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crimescenes.jpg
This might look like a bit of a crime scene at the moment as well but its just that I was at the Walker this morning before they had even finished hanging the pictures on the wall.
'Partners in Crime' is just the two paintings hanging side by side – Cézanne’s The Murder and Sickert’s Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom. The common theme for these two rather sinister paintings is murder.

Cezanne is often referred to as the father of modern art and is credited with influencing such artists as Picasso and Matisse. The Murder was painted in 1867 and is an early, dark example of Paul Cezanne’s work. A novel by Zola, in which the heroine murders her husband, may have inspired the choice of subject. In the painting, the murderer is lifting his hand ready to give the final blow, while his accomplice uses all his strength to hold the victim down.

Walter Sickert’s interpretation of Jack the Rippers Bedroom (1906) is a shadowy, macabre piece, with a bed just distinguishable beneath the filtered half-light coming through the blinded window. The colours used are muted and the onlooker is left with more questions than answers. Some believe that Sickert was Jack the Ripper.

The Cezanne is from the Walker's collection and the Sickert from Manchester Art Gallery as this is one of a series of collaborations between the two galleries under the title of Partners in Art.
They are in the Impressionists room until May 31st 2006

FACT is now looking for an Operations Events Technician to work within the Operations Team to be responsible for the technical support of all events and hires within the FACT Centre (other than Exhibition Programme events).

For more information or to request an application pack please contact:
Sheindal Cohen or Becs Ward, FACT, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool. L1 4DQ
Email: recruitment@fact.co.uk.
Tel: 0151 707 4444

Application deadline is 5PM on Friday 10 MARCH 2006.
Applications cannot be accepted after this time.

Interviews to be held week beginning 13 MARCH 2006.

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.

noiselogo-1.gif I'm really interested in this project and will be following closely and posting any news on this blog. NOISE ( www.noisefestival.com) is a national online showcase of creative talent for people aged 25 and under. Although its national, it was set up in the North West mainly by Arts Council NW and NWDA.
It was launched last Thursday at Tate Liverpool where as well as speeches from people such as Culture Minister James Purnell and Mark Eley (of Eley Kishimoto – one of the UK’s top fashion designers) we watched Killa Kel (the Human beatbox) and Angel (X Factor finalist) perform an excellent short set.

The Curators also include Peter Saville, Wayne Hemingway, Anthony Wilson, Daniel Brown and the prominent artist Stella Vine who I was pleased to chat to at the launch. She's really excited about the whole thing and looking forward to looking at every one of the artists submissions.

From the website.....

WHAT IS NOISE?
Are you 25 and under and want to get into the creative industries? Would you like to see your work on television, radio, online and in print? Plus an opportunity to have your work reviewed by some of the UK’s most renowned creatives and potential international collaborators.

NOISE is an arts and media festival for all young people (age 25 and under). From now until 31st May 2006 you can submit your work for the Noise media showcase in October 2006.

1. Register. We need some basic information on our artists <-- YOU!
2. Submit. This is where - and how - you POST YOUR ART to us. The team and top creative jury will select the best work and showcase it across the media in October 2006.
3. Modify. Why don’t you make something HAPPEN on our website now? Go to our flashsite and use the tool bar, you can submit your version of our start page and if we like it we’ll go live with it.
4. Blog. . If you have a blog already let us know about it. If not go to our Blog page and make your own MSN Space now. www.noisefestival.com/blog

stellavine.jpg kkangel.jpg

Val and Doug Robinson - Editions Images Some very nice paintings at Editions Gallery in Cook St. by Val and Doug Robinson until March 9th 2006.
Both have quite distinctive styles using lots of earth colours, Val's work is mostly figurative compositions in oils. She has painted professionally since graduating from Liverpool Art School.
Doug is a retired architect and paints imagined landscapes inspired by prehistoric features.
These are recent works and are very popular, I noticed quite a few being bought on the opening night.

Collective Encounters is a north Liverpool based theatre company, dedicated to using theatre as a tool for social change. Growing out of last years Living Place Project, in 2006 Collective Encounters will be delivering
(dis)
connected a project exploring disengagement, disenfranchisement and democracy. The programme will have two stands: a participative training project and a professional site-specific production.

