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Digitalia

Digital Abstracts

By Steve Wilde

Northern Weekender
July 19, 2009

This Is Sculpture - tate Liverpool - Steve Wilde

It's been a test of recall doing these last four posts in retrospect but this one is easier as it's only just happened. Despite only being back from Spain for three days it was nice to have a break. The last 6 weeks have been ludicrously busy.

On Friday we went to Manchester to see Prima Donna, the Rufus Wainwright opera at the Palace Theatre. Sam got me the tickets for my birthday way back in December.

We weren't too sure what to expect, other than knowing that it was in French. It wasn't too far removed from Rufus' usual style at times but trying to shoehorn mundane conversations about whether someone wants tea or coffee into it made it a little untidy lyrically. I don't know anythimg about opera but are there "rules" that state abxsolutely everything has to be sung? There was the very odd line that was spoken and a couple seemed to slip out in English, unless the French words were very similar. still the staging, sets and costumes were suitably camp and the orchestra "tight" [do you use that term with orchestras? Or is that a bit rock'n'roll?]. We both enjoyed it a lot, despite the relatively happy ending [I thought these things were always tragic] but I'm not sure I'd rush to another opera too soon and look forward to more songs from Mr Wainwright.

The weather was nasty and prior to the show we had lunch booked at Michael Caines [no, not that one] restaurant in the Adobe hotel. We turned up soaked after deciding it would be a short walk from the hotel We tried the "grazing" menu which meant we could match a few different wines with each dish. Three courses for £12.

Sam had leek and potato soup with truffle cream. Slow poached smoked haddock and bubble and squeak with olive butter sauce. Followed by cheese. And I had breast of wood pigeon with compressed melon and chocolate shavings. Navarin of spring lamb, baby vegetables and pomme puree. There was also a tapeanade jus but asked for them to hold that in case it included anchovies. Fish doesn't like me! That was all followed by warm cherry clafoutis with cherry and kirsch ice cream.

Shame I can't think of anything else nice to say about Manchester. It looks like an overgrown Croydon to me and some of the clubs we passed were even worse than that. Aside from Canal Street it all looked pretty grim but maybe we were just in the wrong part, the Crowne Plaza is just round the corner from the Arndale!

It was still raining when we came out of the restaurant so we decided to hole up the Manchester Art Gallery until it closed before heading back to the hotel. It was still bloody raining so we got a cab to the theatre.

Sunday morning we were up and off to head across to Liverpool to check out the Colour Chart exhibit at the Tate. Quite a few write ups that I have read about this exhibition have not liked it but it ticked all the right boxes for me. We were in there for over three hours, although a little of that was spent in the This Is Sculpture exhibit, which included a room that you viewed the exhibits in whiklst wearing headphones playing funk and disco and included an illuminated dance floor and mirror balls; thanks to artist Michael Craig-Martin, designer Wayne Hemingway and his son Jack, and artist, director and writer Tim Etchells. Excellent stuff. See picture above.

I can see why some wouldn't like the Colour Chart exhibit, it's a bit of a random collection of works under a tenuous umbrella. But I like the seeing works that draw on graphic design techniques, use mixed media [including film] and works created using strict formulaic techiniques or "apparent" randomness; and they're all included here. Highlights included Cory Arcangel's Colors and all David Batchelor's work. John Baldessari's Six Colourful Inside Jobs and Jan Dibbet's Colour Studies... amongst others.

We moseyed over to look at the new Liverpool One shopping experience after but had lost the urge to walk around any more so we stopped at Zelig's for a drink or two before deciding that it might be a nice place to eat... But, despite being HUGE, it was full! So we headed back to the Albert Dock to look at a few places we had seen earlier that looked OK.

We wondered why these places weren't overly busy as Liverpool doesn't look anywhere near as hit by the "credit crunch" as Manchester did. We soon found out why. The first one we looked in, The Raven, you could smell of toilets as soon as you got in the door. Then Circo sat us down and brought us a menu and then didn't even notice when we walked out 20 minutes later without even being asked if we'd like a drink.

For the sort of prices they are charging they want to go down the pan sharpish! We ended up eating burgers in Bar Ha Ha which wasn't that busy either but at least the food arrived quickly and was reasonably priced [for what it was]. And the staff were attentive.

Observation. After being out on a Saturday night in Liverpool I reckon someone could make a killing selling stilettos! I've never seen so many in one night and we weren't even in a club! But then maybe somone has already made that killing.

Well, after all those weeks of not posting anything, this has rattled on a bit hasn't it? So we got up for breakfast and bizzarely there is a girl sitting there that had been in the Manchester Art Gallery yesterday afternoon. What are the chances of that happening?

Categories: Art, Photography, Food & Drink, Travel, Theatre

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