Arts

Urban Evolution

Anne Desmet’s new exhibition at the Whitworth is one of the most exciting displays of art I have seen since arriving in Manchester last September. Said to be “one of the most original talents in contemporary artist-printmaking,” her work displays a meticulous skill and eye for detail, while managing to capture the viewers’ imagination.

Queer Up North

Queer up North International Festival is running from the 9th to 25th May and is hosted in venues all over Manchester. Twenty years ago Sandra Bernard’s Without You I’m Nothing influenced a generation of queer performers and artists. Now two decades on the Library Theatre in association with Queer Up North and Ridiculusmus presents Tough Time, Nice Time as part of their 2008 festival.

Barry Douglas

When presented with a solo piano recital featuring the works of romantic giants Liszt, Schumann and Ravel, you are guaranteed an impressive display of virtuosic fireworks. However, despite the flashy nature of his repertoire, Barry Douglas is not a showy soloist.

James, Son of James

A possible definition for art, dance and theatre could be ‘a creation that makes you feel a particular way, which evokes certain emotions within you’. This production managed to make me feel anything and everything all in one performance. This is a tale of love, betrayal and revenge as well as illustrating the profound difference one man can make to a modern day community. Set in Irelands Midlands, this piece is the finale to Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Trilogy for Fabulous Beast.

The Pilots

Founded in 1989, Reckless Sleepers are a company that claim to be dedicated to the production, presentation and development of innovative and experimental visual art and performance. Yet this performance of The Pilots was odd, uncomfortable viewing and at some moments just plain boring!

Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle is one of those artists who is undeservedly unknown in the UK. In the early 1960s she became the only female member of the avant-garde Nouveau Réalistes and she is generally only remembered for her collaborations with other (male) artists.

Push

Push is a collaborative non-classical ballet by legendary French dancer Sylvie Guillem and choreographer Russell Maliphant. The show comprises of three solo dances: two by Guillem interrupted by Maliphant’s ‘Shift’.

Bite Size Art: Henry Moore

Henry Moore, the son of a mining engineer, was one of the pioneering and most popular artists of the 21st century. Famous for his large figurative sculptures, this week we focus on a less well-known piece: ‘Miners at Work’, which is displayed at the Whitworth Art Gallery. Moore’s dark and oppressive image holds an eerie atmosphere and tension with the viewer. Created while Moore was a commissioned war artist during the Second World War, it portrays the often forgotten labour which needed to continually take place in order for the fighting to continue and for life at home to be sustained.

Method Lab Showcase

This performance did not get off to a great start. The first of the three performances that made up the evening, Krissi Musiol’s Making a Big Deal, was presumably making some kind of ‘hilarious’ allusion to the perils of gambling. As she wandered on dressed as a roulette wheel with her alter-ego ‘Tina Turner’, it seemed as though she was trying a little too hard to get her point across. We get it, gambling addiction is bad. Just ask Jeremy Kyle.

Is This Funny?

The stars and creator of Multiple Bafta award winning BBC hit series Gavin and Stacey, James Corden and Matt Horne, bring their new double act to Manchester for one night only. Comedy Sluts present them in a one off university mini tour in preparation for their upcoming BBC sketch show to be filmed this summer.

Nature Up Close

This small and unpretentious photography exhibition showcases the work of artist Sarah Patel who, fascinated by the commonplace and everyday, has captured some exquisite images of simple, unassuming British nature ‘up close’.

The Golden Mile

Presented by thirty members of the Young Peoples Theatre Group aged between fourteen and eighteen, The Golden Mile depicts their vision of Blackpool, that metropolis of the North, in the past, the present and the future.

Interview: Anne Desmet

Artist Anne Desmet is questioned by Thalia Allington-Wood about her work, ideas and inspirations. Anne’s exhibition, Urban Evolution, is currently on at The Whitworth Gallery until 3rd August 2008.

Bite-Sized Art: Sir John Everett Millais

In continuation from last weeks look at Ford Maddox Brown, the focus now falls on John Everett Millais, one of the three main figureheads of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and an artist greatly influenced by the work of Brown.

The Almond and the Seahorse

It is always interesting when theatre tackles an issue which hasn’t been directly explored until now. Kaite O’Reilly’s new Welsh play The Almond and the Seahorse, directed by Phillip Zarrilli, focuses on the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Frozen

Rarely does a piece of theatre grip an audience so completely. This powerful and moving character lead performance was both thought provoking and emotionally challenging. The Library theatre’s presentation of the award winning 90s hit Frozen was a pleasure to watch, even if it did leave a slightly unnerving aftertaste.

What Do You Want?

What do you want? is the question posed by the art comprising this exhibition. Its artists, all of whom live in India and are female, seem to demand an answer from the audience. It is a very good question – what do we want when we look around an art exhibition? Well, among other things we want to have our perception and ideas challenged, we want to be provoked, be made aware of something unknown to us, to have our emotions stirred.

The Man Who Had All The Luck

This donmar production of celebrated author Arthur Miller’s first play, The Man Who Had All The Luck is poignant, engaging and incredibly intimate. Miller’s fable questions the un-touchable concept of fate and explores how it is that one man can fail in life, while another, no more or less capable, can achieve glory in his.

Richard Alston Dance Company

Richard Alston over his time has become one of Britain’s most illustrious icons within contemporary dance, so I was expecting a lot when I went to see one of his most recent productions. With enough passion to literally fill the theatre, and breathtaking beauty and balance, I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Sylvie Guillem & Russell Maliphant

This season the Lowry is celebrating the diverse world of dance. It all kicks off with a special Dance Multi-Buy offer. Showing this week is the legendary Sylvie Guillem, who is joined on stage by Russell Maliphant for a mixed programme, choreographed by Maliphant himself.