We are looking to work with multi media designers across both strands of this project. If you have proven skills in multi media design, integrating multi media and live performance are interested in theatre in found spaces and in making politically informed work please send a CV and/or example of your work to -

Sarah Thornton, Artistic Director, Collective Encounters
84 Allington Street, Liverpool L17 7AF
Or for more information e mail: sarah@collective-encounters.org.uk

Favourite Colour
Also online you can choose your favourite colour and have it projected in the exhibition and on the website
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/exhibitions/colour/selectfavourite.aspx

Eye For Colour
The rainbow revealed at World Museum Liverpool
The amazing world of colour, from dark sombre hues to dazzling psychedelic spectrums, is spotlighted in Eye for Colour at the World Museum Liverpool from 18 February to 27 August 2006.

Visitors enjoy astonishing experiences linked to ever-changing domains of colour where light and shade combine to create startling forms. This is where science meets art in more ways than one. This is a rainbow universe where the senses are stimulated to incredible degrees, where colour takes on an ever-increasing importance.

Eye for Colour explains and explores what colour is all about – its origins, how the natural world exploits its benefits, how artists use colour and its cultural significance in the world around us.

Hands-on experiences and interactives involve visitors and invite them to explore, play and be creative with colour. A giant swivelling human eyeball dominates its surroundings with a camera in the retina. Visitors can see how the eye works and make the model move about.
etc. See the NML website

From the WorkSmart website

Over five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £23 billion of free work every year. If you're one, why not take some time to reflect on how well (or badly) you're balancing your life?

24th February 2006 is the day when the average person who does unpaid overtime finishes the unpaid days they do every year, and starts earning for themselves. We think that's a day worth celebrating.

Take a proper lunchbreak, not just a sandwich at your desk, and leave on time, to enjoy your own time on Friday evening. You deserve it! This is one day in the year for your boss to appreciate your efforts, and for you to appreciate yourself. Here's how to do it:....

WE ARE CURRENTLY HAVING SOME PROBLEMS WITH THE SPOTLIGHT E.MAIL ADDRESS SO COULD ALL E.MAILS BE SENT TO earthboundraven@lycos.co.uk

Ashtone Johnstone   Annga and his Crew
sport3.jpg There's lots of naked women in Patricks! Well, pictures of them anyway, the colourful oil on canvas paintings with white background by Sue Lucine and drawings in ink or charcoal by Jazamin Sinclair.

So why is it called 'Sport'? The shows here are curated by Helen Bryson and her website tells us that
"Sport and Art share a common ground of risk and thrills"
Which sounds about right, so why am I about the only person I know who loves art and football and cricket and computers?
The private viewing last week was enlivened by some sporting thrills as the gymnast Ashtone Johnstone did her stuff followed by the Breakdancers Annga and his Crew. There was risk involved here too, not only for the performers but the audience as its only a small dance-floor. Very entertaining.
The exhibition continues until March 6th 2006.

Going Native’s curators are Tomas Harold and Nathan Jones of the Mercy organisation. Mercy is a print, events and exhibitions based arts organisation that specialises in providing platforms for local artists on a national level.

Private view is Thursday 2nd March, from 6-10pm: the organisers, artists and media will all be present!

The Blues by Mark Cawood 'Instrumental Art' at the Liverpool Academy of Arts ends on Friday February 24th.
The theme is Musical Instruments and the focus is on a still life of the instruments rather than people or music. The works and artists are too many to list here, there are also several real instruments on display, perhaps too many, I think they distracted me a bit from the art.

Happy Birthday Miffy! is a family focused exhibition celebrating Miffy's 50th anniversary and the work of her creator, Dick Bruna. Created by Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books, the exhibition leads visitors on a colourful journey through the world of this classic storybook character and her friends. Artworks from Dick Bruna's archive will be on display for the first time in the UK, with prints, letters, photos and memorabilia alongside hands-on activities for young children.
Sat 15 Apr - Sun 03 Sep 2006
Tue - Sun: 10:00 - 17:00
LINK

All are welcome to drop in, view the work and meet the artists.
For more information contact Ema Quinn 0151 709 5297
or email ema@bluecoatartscentre.com

If I visit London soon I will have to go and see this exhibition of Brazilian culture from 1960s onwards at the Barbican. It includes Assume Vivid Astro Focus which was at Liverpool Tate last summer.
Report by Adrian Searle in the Guardian...

