Manchester Ladyfest, CHARMEUSE @ Zion Arts Centre

Hooray for Ladyfest!

What, you don't know what Ladyfest is? Ladyfest is a community-based, not-for-profit global music and arts festival for female artists that features bands, musical groups, performance artists, authors, spoken word and visual artists. This years Manchester Ladyfest is based at the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme. Running between 7th & 9th of November there is a full line up of talks, workshops and music events. Unfortunately, they've stuck the most comprehensive and comprehendible list of events on their facebook page. I may be addicted to facebook like everyone else, but wish it wasn't becoming so bloody ubiquitous. 

Anyway, getting my knickers in a twist about the accompanying visual arts exhibition, CHARMEUSE. A full list of exhibitors can be found on the ubiquitous facebook. 

It's free on the preview night, Thursday 6th November 6-9pm, and will be open during the Ladyfest festival weekend. Tickets are priced from £5, open 7-9th November 10am - 11pm,  available from www.wegottickets.com

The Endurance @ The Studio, Royal Exchange

The Endurance is utterly mental but complete bloody brilliance. 

The best arts experience, whether it be film, theatre or any of the visual arts, should endow the next few hours with a strange sense of unreality. I blame Ben Faulks mesmerising performance for me wrapping my knock-off pashmina round and round my neck and scurrying over to M&S to buy some thermal underwear. 

I should admit right now that this could not possibly be an unbiased review. From the moment the final raucous, lead poisoned chords of the "tin song" died away I realised I was a little bit in love. I grew up with the myth of polar explorers and all the masculine bullshit that goes with them. In recent years read enough to become aware how nutty, cruel, self absorbed and just plain stupid these fellas were, and Ben Faulks, through his prancing, performative characters, manifests this aspect in strange glory. 

At just under over an hour, this madcap, mesmeric one man play is a glorious bite sized treat. If you're looking for high drama this probably isn't for you, but if you're looking for something intricate, enjoyable and a little off the wall this is for you. In equal measures it's hilarious and fascinating, and the gently revelatory end brings together the disparate parts of the protagonist's madness into a touching and manageable parcel. 

Sadly, The Endurance is only at the Studio, Royal Exchange, for two more days. Quick, go see, be mesmerised and battered by this brilliant, insane, enchanting play. 

Antigone @ The Royal Exchange

I live with a lady who has the most expressive eyebrows you have ever seen. She expresses scepticism in the move of one glorious, nuisanced eyebrow with an ease and eloquence most of us could only dream of.

The Royal Exchanges' production of Antigone was great on so many levels, but there were several aspects of it which made me wish I had my house mate's skill with the eyebrow.

The Good: The acting, with was mostly incredibly good, captivating, stepping the fine line between delivering interminable speeches, which I guess cannot be avoided with Greek theatre, and expressiveness.

The set, simple, with a funeral bier complete with charred bones and a uneven floor with a massive crack in it reminiscent of Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth 2007.

The contemporary clothes made it feel a little like we were watching an episode of Lost, but also gave a kind of timeless, post-apocalyptic feel to the whole affair that I quite liked.

Despite initially balking at the prospect of watching a play for a hour and forty minutes without a break, I didn't actually feel as painfully long as I expected. All of a sudden everyone is dead and you know there can be only a few more speeches before you're allowed to escape to the pub.

The slightly silly: The modern dance. I'm first to confess I'll always prefer prose over poetry. I like a bit of narrative with my fish supper. I can understand its purpose, breaking up the production, giving us a breather from the endless speeches and the actors a chance to change, but I really just didn't get it. It seemed rather silly and tacked on.

The army chaps in full black block desert storm regalia. It took contemporaneity a little far, and made every reference to "crimes against the state" a little heavy. The shenanigans with the riot shield just seemed completely nonsensical.

Antigone's arms. Although Matti Houghton was mostly great, there was some weird going on with her arms. They seemed determined to do with odd, mannequin like, automaton flapping. Although this gives us a sense of the highly controlled nature of the character, I frankly found it distracting, jerky and utterly inexpressive.

Anyway, don't let this put you off. I reckon I have a pretty normal attention span and didn't find it wandering once, something which is pretty remarkable for ancient classical theatre. I really did enjoy it, despite wishing I had better skills with the sceptical eyebrow.

Antigone is at the Royal Exchange until the 8th of November.

Another week: Badger Set, Are You Dead?, Antigone, Neil Gaiman & The Endurance

Once again I'd heartily recommend visiting Illuminations before it shuts down on the 30th.

This week takes on a different feel than the last few. The end of the Manchester Literature Festival means my week is not base so much on literature, and is taking a rather theatric turn. Sadly I haven't been able to find any art events to hunt down, other than the 1st Badger Set party at the Nexus Art Cafe. This is a chance for everyone to rendezvous at Nexus for their new monthly party. They promise live music, comedians, games and even a raffle. Sounds rather pleasant and quaint. The fun kicks off at 7pm on Saturday 1st November and entry is only £2.

Although I count myself as a big supporter of the Nexus, and was mostly impressed by Are You Dead? I was a little disappointed by one aspect of it. Frankly having a bit of familiarity with taxidermy, I didn't think the quality of the work was that high. The poor quality of the taxidermy on the staircase installation was a little distracting. Despite being a vegetarian I don't really have any problem with the use of dead animals, just wish the work had been done a little better. You can go see for yourself if you hurry, Are You Dead? ends this Saturday.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Antigone at the Royal Exchange. From City Life's rather inconclusive review I really don't know what to expect. Antigone runs until the 8th of November.

