Arty Party

Art on the Network is back!  Yay!

To me, this is one of the Capital of Culture's finest legacies - an annual art prize, sponsored by Merseytravel, and now in its fourth year.  This year's theme - clearly preparing for the introduction of the Walrus card - is to design a "travel wallet".  There are two categories: one for adults and one for schoolchildren.

(I'm going to be a curmudgeon here and say that I hate it when there are child-designed posters and artwork around - those "stay off the track" posters on Merseyrail trains, for example.  The only people who actually like seeing a badly scrawled felt tipped illustration on the wall are the kid who designed it and their immediate family.  To me it's just a mess of badly illustrated primary colours.  I'd rather stare at a No Win, No Fee solicitor ad).

It's a £500 prize (though the money goes to the kiddie's school, not the child, so don't go counting on armfuls of Haribo).  More importantly, your design will actually be put up for sale across Merseyside.  You can enter at http://www.artonthenetwork.co.uk.  If you win, my referral fee is 10%.  Cash only.

Hale Village 82a, by Laurence Langton

Hopefully, the competition will be more successful than last year.  I'm not criticising the winning artworks - one of which can be seen above, and more below; the winning entries were all excellent.  I was disappointed in the way the competition ran.

Discover Liverpool, by David Williams

Though I covered the opening of the competition in April last year, the winners weren't announced until January, and then in a very low-key way.  The prize seemed to have been downgraded as well.  The competition was themed around posters, so you'd have expected to be seeing these fine pieces of art all over the city by now.

No.  The designs merely appeared on the front of "limited edition Merseytravel publications" - posh bus timetables, in other words.  A much more transient and ignominious fate for all that hard work.  It means that the advertisements for entries to the competition received more prominence than the actual winners - that can't be right, can it?

Connecting People, by Daniel Lindsay

(You'll be unsurprised to learn the piece above was my favourite).

These posters deserved to be all over the Liverpool area - in stations, bus shelters, ferry terminals.  They're worth selling in the MtoGo stores, and the museums.  They're far more deserving of a spot on the shelves than Beatles frightwigs.  I hope this year's winners' designs fare a lot better.

Riddle Me That

The passageway from Old Hall Street to the platforms at Moorfields is ridiculously long.  I mean, colossal.  By the time you emerge at the other end you expect to see Manchester Town Hall, not the back of the Echo building.

As built, it was also a little bit dull.  White tiles, white tiles and white tiles.  Which is fine in a public toilet, but in the throbbing centre of a city's transport system, not so much.

Over the years, Merseytravel have attempted to rectify this situation with some mosaic art in one section, and internationally themed display units provided by a local school at the other end.  It's not bad.  I've never actually covered it in the blog because it's in the Old Hall Street section, and I keep forgetting it's there: my instinct at Moorfields is always to turn left at the top of the escalators and head for the main exit.  Force of habit.

A couple of weeks ago another piece of art was erected in the corridor - the fourth section of the Animate the Underground project.  I have to admit, I wasn't keen on the first part of the scheme; I felt it was a bit twee, and it is definitely in the wrong place.  Putting that painting alongside the sublime Dream Passage is like asking your average bloke to stand next to Russell Tovey; all well and good, but look at what's to the left.  Fortunately the subsequent pieces have been a real improvement - at Lime Street, they liven the drab underpass, and at Hamilton Square the effect in the narrow corridor is brilliant, like entering another world.

The new piece, The Birth of Liverpool, doesn't have the same dreamlike effect as the piece at Hamilton Square, but at least it's not overwhelmed by the rest of the art.  On the contrary it's Birth of Liverpool which draws your eye as you enter the passageway.

The theme here is the city's maritime history.  There's a liner and a lightship, the famous Jesse Hartley clock tower that stands at the entrance to the docks, and the White Star building.

There's also, for reasons I can't quite fathom, Stevenson's Rocket.  Not sure why that's there.  The Overhead Railway's on there too, but at least that used to travel along the docks when it was around - the Rocket never even got a glimpse of the sea.

In the centre is the grand old bird of the Pier Head, the Liver Building.  The Liver Birds are hatching out to stand guard; there are also - sigh - blue and red eggs waiting to open.

And, of course, there's the riddle:

I have NO IDEA.  Not one clue where these things are leading us.  When all is finally revealed with the final poem at Central, I bet I still won't be able to work it out.  It may as well have been written in Swahili.

