Our museums and galleries house fascinating collections, from living bugs to The Beatles, fine art to photography, the Titanic to ancient Egypt.

Follow us online: Facebook Twitter Flickr

National Museums Liverpool Blog - Girl power at the Walker Art Gallery

 Thursday, November 29, 2007

Girl power at the Walker Art Gallery


Thursday 29 November 07

Image of artist Phil Sayers giving a talk in the WalkerA ghostly Phil Sayers gives us an insight into his work

I went to the Walker Art Gallery yesterday to catch a talk by artist Phil Sayers about the Changing Places project he has produced with fellow artist Rikki Lundgreen. It consists of reinterpretations of certain paintings and sculptures that are on display in the Walker and the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Phil told us that one of the main reasons for doing the project was his and Rikke’s love of dressing up! They seem to have used this interest to great effect in their re-workings of the paintings, giving them a 21st century twist. Phil explained that he felt the women in the paintings they had chosen were portrayed as passive or dependent on men, so the artists’ idea was to ‘free’ them from this in their versions of the work.

Rikki’s video installation, ‘Ascension’, was inspired by Segantini’s ‘The Punishment of Lust’. Her version shows the central woman as a living, breathing person whose heart you can hear beating. Phil explained that his, ‘St Agnes’ Eve with hindsight’ was inspired by the painting ‘Madeline After Prayer’ by Daniel Maclise. The original depicts a young woman ‘looking to the heavens’ as a ritual before sleeping, so that she will dream of her future husband. This idea is turned on its head in Phil’s digitally created image, as he dresses as Madeline and looks towards the floor, holding a string of eye-shaped beads. He told us that he wanted to show Madeline as an independent woman who sees everything around her and is rebelling against the ritual in the original.

Some of the pieces in the collection have an eerie, almost ghost-like quality, using double exposure to layer images on top of each other. As you can see from my great photograph (!) of a blurry Phil Sayers on the left and his transparent hands, I have accidentally paid a small homage to their work!

The installations will be on display at the Walker and the Lady Lever Art Gallery until 20 April 2008.


AddThis Social Bookmark Button


Posted by Lisa | 29/11/2007 14:26   | Comments [0]

Post a comment

All comments require the approval of the site owner before being displayed.
Name
E-mail

Comment (HTML not allowed)  

Enter the code shown (prevents robots):

Live Comment Preview

By posting your comment you have agreed to the terms and conditions below

Terms & Conditions

National Museums Liverpool welcomes your comments. All comments are moderated and will only be published if they adhere to the following standards. The editors reserve the right not to publish comments which they deem inappropriate:

  1. Our Maritime Archives and Library deals with enquiries relating to all aspects of Liverpool's maritime history including ships, passengers, seafarers, shipping and maritime companies. Their web pages describe the information they hold and how to get in touch, along with useful research guides on popular subjects such as tracing seafaring or emigrant ancestors. Please do not submit requests for this type of information as comments on this blog.
  2. Specific enquiries, as opposed to comments on blog posts, should be submitted using our contact system. Please note that we do not provide valuations.
  3. Posts must be text only and under 1000 characters (including spaces). Html code, links or multimedia are not permitted.
  4. We will aim (but do not guarantee) to publish approved comments within 72 hours although there may be delays over weekends and during public holidays.
  5. Please do not post anything that is libellous, abusive, obscene, prejudiced or unlawful.
  6. Do not contravene any rights to privacy (such as personal contact details), copyright or trademark legislation.
  7. Please do not spam or post commercial promotional information.
  8. By posting you agree that you are wholly responsible for the content that you post. Although the blog comments will be moderated National Museums Liverpool will publish comments in the good faith that they comply with the law.
  9. By posting your comment you agree that it may be reproduced by National Museums Liverpool online or in print without compensation.