Thornquestgallery - Art News

Another music event - this is one of the Liverpool 08 Commissions.

Hive Twilight City - Event #2 – Shopping: Remixed / You are Sound – Saturday July 12th 2008

For the second Twilight City Event, Hive present two free performances that explore Liverpool’s burgeoning retail environment and its impact on the people of the city.

Performance 1: St John’s Shopping Centre 3-5pm Free entry
In an inversion of the usual passive ‘background music’ associated with shops and malls, the first performance will engage with the city’s shops and shoppers to turn the St John’s Shopping Centre into an interactive musical instrument. Wearing distinctive costumes, eight local performers (Noise Club) will walk through the Centre making music from the everyday objects that are on sale, as well as those who shop there. A film crew will be on hand to record the event, and information about the performance will be shown on the BBC Big Screen outside St John’s during the event itself.

Performance 2: The Box, FACT, 6-8pm Free entry
The second performance, at FACT, sees renowned electronic artist Machinefabriek utilize sounds recorded across the city’s retail district to create a unique soundtrack to a changing city. Support comes from Matthew Fairclough and Kathy Hinde, who will transform ordinary household objects into beautiful music and visuals.

About the Artists
Noise Club (UK)
Doyens of the experimental music scene, Liverpool based sound artists Noise Club have been performing together since 2003. The group works through improvisation to create pieces which mix ideas from punk, rock, jazz, electronica and classical music into one unified soundscape.

Matthew Fairclough/ Kathy Hinde (UK)
Inspired by the musique concrète tradition, internationally renowned audiovisual team Matthew Fairclough and Kathy Hinde bring everyday household objects to life through a unique performance involving bicycles, pots, pans and decorative wind chimes. Fairclough and Hinde have collaborated with some of contemporary music’s most illustrious performers including the Elysian Quartet and Joanna McGregor, and have toured extensively in Europe and China.

Machinefabriek (NL)
Rutger Zuydervelt is one of the rising stars of electronic music. His prolific output of releases on numerous labels such as 12K and Type have earned him international critical acclaim. In this performance he will be integrating specially recorded ambient soundscapes of Liverpool’s retail environment into beautiful, dreamlike and often unsettling music.

www.thehivecollective.co.uk
www.liverpool08.com

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Streetwaves heads to Creamfields

A group of up-and-coming Liverpool musicians are set to appear at one of the UK’s biggest dance events.

Bands from the Liverpool Culture Company’s Streetwaves competition will perform at Creamfields 2008, which takes place in Daresbury, Cheshire, on August 23 and 24.

The acts – who are all aged between 14 and 25 – were selected during a series of neighbourhood heats earlier this month. They’ll be sharing the Creamfields bill with some of the industry’s biggest names, including Kasabian and Fatboy Slim.

James Barton, Chief Executive of Cream, said: “The addition of the Streetwaves stage at Creamfields was a great success last year. Its purpose is to offer talented young musicians a chance to perform in front of a live audience, we hope it will be a day that all the performers and their families will remember for a long time to come and hopefully we’ll see some rising stars in the making.”

Alicia Smith, Streetwaves Project Manager, said: “The standard of entries for this year’s competition was extremely high and the judges had a really tough time picking the winners. The chosen acts worked really hard to earn their place in the final line-up and it will be great to see them up on stage at Creamfields.”

As well as appearing at Creamfields and other music events during the summer, Streetwaves winners will be given the opportunity to take part in a special European tour, stopping off at Bremen, Gdansk, Marseilles and Istanbul. The Streetwaves prize also includes time with a top local producer in preparation for a day’s recording at Elevator Studios, and the chance to work with a design agency to create a professional logo and a range of T-shirts for their act.

Winning Streetwaves acts for 2008:
Liverpool East: The Little Hydes (indie)
Alt Valley: The New Haze (rock)
Liverpool South: Beaker Folk of the Bronze Age (indie)
South Central: Systems DMC (hip hop)
City & North: Aspen Grove (rock)

www.liverpool08.com
www.creamfields.com

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Making jewellery Shine at the Bluecoat

Local children are being given the chance to work with jewellery artist Anthony Wong – and design a unique pendant worn by the new Lady Mayoress of Liverpool.

The project is the latest stage in the Shine programme run by the Bluecoat and Yorkshire Bank in Liverpool, which encourages young people to participate in the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations.

To design a special pendant for the Lady Mayoress (pictured here), entrants are invited call into the Bluecoat or visit www.shineatthebluecoat.org.uk, where they can find hints and tips.

The competition is open to 11 to 16-year-olds and six lucky winners will get to participate in a masterclass at the Bluecoat, working with contemporary jewellery designer Anthony Wong to create the final pendant to be worn by the Lady Mayoress. The finished piece will also go on display in the newly re-opened Display Centre at the Bluecoat.

