When: Sat 20th Feb -
Where: Liverpool
VENT! Liverpool Air Quality Festival
20 February – 5 March
Various venues – See individual listings for details.
A fortnight programme of free public forums and artistic interventions to raise awareness of Liverpool’s air quality – an invisible public health emergency.
Julieann O’Malley: Occlusion
Sat 20 Feb, 3.30pm – 5.30pm, Bluecoat, School Lane L1 9BZ
Occlusion is a durational performance installation, incorporating video work, soundscapes and photography that provokes questions and conversation about the real effects of the ‘invisible intruder’ – microscopic man-made pollution.
Audiences will see O’Malley test the limits of her body as she cycles through a cloud of air pollution made visible.
VENT! Public Forum
Sat 20 Feb, 6pm, Bluecoat, School Lane L1 9BZ
A panel of participating artists, scientist and academics discuss the public health emergency that is air quality in Liverpool. Speakers will present the research undertaken as part the Liverpool Air Project and will discuss the art works that have been produced in response to that research. Followed by Q & A. Please find the panel participants below.
Dr Andy Morse, University of Liverpool Professor of Climate Impacts
Paul Farrell, Environmental Protection Operations Manager Liverpool City Council
Dr Tuheen Huda, an Intensive Care medic, theatre producer, writer and artist
Bryan Biggs, Artistic Director at Bluecoat, Liverpool’s centre for the contemporary arts
Plus a number of our VENT! Liverpool Air Quality Festival artists
Discussion Chaired by Gerry Proctor, Chair of Engage Liverpool CIC
Charlotte Weatherstone: Iris
From Thu 3 March, Jamaica Street Skatepark, Baltic Triangle
Iris is a living breathing installation, a visual promotion of green inner city spaces. Living in the Baltic Triangle Iris, an air spirit, watches over Liverpool. Breathing fresh air her swirling hair is living moss and lichens, she offers her opinion on alternative modes of transport to keep the air quality pure, the buildings clean and people of her city healthy. She also offers a home to wildlife and brightens up an old building with her wildflowers.
Mosses and lichens are ideal for monitoring trends in the deposition of pollutants over time and across difference places, as they are sensitive to increased levels of nitrogen and will notably deteriorate if air quality is poor.
Tomo: Clean Air Vehicle
Thu 3 March, Baltic Triangle
A pop-up installation – the artist presents ‘what might have been’, reflecting on his scheme to customise a small number of Liverpool City Bikes.
Pamela Sullivan: A Warning
From Fri 26 Feb
A Warning is an installation of 50 cocooned skeletons that will be installed around Liverpool City Centre, the Royal Liverpool Hospital and Jamaica Street. The skeletons are constructed from wire and plastic waste materials then cocooned in a soil and sand mixture. They will be installed/hung from tree branches. The rain will slowly wash away the soil cocoon to reveal the enclosed skeleton.
The piece serves as a warning, if we do not take drastic action now to save our planet all that will be left will be skeletons and waste.
Tristan Brady-Jacobs: Liverpool Glorms
Liverpool Glorms Workshop – Sat 20 February, 1pm to 4pm
Bluecoat, School Lane L1 9BZ
Liverpool Glorms street art exhibition – from Fri 26 February
The Liverpool Glorms are ordinary folk made monstrous by their desire to obtain immortality. They retreat behind facades and filters in a world of invisible threats. Using a range of Gasmasks, HOBO will create portraits of Liverpool people, which will then be applied to the walls and surfaces of the city. The portraits will appear in the areas of greatest pollution around the city centre.
Become your own Glorm on 21 February at Bluecoat. HOBO will be running workshops taking portraits with gas masks for his exhibition. Each successful Glorm will receive an A0 version of their baleful self! Come along and haunt yourself.
VENT! Public Forum – Sat 5 March, 4.30pm
Coffee & Fandisha, 5 Brick St, L1 0BL
A panel of participating artists, scientist and academics discuss the public health emergency that is air quality in Liverpool. Speakers will present the research undertaken as part the Liverpool Air Project and will discuss the art works that have been produced in response to that research. Followed by Q & A.