First me and my friend Jen (one of the lovely ladies behind the Nottingham-based curatorial organisation 'The Cutting Room') visited FACT on Wood Street. We were greeted with an array of posters on show - explaining the rules to a variety of games that we could play; completing one of these games meant we could take a poster home with us! Games included a pillow fight, slow-motion fighting, keeping a feather up in the air using a blanket, as well as many others! Jen and I tried out a game in which you threw a life-size doll (very elaborately dressed) up in the air…
It was quite fun randomly throwing a guy in the air - I think its a good stress reliever, I may get one for my room!
Here is some shots of a few of the posters on show:
The last poster was my favourite - it was a board game inspired by the classic game, Snakes and Ladders!
This work was created by Pedro Reyes and was called 'Melodrama and Other Games'. It created a nice relaxed atmosphere, as everyone is just playing these silly games and letting their hair down a bit; much like what happens when you play games at a friend's house!
Featured as gigantic wall decorations across the bottom floor of the FACT gallery is Jemima Wyman's 'Collective Coverings, Communal Skin'.
The artist uses second-hand camouflage material and weaves them around hula hoops - turning material that is associated with violence into objects that are playful and comforting. Visitors to the gallery can help with this project by sitting down and constructing some of these hula hoops themselves!
The next stop was 28-32 Wood Street (in which the Open Eye Gallery used to be located) to look at Ming Wong's 'Making Chinatown'.
I was quite surprised at this exhibition, I wasn't sure what to expect and I really enjoyed it! Ming Wong uses Roman Polanski's film 'Chinatown' to explore the stereotypical role of the 'Chinese detective' within cinema. The exhibition includes various scenes in which the artist plays multiple roles to explore this concept (at least thats what I gathered - I apologise if I'm wrong! I've found a much through explanation of the work by the artist himself HERE). The exhibit also featured scores of lovely posters:
We then made our way to the Bluecoat and were greeted with a little caravan in the courtyard, which aptly goes by the name of 'The Caravan Gallery'.
The caravan held a large number of photos taken at various locations showing humble signs of hospitality (or some cases the opposite of hospitality!) in public places such as in local cafes or on street signs. A lot of the photos gave me a good chuckle and a book was available to buy from the caravan. Its definitely worth a look!
Within the Bluecoat were a number of exhibits featuring work by John Akomfrah, Dora Garcia and Jakob Kolding:
Akomfrah's work is unfortunately not pictured here as the room in which his work was being shown was very busy! But his work was very engaging - using three large screens to project different scenes, I found it a very interesting technique (I wonder if this could take over the 3D trend currently in cinemas?)
My favourite piece of work in the Bluecoat was by an artist called Sun Xun entitled 'Ancient Film'. He created large hand-drawn pieces as well as animations (therefore I loved it instantly) exploring the traditional forms of hospitality within China.
A room on the first floor of the Bluecoat hosted the artist's animations - the room was dimmed with the animations playing on two large walls (acting almost like spotlights) accompanied by his gigantic hand-drawn scenes which helped to create an engulfing atmosphere. I really enjoyed it, and became generally excited by the use of animation (especially in a hand-drawn style) in an art gallery! I must have seen animation in an art gallery before, but I felt it was employed particularly innovatively with Sun Xun's work!
So there we go, that is Part 1 of my Liverpool Biennial Day! I will post Part 2 soon, which will be all about the Tate Liverpool's showcase of art work. (Psst, psst, its pretty AWESOME!)
The Liverpool Biennial is on until 25th November, so you have got bags of time to check out all the exhibits, I seriously recommend going to the ones I've mentioned cause they were pretty darn cool! You can find out more about the Biennial by visiting their website here: Liverpool Biennial Website
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