FACT have always been a progressive force within Liverpool and their projects and exhibitions through 2015 are no different. Carrying over from last year’s exhibitions, Type Motion combines typography and moving images to explore the expanding possibilities of text away from print. Upstairs in Gallery 2 will be more interactive, allowing visitors to create their own mini films; pop -up workshops open to the public in the lobby carry this interactivity through the space.
This year FACT are focusing on mental health, technology and the relationship/effects between both. Beginning in March, Group Therapy allows visitors to look within themselves and see how we use technology to “mediate” our feelings. Curated films and discussions welcome us to rethink our understanding of mental health in our modern society. The Vacuum Cleaner will be installing a new commissioned piece Madlove, inspired by his own experience of psychiatric hospitals, allowing a “safe place to go mad”. Artist Quintan Ana Wikswo portrays post-traumatic stress disorder through photographs of American asylums, giving us the opportunity to experience the illness through the sufferer’s eyes. Ending on Mental Health Awareness Week, Group Therapy is followed by Build Your Own exploring how current technologies have changed the way we work and build businesses, hoping to ‘kickstart’ a creative economy. There will be a derelict house in Toxteth converted into workshops where the public can create things for their home lasting through the Summer.
From September to November, FACT will be showing a research project by Shona Illingworth in which she explores the effects of amnesia focusing on a woman living on an isolated island off Scotland, suffering from both retrograde amnesia (the inability to recall memories) and anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new memories)and how new technologies are able to help her access previously inaccessible memories. We are carried into 2016 by Chicks on Speed, a duo who work with self-made music, fashion and art, allowing the audience to interact and become involved in the performance. Shown alongside all exhibitions will be specially curated films associated with the subject in collaboration with Picturehouse.
FACT; 88 Wood Street, L1 4DQ. Official Website.
Ella Roose