It's a very good piece; I especially like the way it meshes together, so that each repeated picture flows from the one before.  As a transport buff, I'm pleased to see the trains and boats, a potent reminder of the city's past.  Liverpool's a world class city in so many ways - it should be shouted from the rooftops.

Anyone got any idea about what the fifth mural will show?  It's Liverpool themed, and we've now had football, John Lennon, local artists, and the docks.  What icons are we still missing?  I'm going to take a punt at the two cathedrals.  Your suggestions are gratefully received!

Poster Boy

I'm always banging about the Merseytravel's Art on the Network programme, and none of you seem to care.  The posts remain comment-free, they get low page hits; frankly I think you people would be far more interested if I wrote about the art in my own bathroom.

Fortunately, thanks to the lovely Emma, the Public Arts Officer at Merseytravel, I can now combine the two.  I've said before how much I like the series of posters being used to advertise the competition, and Emma sent me a rail poster of my very own:

How cool is that?  Thank you Emma!  Now I have to find a frame big enough to hold it (it's HUGE) then I can hang it alongside my Centre of the Universe poster.

And remember, there's still time to enter the Art on the Network competition - a month left, in fact.  Come on!  You can do it!

Happy Feet

Before I headed off on my tour of North Wales (and by the way: thank you for all your comments - it's really appreciated),
there was an important international event: Eurovision.

Don't look at me like that.

As is usual, it was a night for snacks, booze and borderline racist comments.  Joining in the fun was Jamie, who arrived
bearing gifts.  Always a sign of a good guest.

The gifts were courtesy of his partner Chris, a.k.a The Golden Voice of Merseyrail, fresh from his stint doing the
announcements at Aintree during the races.  Top of the list came those magical items: MERSEYRAIL FLIP FLOPS!

This season, the flip flops are coming in black: minimalist and subtle.  The perfectly elegant accompaniment to any outfit.
There's also a little ad for Merseyrail's Facebook page too.  I'd be curious to know how many of the glamorous ladies
attending the races immediately ran home and Liked that page; I'm guessing the numbers ran as high as zero.

There were also a few postcards.  You might remember that I love the new Art on the Network poster, the Art Deco blue
one.  The postcards have been produced to promote the competition, and are little marvels.  First we have the blue railway one:

I love that so much.  In fact, I even e-mailed Merseytravel and asked if they had prints of it for sale.  I never got a
reply but I maintain they could make a tidy sum flogging those in the MtoGo shops and the Travel Centres.  

Anyway.  The second image, in the same style, is themed around the ferries:

Love.  It.  You can't tell me that the Ferry Terminal shop wouldn't be able to shift a few prints of that?

The bus one is less successful.  I like the green but I'm not sure it gels in the same way the other two do.  It's still pretty
gorgeous though.

They're really great.  Many many thanks to Jamie and Chris for the pressies, and many thanks to Merseytravel for
producing them.  Budding artists: don't forget you can still enter the Art on the Network competition here.

As for Eurovision, at least we weren't humiliated this year.  The winner was pretty unmemorable though; I couldn't
remember which one it was until they played it again at the end.  Ah well.  Next year in Baku...

Good News/Bad News

It's that time of year again: Merseytravel's annual Art on the Network competition, bringing new public art to Merseyside. The project has been publicised with the gorgeous poster on the left, a beautiful tribute to those fantastic Art Deco railway posters of the 1930s (this version is taken from the cover of the entry form; there is a slightly different version on the platforms). To be honest, I'd be happy just to see a series of posters based on this style springing up all over the place. Imagine one inviting you to travel by train to Formby, or Port Sunlight; think of a beautiful stylised image of the Mersey Ferry in sharp 1930s vision; the clean lines of the Queensway Tunnel with speed blurs of cars as they push through; or an aeroplane peeling off over the top of South Parkway. It'd be quite lovely. If I had any artistic talent, I'd do it myself.

But I don't, so it's up to properly talented people out there to do it. This year is based around finding designs for posters, so unlike the single site installations of previous years, the potential here is for the artwork to be all over the place. You can find entry forms and details about the competition here. Good luck!

It's coming at a time when Merseyrail's artwork is quite literally under threat. I was alerted by my friend Rosie via Twitter that the Phil Bews' Refuge art work at Bank Hall had disappeared. I was horrified: these were some of my favourite pieces. I loved them when I visited. Instead, there are ugly blue wooden columns in their place.

