograph by Tony Knox)

I had the exceptional opportunity to meet Orlan again on Wednesday 27 July 2005. She agreed to an interview for research I am doing in contemporary arts and culture. The evening of the interview the weather in Paris was unbearably hot. The populace of the city seemed to be out on the streets attracted by the heat and bright sun light.
I arrived at her Studio in Paris with Tony Knox (Photographer) carrying brief case, lap top and dictaphone. The studio is within a private court yard and towards the right two large doors with the word 'Orlan'. I moved all my bags to one hand to have the other free and knocked. The door opened and there she was with her distinctive two toned black and yellow hair, dressed in black. She pushed the door wide and greeted us. I lent forward and kissed either cheek and turned to Tony to introduce him. She ushered us into her studio space.

A large white room with pure light illuminating everything from large windows above. Over the main entrance is a mezzanine of shelves upon shelves of books and then annexed at the front a kitchen and office space and as one moves around the perimeter of the main space other areas and storage.

On the walls hang some of her various 'Self Hybridization' series, large self portraits digitally fused with iconic images from other cultures. These curious large portraits make one attempt to psychologically dissect the synthesis between artefact and features of the artist. The hybridisation manifests a new evolution in cultural expression.

Knox and I unpack at the main table, while Orlan goes to her kitchen and asks, 'would you like wine, water, coffee .'. Knox pulls from his bag a bottle of wine we had bought for her. She brings to the table large wine glasses and we each take a seat.

She telephones her husband, Raphael Cuir, who is an Art Historian and
Philosopher in Paris. We chat informally with Orlan on her current projects and exhibitions in New York, while we wait for her Cuir to arrive. I discover she has a hectic schedule and she has kindly taken the time to this interview. In less than quarter of an hour Cuir joins us.

I have a few technical problems with the laptop and curse under my breath. I look up and apologise for the delay. She is gracious and things are quickly sorted. It turns out the battery on the laptop needs replacing and it is as simple as plugging it into the mains. This is typical and although I feel somewhat embarrassed by the unreliability of technology things rapidly move on to the actually interview.

The interview lasts approximately three hours and is late by the time it ends. She has been very patient and the entire experience enlightening. I realise why she is one of the principle individuals in the arts who has made such an incredible impact.

It is easy to be wonderment of Orlan. Her contribution to art and culture is one which has shaped the canons of art history in a post modern context. Through the technological intervention on her body and ideas of flesh, in particular her earlier theories and philosophies on 'Carnal Art', she took the concept of the body in a performative context combined with plastic surgery, the canon and body modification. Yet, she is immensely amicable and unassuming and kindly tolerates my array of in-depth questions.

We finish and I express my gratitude for her support with the interview towards my research. She walks us to the door and we say our farewells. Knox and I walk through the court yard to the main gates. It is cooler now and dark, but I feel a sense of brilliance in the air.

To learn more about Orlan and her art please visit www.orlan.net.

(N.B.: Actual interview of Orlan for doctorate research only).

I called into the latest of the monthly weekend Art Fairs at Arena Gallery in Duke St. yesterday morning. They are organised by Roy Munday who has a studio there. One problem he has is that they have to fit in with the exhibition schedule so the fairs are not always on the same weekend of the month but as word spreads more people and customers are turning up. Obviously all the work is for sale at reasonable prices and there's some good stuff by Roy, Sarah Richards, Tony Smith, Gareth Jones, Nick Turner and others.
The next fairs are scheduled for Sept 10/11th and Oct 22/23rd. Open 10-17.00 each day.

Good to see local artist George Lund doing his Funky Chicken routine at the Brouhaha festival in Princes Park last weekend. Thanks to Lis Edgar for the pic.

