Liverpool Provocations: A series of public realm artistic interruptions
“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than an alternative to capitalism.”
In January 2016 Metal Liverpool in partnership with 67projects are curating Liverpool Provocations, a series of four new public realm art works based in and around the city centre.
Liverpool Provocations is a series of interruptions that urge the public to stop and ponder questions surrounding consumption, money, value and exchange.
Four artists will be taking different approaches to create a range of experiences for those inhabiting the city centre. Strategically located within the ‘January Sales’ period, the device by which the public is coaxed straight back on the shopping treadmill, the new artworks will seek to comment on our increasingly complex relationship with work, leisure and consumption.
Each project will happen within the week of 18th – 24th January 2016 at various locations in Liverpool’s bustling city centre.
Alan Dunn, artist/curator, presents FOUR WORDS The Media Wall, opposite Lime Street, will host an alternative stream of provocative 10-second animations with over 100 participants from a range of backgrounds invited to compose four word statements. The contributors include Gerhard Richter, Douglas Coupland, Shaista Aziz, Pavel Büchler, Fiona Banner, Levitt & Dubner (‘Freakonomics’), David Shrigley, retired seafarer Captain Pengelly, Hala Al-Alaiwat and ex-Liverpool FC striker David Fairclough amongst others.
Forest Swords presents new sound and dance piece Shrine An accomplished music producer and artist, Forest Swords’ previous commissions include ‘Ground Rhythms,’ a trilogy of site-specific sound art pieces. This intimate new commission is a physical and aural exploration of the body and breath – a potent reclamation of the human body and spirit as a tool for independence, purpose, and personal power.
Julieann O’Malley will present a new immersive performance piece An interdisciplinary artist who works in galleries and public space, the work will utilise performance, combined with installation, video, sound and photography. For Liverpool Provocations she will be encouraging passers-by to indulge in a moving 1:1 performance incorporating the themes of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
MEYOUANDUS will present BIG MOUTH at various locations including Church Street MEYOUANDUS specialise in technically complex public arts projects using state of the art technologies to enhance artistic and human exchange in public spaces. Big Mouth is a mobile installation that invites participants to speak their deepest thoughts in confidence away from the superficial veneer of social dialogue. The thoughts are then displayed on a 360° projection of a silently speaking big mouth. Underneath the thoughts are transformed into demons that carry these negative burdens away into another world.