"Snatches of electronica drift from Assume Vivid Astro Focus's mind-mangling disco/screening booth on the mezzanine. The languid plaint of Caetano Veloso, singing Alegria, Alegria (Joy, Joy) during a 1967 music festival - at a defining moment in Brazilian popular culture - vies with the weekend dads with their kids in tow, as they play in Oiticica's installations."

New media art is a global phenomenon: a rapidly changing and dynamic field of creative practice which crosses
conventional categories and disciplinary boundaries, challenging our assumptions about art.
•• How do curators engage with new media art?
•• What makes a good curator of new media art?
•• What can we learn from the pioneers of this field?
•• What common ground exists with other disciplines?
•• What does the future hold for curating new media art?
These and other issues will be explored at
Art—Place—Technology
www.art-place-technology.org
International Symposium on Curating New Media Art
Liverpool School of Art & Design and FACT Centre, Liverpool
30 March—1 April 2006
Fees
£65—Early Booking (before 17/03/06)
£100—Last Minute Booking (after 17/03/06)
£50—Concessions (proof of status required).

Full details on the website

mikeb1.jpg   mikeb2.jpg
mikeb3.jpg Monday to Thursday this week - Join artist Mike Badger and create your own artwork inspired by the exhibition 'Conrad Shawcross: The Steady States'.
Suitable for families
11am, 12pm, 2pm, 3pm, Walker Art Gallery

This is very popular and I could see why, these little robot things are great fun. Mike Badger is a sculptor and musician whose work I have seen in various places on Merseyside.
I want one but I'm too old :(

Fifteen young people from Kingsley Community School aged 9 -11 years old have created the recycled glass tiles at Energywise with support from the Liverpool Culture Company. The finished tiles have been put together in a mosaic by arts organisation Itchy Feet and will be unveiled in front of some of the mini artists.

The project lasted about six weeks and children were involved first hand in the production of the glass tiles.

Christine Hammond and Julie Smith from The Include Consultancy, oversaw the whole project. Christine said: "We discussed whether the young people felt safe now and what they think should be in place in the future to make them feel safe. They came up with things like decent play areas, more policing, no guns and cleaner streets."

Youngsters learnt all about recycling, community safety and regeneration in a creative way and the fruits of their labour will be displayed permanently inside their school in Eversley Street, L8.

I was one of 4 local artists chosen by the Austrian artist group and communication agency DIE FABRIKANTEN based in Linz. They are running a project called 'Botschaft Europa' a series of 5 European city night portraits.

We each had to visit 10 places and talk about them or introduce people, tell stories etc. It had to be at night, hence the headlamp, I'm afraid I probably finished well before the others as I didn't have a lot to say and was getting tired by midnight.

I am pictured here (photos by Minako Ueda) at the Nerve Fundraising gig with another of the four, Tamasine Seibold and 2 video artists Michael and Miho.
I won't see the final edited version for several months I think.

Please get in touch with Sarah at the Kitchen Gallery on 0151 733 5986 or by email info@kitchengallery.uk.com or have a look at the website for further information or to print a copy of the application form www.kitchengallery.uk.com

Or by post to:
The Kitchen Gallery
Norton Priory Museum & Gardens
Tudor Road
Manor Park
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 1SX

The Kitchen Gallery is an independent gallery located in the beautiful Norton Priory Museum and Gardens. Opening times are April to October, Friday to Sunday, 12-4 or by appointment.
This project is supported by the Arts Council of England, Halton Borough Council and Norton Priory Museum and Gardens.

Anyone who has stayed at, or who intends to visit, the Adelphi, may like to consider contributing a photo to this 2008 Project.
email lairdgalbraith@yahoo.com
website www.lairdgalbraith.com

alien who by Andrew Spencer Some fine illustrations and paintings from Andrew Spencer in the directory now.
You can see more of Andrew's work on his own website at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/maybury/

Blue-Self-1 c. Sarah Jane Richards Latest addition to the artinliverpool Directory of Liverpool Artists is Sarah Jane Richards. She is based in Arena Studios and will be exhibiting as part of the 'Relentless Forms' show at Urban Coffee starting on March 3rd 2006.
I love the use of colours and bold strokes in these figurative works.

