Tomorrow’s Music Yesterday

Selected from the Bluecoat archive, this display of posters reflects some of the music presented at the venue over the decades, with a focus on the experimental and eclectic, including jazz, improvised, electronic, ‘world’ and contemporary classical from the likes of the Philip Glass Ensemble, John Zorn, Pierre Henry, Carla Bley, Imrat Khan and Philip Jeck.

Located in their upstairs Gallery.

From Fri 15 Nov
Open 11am-5pm, Tue-Sun
Free entry

Cosmotechnics

This winter, you are invited to explore the worlds of Cosmotechnics, a new exhibition that delves into the relationship between culture and technology through the lens of four Latin American artists and collectives. Atractor Studio + Semantica, Patricia Domínguez and Rebeca Romero challenge the idea that technology is the same everywhere and across all cultures. Using sculpture, video, and sound to create immersive installations, their works reveal how local ways of thinking and sensing can lead to new ways of embracing art and culture and offer multiple perspectives of technology.

Curated by FACT’s 2024 Curator-in-Residence, Beatrice Zaidenberg, each artwork becomes a portal to rethink our relationship with technology, using plants as a guide.

Atractor Studio + Semantica present their award-winning video and sound works, A Tale of Two Seeds, On Vegetal Politics and Botánica Transgénica. Based in Colombia and the UK, both collectives create artworks to visualise natural events and scientific ideas. These works focus on the problems caused by industrial farming: specifically, how companies change plant genes (genetic modification) and take control of seeds and land in Colombia, leading to colonisation and exploitation of native plants and local knowledge. In 2023, the presented works received the coveted Golden Nica at The Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s longest-running media art competition.

Patricia Domínguez, born and based in Chile, combines her research on plants, resource extraction, and healing practices to create sculptures, videos, and writings that imagine more sustainable and compassionate ways of living. In Cosmotechnics, Patricia presents two works side by side for the first time, developed during her dual residency between CERN in Switzerland and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomy facilities in Chile. Tres Lunas Más Abajo (Three Moons Below) (2024) and Matrix Vegetal (2022) reflect Patricia’s ongoing exploration of the energy that connects all living things and objects on Earth.

Rebeca Romero presents a newly commissioned installation for Cosmotechnics. Born in Peru and based in London, her work blends pre-Columbian iconography with modern technology to ask how new technologies can revive ancient belief systems erased from history. In Rebeca’s futuristic sculpture, Chrysalis (2024), she combines ancient wisdom with video mapping, 3D scanning and printing to form a speculative allyship between plants and humans. Rebeca was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021. More recently, she was awarded the OGR Award for effectively conveying complex relationships between art, technology, and innovation.

Winter Display 2024

Bluecoat Display Centre’s annual Winter Display features high quality, beautifully made, unique and meaningful pieces, in which skilful making and craftsmanship are essential elements, and which can be gifted to be used and loved for years to come.

With this in mind they have curated a range of contemporary jewellery, functional ceramics and tableware, wood and homewares, beautiful wearable textiles, eye-catching prints and festive decorations. All made by studio based makers from across the UK, who employ traditional techniques, often using sustainable materials and practices.

Makers include:

Jewellery by Rachel Butlin X Keeley Traae, Factory Floor Jewels, Bronwen Gwillim, Catherine Hills, Grant McCaig, Rentaro Nishimura, Tom Pigeon & Adele Taylor
Ceramics by Maree and Paul Allitt, Guy Holder, Tim Lake, Katie Pruden & Jean White
Textiles by Georgia Boniface, Charlie Ann Buxton, Vanessa Bullick, Nawal Gebreel, Kate Jones & Margo Selby
Wood by Matthew Green
Prints & Ceramics by Dom Marshall
Prints by Hannah Farthing
Homewares by David Mellor
Decorations by David Mayne, Ella McIntosh & Keeley Traae

Exhibition Opening: Thursday 7 November 2024, 4pm – 7pm

Join them for a special opening event on Thursday 7 November 2024, from 4pm – 7pm. Refreshments will be served and Friends of the Bdc will receive a 10% discount on all purchases during the evening.

INNSiDE dot-art Exhibition

INNSiDE Liverpool, part of Meliá Hotels International, is excited to present a new dot-art art exhibition featuring the work of Claire Western, an artist inspired by both nature and the emotional impact of music.

The exhibition, Echoes of Emotion, showcases Claire Western’s abstract interpretations of landscapes, exploring the interplay between colours, textures, and emotions. A graduate of Margaret Street School of Art in Birmingham, Claire’s creative process is deeply influenced by the natural world and the musical rhythms she listens to while painting. Her work combines layered, vibrant expanses of colour with strong, textured line work, creating a unique tension between playfulness and structure.

The abstract landscapes in the exhibition are designed to be intentionally unrecognisable, encouraging viewers to engage with the artwork in a personal way. Claire’s compositions are shaped by her experiences in nature—drawing inspiration from the textures of rock formations, weathered surfaces, and natural elements—while music influences the way she applies expressive brushstrokes and adds small embellishments. The combination of these influences brings a sense of ambiguity and curiosity to her work.

Event

Echoes of Emotion is part of INNSiDE Liverpool’s commitment to its ‘Stay Curious’ philosophy, which aims to create enriched guest experiences through art, music, and culture. By showcasing local talent, the hotel fosters a deeper connection between the community, visitors, and the creative energy of the city.

