Bido Lito June 2021 Issue 114

Independents Biennial 2021
Online + various venues – until 06/06
Linder, Bower of Bliss , 2021. - Photo: Mark McNulty
Currently in its 22nd year, Liverpool Independents Biennial is a festival which celebrates
the art and artists of Liverpool City Region and aims to shine a light on how people make, see
and interact with art.
Instead of focusing on outcomes, it works without a theme, highlighting how ideas
can form and change at any time and point in the creative process. Art in Liverpool, the
programme’s coordinators, describe the Independents Biennial more as a R&D programme
than solely an (online) exhibition. They say that “one of the biggest challenges facing visual
art organisations this year has been presenting context, and contextualising presentation”. By
creating transparency regarding ideas, work, processes, progress and things not working out,
they are trying to address this.
There are various ways to learn about and engage with this approach, including online
workshops and conversations, as well as a public Google Drive folder that gets updated
constantly. You can follow work as it happens and are encouraged to get involved at any time.
Working in residence as part of the Independents Biennial myself, I spend a lot of time
engaging with artists and audience, trying to document the festival with my practice (which is
mainly writing, but also chaos).
I join the Zoom workshop Make Your Own Portal, created and led by artists Grace Collins
(they/them) and George Gibson (she/they) to explore time travel, portals and bookmaking.
We’re getting taught how to turn a
piece of paper into a 16-page zine
and are given prompts to fill the pages
however we like. It is interesting to see
the other six participants work and
notice the differences in style, working
pace and approaches regarding having
the same resources.
Fiona Stirling also works with the
theme of time. She is an artist and
mother, researching the impact of time
and space on painting practices. She
uses the terms “painting ad hoc” and
“inbetweener painting” to describe
the process of painting in between
other jobs or responsibilities. This
feels especially relevant as, due to
“It is chaotic,
always changing
and never finished;
an accumulation
of ideas, things,
words, experiences
and processes”
lockdowns, the borders between work, other responsibilities and self-care are still blurry, if
even existent.
The need to find new ways of working and feels more existential than a year ago. During
a conversation on Twitch with artists Sam Venables, Feiyi Wen and Montse Mosquera, festival
director Patrick Kirk-Smith and responsive programme coordinator at Open Eye Gallery,
Sorcha Boyle, Patrick wants to know if there has been a shift in how work is created and
presented compared to a year ago. Feiyi Wen shares something that I really like: the way
she works is flexible and she is embracing fluidity; especially in a time when everything is
standing still, it feels freeing to have things that are not fixed and can be moved.
After virtual events and conversations, I am excited to be able to go to an actual space
to see GROUND: an exhibition by artists John Elcock, Julie Lawrence Paul Mellor and Sarah
Jane Richards in Cass Art Liverpool. The artists are using paper-based media to explore
wilderness, empty landscapes and distant horizons while looking at the seasons, changing
light, patterns of nature and weather. It is captivating to look at the colours and images
others have noticed on their countless walks. I enjoy Sarah’s Walks In Wild Places and John’s
Swifts Feeding for their sense of liberation and draw to nature. A small point, but the works
could benefit from being exhibited in a bigger space. More room around each work gives
the audience the possibility to focus on one thing at a time without having as much in their
peripheral vision.
The threads I notice running through the programme are connection and collective
understanding. Even though everyone’s approach and practice differ, sharing one’s process
feels both vulnerable and brave and seeing others do the same wakes feelings of belonging
and being supported. Everybody has different experiences, but they are connected in some
way and all the work carries the wish to understand and be understood more.
A difficult thing I found is trying to reach people who are not already in the ‘art-bubble’,
knowing about the festival anyway. It would have been extremely interesting to see the
audience in the physical space in North Liverpool would we have been allowed to open. I do
hope that will be possible next time.
Nevertheless, Liverpool Independents Biennial fits into the current situation perfectly.
It is chaotic, always changing and never finished; an accumulation of ideas, things, words,
experiences and processes that are in some way or other shared and connected.
Jo Mary Watson / @JoMaryWatson
REVIEWS 47