For further information and job description, please contact the Design Initiative on 0161 834 3722
or email Russell@designinit.org.uk

Closing date for applications: 12 noon Friday 10th March 2006 Interviews to be held on Wednesday 22nd March 2006 in Liverpool

The Design Initiative is an Equal Opportunities employer

domino.jpg Another fine group show at the Domino gallery in Green Fish Cafe opened last week. Not really anything to do with Valentines Day but apparently its 'an exhibition to tempt you and titillate your love'!
Works by Parabhen Lad, Clare McCarthy, Penny Gill, Elin Blake, Michael Pace-Sigge, Micheline Robinson and Neil Robertson.
Runs until March 25th 2006.

Microzine is at 65-67 Bold Street, Liverpool, L1 4EZ
See the 100shirts blog for full details

www.artscouncil.org.uk/art06

Nice review by Joe Riley in the Liverpool Echo..

Most fairytales are scary, and some like Red Riding Hood and Hansel And Gretel involve dark and mysterious forests.
We are now deep in the territory of this multi-media exhibition by Becca Backhouse and Elizabeth Willow, which emerged from a shared fascination with childhood stories and their enduring effect.

Exhibition at Cornerstone ends on Friday February 17th.

PhotoArt02 Julie Anderson Julie Anderson is currently exhibiting in Urban Coffee.
She says, "Through my work I explore feelings of loneliness, isolation, exclusion and fear that I have experienced through my personal and working life. I use found objects, sounds, words and spaces that people have used or left behind, to create work in a variety of media. I find the traces and imprints left by people more fascinating and powerful than their human presence. "

email: adam.museumman@gmail.com
www.museumman.org

The BBC Big Screen Liverpool is a public, (outdoor), twenty-six square metre, digital video screen located in Clayton Square, a vibrant city centre location with an estimated daily footfall of 55,000 people - largely drawn to the area for shopping.

The BBC have joined forces with a freelance digital curator, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), the Liverpool Biennial and an ever expanding network of local creative organisations to produce a rolling programme of artistic film & video for the Big Screen. This programme is called 37 seconds.

As you approach Clayton Square, it takes approximately 37seconds to pass the Big Screen. 37seconds is a curated programme of innovative, original moving image art works that aims to communicate within, and potentially prolong this 37 seconds. How? This is up to you.

Selected material will be screened to a wide and diverse audience alongside works by emerging and established artists. Each programme will be screened for fifteen to thirty minutes, at least x5 showings per day on a fortnightly rotation. Site-specific works or those created for public space exhibition are strongly encouraged. Selected material may, on agreement, tour as part of the UK BBC Big Screen network and in partnership with international screen sites.

To apply for inclusion into the 37 seconds screening programme please submit the following
* A Mini DV or DV Cam copy of your moving image artwork, (no more than 30 minutes in length). DVD is acceptable for viewing purposes only.
* A completed BBC consent form ( download here) , as provided. Please pay particular attention to music copyright.
* SAE for return of material (without this we cannot guarantee return of work)

Please note that at present there are no screening fees for artists but your work will be promoted locally and nationally through web and print marketing campaigns.

Please send entries to:

Rebecca Lennon
Digital Curator: Big Screen Liverpool
FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology)
88 Wood Street
Liverpool, L1 4DQ

For additional enquiries on the 37 seconds programme contact Rebecca on 0151 707 4438, or email Rebecca.lennon@bbc.co.uk

OK, they're in Manchester but I'm a big fan of Futuresonic. I went to last years festival ( report 1, report 2).

FREELANCE FUNDRAISER (CHARITABLE TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS)

To secure organisational funding for Future Everything CIC, the new creative 'community interest company' responsible for the Futuresonic International Festival, now in its 10th year, for the period 2007-2010.
The work will progress a development plan and a three year vision for the festival and organisation developed with funding from Arts Council England.

FREELANCE PR CONSULTANT/OFFICER

To develop key media partner(s) for Futuresonic International Festival.

We are looking for freelance arts / music or events PR professionals to identify, approach, negotiate and secure key media partners for the Futuresonic International Festival. The Festival is looking to build strategic and long-term relationships with key media organisations that can help take Futuresonic into a wider public consciousness.

FREELANCE SPONSORSHIP CONSULTANT/OFFICER

To develop and manage new commercial and corporate income streams, supporting Future Everything's development strategy and enabling its programme, oriented around the Futuresonic International Festival, now
in its 10th year, and the new Social Technologies Summit event. The March-July 2006 short term contract will develop opportunities for both 2006 and 2007, aiming to generate some income for the 20-23 July 2006
festival, and prepare the ground for 2007 and beyond. Through this work we want to raise awareness of the organisation's work, aims and goals with related companies and individuals as well as generate financial or
in-kind benefits for the organisation.