As you can see from the photo there was a large crowd at the Launch of the new Polished T shop, gallery, magazine in Duke St on Thursday. In fact it was too crowded, it was difficult to move without coming close to damaging a work of art. I suppose if you show the work of about 75 local artists and advertise free drink, music and an aftershow party this is what you get.
As well as all the paintings, graphics, photography on the walls there's the intriguing useful/useless products of Finklab (David Stokes), some sculptural works and the shop sells T shirts, several art/style/photo mags and 'other stuff'. The Polished T magazine is a sort of showcase for artists - a 'virtual gallery' and is sold in the shop.
Some say this is all very cool, very now, cutting-edge. Others say its a load of pretentious, trendy wonkers. I don't care, I like it, I can't afford to buy too many of the mags but I like trendy wonkers and their creations.
The current show runs until August 17th and will be followed by a Juno retrospective.
Its open Mon-Sat 10.00 - 16.00
Website (is just a blank page at the moment)

Aaaah, so thats why the City's been looking so dirty and untidy all these years. Why didn't the Council think of this before.
Oh, hang on, its only because of 2008, once thats over we'll have to cope with living with untidy flags again. Oh no!

Anger over new job on city image Jul 29 2005
By Luke Traynor, Liverpool Echo

LIVERPOOL'S Capital of Culture company is recruiting a Look of the City manager who could earn up to £36,402.
But the move has angered community groups who have called the newly-created post "a waste of money".
The successful applicant will be responsible for the "greening, cleaning and dressing" of Liverpool in the run-up to 2008.
.....
Among their duties, the Look of the City manager will ensure flags are flying on main routes into the city, additional greening at key sites, and graffiti is removed.

Full story

The 'Summertime' exhibition at the Egg Cafe actually opened last Friday so I'm a bit late reviewing it but I wanted to go back and take some pictures.
The Eggspace exhibitions are now curated by Headspace - a new group of North West artists lead by Jo Derbyshire, Jo Gough, Karen Henley, Jazamin Sinclair and Carolyn Sinclair.
Good to see the space looking better than it has for a long time, new boards on the walls and freshhly painted. As you can guess from the title, the theme is Summertime, not all the pictures adhere to this but the overall effect is still bright, summery, seasidey.

There's a lot of photography (not only here but everywhere in Liverpool lately) including Jazamin Sinclair's photos of Barmouth (more interesting than it sounds). There's a whole section devoted to works by children aged from 4 to 14 which is nice. In fact the first sale was of 2 small paintings by 4 yr old Joseph Brown. He claims his watercolours titled 'Water' and 'Splash' were inspired by Jackson Pollock. Not a bad start but he'll need to come up with something more original than that.
There's Alice Lenkiewicsz's installations made from found objects - mostly found on the beach and Janette Ireland's pebbles and a couple of Michelle Campbell's faery pictures.
Other artists include Lis Edgar, Chris Gjertsen, James Holz, Lucia and Stazia Lenkiewicsz, Adam Nankervis, Alexandra, Daniel and Kaya Sinlair and Jacqueline Stevens.

Spotted this (the picture not the bin) as I was walking up Leece St. this morning. The building is 34 Rodney St. and I always look at it as I pass because I lived there for a couple of years when it was the British Legion club and my father was the steward. Enough of the personal stuff. Who put this picture there and why? I'm afraid I was too lazy to cross the road and take a proper look (well, actually, I was in a rush to get home and have a pee but you don't want to know that). It looks like an oil or acrylic painting on canvas. I suppose if I go back now to check it will have gone but we love these little mysteries don't we?

This is a rather good blog of occasional drawings by 'DEM' - 'a 30-summat Englishman currently enjoying life in Toxteth, Liverpool.'
Discovered via Guardian Blogwatch (they've never mentioned me :( - Maybe you guys should tell them how marvelous this blog is)

If I ruled the world, both Arts and Sport would be adequately funded. Vote for me!

Article in today's Independent.

Camelot, the lottery organisation, said ventures such as today's Olympic scratchcard would raise £750m, half of Lotto's £1.5bn contribution to the event. The remainder will come from lottery profits that would otherwise have gone to good causes such as funding museums and exhibitions.

