Practitioners of The City
“Walkers are ‘practitioners of the city,’ for the city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities. Just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents other ways to go.”
Rebecca Solnit, ‘Wanderlust: A History of Walking’
Practitioners of The City is a week-long exhibition of works by a group of 4 local artists. Each artist explores the way in which they interact with the unique urban environment of Liverpool.
While what brings the artists together is a shared sense of belonging to Liverpool, each offers a drastically different understanding of the city – their own perspective on this historic, yet constantly changing, port city. While all the artists touch upon themes such as a sense of place and shared memory, they offer their interpretation in varied ways.
Tony O’Connell, raised in Liverpool – and influenced by a childhood lived under Thatcher’s managed decline – explores the act of crossing the city itself, whose streets invoke a feeling of ritual and pilgrimage, influenced by his own experiences as teacher and artist.
Nicola Roscoe-Calvert’s route takes a different path – engaging with poetry and memory, with her work that crosses disciplines and combines text and ephemeral objects.
Patrick O’Rourke explores the idea of nostalgia and the reality of returning home – drawing upon his own experience of arriving back in Liverpool after four years in Sydney, Australia. The work combines stark black and white charcoal drawings with bold spray paint.
Tom George’s work reflects the impacts upon the human psyche of capitalism. We see a tension between the tamed, commodified self of urban modernity versus a freer, more implusive, yet almost forgotten past essence.
Practitioners of the City is brought to you by the Not Just Collective – formed by Liverpool Biennial volunteers who, having dedicated their time to the festival, believed they should also support local creative practitioners – especially each other – in finding ways to showcase their work. Their first exhibition was in January 2013 at Domino Gallery, Liverpool, and since then the collective has continued to grow and develop, holding exhibitions in galleries and non-traditional spaces across the region.
Opening Times for ARTS hub 47
Saturday          10am – 6pm
Sunday            10am – 4pm
Monday           11am – 5pm
Tuesday          11am – 5pm
Wednesday     10am – 5pm
Thursday         10am – 8pm
Friday              10am – 5pm