Closing Date: Midday, Monday 6th March 2006
Commencing: March / April 2006 (subject to availability)

Further information and contact details available online at: http://10.futuresonic.com/

Please check the information on the website before applying.

Please send your applications to:
Drew Hemment
Future Everything
Third Floor
24 Lever Street
Manchester M1 1DZ

Email: 10@futuresonic.com

Futuresonic Festival 20th-23rd July 2006

Peter Worthington, the proprietor of the South Bohemia gallery is hoping to organise a 5-a-side football competition involving local galleries, artists, art groups etc.
If you are interested contact Peter and he'll get it started.
email Peter at peterworthington1@yahoo.co.uk
Phone: 0151 733 5120

Grayson Perry Its not fair, I never get the chance to wear my best frocks in public!
From the Daily Post...

BRITISH potter and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry did not disappoint the fashion-conscious when he arrived to make an after-dinner speech at the Tate Liverpool.

Perry, who has an alter-ego named Claire, and who likes to dress in women's clothing, arrived in a very ornate black number.

The Victorian look with matching black tights and high-heel boots was nicely set off with a pillbox hat topped by feathers.

He was at the Tate Liverpool's annual dinner for friends and sponsors with another great British eccentric, Liverpool jazz singer and art critic George Melly, also in attendance.

happy birthday zine - Craig Atkinson Artist Craig Atkinson has a new publication available from his website.
Its called 'Happy Birthday Zine' and Craig explains...

"I'm not sure what the zine is about, not exactly anyway. And I'm not sure why I'm calling it a zine because I hate that word! I think there is still an interest in semiotics in there but more apparent is just everyday stuff! I just wanted to make something fairly accessible and fairly disposable, taking things from their usual context and placing them together. I suppose like a curiosity shop. So the zine is a collection of drawings of things that didn't relate to each other but now they do because they're in the same place. Hmm, waffle!"

dibrand.gif Via Merseyside ACME.
Design Initiative Have New Website: Great Resource for Merseyside's Artists
The Design Initiative (Formerly Liverpool Manchester Design Initiative) promotes good design, visual arts and contemporary craft from the North West region.
The Design Initiative offers artists:

Information and advice: They provide practical advice and specialist information to commissioners, purchasers and producers of design, craft and visual arts.

Creative professionals: The Design Initiative offers one-to-one advice sessions for creative professionals giving advice on portfolio development, presentation or where to look for business support.

Commissioners and clients: The Design Initiative offers an impartial matchmaking service to help purchasers, commissioners and exhibitors of design, visual art and craft identify the right practitioner for their project. We also offer free professional advice on all aspects of the commissioning process from writing briefs to selection processes.

Design initiatives: The Design Initiative organise an ongoing programme of events and initiatives

Patricia-Twist-The-Misty-Mountains Patricia Twist has drawn and painted all her life and is largely self-taught. She finds her inspiration in nature, photography, memory and imagination, and uses gouache to create her landscapes, seascapes, figurative and wildlife paintings.

Pat has twice been short-listed for the Daily Mail Not The Turner Prize, a national competition launched in 2003 to celebrate representational painting. On each occasion, her painting - The Misty Mountains in 2003, Wild Waters in 2004 - was selected from 10,000 entries to join the work of 400 finalists in an exhibition at London's prestigious Mall Galleries.

She has her own website at www.users.waitrose.com/~pattwist

martyncoppell@btinternet.com

backyard_babies_rock@hotmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.
Martyn Coppell & Vicki Maguire (Curators)

UPDATE: The Deadline for submissions is Monday March 20th 2006

mexicanhouses.jpg I try not to post too many off-topic things but I was fascinated by these photographs taken by a helicopter pilot in Mexico city. There's a lot of beautiful sights and some pretty ugly ones too.
Yes, these are real houses but they look like a digital creation. Where's the park?
LINK

monoprint by Christine Toh Liverpool-based artist, Christine Toh recently exhibited her exciting prints at the Unity Theatre. She has several years experience of print making and now also combines prints with textiles to create bags which are all unique.

The best time to visit the Lady Lever Gallery is in the summer. If the weather's good you can stroll round the picturesque Port Sunlight village and picnic on the grass near the fountain.
It was not quite picnic weather on Thursday but at least it was dry and sunny which all helps add to the romanticism of the pre-raphaelite artwork on display. This is a special exhibition of rare and delicate drawings which rarely see the light of day. The most popular Pre-Raphaelite artists are featured including Edward Burne Jones, Ford Madox Brown, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well as John Everett Millais.