Only four weeks into her role as Lady Mayoress, Sandra Rotheram commented: “I’m really flattered to be asked and am looking forward to meeting the creators. My husband is loving his new role as Lord Mayor and we want to get involved in as much as we can around the city. My two daughters are 10 and 12 and they adore jewellery, so it will be exciting to see something designed and crafted.”

Anthony Wong has his studio at the Bluecoat and his work will be featured at the prestigious Liverpool Design show. He has recently exhibited at Velvet Da Vinci in San Fancisco (in an exchange exhibition West meets West curated by the Display Centre at the Bluecoat.)

Anthony comments: “Shine is a great opportunity- for the Bluecoat, myself and for the young designers it is aimed at - a consultation with the Lady Mayoress should prove to be an interesting interview, I am sure I will be able to tease enough information to produce an exciting and glamorous brief, for our young designers to work with. The opportunity to pass on knowledge, proficiency and skills is a particularly holistic experience for me, and it’s one way to promote thoughtful, good design and keep it flourishing.”

Ian Spink, managing partner of Yorkshire Bank in Liverpool, said: ‘We’ve had a fantastic response to the project and are proud to be supporting arts and culture in the city.’

Shine at the Bluecoat in association with Yorkshire Bank is a changing monthly creative activity. The results of the first Shine can now be seen in the front courtyard at the Bluecoat, in the form of ‘Lamsa’, a specially painted Superlambanana inspired by the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival. The second Shine competition has had hundreds of creative writers scribing the first page of a spy novel, and in August the theme will be ‘face-dancing’.

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Liverpool Chamber is launching a new award for Liverpool companies who have been supporters of the arts in the city.

John Entwhistle, a past Chairman of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and Trustee of the Royal Academy has generously sponsored the competition. He said: “Many visitors to Liverpool during Capital of Culture year have commented on the diversity of the city’s culture, its renaissance and the unique collections in its art galleries and museums, as well as the city’s stunning architecture.

Liverpool Chamber is keen to use the momentum of Capital of Culture year to encourage patronage. We will present the award to the Liverpool business adjudged to have commissioned the most impressive work of public sculpture in Liverpool since 2003, when the city was nominated as European Capital of Culture.

Businesses that have commissioned original three dimensional artwork for public areas are invited to enter. The winner will be announced at Liverpool Chamber’s annual dinner on 20th November 2008.

Full details on Chamber of Commerce blog

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Following on from the previous post about the Big Dance I have been doing my best to learn these 8 dance steps for 08 - no I’m not going to put my version on youtube.

As part of Liverpool’s Big Dance celebrations, Arts Council England and the Liverpool Culture Company have teamed up with Luca Silvestrini of Protein Dance, to create 8 simple steps which everyone can have a go at learning before the Big Dance finale on July 13 2008

The public can learn the steps from the Liverpool 08 website, The Big Dance website and You Tube, before filming themselves dancing the 8 steps everywhere from shopping centres and train stations to beaches and bars. Films can then be uploaded to the You Tube website and named ; Big Dance/ 8Steps/ your name. The most entertaining clips will be shown on the big screen on our big dance day on the 13th July, along with some celebrity contributions!

There will also be the opportunity to learn the steps on the day via the big screens in the city centre or by following the youngsters from the Rise and Shine project at Williamson Square at lunchtime on the 13th, so there’s no excuse not to get involved. Check out the 08 steps on the Big Dance website, on Youtube, or just show up on the day.

Big Dance Liverpool

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I was on platform 7 at Lime Street early (too early!) yesterday morning to see these young dancers perform their routine before boarding the train to London. I hope their trip and group performance went well.

As part of the nationwide Big Dance several dancers from Liverpool performed ‘The Line’ at Liverpool Lime Street station before boarding the Virgin Trains service to London Euston. On arrival they were be joined by dancers from the capital for a group performance.

The Line is a large-scale line choreography by Lisi Perry. It brings together professional and non professional dancers in an outdoor dance project

Big Dance celebrates the extraordinary range of dance happening in England. It takes place from 5 -13 July, 2008 and there are many opportunities for everyone to get involved.

Big Dance is a project that was developed by the Mayor’s Office at the Greater London Authority in partnership with Arts Council England. The first Big Dance happened in 2006 and featured the 90 minute BBC1 TV programme Dancing in the Streets.

Big Dance

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As part of the Oceans Apart exhibition at the International in Slater Street there will be a reception there on Thursday 10 July at 19.00 for the very prominent Jordanian artist, Muhanna El Durra

Muhanna Al-Durra is the pioneer in Jordanian visual arts as he was the first to introduce cubist and abstract art into the Jordanian art field.

He was born in Amman, Jordan in 1938, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Rome, Italy.

In 1964, Al-Durra established the Fine Arts Section at the Department of Culture and Art, Amman, and then established the Jordan Institute of Fine Arts in 1970, serving as is first director. Al-Durra is the first Jordanian to receive formal art education, and the first Jordanian to establish an art studio which he also used to teach students. He served as an ambassador of the Arab League.

