National Museums Liverpool Blog - Tuesday, August 17, 2010

We are exactly 31 days off announcing the winner of the John Moores Painting Prize 2010. We are seriously excited about it, so I can only imagine how the shortlisted artists must be feeling right now.

To keep us all going here is the winner for the parallel competition running in Shanghai:

The very first John Moores Painting Prize China 2010 was won by the artist Han Feng with this lovely monochromatic painting, Big Plane (acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150 cm). The four runners up are: Zou Tao, Zhang Wei, Li Weizhou and Zhang Zhenxue.

All five prizewinning artists’ work will be shown alongside the UK paintings in the exhibition which opens at the Walker Art Gallery on 18 September 2010, as part of the Liverpool Biennial.

For those who want to be amongst the first to know who the UK winners are next month you can watch the live announcement in the evening of 16 September here.

The well-loved icon of Liverpool department stores Lewis’s, sadly closed its doors for the last time at the end of May. Prior to that for around the last 30 years the store was mainly recognised for its shopping culture, but until the early 1980s it was much more than a place where you might buy a dress or new handbag.

Before the 80s the store also offered three restaurants and what was at one time the world’s largest hair salon on the fifth floor, until it was closed to the public in the 80s and used as a storage floor ever since.

Many remember the fifth floor, which included some fantastic examples of 1950s interior design, aimed at injecting vibrancy into the post-war years that saw Liverpool’s population along with the rest of the UK, emerging from destruction and deprivation.

The fifth floor flaunted bright colours and light, featuring a Grade II listed unique hand-painted ceramic tiled mural in the cafeteria which once seated 600 people. Created by Carter’s of Poole, the 65 metre-long mural was inspired by a mural at the 1951 Festival of Britain, which celebrated the best of British design. The Lewis’s mural features condiments, utensils, vegetables and cutlery.

On Wednesday 18 August at 1pm, visitors to the National Conservation Centre will be treated to a free talk by Lynn Pearson from the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society in conjunction with the Lewis’s Fifth Floor: A Department Story exhibition. Lynn will speak about the forgotten murals of the 1950s and 60s, including those at Lewis’s which are now to be incorporated into the redevelopment of the building. This is a drop-in event and there’s no need to book.
 
The first solo exhibition by Liverpool photographer Stephen King reflects his visits to Lewis’s ‘lost’ fifth floor, closed to the public for the last three decades. Lewis’s Fifth Floor: A Department Story is on display at the National Conservation Centre until 30 August 2010.

It seems to me that things are always getting bigger and bigger – sprawling supermarkets, huge cars, massive motorways and, of course, enormous ships.

Every time I look over the Mersey the cargo vessels seem to grow, dwarfing smaller craft such as the ferries. It came as rather a surprise to learn just how long this trend has been developing.

The first bulk carrier ship was the British coast carrier John Bowes in 1852 – she had a steam engine, metal hull and seawater for ballast.

However, it took about 100 years for bulk carriers to come into their own, following the Second World War. They are now a common feature of the maritime world.

International bulk trade expanded among industrialised nations after the Allied victories of 1945. There was a feeling that old scores should be forgotten and the expansion in bulk trading coincided with the growth of the Common Market (EU).

The focus was on European countries, the United States and its former enemy Japan.

Typical of modern bulk carriers was the Wanderer of 1973, depicted in an outstanding model (pictured) on display in Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Life at Sea gallery.

Wanderer was one of three bulk carriers built for the Harrison Line in Japan. Like her sisters, Wayfarer and Warrior, she had six holds and could load and unload her own cargo using five eight-ton capacity deck cranes.

These vessels enabled Harrisons to expand their business into bulk dry cargoes such as iron ore, grain, sugar, fertilisers, scrap iron, sulphur, coal and wood. The 27,135-ton Wanderer was hired out either by the voyage (spot charter) or for a fixed period (time charter) and traded worldwide.

Harrison’s sold the Wanderer in 1987 to a Panamanian company and she was later renamed Ocean Spirit.

The model has superb details from the intricacy of the cranes to the tiny hull markings including the Plimsoll Line, a legal requirement to stop overloading.

Pictures on display include stevedores (dockers) loading general cargo into the hold of a bulk carrier for export to West Africa in 1977.

Bales of Nigerian cotton are seen on a pallet in Liverpool docks about 1970. Even after the development of containers, many goods were still packed using traditional methods.

Bulk carriers today make up 40 per cent of the world’s merchant fleets. They can range from single hold bulkers to huge ore ships capable of carrying an astonishing 365,000 metric tons deadweight.