On Wednesday the mighty Neil Gaiman is promoting his new book, The Graveyard , at Manchester University. A chance to see if Tony Lee was really telling the truth or not about him working on Doctor Who comics for IDW in the US.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to fit in a trip to see The Endurance at the Studio in the Studio at the Royal Exchange. I grew up with the myth of Shackleton, a fact which drove me to read and eventually write my undergraduate dissertation about polar explorers. This, and the fact the City Life pulls together a rather more conclusive and encouraging review is getting me quite excited. Endurance runs until the 1st of November.

I have family visiting this weekend, so I'm not sure what direction this weekend will take, however there is a strong possibility you will see me riding my bicycle down Deansgate dressed as a cat on Friday night, en family and a pack of anarcho-eco-punk bodies.

Illuminations by Trace @ ServicePoint Building, Whitworth Street

One of my favourite exhibition experiences of my whole life happened in one room of the Pompideu centre in spring of 2006. Rodney Graham’s film Rheinmetal/Victoria 8 ( 2003 ) was a projection of white powder slowly falling onto and settling on a typewriter. It was eerie and beautiful, a significant personal experience with a work of art, that I have never really spoken about but have carried with my since that time. Some of the aspects which so touched me about Graham's piece seem to be repeated in Illuminations at the ServicePoint Buildings.



I haven’t enjoyed, and been impressed by, an art exhibition as much as Illuminations in an awfully long time. Consisting of work from over 30 recent graduates from the Slade School of Fine Art, they exhibit under the collective name Trace. Although not all of the exhibits are of the same high quality or originality, nearly all are evocative and interesting. The decision to place the show within a blacked out and disused building is rather clever. Individually illuminated pieces seem eerie and beautiful, and the darkness covers a multitude of sins. Weird corporate fixtures and fittings sink into the background, loom strangely and unimportantly in the corner of your eye and while also adding to the whole experience. Another significance of the blackout/illumination choice is that it makes the exhibition difficult to photograph, eliminating one of my major bugbears with peoples behaviour in gallery spaces.

To wander around the building in near dark is a wonderful experience. The projected art is ghostly and beautiful, and seems to bring down a comfortable silence and air of contemplation. I also like that it is not a circular exhibition, that when you get to the end of the exhibition you do not spill out at some predetermined destination complete with shop. You have to retrace your steps, revisiting exhibits which you passed perhaps only minutes earlier. With video art this is a real gift, since with luck you find yourself presented with parts which you may not have seen again. With the most beautiful ones, such as Sam Belinfante's Tube Lines or Permille Leggat Ramfelt and Richard Bevan's Point this is a real gift.

So go find this exhibition and have a relaxed wander, free of excessive curatorial direction and do the interpretation for yourself. It's great, and I hope this style of exhibition can take over from the prissy, didactic and tired trends that seem to rule the roost at the moment. Illumnations is at 4 Whitworth Street West, the Deansgate Station end, and runs till the 30th of November. It is open Mon-Fri 12-7pm, Sat/Sun 1-5pm.

Manchester Blog Awards - In Pictures

Wednesday night I went to the Manchester Blog awards with my trusty photographer side kick Sam, he was the chap with the phallic slr that kept leaping around and snapping away down by the stage. It was loads of fun and a chance to see the blogerati off the internet and in Matt & Phreds. The readings were great, especially liked Mr. Chicken and Pies, pictured below. However, the creative writing did seem to all focus on internal dialogues of dysfunctional morons, but I suppose blog writing lends itself to that. Anyway, thanks to the legendary Manchizzle for organising it, you can read about the winners of the evening here. Anyway, I know that other people have done a much more through job of blogging the event, but wanted to post a link to Sam's set on Flickr.

Another busy week: Blacksad, Mervyn Peake @ MAG, Manchester Blog Awards, Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, Illuminations and Dystopian Novels

Wow, what a weekend! Spent today recovering, writing event reviews for the Manchester Literature Festival Blog. Friday's event, Destroy Powerpoint is online and my attempt to render the glourisously beery monstrosity that was Vvoorp Vvoorp! at the Lass O' Gowrie into comprehendible words should follow shortly. I have not even began trying to put into words how utterly divine it was to meet the lovely Hannah Berry and Paul Gravatt on Sunday.

I'm sure Hannah will forgive me, because the second Blacksad book came through my door today and demanded a few hours of my time. Unfortunately, as observed with the previous book by my multilingual goddess of a house mate, the translation is not that great, even clear to an uncultivated hack like me because the spelling of one of the characters name keeps shifting inexplicably.

This week is not quite as geeky, but still has a claim to nerdy fame. It starts a tomorrow with an event I am blogging for the Manchester Literature Festival. with the son of the author of Gormenghast, Sebastian Peake, reading his father's writings by Mervyn's painting of glassblowers in Manchester Art Gallery.

Wednesday is the Manchester Blog Awards, run in conjunction with the Literature Festival and City Life. I wasn't nominated of an award, but still want to attend out of Mancunian blogging solidarity. Prepare to nominate me next year, people, for I shall be queen!

Thursday is the preview of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, which I am really looking forward to. Craft lies pretty close to my heart, as a daughter of a weaver and craft maker. Yes, that website is pretty ancient, but it's my mama's so be respectful! After the beautiful disappointment which was Cloth & Culture Now, and fully aware of the proverbial meat market which crafts fairs can be, I'm looking forward to see what my reaction will be. Like fine art, there are some rather strange, and to an outsider rather inexplicable, hierarchies within the craft field. The use of contemporary in the title flirts with me shameless, tempting and disconcerting, like a burlesque dancer with an adams apple.

On Friday night is the start of Illuminations, which I have previously blogged about.

If all that wasn't enough, I'm also covering a Dystopian Novel Debate on Saturday.

Good job I'm unemployed, otherwise I would be shaking myself to sublimely cultural pieces!