Art in the City

NORMAN MACLEOD temporarily foresook Taigh Chearsabhagh to cast an expert eye over the recently ended Liverpool Biennial

THE LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL began in 1999, or so the catalogue says, but I’m still scratching my head to why it is on in 2004 and not 2005. Having been lucky enough to secure funding from HI-Arts to visit Britain’s best biennial (pronounced ‘beeinally’ in Scouse), I wound my way from Lochmaddy on the last week of the event.

Not having been to Liverpool before and having only heard the stories – “they’ll steal your wheels”, “you’ll get mugged” – I was pleasantly surprised (although to be on the safe side I did lock my car away for a couple of days).

There was a real buzz about the city – the event had been a real plus factor to this city, which has certainly seen better days.  Listening into a conversation between a taxi driver and a couple visiting the city for ‘ART’, he remarked “I’ve never really liked art, I’ve never really understood art, but now I admire what art can do for a city”.

This maybe sums up the gut feeling that I got in my stay in Liverpool.  It was by no means perfect, and I think that the committee organising the event would be the first to admit this.  They are nowhere near what is shown in Venice (pronounced ‘Veenice’ in Scouse) but should this be what they are aspiring to?  They certainly have their own identity and a grass roots way of doing things, so I am certainly looking forward to another visit in 2008 when Liverpool becomes the Euroepan Centre of Culture.

The use of different venues throughout the city was interesting, to the extent that you wondered if some of the work was graffiti or was it art – or is it all art?

Empty shops were used, banners were hung. and sculptures spread through the city centre. There is an interesting story regarding the Yoko Ono banners, which hung outside Bluecoat and throughout the city.  Rumour has it that some adventurous Scally pinched a few and allegedly tried to sell them on ebay.

“Beethoven, the Headbangers by Amanda Coogan was compulsive viewing when a volunteer choir headbanged for ten minutes to the stirring strains of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

There was no way that I could visit the fifty plus venues in my stay, but I certainly got near the half-way point.  Unfortunately some of the smaller independent venues had decided to shut up shop for the last few days of the biennially.

The Tate Liverpool
The Tate Liverpool had an exciting and diverse range of art. Worthy of mention was Carl Michael Hausswolff’s ‘Red Mersey’, and Sanja
Ivekovic’s ‘Liverpoll’ (which incorproated a poll of Liverpudlians on certain subjects), and not only showed at the Tate but also spread through the city centre. Donit Margreiter’s ‘Grandeur et decadence d’un petit commerce de cinema’ remade the Lumiere Brothers film footage of Liverpool, but in this case showing Liverpool as Dublin.

Bluecoat
Bluecoat was possible the best venue for me.  There was certainly a tongue in cheek element to whoever curated the exhibition.  You certainly felt uplifted after your visit.

‘Trigger’, an eight-minute loop multi-channel projection by Wong Hoy Cheong re-enacted the event in 1954 when Roy Rogers, his wife and their horse Trigger stayed in Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel following an appearance at the city’s Empire Theatre.  As the singing cowboy lay in bed with the flu, he was paid a visit by this horse Trigger who had made his way through the hotel and up to his room.  This was after he had signed the hotel register with a pencil between his teeth.

A friend of mine who was brought up outside Glasgow he remembers Roy Rodgers visiting Glasgow (possible on the same tour) and was given the honour of pressing the button when a local castle was too be demolished.  Possible another work for Wong Hoy Cheong.

‘Beethoven, the Headbangers’ by Amanda Coogan was compulsive viewing when a volunteer choir headbanged for ten minutes to the stirring strains of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Open Eye
The Open Eye showed a series of photographs as well as a film by Italian artist Francesco Jodice.  The work investigated UFO sightings around the Mersey Valley.  Personally I found the exhibition slightly dry for my tastes.

“Certainly the Biennial has a cultural and financial impact on the city of Liverpool.  Can it happen in Scotland?  Can it happen in Inverness?”

The Walker
The Walker Gallery hosted the John Moore 23 exhibition.  It was good to see a contemporary painting exhibition and to tell you the truth I can hardly remember the last time that I visited one.  There was a good range of work from figurative to total abstraction.  From the initial entry of nearly 2000 it was whittled down to 56 paintings.  The winner of this year’s award was Alexis Harding with his abstract and very textured painting ‘Slump/Fear (orange/black) 2004’.

Lime Street Station
A railway station may seem to have been a strange location for the work of Choi Jeong Hwa.  In fact the fantastic colourful garland of blossoms called ‘Happy Together’ was removed from the station for a few days (allegedly the train drivers thought them too distracting and may have led to an accident).  The piece was later rightly reinstated.

Peter Johansson
The trip to Liverpool would not have been complete without a visit to the Swedish artist Peter Johansson’s brightly painted red house.  In fact all the internal and external features of the house are bright red.  To add to the ambience, the sound of Abba plays day and night.  His work aimed to reflect the ready made prefab culture that Sweden is becoming.

Certainly the Biennial has a cultural and financial impact on the city of Liverpool.  Can it happen in Scotland?  Can it happen in Inverness?

I would certainly like to think so.

© Norman MacLeod, 2004