Thirty-five drawings from the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Walker Art Gallery and Sudley House collection make up this delightful exhibition. The artworks include pencil, charcoal, chalk, ink and watercolour drawings. They are a mixture of preparatory studies for well-known paintings (some of which can be found amongst the National Museums Liverpool’s permanent collection), as well as stand-alone works.

A remarkable drawing of Cymon and Iphigenia by Millais is included in the exhibition- a new acquisition that has never been shown at a national gallery.

I was talking to Julian Treuherz, keeper of art galleries and Sandra Penketh, head of the Lady Lever Art Gallery about the exhibition when who should appear but John Ruskin himself! He was keen to inform us that he will be giving a witty and controversial talk on pre-raphaelitism at the Lever on February 15th 18.00 - 19.00. OK, its Paul O'Keeffe really but you can barely tell the difference.

Pre-Raphaelite Drawings at Lady Lever until May 14th 2006.

LINK

To reserve your ticket email marketing@walktheplank.co.uk

To offer your services, or to find out more about opportunities to use the Potting Shed to develop your own work, email ben@walktheplank.co.uk

Walk the Plank’s theatre ship is moored in Canning Dock, opposite Coopers Pub on the Dock Road and the Pumphouse Inn in the Albert Dock complex. The ship is a challenging environment for people with limited mobility – please get in touch in advance of your visit.

More dates for your diary – Friday 3 and Friday 17 March. Information to follow soon!
Check out the new website...
www.walktheplank.co.uk
www.walktheplank.co.uk/fireworks

The exhibition at Egg runs until February 19th 2006. and is sponsored by Headspace who normally curate the shows at Egg.
There will be an Art Auction to include some of these works and other in the Myrtle Street Fine Art building on March 14th (previewing 13th, Full details to follow)
You can contact the Spotlight artists via spotlight-arts@hotmail.co.uk

rosa-gallica.jpg If you really must send a Valentines card you may as well send a nice arty one via the National Museums Website.
LINK

Had a nice stroll in the sun today over to the Cornerstone gallery but I had to look out for the big bad wolf. I needn't have worried though, it seems he only attacks vulnerable young girls.
This lovely exhibition is a collaboration between Becca Backhouse and Elizabeth Willow and is loosely based on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Its about mysterious forests, tangled roots, fears, shadows and shiny berries on branches. Its also about the warped perceptions of women, they should not stray from the path, should fear being alone and are to blame if they are attacked.

Becca has been working with blackboards and white chalk recently and there are a few here with text which has become indistinct and replaced by wolf-like figures. Elizabeth has created several works using branches, twigs, gems, jewels, red velvet and various other found objects. You can look at them for ages, fascinated by their detail and fragility.
There is also a video of Becca eating her sketchbook, stuffing the pages into her mouth till its full. A metaphor for digesting, being force-fed knowledge from the normally male-dominated universities, churches, workplaces etc.
A joint work is a wardrobe painted with matt black paint containing small lamps and apples which have also been painted black. You can smell the apples and they will eventually rot but the paint is preserving them for quite a while.

I went today because there was a 'meet the artists' session. An excellent idea I think, anyone could call in and ask Becca or Elizabeth about their work just for an hour in the afternoon without any prepared speeches or presentations. I'd like to see more like that.
And I'd like to see more exhibitions like this, really enjoyable and thought provoking.

'What Big Eyes You Have' by Elizabeth Willow and Becca Backhouse at Cornerstone until February 17th 2006

Full story on the Lady Lever website

From liverpool08...

PA to the Artistic Director
Salary: £20,295 - £21,654
Ref: CUL/2052/2689
Closing date: 2 March 2006

The European Capital of Culture 2008 represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Liverpool to reposition itself as a world-class city. Liverpool is a winning city facing and embracing change, it is in the midst of a renaissance and this is an opportunity for artistic professionals to make a difference and help deliver the best Capital of Culture ever to local, regional, national and international audiences.

The Liverpool Culture Company, which is delivering the European Capital of Culture for Liverpool City Council is looking for one individual to join its Artistic team to work as Personal Assistant to Robyn Archer, Artistic Director of Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008.