Currently, he is a professor at the Faculty of Fine Art and Design at Jordan University as well as the president of the Association of Fine Arts, Jordan.

Exhibitions

Durra held numerous solo exhibitions in Rome, Florence, the USSR, various Arab and European capitals, Washington D.C., Plazzo Venezia, the 1988 Venice Biennale Exhibition, and the Fine Arts National Museum of Valetta, Malta. More recently he held solo exhibitions in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts and the Austrian Parliament Central Hall in Vienna.

Durra’s work is represented in various national and international collections, including that of the Vatican, the Imperial Court of Japan, the President of the Philippines, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada, David Rockefeller, The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Fanimay Bank in Washington, D.C., Bonn City Hall, Washington, D.C. City Hall, the University of San Francisco, Georgetown University, as well as several Jordanian institutes.

Awards

Durra is also the recipient of several prestigious awards:

1965 Decorated Knight of the Holy Order of San Silvestro by His Holiness Pope Paul VI

1970 Awarded Al Kawkab decoration by H.M. King Hussein

1977 The first State Appreciation Award for his contribution to the cultural development of Jordan

1978 Golden Medal of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage

1980 Golden Pioneer Medal and Appreciation Award of the Union of Arab Artists

1992 Elected active member of the International Informatization Academy

2006 Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity

In November 2006, the Ministry of Culture honored Muhanna Durra by naming an art gallery after him and holding a national symposium about his art, with the participation of prominent Jordanian artists and art critics.

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Liverpool artwork of the Week 26 - Matta’s Family by Stephanie de Leng from her book People in Liverpool. Exhibition at Liverpool Academy of Arts until July 11 2008

One of several excellent photographs of people in Liverpool from de Leng’s new book.
Everyone with any interest in food knows and loves Matta’s (or should do), its great to see the family lined up in front of their shop in Bold Street. And no cars in sight! How did they manage that?

For the exhibition Stephanie has framed some of the photographs that did not make it into the book alongside the one’s that did make it. Its a good show and you have to visit to read the texts about the subjects as these are not in the book.

There’s a few local celebrities in there - Willy Russell, Drummond Bone, David Fleming, Loyd Grossman, singer Connie Lush etc. but really its more about showing a positive image of Liverpudlians.

www.stephaniedeleng.co.uk

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FACT invites you to remix Pipilotti!

Pipilotti Remixed!
Throughout her exhibition running until 31 August 2008, FACT would like to invite you to remix Pipilotti.
Pipilotti Rist’s practise can be understood as a constant remix of fantasy and the everyday, creating works that subvert the music video, merging music with the female voice and body through electronic manipulation.

Whether you are a big fan of Pipilotti’s, a filmmaker, an artist, musician or producer, watch Pipilotti’s video works online then submit your own remix to win…

WHAT TO DO:
1. Take one of Pipilotti’s videos fromYouTube or at www.pipilottirist.net, edit it, mix it, play it backwards, chop it up, create your own soundtrack for it, or video yourself performing your own version of it.

2. Upload it onto FACT’s Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/FACTLiverpool

3. Email the web link to your video to: competition@fact.co.uk

4. We’ll profile our favourites on the BBC Big Screen

5. Competition winner will be announced on 01 September 2008

Good luck - FACT looks forward to seeing all your entries!

www.fact.co.uk

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The Arabic Cultural Foundation in partnership with Al-Ghazali Centre are proud to present:

Through Arab Eyes
Exhibition 08

Friday 11th – Sunday 13th July 2008
Al-Ghazali Centre, 35 Earle Road, Liverpool, L7 6HD

International Exhibits Include:
Etab Hreib (Syria) - Watercolours of Arabia

Mohammed Hannon (Palestine/Jordan) - Justice, Peace and Nature Photography

Abdi Jama (UK) - A Somalian Experience

Artist Backgrounds:

Etab Hreib.
Etab is a University Lecturer in Damascus, the Arab Capital of Culture in 2008. Her watercolours have been exhibited in 4 continents, in countries including UAE, Spain and Egypt and USA.

She has received numerous awards for her work including the Golden Award from the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the Al-Mahros Awards from Tunisia.

Mohammed Hannon.
A Jordanian of Palestinian descent, Mr Hannon works as a freelance photographer. His works have been published in many international media including the Al-Quds Al-Arabi London based newspaper.

He is director of Light’s Art of Photography Workshop and Gallery in Amman, Jordan. His works have been exhibited all over Asia, Africa, Asia, Europe and more than 20 states in the USA.

Admission: FREE
The exhibition opens at 4pm on Friday 11th July
Opening times on Sat 12th & Sunday 13th are 12pm – 5pm

Introduction to photography workshops Sat & Sun

For more information contact 0151 7343843
Email: adamkelwick@acfmerseyside.org.uk

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