Despite my late night fun (see Part 1) I managed to rise early and get to Urbis for breakfast (nice cafe there) and view the Punk show before walking downtown to the Bridgewater hall to see the Fuzzy Logic exhibition which was part of the Low Grade event curated by Michael Connor (formerly at FACT, Liverpool, now Head of Exhibitions, BFI South Bank) and film and video artist, Jackie Passmore (US).
'Fuzzy Logic demonstrates how new media artists are turning back to the loom, combining technology with the knitting needle to create a new wave of fabric-based media arts, mathematical knitting and textile activism.'
Luckily one of the artists, Cat Mazza (U.S.) was there to explain her knitting machine installation. I recommend you look at her website http://microrevolt.org/knitPro.htm rather than me trying to explain it. There was also such things as a cushion with a loudspeaker by LoVid and Mathematical Afghans from Woolly Thoughts

Then its back uptown for another tour of the Northern Quarter venues (feeling more at home as its been raining non-stop for several hours). Amongst other things there were these 'amplified fish' in a tank in the Chinese Arts Centre (well worth a visit). This is 'Amplified electric organ discharge of Long-nose Elephant Fish.' and was part of aLECTRO_eCOUSTIC, an interesting mix of sound works and roving musicians who also appeared at a second-hand clothes shop My Goodniss (also has a gallery downstairs) and the Oklahoma Cafe (an excellent place which also the new home of Pelican Neck records).

I really enjoyed the Interruption event at Night & Day - a selection of silent films accompanied only by improvised jazz violin, electro-acoustic artists and harmonizing vocals. Here improvised soundtracks and original films communicate colour, shape, rhythm and movement in the same direct way. There were 10 short videos each accompanied by different musicians who had never seen the films before. Excellent.

Speaking of excellent, seeing techno-funkster Jamie Lidell with Pablo Fiasco on Visuals at Bridgewater Hall later was a delight, a great end to the weekend.

You see, I knew it was a mistake for the Walker to give such prominence to this stuckists group. Now they think they're credible, important, worth half a million quid and maybe even good (surely not).
If they really want to donate them somewhere, I'll take them off their hands. I might be able to use the frames.
Poor Nicholas Serota must be fed up with people offering him crap then crying to the papers that their masterpiece has been rejected.

THE Tate was accused yesterday of snubbing one of Britain’s foremost collections after it rejected a gift of 160 paintings that had been given pride of place at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

Its director, Sir Nicholas Serota, said that the works did not deserve to be in a national collection, even though their five-month exhibition last autumn drew thousands of people to the Walker, one of the outstanding collections of fine art in Europe and part of National Museums Liverpool.

Full article in the Times
Walker Stuckists Exhibition

Via Merseyside ACME

Culture Company Request Artists and Designers
TIC Consultants on behalf of the Liverpool Culture Company and Liverpool City Council's Regeneration Department are inviting expressions of interest and proposals from artists and designers to work with local shopkeepers, residents and young people to develop visual images and design concepts for the regeneration of nine shop fronts in Liverpool.

The Liverpool Culture Company and the City Council's Regeneration department are joining forces to work on a project which will see a series of shop fronts transformed, revived and regenerated. The chosen shops are 151 to 171 Lodge Lane, Liverpool 8.

The aim of this project is essentially to contribute to the local economy in the Lodge Lane area of Liverpool and promote the fact that Liverpool is European Capital of Culture for 2008.

The row of chosen shops has been selected because they are in a sustainable local shopping area, serving an established community and they are situated in an area that is currently undergoing regeneration.

Full details here

The excellent press office at NML have kindly sent me full details of all the events and exhibitions at their venues for this Summer.
Blimey, there's an awful lot of stuff to keep us all (old & young) entertained, educated, confused whatever.
I've copied them all into pages on this site, check them out at....

The Walker Art Gallery
The Lady Lever Art Gallery
World Museum
Conservation Centre
Museum of Liverpool Life
Customs & Excise Museum

Futuresonic is an International Festival of Electronic Music and Media Arts held in Manchester 22nd - 24th July. Its in 3 strands:
Two nights of headline electronica acts at Bridgewater Hall;
EVNT Showcase - 30 free music and multimedia events.;
Low Grade - exhibition, workshop, symposium, music night.
Its mostly free and a pre-ordered wristband allowed me easy access and reduced prices to all the events.