I contacted Emma, the public arts officer at Merseytravel, and she assured me that they haven't gone as such. It turns out there's been some vandalism, and so they've been covered up for their own protection (I have heard through a different website that someone tried to smash the columns to get at the bronze work). Merseytravel are now looking at a way to preserve them, possibly involving moving them away.

This is a real shame, and gets me quite furious. The artwork was there to try and improve the environment. Bank Hall is in a bleak position, under a high ugly wall and surrounded by docks and industry. Refuge brought a bit of lightness and joy into that situation, and I'd often seen people looking at them admiringly. Now we're in a situation where no-one wins - the station looks uglier and uncared for, the passengers have a more miserable experience, and Merseytravel has to find some cash to make things right again - possibly to the extent of just removing them entirely. I feel like kicking some heads.

24 Hour Party Person

I crossed the Pier Head and looked up at the glowing white lights of the Ferry Terminal. Deep breaths. Calm. I'm going in.

It's safe to say I'm not a party person. I've had just one birthday party in my life, when I was five. The anxiety of it was so much - I was convinced nobody would turn up - my mum effectively put a stop to them for my own health. And today, as a fully grown adult, I prefer to loiter somewhere at the back, hidden away, generally with a drink or six. Or I just don't go.

"Don't go" was my first instinct when I got the following e-mail:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Merseyrail New Year Reception 2011

The Merseyrail management team and I would like to invite you to join us for our annual New Year Reception on Thursday 27th January 2011...

I mean, good God no. A party full of people I don't know? People I respect? Bart Schmeink? What am I going to do there? The Bf intervened at this point, however, and practically forced me to accept. "It'll be good for you," he said. And, after just the one panic attack, and doped up on my anti-depressants, I was walking through the door into the party and accepting a champagne cocktail and thinking, "how bad could it be?".

The invite had promised "entertainment". I wasn't sure what that would be. My only knowledge of corporate entertainment comes from Showgirls, where Nomi dances on top of a boat in a sparkly dress and then gets sexually harassed by a sleazy Asian businessman. Merseyrail have a different concept of the term; they had pupils from the Archbishop Beck Catholic High School playing the Theme from the Muppet Show on a trumpet. Hopefully none of them were molested by a skeezy man in a suit later in the evening.

I did a couple of rounds of Matou, clutching a Jack Daniels and Coke, before I found a suitably tucked away corner and installed myself there. I was almost instantly leapt upon by two men, who turned out to be Rudi and Matt; the publicity mavens of Merseyrail. That's the problem with sticking your face all over your blog - people tend to recognise you. They were really nice, however, welcoming me to the party, offering to get me a drink, and not mentioning the fact that I was turning bright crimson throughout.

After a little chat, I went on another wander, and I found a seat at the back of the restaurant. Great. I could relax a bit. Which is when another man turned up and said, "Excuse me. Are you the Merseytart?"

Suddenly I wished I'd chosen a less daft name.

This guy turned out to be Ian from Merseytravel, who again had read my blog. "When are you going to finish it?" he asked, leading me to bluster about "enjoying it too much", which is a polite way of saying, "no idea". Ian then called over his colleague, Emma, who's responsible for the Art on the Network programme. I was reminded of a quote I read the other day, about blogging being all power and no responsibility, when she said "I understand you're not keen on the Grant Searl artwork?"

I managed to hold my own, I think, and I said that I really didn't like its positioning on Platform 2 - it competes and fights with Dream Passage. I did also say that I loved the other artwork, and the whole Art on the Network programme in general. Ian also explained about the riddles, hidden inside each painting; when all five are complete, the answer to the riddle will become clear. He said the actual solution is inside a safe at Merseytravel HQ right now, and I made a mental note to break out my leather all in one catsuit and burglars tools when I got home.

As we were talking, the speeches began, but sadly I was too far away to hear any of them, so I went out on the balcony for a bit of air. When they built the new Ferry Terminal, I remember thinking it was the wrong way round; the balcony was at the back, not overlooking the river. When I was up there though, I suddenly understood it. Firstly, there was hardly any wind, despite it being a blustery January night - the main block of Matou shielded it perfectly. Secondly, the view was beautiful. The three buildings of the Pier Head, high above me, glowing in the light (well, two of them were; the Cunard Building's currently covered in sheeting). It was awe-inspiring.