The main purpose of the role is to assist the Artistic Director to function effectively and efficiently through the provision of comprehensive confidential support services.

This position requires someone who has some experience of international arts and a love of the arts. This is a challenging position and cannot be done without maximum commitment and understanding or ability to understand the world of international arts. This position requires a person with excellent secretarial and organisational skills, but also the necessary flexibility, resourcefulness, energy and lateral approaches that characterise work in the arts at this level.

Go to 08 site for full details

http://www.abscraft.com

Full guidelines and downloadable Proposal Pack:
http://www.animateonline.org/funding/

nerve-benefit.jpg The Nerve magazine are staging a fundraising gig at the Meta-Conceptual art space at 52 Roscoe Street (adjacent to the Grapes pub)
on Friday February 17 (20.00 - 01.00).
Bands appearing are
Heads of State,
Dutch Porn Thursday
and
the Fuckups.
There will also be a video projection by
S & M - Colin Serjent and Sue Milburn and also poets.

Admission is £3/2 (unwaged)

This will be the first of bi-monthly fundraising gigs aimed at bringing much needed cash to help Nerve continue operating.

If you are interested in renting a space please contact:
The Administrator
Art Space Merseyside Ltd
Bridewell Studios
Prescot Street
Liverpool
L7 8UE
0151 263 6730
bridewellstudios@aol.com

'String Theory' opened at the Meta-Conceptuall Gallery, 52 Roscoe Street on Saturday night with some nice music from Stan the Harper and the Zukanican guys.

The work is a series of optical thread art pieces by David Ellis and Mike Kerslake and wooden sculptures by Mike Kerslake. The thread pieces shown here are all black and white but there are also some very colourful ones. It must take a lot of patience, skill and a good sense of geometry to create these.

For more information on the exhibition or to arrange your own event utilising the gallery space please contact the artists below. You can contact the artists direct and they will be able to arrange an individual viewing if required.

Mike Kerslake
Phone: 07753595502
Email: mikeatbretton@hotmail.com

David Ellis
Phone: 07859931166
Email: davidaellis@hotmail.com

The gallery is open to the public between 6th Feb and the 19th Feb with opening hours of 12:00 - 18.00.

Cool!
It was also the launch of the book published by Liverpool University press 'Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City'

If you have interest in visual and performance arts, have a modicum of IT knowledge and would like informal work experience please contact Adam Nankervis at
adam.museumman@gmail.com

Open to any gender, religion, nationality but shared philosophy an advantage
Thanks Adam

www.museumman.org

stoodio.jpg The latest exhibition in the ArtspeQ space in Quiggins opened last week and runs until the end of February.
Its 'Abstract with Spirit' by a fairly new group of abstract artists collectively known as 'The Stoodio'. There's a lot of determinedly abstract paintings in various media on show.
Artists: June Bailey, Marcy Lanza, Tom Arvidson, John Jones and Sara Flugt

octoweb c. Simon Turner Another illustrator has joined the Art In Liverpool directory. Simon Turner graduated in 2004 and has been busy first in Manchester and now in Liverpool producing posters for local gigs as well as 2 sets of trading cards which you can buy from his website: www.misterbiscuits.co.uk

moses-by-Irene-Nolan.jpg Irene Nolan is an artist/Illustrator mainly self taught with some basic training, using fish and figurative images in her art works.
She uses acrylics on canvas with bright colours in an abstract way and her ideas come from Bible stories and images around her at the time.
She has her own webpages at www.artmajeur.com/visions

Just checking through some of my links I noticed that the Cajobah Gallery and Craft Workshop in Hamilton Sq., Birkenhead ceased trading in September 2005. That's a shame. I'd never actually been to see it.

I spent lunch time at karaoke.
The Christian Jankowski exhibition 'Everything Fell Together' at FACT includes a piece entitled 'The Day We Met', a complete Japanese karaoke suite in which the artist appears amongst the slightly banal narratives which play underneath the music and words.
Once I'd understood out how the machine worked I was soon singing Green Day's 'Basket Case' in my best mockney accent. I'm not really an exhibitionist, at least I don't like to think I am, and yet I just kept thumbing the pages of the selection book and picking out songs from 'Dream a Little Dream' to 'Top Of The World' via 'All The Small Things'.
Every now and then someone would pop their head around the door but most, I think, probably thought they should leave me to it. I was addicted. I'm not sure how long I was there but it felt like forty minutes. If I hadn't had to go and buy a pint of milk somewhere I might have been there all day.
If only I could sing.