I missed the Thursday night launch party and all the Friday events but I knew it was going to be a good weekend when I arrived in Manchester and it wasn't even raining! Then I spotted Christopher Eccleston (former Dr Who) at Piccadilly station and I was staying in this freaky hotel in Tib St. so was ideally placed for all the Northern Quarter activities. The hotel claims to have been modernised. Yeh, right, maybe it was in 1960.

So Saturday evening/night was spent hopping from one Northern Quarter venue to another and back again.
No visuals sadly apart from the splendid artwork by Lindsey Casson on the walls of The Common bar (which coincidentally features in this weeks Guardian Guide). Various 'Twisted Nerve' people were performing here, live & DJ's. Also 'Ghettoblast' at Cord, Tax Records at Centro then back to Common for Fat City. Then onto the Roadhouse and finally at midnight 'That Amazing Thing!' at a 'secret venue' which turned out to be the smallest club in town, didn't stop long. Met plenty of nice people on the way including a gang with Lomo cameras - the Manchester Lomography group - who were covering the whole festival. Looking forward to seeing the results.

Interview and review of Peter Chan's exhibition at Editions in today's Daily Post

But once again they've confused the issue by headlining it 'The Greatest Painting in Britain Vote' but then asks us to vote for our Favourite painting.
In my case, at least, they may not be the same thing. I haven't voted yet.

BBC Today Link

The full title is 'Punk: Sex, Seditionaries and the Sex Pistols'. This is important. I was expecting more about the whole punk scene but this is really just about 'the relationships between the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren, Vivenne Westwood and Jamie Reid and the designs, fashion and cultural icons they collectively created.'
There is a section on the Manchester punks, Buzzcocks, Nosebleeds (who?) and John Cooper Clarke. Still well worth seeing, there's the familiar Reid artworks and Westwood fashion items. Always interesting to see the sketchbooks and hand-written lyrics (some surprisingly neat penmanship by the way). Oh, and the headlines from the likes of The Mirror, outraged by the Pistols use of the 'f' word on TV, shock, horror!
I was never into punk music, it passed me by, except when a close neighbour played God Save The Queen at max. volume over and over and over again with his windows open when we were trying to get the children to sleep. Thanks Sid. I did enjoy listening to punk poet Cooper Clarke reciting such classics as 'Beasley Street' or 'I don't Want to be Nice' though.
At Urbis, Manchester until Sept 11th 2005

How could I resist? Small things, eh.
Created using logogle.com

I used to be far too sensible to waste good money on novelty items like this (apart from xmas present for children) but recently I've fallen in with a few crazy people (i.e. just about everyone in the Liverpool Artworld) and its starting to affect my judgement.
So when I was in the shop in Urbis, Manchester on Sunday I couldn't resist this breath spray which claims that after one quick spritz you can 'Explain surrealism in three words or less', 'Instantly understand Duchamp' and even 'Become an art critic'!
Actually the peppermint spray is rather nice so its not a complete waste. There's a lot of similar stuff on the Blue Q website, wish I'd had the 'Instant Irish accent' spray when I was in Cork.

Liverpool based Romanian artist, Nicole Bartos has passed on this information about the recent severe floods in Romania which have caused extensive damage and loss of life. I must admit the news had passed me by.
Full information and details of how to help

Cardboard Citizens have asked me to post the following....

Cardboard Citizens is looking for Director/Devisers and Workshop Leaders based in the North West to work on long- and short-term theatre residency projects in the area, particularly in the Manchester and Liverpool areas, starting from Autumn 2005.

Experience of working with 'socially excluded' people essential, experience/knowledge of Forum Theatre techniques desirable. Please reply by email only, marked North West Projects, enclosing cvs as attachments in Word format, to adminasst@cardboardcitizens.org.uk closing date 8 August 2005.

Shortlisted applicants will be called for interviews in Manchester on 2nd September.

I went to 2 viewings on Thursday evening, across town to the Cornerstone then a long walk down to Editions in Cook St.
Both very good but I don't have much time to write about them as I'm going to watch the Brouhaha carnival then off to Manchester for the weekend of Futuresonic music and art. So I'll just quote from the blurb...

