Appearing at Tate Liverpool... Zhua-Zhou, Lee Mingwei 2006 - photograph by James Wildeman
With less than a month to go, all eyes and camera lenses will soon be focusing on Merseyside for the Liverpool Biennial 2006.
From September 16 until November 26, the city’s major galleries will be hosting works by some of the world’s most innovative and electrifying artists.
At Tate Liverpool, Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei is calling on residents to contribute to his creation. Fabric of Memory will highlight the meanings and reminiscences behind childhood clothing - and locals are encouraged to lend their favourite garments, old baby cardigans, much-loved sweaters; anything which tells a story.
Take a Leap of Faith at FACT for the Biennial... Faith by Apichatpong Weerasethakul - image still courtesy of the artist
Over at the Ropewalks, FACT will be showcasing new commissions in Touch, See, Hear, Smell, with acclaimed talent from Asia, Canada, the US and Scandinavia.
Visitors will have the chance to go on Shilpa Gupta’s virtual journey to Mumbai, or take a leap of Faith with Thai film-maker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, while Norway’s Sissel Tolaas serves up a scented sensation with OUTSIDEIN.
Liverpool's landscape is explored at the Open Eye Gallery... Untitled (Round Building). Diptych 2004 - © Carlos Garaicoa
Open Eye Gallery is presenting a series of images by Carlos Garaicoa, charting the rapidly-changing landscape of Liverpool.
Buildings are portrayed in half-photo, half-ghostly drawing, both celebrating and commemorating what has been and is still to be during this exciting phase in the city’s regeneration.
Also embracing the past and the present is Lisa Oppenheim, whose haunting 16mm film installation merges both worlds, recreating views which no longer exist.
At the Walker they will be turning things inside out... Insyde - Courtesy of Airside/The Walker Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
The Walker is urging people to step Insyde to experience its interactive artwork by design collective Airside.
Again, old meets new as the marble corridors of the 1877 building are transformed into a fantasy land of real and virtual objects.
Prepare to be enchanted as sensor-animated creatures appear and disappear. The trick is to take your time until they get to know you … and they might just hang around for a while longer.
Across the city, Cape Farewell will see vast images projected into the sides of buildings. Ice Texts, 2004–2005 © David Buckland
Meanwhile, on the outside, art is being used to raise awareness of global warming. Cape Farewell - Art and Climate Change is a series of displays and events across the city, in the newly-revamped National Conservation Centre, the Walker and The Liverpool School of Art and Design’s 68 Hope Street Gallery.
A line-up including Gary Hume, Dan Harvey and Heather Ackroyd will be showing work inspired by Arctic voyages: designed, no doubt, to give us all goosebumps.