Try your hand as a stevedore in Liverpool's historic docks in the new online game Cargo-a-go-go.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1 p&p UK).

Here is the Senior Education Manager for all our art galleries, Nicky Fawcett, to tell us about some of the important community work that goes on at Sudley House...

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Sudley House has been providing a safe and welcoming setting for a range of people dealing with mental health issues for a while now. We have developed an ongoing partnership with Mersey Care NHS Trust and every year they use our Learning Suite to deliver a series of art projects for those who use their services. Two of the facilitators of the group are Sue Williams and Steve Rooney - from TAG (The Artists Group). We also worked with them on an exhibition called 'unfolding' in 2008. This featured amazing paper sculptures inspired by their work with former patients of the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre at Mossley Hill Hospital.

Our Visitor Services staff at Sudley House do a great job in supporting the group and we always aim to exhibit the work produced. Last week we held an event to celebrate a mini costume display that you can see in the picture above. Ralph Killey was part of this group and spoke passionately about how much the project had helped him. He wrote a fantastic poem, which I'd like to share with you, below. Ralph also has a slot reading his work on the Linda Mac show on Radio Merseyside every month. 
 
Our Painting Session. Where’s my Depression?

There’s a palace that’s called Sudley House , A monument really supreme.
It was built by, The Holts. Who had hundreds of boats.
And this family created a dream.

The, art-work is really sublime. All of this beauty was theirs.
Then on the first floor, there’s a little white door,
behind which, some magic occurs. 

An Art Course is run for disabled. We are people with mental ills.
We’ve been anxious, depressed and by devils possessed,
and we’ve taken the potions and pills.

Sue and Steve, manage the project, their techniques and skill they impart.
They find out what you, have an aptitude to.
Then they help you, express this as Art.

The patients in there are all loving.. We’ve all suffered similar pain.
And Stephen and Sue, know just what to do.
To help people whose brain’s ‘Down the Drain’.

But joking aside, it’s fantastic, feels so natural when we’re all together.
And when the Course ends. We will all be good friends.
But I wish it could go on forever.

By Ralph (The Writer) Killey.

I can’t believe a whole year has gone by already and Slavery Remembrance Day Festival is here again. This is only my second year of it but if last year was anything to go by I’m sure this year will be equally inspirational and moving.

Last year civil rights campaigner Diane Nash gave a beautiful speech about her role in the civil rights movement. This year on Friday 20 August 2010 cricketer Henry Olonga will be talking about his incredible story, which is one of accomplishment and resistance.

Not only was Henry the first Black cricketer to represent Zimbabwe at international level but he also publicly protested against Robert Mugabe’s government. In 2003 he wore a black armband in a Cricket World Cup in protest against Mugabe’s Zimbabwe government. This act led to a warrant for his arrest on charges of treason (which carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe), forcing him to retire from international cricket and temporarily to go into hiding.

Not only will people get to hear his amazing story but on Monday 23 August 2010 people can take part in some thought-provoking and entertaining activities for Slavery Remembrance Day. As well as celebrating  Black culture and heritage there will be a traditional African Libation ceremony that remembers enslaved Africans and calls on ancestors to bless the event.

To find out more about Slavery Remembrance Day click here

 

Our Name the Meerkat competition is now closed and the team at World Museum have chosen a winner! We had some great names suggested - Florence, Meercartney, Scrunchie - but the name that really stood out as being the team's favourite was Yoko, suggested by Charlotte Kenny, who came to World Museum on Saturday 7 August with her family to collect her prizes. Congratulations Charlotte!

Competition winner Charlotte with Yoko and her family at World Museum

Charlotte won a goody bag of meerkat treats, presented to her by Stephen Rowlands from Tropical Inc, the owners of Yoko and lots of other exotic animals who visit World Museum. Check out the other names suggested on the World Museum Facebook page.

If you love wildlife there are lots of Wild Wild World events on at World Museum as part of the International Year of Biodiversity, and the fab exhibition Plantastic! is on until 5 September - find out about the amazing world of plants whatever the weather outside!

This bracelet may look like a beautiful piece of jewellery but the story behind it is much less attractive. Curator of transatlantic slavery Rebecca Watkin explains:

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"The International Slavery Museum team have recently displayed two ankle bracelets which have been donated by Anti-Slavery International. One of the ankle bracelets was ‘worn’ by a young girl in Niger who was subjected to a form of descent based slavery.

