Tag: #LIF2016

Philip Hayes with a number of his collages

Collage Creations

Liverpool based artist Philip Hayes has a collage exhibition in Unit 51 at, Baltic Creative, running from 28 November-9 December 2016. In this article we celebrate his links with the Liverpool Irish Festival and look at his use of collage to develop his thinking and help with his fight for wellbeing.

Philip Hayes, a leading Liverpool music figure and former founder of the Picket, a much missed music venue. In recent weeks, he has been telling us how he has used the power of art to bring his life back on track. We also know Philip as one of the co-founders of the Liverpool Irish Festival who helped to bring the festival to life, so what has this journey meant?

“I helped set up the Liverpool Irish Festival with John Chandler (ongoing Chair of the Liverpool Irish Festival) in 2003; it just seemed so obvious an idea to do this thing here. I commissioned a mural – working with the Liverpool Mural Project, which was painted on the exterior of my venue the Picket, celebrating the links between Liverpool and Ireland[. This] was sadly painted over [in] black whilst I was in hospital in 2013, an act of cultural vandalism, in my opinion. Today it is not visible, but may reappear once the elements have their way”.

He is aware of Irishness running throughout his work and particularly of how the sound of our voices has changed due to the unique relationship between Liverpool and Ireland and how this has impacted on the accent, music and creative output of the city. In Philip’s understanding, the rise of the Irish communities in the city transformed post-1840’s from Lancastrian into Scouse, from a plain monotone accent to a lyrical, lively and dynamic sound.

He wants to ensure that we do not forget how we got our sound and to acknowledge the Irish presence that has impacted the identity of Scousers in the city. His work depicts aspects of Ireland that come through because of the people he has worked with. Artists such as Elvis Costello (real name Declan Patrick McManus), George Harrison (a Beatle with Irish cousins), and Paul McCartney and John Lennon with direct Irish descent. Hayes says “my work would not be telling the true story of Liverpool musicians, without acknowledging the Irish presence and impact on the identity of Scousers”.

One of Hayes’s project is to create an album to raise funds to help support people who have minor and severe learning difficulties. He has booked recording studios and aims to get two or three songs recorded. He is also in talks with key music figures in Liverpool to expand the project, including David Pichillingi Liverpool Sound City; Kevin McManus, Curator at the British Museum of Popular Music (formerly of Liverpool Vision) and Chris Meehan, Sentric Music, publishing specialists to get the project off the ground.

Philip took to creating collages to help him with issues he was suffering with back in 2013, finding expression through their creation and using them to calm him once they had been produced, finding solace in the stories each of them told.

To help him get through his time spent at the different clinics he would ask staff to let him have his collages and they let him fill a room with them. Hayes used art as a way of focussing  his recovery time, helping him get to where he is now. One of his favourites is the Lennon collage, which he describes as “instantly recognisable as being all about him”. The album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, has been used by Hayes in his own therapy, in which he also adopted primal scream therapy to help him recover.

Hayes went under mental health treatment between 2013 and 2015. “When I went into Windsor House I was very ill. But I want people to know there is a way out when you find yourself in such a desperate situation – I am the proof of that and I’m thinking of writing my autobiography and calling it From Crocky To Tocky Via Hell In A Handcart”.

A collage called Good Samaritans, contains 3D objects and he would like to use this artwork to go along with the studio album mentioned above. The album aims to remove the stigma around mental health and raise funds for the Samaritans and other organisations, including SAFE in Bootle and the Belve (Belvedere Youth and Community Activity Centre) in Toxteth.

Philip Hayes’s Collage Creations opens at Unit 51 on Jamaica Street in Liverpool’s thriving Baltic Creative.

Samaritans
http://www.samaritans.org
Phone number: 116 123 (UK) 116 123 (ROI) (free to call)

Article by Rebecca Brunskill, LIPA student with contributions from Philip Hayes.

Liverpool Irish Festival would like to thank Rebecca for the work she has done in creating this article and for her internship support. Thank you!

LIF 2015 performance (c) Pete Carr

A spotlight on Liverpool Irish theatre

Liverpool Irish Festival returns this autumn with a celebration of Irish playwriting and theatre, showcasing emerging writers and playwrights, reworked versions of classic Irish works and original productions.

The tradition of Irish theatre and playwriting is a strong element of the island’s culture. Indeed, Irish theatre has made a disproportionate contribution to English drama. A generation of writers such as Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce and the formation of the Abbey Theatre galvanised Irish theatre and storytelling. In Liverpool, too, the power and strength of independent theatre, homegrown writers and venues – from the Everyman Playhouse, Hope Street Limited and Unity Theatre – all championing emerging talent. Liverpool Irish Festival continues this, providing a platform for new works and new talents, using the traditional format of one act plays through to visual spectacle and multimedia stages telling nostalgic tales.

The ‘Performance and Poetry’ programme at Liverpool Irish Festival includes;

Three Plays: Riders to the Sea, The Shadow of the Glen and Purgatory at the Treasure House Theatre at the World Museum explores the theme of the undead and how the Irish peasantry’s relationship between the living and the dead has been full of mysticism and myth. Originally performed as a trinity of plays by the RSC, Alsop Drama take the three one act plays, by John Millington Synge and William Butler Yeats to consider rural life in Ireland in the early twentieth century, and how superstition and folklore influenced relationships with the spirits, the living and past.