The speeches had all finished by the time I got inside, and a comedian was up there, telling jokes I couldn't hear instead. At that point, someone else introduced themselves to me. "Hello, I'm Mark. I'm the man responsible for the square loop on the map."

I don't know what went through my head at that moment, but I'm sure the word bollocks was in there somewhere. I wanted to just crawl away and die.

Fortunately, Mark was a very nice bloke, and he explained the rationale behind the square: there's a surfeit of tourists getting on at Lime Street, thinking they can go round and round the loop, and ending up in Birkenhead. The square was his initial suggestion as a way of making it clearer, but as he said, he's an engineer and he planned it out on Excel; he assumed the design team would make it look great. Instead, they just shoved a square on the map. He wasn't happy with it. Phew. Plus he's the man responsible for the line diagrams that are all over the place, which I love.

We had a good old chat, actually, about different design standards for the network, and the influence of Harry Beck's Underground diagram. I recommended he get Mark Ovenden's Metro Maps of the World, and actually I'd recommend it to anyone - it's a great read, and not too geeky.

Rudi came over again, and said he liked the blog, then Matt asked me how I felt about being mentioned in Bart's speech?

"Eh?" I replied. Yup, apparently, HRH Bart Schmeink had actually told the room that I was there, but I hadn't heard it because I was at the back. Thank God, is all I can say, because I probably would have become the first person to cringe themself to death otherwise.

And then I was recognised again, by Steve, who manages the guards on the Wirral Line. I was actually starting to enjoy it, like the big old fame whore I am. It was nice to have other people making the effort to talk to me, because otherwise I'd just have hidden away and been silent all evening, and everyone was very complimentary about my blog. It was also nice that people seemed to read the blog for its entertainment value, not just in case I said something rude about Merseyrail. Steve and I had a chat, and he introduced me to Natalie, who's a newly appointed internet wiz; we talked about how she wants to really increase the web presence, and embrace social networks, and all sorts of exciting sounding things.

It was getting towards eight o'clock, and the party was thinning out, and I had to go home and get some dinner. There was lots of lovely looking finger food on display, but my tense stomach had twisted itself into a figure eight and there was no way I'd be able to swallow food. I just had one more thing to do: meet Bart Schmeink.

For the first time that evening, I went up to someone and introduced myself. And he recognised me! Really, by this point, I was starting to feel like Angelina Jolie, but without the breasts. Or Brad Pitt, unfortunately. What followed was a bit of a mutual appreciation society - we both said nice things about one another, we had a bit of a talk, he offered to buy me a drink - it was all very pleasant. And then he gave me his card, which was a silly move on his part. It's a bit like From Russia With Love, where Bond unknowingly invites Grant into his cabin on the Orient Express - he seems nice, but he's actually a raging nutcase underneath. (Please note: I'm the stalking nutcase in this scenario).

Well, nothing could match up to that, so I made a swift exit, behind two ladies. One of them turned to me and said, "I hope you're going to write nice things about us!" and I burbled some kind of reply through my blushes.

When I got outside, and I was halfway across the Pier Head, I just stopped and laughed. Really laughed. It was one of the strangest nights of my life but I'm glad it happened. I can't say I've overcome my party fears, but heck, I had a good time. That's something at least. Thanks to Merseyrail for the invite, and for being so nice. You didn't have to but you did, and you just went up about twenty notches in my estimation. (Yes, I'm that easily bought).

Painting By Numbers

It's a well documented fact that I love Merseytravel's Art on the Network programme. Just click the "art" tag on the right; you'll find a series of love letters to the various bits of art that have sprung up all over the system. To me this is a really good way to enrich the local area - the station environments are enhanced and artists are funded and commissioned by a big company. Win-win.

So far, there have been sculptures, paintings and word poems, and they've all rang my bell, so to speak. Stephen Hitchin's Time and Place at Birkenhead Park makes me smile every time I see it.

The newest series from Merseytravel is entitled "Animate the Underground" and is a series of five paintings - one for each of the underground stations - by the artist Grant Searl. The first, One Life One Love One Liverpool, went up in James Street last November, but I only got a chance to have a proper look at it today.

Now obviously, art is subjective, and one man's masterpiece is another man's toilet paper. But my immediate reaction is - urgh. I really, really don't like it.