Dot-art group exhibition at Cornerstone.The exhibition showcases a selection of work by artists represented by dot-art, and demonstrates their range, diversity and talent.

The dot-art artists range from the well established and respected such as Peter Corbett, who was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at last years Liverpool Biennial and Alex Corina, who was responsible for the "Mona Lennon"; to those who graduated from art school less than a month ago, including Katy Rees and Rachel Woods. The wide variety of age, experience and expertise of these artists can be seen in the exciting and stimulating contrasts of both media and subject found in the exhibition.

About dot-art.
dot-art is a Liverpool based art agency and online gallery,
specialising in high quality original and limited edition contemporary
art. They promote, exhibit and sell the work of local artists through
external exhibitions and the dot-art website, www.dot-art.co.uk.

Peter Chan at Editions
“Taking natural scenes as a starting point, my abstract painting aims to create the impression of calm and relaxation that water lillies and waterscape exude. Looking at the pictures should generate the same emotional response as the original subject. My interest in Oriental philosophy and spirituality is visible in my painting”

Peter Chan was born in Hong Kong and graduated from John Moores university in 2002. Since then he has had a solo exhibition at the Atkinson Gallery in 2003 and exhibited as part of the Liverpool Biennial independents in 2004. Other exhibitions and a prestigious Lever Fabergé, Lever House Art commission followed.
Peter’s work is reflective and accessible. He captures the diverse and cultural influences of his environment through a combination of floral and abstract interpretations that express very personal introspective reflections of his surroundings.

Don't worry - the S&M are Serjent and Milburn. The two artists have covered all four walls (two walls each and the back of the door) of a room with a collection of their photographs. The room is in the Museum MAN which is on the top floor of 48 Rodney St. Its not the most accessible of places, the Director, Adam Nankervis has been away a lot lately but is now 'at home' for a lengthy spell.
The two artists are skilled photographers but this is a mixture of professional pictures of music gigs, landscapes, portraits with so-called snapshots of events during their lives. There's some pictures of them during childhood and their families but its not presented as a life story, the pictures don't appear to be in any chronological order.
It is a bit like looking through a large family album but I enjoyed it more than many of the photo exhibitions I've been to. A lot of the images trigger memories from my own past and its fun trying to work out the relationships and relevance of some.
Contact Adam Nankervis to arrange a visit 0151- 703 0569
or 0789 169 5577

The Liverpool Culture Company, in partnership with the Business Improvement District company, is bringing the city's streets to life by launching a new Street Entertainment Registration Scheme and creating 10 specially-designated performance sites.
For the first time in the city's history, street artists from musicians and jugglers to magicians and mime artists will have to apply for a 12 month licence to perform and enthrall those visiting, shopping and working in Liverpool.

I went to see the launch of the first site in Queens Square yesterday, pictured here. The Culture Company / Council are putting a very postive spin on whats seems to be just a way of policing buskers.

To register at the Tourists Information Centre, the artists will need to prove they have public liability insurance which costs around £100 a year. Once approved the street artists will be issued with a pass, which must be displayed at all times, and a map of potential sites.
They can perform for up to two hours at any one site. The sites will be monitored to ensure acts are registered and honour the timed slots so the public see a variety of entertainers.

The sites are:

Church Alley - Near to Bluecoat arts Centre and Littlewoods
Church Street - Near to The Great Escape Sculpture and entrance to Clayton Square
Lord Street - Near to BHS and entrance to Cavern Walks
Mathew Street - Near to Wall Of Fame and entrance to Cavern Walks
Paradise Street - Near to Zara
Queens Square - Two - One near to Bus rank, second location TBC
Whitechapel - Near to '08 Place and Met Quarter Retail centre
Williamson Square - Two - One near to Sayers, and second near to Playhouse and LFC store

Sea Cycles is an event offered through The Pool Project whose aims are to explore, reveal and celebrate the origins of the city of Liverpool, in doing so contemplate, and indeed influence, the city's destiny.