Proximity

Stephen McCoy has spent 45 years living, working, and photographing on Merseyside. “Proximity” explores his deep connection with the people and places of the region, tracing the development of his photographic practice over the decades. The exhibition features a selection of works from his major projects, spanning from 1979 to the present, including two recent, ongoing sets of work.

From housing estates in Ainsdale to communities in Skelmersdale, from the demolition sites in Liverpool to the safe spaces of homes and gardens, from along the coastline to a touching and personal family journey – these projects, featuring a wide range of subjects and experimental ways of making pictures, celebrate the relationships that we create throughout our lives.

Stephen McCoy said: I have always felt that my best work shows a deep personal connection to the subject photographed, whether of people or place. A sense of place necessitates familiarity with an area; hence this exhibition is a distillation of a 45-year project, a continuing examination of my homeland, my Proximity.

For me photographs must have a balance between concept, technique and creativity. I do consider myself a documentary photographer, in the broadest sense; I photograph my view of the world and create order. Many of the photographs in the exhibition are from older projects and these have taken on a different kind of importance as time has passed.

Bedazzled

A selection of glamorous evening wear dating from the 1920s to today will be shown at Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, Wirral. Showcasing 20 outfits, Bedazzled (26 October 2024 to 26 January 2025) celebrates the enduring popularity of beaded garments and explores the skills involved in making them.

The exhibition also provides an opportunity for National Museums Liverpool to present recently acquired items from the wardrobe of Leila Potter (1935 – 2022) for the first time. Leila was a successful businesswoman, charity campaigner and local councillor who spent much of her life living in Wirral and Cheshire. She had a passion for dazzling, sequinned items of clothing, usually featuring the colour pink.

Pauline Rushton, Head of Lady Lever Art Gallery, said: “Bedazzled is a riot of beads, sequins and sparkle – bringing a real dose of colour and glamour to the gallery over the festive period.

“We’re particularly excited to be showing some of Leila Potter’s 1980s items for the first time. Glitzy styles from this period were likely to have been influenced in part by popular American television programmes such as Dallas and Dynasty, where sequins and shoulder pads were synonymous with some of the leading female characters.”

The renewed appetite for dazzling evening wear in the 1980s followed the post-War period during which elaborate, beaded evening wear wasn’t part of mainstream fashion. It was still being made by the leading fashion houses, but wasn’t available or affordable to the majority of shoppers in the UK.

The exhibition looks back to the 1920s and early 1930s when glittering, beaded gowns were first made in large numbers. They represented not only a sharp contrast to the practical yet uninspiring clothing that had been a necessity during the First World War, but also a dramatic change in the cut of women’s garments. In a departure from the corseted, layered styles that were fashionable before the War, modern dresses in the 1920s were long and tubular in shape.

As well as being less constrictive to wear, the simplified forms and flat surfaces were ideal for decorating with sequins and beads. Bedazzled explores the production of glass ‘bugle’ beads, which were made in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic, during the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the highly skilled French art of tambour embroidery as a method of hand-stitching beads and sequins onto the surface of a dress.

Through the costumes on show, Bedazzled charts the changes in the manufacture of beaded evening wear over the last century, from beaded dresses made in France during the 1920s, through to sequinned jackets which were decorated in Indian workshops during the 1980s. Visitors will see how societal changes and technological advancements have impacted on these developments.

Accompanying the items on show are some of the fascinating stories behind them, revealing who owned them and – in some cases – the important events to which they were first worn. The exhibition also features a selection of eye-catching, diamanté-embellished accessories.

liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/bedazzled

 

Ruth Moilliet: FOFO

FOFO: Fear of finding out

Having celebrated the botanical world in her work for many years, Ruth Moilliet’s bold and engaging sculptures now look at the decline of plant species, their pollinators and the natural world as a whole.

Her initial studies highlighted the impact the fossil fuel industry has on our planet where she began to use found, recycled plastic materials to produce her work. The new additions shown in this exhibition encourage discussion around the responsibilities we have as individuals to prevent further decline through our daily activities and the items in our lives.

Event

Free entry, Monday – Saturday. 10am – 4pm. Closed Sundays & Bank Holidays.

Drawn To The City by Vicki Mansley

Vicki Mansely’s bold and bright sketches celebrate the architecture of her home city. So it seems fitting that after years of drawing one the most iconic buildings in the city, that is where she will be showcasing her first full public collection, The Royal Liver Building.

As someone who took a break from art and worked outside of the field for years, she is a proof that it is never too late to express yourself artistically.

Vicki will be sketching live at the event most days and her work will be available to purchase.

Tracing Time exhibition at the LAKE ga...

Tracing Time – Exhibition at the LAKE Gallery

Four artists’ interpretation of the landscape from expression to abstraction, using paint, print and ceramics. Featured are Estella Scholes’ collagraphs and collaged prints, Richard Monks’ abstract paintings, a new collection of Tamara William’s expressive, textured pieces on wood and plaster, and a selection of Yvette Glaze’s ceramics with their multi-layered surface designs.

Thursday 17th October – Saturday 23rd November
Opening times: Thurs – Sat, 10am – 4pm

You’ll find the LAKE gallery in the heart of West Kirby, a couple of minutes from the train station.

Into The Lens Photography Exhibition

For one night only Liv Roberts will showcase her latest work in a once in a lifetime event with local artists The Clan Stephen McGinty Callum Carty and Liz Owen.