Descent based slavery occurs in some countries where people are either born into or are from a group that society views as suited for being used as slave labour. People from this group are not allowed to own land or inherit property and denied an education, a status which is carried from one generation to the next.

The bracelets represent the importance of the museum’s work in developing its collections in this area and campaigning on the issue. The team felt it was important to display the ankle bracelets with the personal stories, which really challenge the visitor who believes slavery to be an issue of the past and not of the present.

The bracelets are displayed in a new display case in the Legacies gallery which was acquired several months ago to showcase the museum’s new collections.

You can see more recent acquisitions, most of which are not yet on display, on the International Slavery Museum's website."

I remember the second Royal Daffodil ferry boat scrapped nearly 50 years ago and have travelled on the current one many times.I have no recollections of the second ferry on the Mersey but remember her at Birkenhead docks awaiting the breakers in 1962. At that time I was an avid ship spotter and I think there were three old ferry boats tied up together.

The current Royal Daffodil came into service about the same time. It was always a great thrill to sit on the bollards overlooking the churning propellers. However, when I was on board recently the stern was cordoned off – doubtless for Health & Safety reasons.

The River Mersey has been served by Royal Daffodil ferry boats for nearly a century and they hold a special place in the hearts and minds of many people.

Three Royal Daffodils have played a prominent part in what is probably the most famous ferry in the world.

The first was built in 1906 and was simply called Daffodil – she was given the prefix Royal in recognition of her part in the famous Zeebrugge Raid during the First World War.

The Liverpool to Wallasey ferry boat was requisitioned for war service in 1918 and became HMS Daffodil. The purpose of the operation was to stop Germany using Zeebrugge in Belgium as a submarine base.

Daffodil’s role was to hold the warship HMS Vindictive against the mole or breakwater in the harbour. She gallantly managed to do this despite being hit by two shells and peppered with shrapnel.

Renamed Royal Daffodil by the command of George V because of her bravery, she returned to the Mersey bearing the scars of war.

Royal Daffodil II was built at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead shipyard in 1934 In 1941, during the May Blitz of Liverpool by German bombers, she suffered a direct hit and sank – fortunately without loss of life. A year later she was refloated, repaired and returned to duty.

A half model (pictured) on display at Merseyside Maritime Museum was used to provide the dimensions of her outer hull during building work.  Today computers are used to develop three-dimensional building configurations. The 1:48 scale model carries the yard number 999 and detailed plate measurements.

The current Royal Daffodil was built in 1962 and is the flagship of the today’s three Mersey Ferries. She was called the Overchurch until she was renamed in 1999 following a major refit which saw her interiors extensively altered.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1 p&p UK).

The sniffer dogs from UK Border Agency are once again demonstrating their unique sniffing skills at Seized! over the summer holidays. If you'd like to see them they will be at the museum every Thursday afternoon during August - full details are on the website in the Seized! events programme.
 
I know that the sniffer dogs are extremely well trained but I hadn't realised before that each one specialises in searching for specific things. Karen Bradbury, curator of the UK Border Agency National Museum explains:

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"This week (5 August 2010) Kass, a German Pointer Labrador Cross, was here with his handler. He finds products of animal origin - meat, fish and endangered species.

An example of an unusual case was earlier this year in 2010 when the dog unit found a birds nest in the luggage of a couple travelling from China. They were arriving into Manchester Airport.

Bird's nest soup is a Chinese delicacy. Savoury swallow nest soup has been made for over 400 years, containing real birds nests. However there are two types of swallow - a red and white - both of which are endangered and protected under the international convention called CITES. The red variety is rarer, and it can cost up to £2000 - £3000 to buy a single nest constructed using the spit of this endangered bird. A trader captures the bird and collects its spit, which was then used to knit the nest together.

The sniffer dogs are back on Thursdays in August 2010. On 12 August it's Roddie with his handler. Roddie is an English Springer Spaniel who searches for drugs and cash. More details about when the dogs are at the museum is on the Seized! website. Come and hear more fascinating stories from the lives of the dog team."

Anyone fancy a taste of Los Angeles sunshine?

This weekend is Liverpool’s first ever Pride festival and to celebrate assistant curator of fine art, Charlotte Keenan will be discussing one of the Walker Art Gallery’s most popular paintings, Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool by David Hockney.

The talk David Hockney: Polaroids, Pools and Paintings is on 8 August from 1pm and will look at the style and technique of the iconic image which won the John Moores Painting Prize in 1967.

Laura Davis from the Liverpool Daily Post met with Charlotte to find out more about the talk and the painting, click here to read more.