Sea Cycles is a one day event on the 18th of September, where a fleet of converted cycles, scooters, tricycles, rickshaws... follow the route of the Liverpool's underground tidal pool, from close to its source in William Brown Street to its mouth on the river Mersey near the Maritime Museum.

We now urgently require artists to host workshops due to run throughout August. We are looking for artists that can imaginatively work with and utilise material - with the ability to work with people to create structures and help realise ideas for the boat/sea themed 'cycle' procession. The work created in the workshops will be adapted so it can mount the various transport (cycles, scooters skateboards, passengers...) to help it resemble a sea theme.

For more info and contact details click here

Oh to be young again. They didn't have such interesting courses at colleges when I was leaving school.

The Digital Open Day
Wednesday 20th July 2005
Starts 2pm
ICDC invites you to the Digital Open Day at our new facilities at Liverpool Digital on Wednesday 20th July 2005.

We still have places available for courses starting in September 2005.

Showcasing on the day will be student work from the following courses:-

Foundation Degree
BA(Hons) iMedia
MA/PGDIP Digital Games
MA/PGDIP New Media Production
These courses prepare students for a career in digital media (web design, iTV, digital games and content for mobile devices).

For more Information please email

icdcadmissions@livjm.ac.uk
or call 0151 231 5129

Many thanks

Elain Houghton
Administratve Support Manager

Report in Daily Post....

"Unseen remnants of Lennon's Liverpool life go on show in old home
UNSEEN childhood paintings and drawings by John Lennon have gone on display at his Liverpool home.

The pictures are among items of memorabilia loaned to the National Trust by his widow Yoko Ono to commemorate what would have been his 65th year."

FACT
FOUNDATION FOR ART & CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY

EDUCATION MANAGER

£18-22K (Dependent on skills and experience)

Based in Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008, FACT is dedicated to the support, development and presentation of artists' work in film, video and new media.

This is a unique opportunity for someone with a strong background in visual and media arts education and a passion for artists' film, video and new media work.

Working across the organisation, you will develop FACT's education strategy and with the FACT team deliver a programme of educational events and activities across a range of exhibition platforms, including galleries, screens, offsite and online.

This is initially a twelve month contract with continuation subject to funding.

For more information please contact: Sheindal Cohen
Email: recruitment@fact.co.uk
Tel: 0151 707 4444
Website: www.fact.co.uk

Deadline for applications: Wednesday 03 August
Interviews in Liverpool: Week commencing 08 August
We welcome applications from any individual regardless of ethnic origin, gender, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation or age. All applications will be considered on merit.

THE CITY IN MINIATURE

TEENAGERS from Liverpool are displaying their designs for ideal public spaces within the city.

The architects and town planners of the future have taken part in a summer of activity, supported by the Liverpool Culture Company and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). After seeing behind the scenes at the Paradise Street development and exploring the city to see regeneration in action, they have taken time to make models of what they want to see in open spaces.

Sarah Vasey from the Liverpool Culture Company organised the project alongside various agencies. Sarah said: "Bringing together all these partners means that everyone has contributed something, most of all the young people with their imagination and enthusiasm. The exhibition is the culmination of a lot of hard work and is open for all to see."

Models are in the Liverpool Observatory at number one Old Haymarket until mid August, which is open to the public, 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday.

The whole project has run since March and has involved school workshops, site visits, the RIBA Architruck driving to schools encouraging youngsters to consider architecture as a career, and now the exhibition of design work.

Antony Gormley's installation at Crosby beach is understandably very popular with photographers so I thought I'd post a few links to some of the images I've seen.

But first you should read Stuart Burns account of how he got stuck in the mud there, despite the warnings. As he admits himself "I've no common sense whatsoever".

artinliverpool's images
A few on Jeb Smith's Website
images on flickr.com
bluegeraniums blog
Sefton Coast website
and
Here's one from Stavanger where they seem much closer together.

Went back to the Pier Head this afternoon to take more pictures of the almost-finished graffiti. I've stuck just a few of them together here for you to see.
The weather was great all weekend, I wonder how it would have turned out if there'd been heavy rain, is it ok to use those ramps for skating and biking when they're very wet?