alice in wonderland and eleanor I had a trip out to the dockland area last night for the launch of Alice In Wonderland's new studio in Cotton Street. She was based in Arena studios but artists are gradually moving out of there now as the threat of having to pay 'commercial' rents comes ever nearer.
As well as making fine jewellery, Alice likes to dress up and used this event as an excuse to have a valentines party, hence the exotic outfits. That's her on the right alongside artist, Eleanor Hawkridge.
I had the arduous task of inflating balloons and opening bottles of champagne while the other guests dipped strawberries into chocolate fondue.

branson.jpg Also last night, before going to Open Eye, I went to the opening of the latest special exhibition at Tate Liverpool (slightly easier to reach now that the new bus station is open).
The full title is 'Making History - Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now' and is in chronological order split into 4 main sections:

Defining Documentary 1929-1949 featuring, amongst others, filmmaker John Grierson who coined the term 'documentary', William Coldstream, Bill Brandt, Henry Moore and Humphrey Jennings.

Looking at Britain 1950-1969 has the Free Cinema movement bringing regional and working-class lives to the screen and the opposing concepts of Modernist realism and Kitchen Sink realism. Bratby, Spender, Trevelyan. Lots of photos of working class streets in the East End and similar by Henderson, Mayne and Hedges.

mayne_teddy.jpg Gender, Race and Society 1970-1989 Maybe its just that I was getting tired but things seem to get a bit too heavy and overtly political from here onwards. We're into Thatcher's Britain, Miners strikes, the role of women, the move to more multi-culturism etc. The founding of the fly-on-the-wall TV genre with 'The Family' in1974 (may they never be forgiven!). An incredibly boring (though worthwhile sociological study) collection of documentary evidence (black ring-binders and all) of the differences between men and women's pay in a Bermondsey factory.

Reconstructing History 1990-Now - Nearly all videos now unfortunately. Gillian Wearings 10-16 1997, Granada's 7Up and its sequels, Jeremy Deller's re-enactment of the 'Battle of Orgeave' (the miners' strike again) looks fairly interesting but needs time to take it all in. Didn't have time to look at Isaac Julien's video 'Paradise Omeros'.

So there is a lot to see, especially if you stop and watch all the films. I preferred the early sections, some lovely 'arty' black and white photographs mixed in with paintings of times long before I was born. I am less keen on the 'talking heads' and fly-on-the-wall films of more recent years.

At Tate Liverpool until April 23rd 2006

Kill House I don't go to enough artists talks but I'm glad I went to Open Eye at lunch time today to see Christopher Stewart talking about his work which opened today. I was at the private viewing last night but one never has time to really study the pictures and read the statements at these functions. I'll let Open Eye's press release explain what ts all about....

Since the mid-1990s, UK-based artist Christopher Stewart has worked on a series of projects that explore the shadowy world of the international security industry. Through this immediate subject matter, Stewart reflects upon some of the broader, emerging, consequences of globalisation. In the words of American urban theorist Mike Davis, “Stewart’s powerfully disorienting photographs detonate our Orwellian anxieties. They are preliminary studies in the banality of dystopia”.

‘Kill House’ (2005) is a series of photographs of a house in Arkansas, USA, that was built for the purpose of training private military personnel to clear domestic houses in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The deserted interiors resemble a grim stage-set constructed from scarred and smoke-damaged concrete and iron, punctuated by occasional, skeletal props of abandoned furniture. “The ‘architect’ of this building imagines a dystopian scenario, a polarised version of the American domestic house where form follows fear rather than function” (Christopher Stewart).

Stewart’s video installation ‘Levanter’ (2002) takes its name from a meteorological phenomenon that forms for a few days a year between Africa and Europe in the Straits of Gibraltar. The Levanter cloud envelops the summit of the Rock of Gibraltar and the military base that is built on it. Stewart’s video shows us a military surveillance/monitoring tower, shrouded in mist, and Levanter-obscured views down to the port, the Straits and the African coast. “The two images represent both the limits and the freedoms of globalisation: the need on the one hand for close monitoring and paranoia and on the other for free trade and freedom of movement of goods and people. The appearance of the Levanter seems to symbolically suggest the limitations of both enterprises” (Christopher Stewart).

At Open Eye until March 25th 2006