Since the opening of Tate Liverpool in 1998 through to the inauguration
of the city’s Biennial in 1999 and up to the present day, there has
been an explosion of visual arts in the city to rival what occurred
in the 1960s.
Interest in the city from artists based all over the world is reflected
in some of the works here, such as French-Armenian Melik Ohanian’s
film of a deserted Liverpool Dock during the 1990s strike, the study
of young clubbers at The Buzz Club by Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra
or American photographer Alec Soth’s portraits of modern Liverpudlians
at locations including the Adelphi Hotel.
Rineke Dijkstra
The Buzzclub, Liverpool, UK/Mysteryworld, Zaandam, NL 1996-1997
© Rineke Dijkstra
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Rineke Dijkstra
The Buzzclub, Liverpool, UK/Mysteryworld, Zaandam, NL 1996-1997
© Rineke Dijkstra
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Neville Gabie’s photographic series of temporary goal posts dotted
around the city highlight the significance of football for Liverpool’s
global identity – he grew up a Red in South Africa – and also the
capacity of Liverpool’s inhabitants to inscribe their own identity
on the city. Meanwhile Anna Fox’s installation Mum in a Million
2003-6, first produced for the Further up in the Air 2001-4
project at Sheil Park, Kensington, celebrates the matriarchal make-up
of Liverpool’s communities by gathering together flowers given on
Mothers Day. Yet the all-encompassing nature of the repetitious pattern
gives the installation a funereal overtone, a valedictory monument
to the lost community of Sheil Park after the tower blocks were demolished.
Alec Soth
Laura and Steve, Liverpool, United Kingdom 2004
© Alec Soth/Magnum Photos
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Neville Gabie
Playing Away UK - Liverpool 1998-2005
© Neville Gabie
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The exhibition closes with a text painting and DVD by Bob and Roberta
Smith, and a new commission from Jeremy Deller and Paul Ryan that
addresses changes to Liverpool through the sites connected with The
Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
Jeremy Deller and Paul Ryan
Drawing for 'Brian Epstein's Liverpool' from Sketchbook 71
2006
© Jeremy Deller and Paul Ryan
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