Walker Art Gallery Liverpool

Although i'm currently based in Birmingham, i am actually from somewhere quite near to Liverpool with a large portion of my family being Liverpudlians, so it's somewhere i have visited quite a few times. I often overlook it as a place to visit to wander around exhibitions (my visits generally have one purpose-shopping!), however, my recent visit has reminded me just how much there is to see in this city. 

As well as visiting the Tate (see previous post), i also visited The Walker Art Gallery, which is just across the road from Liverpool Lime Street Station. As well as the gallery's permanent 20th century and contemporary collection, i also saw the New Works At The Walker exhibition, which brings together new pieces that the Walker has acquired over recent years.

A very varied collection of works were exhibited; including costume, paintings and video... An exhibition that would most definitely be classed as contemporary, including a very memorable piece by Marcus Coates, which i found quite strange but as it was so different it stuck with me. Journey To The Lower World (2004) is a video installation which shows Coates dressed in a deer skin performing a ritual to interact with the spirit world to answer a question put to him by residents of a block of flats awaiting demolition; "do we have a protector for this site? What is it?" As he 'interacts' with the spirit world he begins making animalistic noises and acting as though he may be possessed by a spirit... A very bizarre piece of work but it does have impact!

'Super Star F****r Andy Warhol Text Painting', Peter Davies, 2002-20th Century & Contemporary Collection

    

'A Glass Of Water', Michael Craig-Martin, 1984-20th Century & Contemporary Collection

'Belonging' Patrick Murphy

This installation was outside of the Walker Art Gallery and is a response to the suggestion that pigeons are a nuisance and are 'uninvited guests' but the bright colours of  the birds that are 'decorating' the gallery are difficult to avoid!

Glam! The Performance of Style

The Liverpool Tate has showcased an exhibition focusing on the explosion of 'pop style' that came about in the seventies. It has been on for a few months and closes today but i visited the exhibition last week and found it very interesting to see the development of the style. 

The exhibition was all about glamour, exaggeration, androgyny and a dose of the erotic, with the style being represented through art, film, photography and sculpture. Everything was about being 'over-the-top' and creating a great impact, i found that a lot of the exhibition was about the crossover of males and females, which was portrayed through males transforming themselves with the use of make-up.

I enjoyed the exhibition and it was interesting to learn about fashion and beauty trends from that era. 

I also visited another exhibition, similar in theme to this one; The Art Of Pop Video at FACT (Foundation For Art & Creative Technology), which is a media arts centre also in Liverpool.

The exhibition was very simple in concept; several rooms with televisions mounted on walls playing music videos, each fitting into a theme showing the development of the pop video. Significant music videos from past years were included as well as the politically influenced and the amateur which were boosted by the introduction of YouTube. A very simple concept that is quite effective, this exhibition runs until May 26th and is free entry; it was nice to see pop videos that are regarded highly all in one place.

The Art Of Pop Exhibition Trailer