Would you believe I’ve never been to Liverpool? Ridiculous, I know, but up until last Saturday, the absolute truth. But on Saturday, I got up at 5.30, and headed off for a day trip, invited to visit the Biennial 2016, a festival of contemporary art by Cass Art.
Having never been to the city before, the Biennial was a new idea too, so it was great to meet Julie Lomax,
Director of Development. She explained that the festival is made up of episodes on themes, and the episodes themselves are made up of different art works, dotted around the city in a variety of locations. There is a massive amount of art on show, and my top tip for a visit would be wear comfortable shoes. You’re going to do a lot of walking. (I’m probably explaining this really badly – there’s a thing about the episodes here that might help explain it better.)
Now, given my whole experience of art at school, you won’t be surprised to hear that I don’t know a great deal about art, contemporary or otherwise. I have to admit that I felt a bit fraudulent taking part in the whole tour on some levels, as some of the other participants obviously knew a lot more than I did. Having said that, there were only two of us who had a go at doing any sketching as we went around, so I did at least feel like I was having a go.
The art on show varies across media, size, type, you name it, it’s in there. There are installations aimed at children, and sized to exclude us grown ups, temporary installations in ex breweries, even art on a screen in a chinese supermarket. We started in Bluecoat, right next to the Cass Art shop.
This is part of the software episode, and there’s supposed to be an app as well, though I haven’t got around to downloading yet.
What does this remind me of? Please? There’s something kicking around in the back of my mind and I don’t know what it is!
We moved on to FACT.
I loved this room. I could have just stood there watching for hours. I love how the closer the figure is to the screen the clearer it is. I want to draw this effect.
From there to China town, and a very odd little installation in a Chinese supermarket. Yes, really. Somewhere I have a piece of paper with a story about a portal on it, I wonder where that went…
From there to the Oratory, which is part of the Greek episode. And our first encounter with the Sleeping Shepherd boy (yes, keep your eyes open as you go about, he pops up in more than one place). I had a go at drawing him 🙂
By now, I was starting to flag. We had seen a lot of art. I’d spoken with people, was very aware I was kind of lost and a long way from home, and we still had a long way to go and a lot to see. Fortunately, what we did next was walk down through the gardens below the cathedral, which made for a very calming and regrounding section of our tour. Much needed, and I highly recommend if you’re visiting the city/ biennial you build the gardens in too.
Really, there’s way too much to see in a day – we didn’t cover more than a tiny fraction of the art on offer, and I’m seriously considering going back for a much longer visit, possibly with some children in tow. (It’s actually cheaper for me to go with a child, given the family and friends railcard. And we could stop in a YHA family room, and maybe see some other Liverpool stuff too.)
And yes, no matter how much or how little you know about art, I’d say a visit is worth it. I’ve come back fired up to create more, to not limit myself to just sketching, to realise that art comes in all sorts of formats. I’d say it was an incredibly useful day out (not least because I got hours on a train or 6 to read a book or two 😉 )
As I said, I was invited to visit by Cass Art, and you can read their account of our tour on their blog. (If you look very closely, you might even spot me in one of the pictures, taking part in a work of art 😉 )
Feel free to visit the Cass Art online store too.
Disclosure: my travel expenses were recompensed, I received a bundle of art stuff, and Cass Art links are affiliate links.
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