Liverpool Lambs, an original production written by Steve Nolan and Peter King (descendent of the King Brothers, volunteers who travelled from Liverpool to Ireland for the Easter Rising), who retell the little known story of the Liverpool men and women who played a role in the Uprising. Performed at the Unity Theatre this spring, Northern Soul described it as “accurate and evocative”, telling a story many have forgotten.

A centenary celebration of James Joyce’s ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’, a panel discussion of James Joyce’s celebrated novel with His Excellency Ambassador Dan Mulhall (Irish Ambassador), Dr Katherine Mullin (Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds), Professor Frank Shovlin (Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool) and Professor Andrew Gibson (Royal Holloway, University of London). This event also serves as the official launch of the festival.

A new production written and directed by three emerging Liverpool Irish artists is to be staged at Invisible Wind Factory as part of Liverpool Irish Festival. Telling the story of a women’s commune in 1914, touching on revolution and suffrage, Scadàn is accompanied by live music, imagery and old Celtic stories creating an immersive and mesmeric performance. Written by Lauren O’Hara and Connor Kelly (both young writers from Derry-Londonderry and living in Liverpool) the production is directed by Roisin Fletcher, who lives in Liverpool with family hailing from Co. Donegal. Scadàn tells the story of Muireann, who leaves the island of Tory en route to America. At a women’s commune she meets four other women, one of whom is a Liverpool suffragette. Delving into the Irish politics of 1914, the suffrage movement in England and Ireland, audiences journey with Muireann – leaving Tory, exploring the feelings actions and emotions that continue to inform politics today, locally and globally. Like all good theatre, it provokes us to think: should we take action, should we educate? Do we have to get involved? What does involvement even mean?

Additional programme:
Storytelling with Liz Weir
Wed 19 Oct, 7.30pm, St Michael’s Irish Centre
£5 from St Michael’s Irish Centre or online (+booking fee)

Sklonište
Thurs 20 Oct, 8.30pm, The Box, FACT
£7/£5conc
Connect with the festival on www.liverpoolirishfestival.com

facebook/LivIrishFest
Twitter @LivIrishFest
#madfortrad
#madfornew
#LivIrishFest

Black and white drawing of fish swmming to the left

A tale of revolution – Scadàn

A new production written and directed by three emerging Liverpool Irish artists is to be staged at Invisible Wind Factory as part of Liverpool Irish Festival. Telling the story of a women’s commune in 1914, touching on revolution and the suffragettes, Scadàn will be accompanied by live music, imagery and old Celtic stories creating an immersive and mesmeric performance.

A Crowdfunder has been launched to support the production, which will run over two nights during the festival on Tues 18 Oct and Wed 19 October. Liverpool Irish Festival runs from 13-23 October 2016.

Written by Lauren O’Hara and Connor Kelly (both young writers from Derry-Londonderry and living in Liverpool), the production is directed by Roisin Fletcher, who lives in Liverpool with family hailing from Co. Donegal. Scadàn tells the story of Muireann, who leaves the island of Tory to make her way to America. At a women’s commune she meets four other women, one of whom is a Liverpool suffragette. Delving into the Irish politics of 1914, the suffrage movement in England and Ireland, the audience journeys with Muireann – leaving Tory, exploring the feelings, actions and emotions that continue to inform politics today, both locally and globally. Like all good theatre, it provokes us to think: should we take action, should we educate? Do we have to get involved? What does involvement even mean?

The story is fictional, but was inspired after the discovery of a book by Roisin, ‘Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890-1923’. Having travelled to Tory many times and reading about the women involved in Irish revolution, Roisin learned about women’s communes and those who were based in County Donegal. Weaving in the stories of myth, legend and tradition she knew from her family in Donegal, the production began to emerge.

Alongside the story, Scadàn will feature music composed by Liverpool composer and sound designer Luke Thomas (‘Dis Place’, ‘TENT!’) who has worked on immersive art installations for Liverpool Light Night and as musical director at Hope Street Limited.

Roisin, who completed a six month emerging artist programme with Hope Street Limited, directing The Snow Flake Trail 2015 and a new street performance for Spare Parts Festival 2016, says; “The stories of female revolutionaries rarely make it to history books. I felt a great sense of connection when I first read about these women, the communes and their politics. Telling the story of these five women using myth, music, legend and language touches on all the elements of art and storytelling I’m passionate about. It’s a fictional tale but it says a great deal about our relationship with politics now as well as our Irish heritage”.

Emma Smith, who leads Liverpool Irish Festival adds, “We are delighted to be working with emerging artists in Liverpool and to provide a stage for their voices and stories. It is also critical to me that we begin to unveil the women of our past who have long had their stories, brilliance and power shrouded from view, and impact go unrecognised. This promises to be a powerful and emotive production telling a story of a century ago that will feel very present. It’s also encouraging that its origins are in these young women and in this city”.

To support Scadàn on Crowdfunder go here

Connect with the festival on www.liverpoolirishfestival.com

facebook/LivIrishFest
Twitter @LivIrishFest
#madfortrad
#madfornew
#LivIrishFest