Paint, Protest and Putin: Liverpool’s New Radical Art

With revolution erupting in Ukraine, and Putin’s thugs whipping members of Pussy Riot at the Sochi games, an art show themed on protest could not have  had a more fitting backdrop.

Seventy people squeezed into Arena Gallery’s bijou central Liverpool space for the private view of “Objections”, the latest show by Not Just Collective, an art group (of whom I’m a member) that came together 18 months ago.

We kicked off proceedings with a protest-themed spoken word session, during which I performed a brand-new rant about Putin, appealing for people to “Shame the Games” and stop watching the Winter Olympics. 

The work of the twelve exhibitors in our show ranged from Winston Ludd’s sinister tableau of murky police “evidence gatherers” with their backs turned, to Nicky Roscoe-Calvert’s fabric panels interpreting a poem by the eighteenth-century slavery abolitionist William Roscoe.

Photography featured strongly in the show, with Liriya Lee and Ulysse Di Meglio both exhibiting photographs of mass demonstrations. 

Liriya presented some dramatic black and white depictions of a recent street protest in Istanbul, while Ulysse’s work shows a deceptively calming scene as sunlight floods through a crowd of smoke smoke-shrouded demonstrators. 

My video piece is a series of interviews with Liverpool protestors, including Gina and Julie, who took part in the peace camp at Greenham Common, a US air base in the 80’s. The exhibition is open until the 2nd March from 11am – 5pm.