Full disclosure - I hate football, so the topic of one city united by a love of the Reds and the Blues is not my cup of tea anyway. It's hard for me to engage with the subject. But leaving that aside, I can't help feeling that the work is just not very good. It looks like a greeting card, with the sickly green airbrushing and the hearts. It doesn't inspire or delight me in any way. It just sits there.

It's made worse by its positioning. Merseytravel have sited it on the disused platform 2 at James Street - alongside Chalk & Grime's Dream Passage. Now THAT is a great, beautiful piece of artwork, which is still as interesting and as unusual today as it was when it was installed twenty years ago. Beside that piece of intriguing art, One Life One Love One Liverpool looks trite and unimaginative. It should have been sited somewhere else - perhaps by the elevators, or in the ticket hall, or basically anywhere else. It just doesn't work on that platform. I might like it more if it were in isolation rather than detracting from Dream Passage.

Grant Searl has four more pieces to come; one has already been installed at Lime Street Underground. These might be more to my taste, as the other stations don't have artwork and could do with brightening up a bit. I should note that the Lime Street one is based around John Lennon though, which makes my heart sink some more. It's another unimaginative commission.

The results of the Art on the Network competition still haven't been announced, so there's still hope there. I still think Merseytravel's public arts policy is a wonderful thing. I guess they just can't please me all the time.

Your Network Needs YOU!

I'm an arty-farty, liberal kind of chap, which is why I've been very pleased to see that one of the lasting legacies of the City of Culture is Merseytravel's ongoing commitment to public art. Last year, they had the Art on the Network competition, and the good news is: it's back for 2010!

Yup, you have the opportunity to design a piece of art to be placed somewhere on the Merseytravel network. To celebrate Merseytravel have launched an Art on the Network website, which not only gives details of the competition, but also shows some of the other pieces that have already been commissioned over the past few years. (Be warned, the website uses Silverlight, and caused my Mac to have a small hissy fit).

If there are any artists reading this, please, please come up with something and enter. The full details can be found here. It's open to anyone from Merseyside who's over 16, and it will be judged by Singh Twins, whose work I've admired for years. This kind of commission is just one of those details that enrich and enhance the lives of everyday people - they're not much, but they just put a smile on your face. If I had any artistic talent, I'd be doing it myself.

I'd especially like it if someone from the Wirral or St Helens entered, since those two boroughs shamefully couldn't scrape up any decent entries for last time. Come on! Pull out those pens and paper and get on with it!

Facts and Fancies

How did I miss this? Back in April last year, I blogged about the Art on the Network, Merseytravel's laudable attempt to bring more artwork into the region. It was a competition looking for pieces of art to be erected in public places around Merseyside, and I was thrilled to see it happening (even if I had a bit of a bitch about the entry form).

Unfortunately, what with last year being a bit tumultuous and all, I missed the results. So the appearance of a giant piece of writing at Liverpool Central came as a bit of a shock.

It is, admittedly, tucked away a bit, by the subway to Lewis's and the Fairclough Street exit, but it's ten feet tall and a great find. Designed by Tony Fitzpatrick, the words follow the history of the city, alighting on Liverpool's historic touchstones. You start at the top left, with the granting of letters of patent by King John in 1207:

and work your way down the centuries to the construction of the West Tower, the city's tallest building, and the Capital of Culture year:

It's marvellous, fascinating stuff, and if there hadn't been three drunken homeless people squatting on the stairs of the Lewis's subway I'd have probably been there all day. Just looking over the pictures, I've been drawn in, not just by the facts, but also in the way they've been arranged - Tony Fitzpatrick's done a great job in arranging colours and fonts to pull your eyes around, make you look, make you search. You can click any of the photos for larger versions.

Yup, Merseyrail's on there, along with mentions of the Blitz, Brookside, the cancelled Merseytram, Ken Dodd, the Cathedrals, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, the Royal Liver Building, Cilla Black... I'm guessing Fitzpatrick's a Liverpool fan, given the prominence of Bill Shankly front and centre (though Everton still make an appearance). There's mention of the Cavern, famous for me getting extremely drunk and trying to cop off with straight boys in the mid-Nineties, and also for being the place where some pop group played in the Sixties (interestingly, though all four members can be seen quite prominently, the words "The Beatles" are in the tiniest script and barely visible - I really had to hunt for them).

Well done, Tony Fitzpatrick: it's a great piece. If you're in Central, go and see it. It's more interesting than standing on the platform waiting for your train, anyway (and less dangerous).

As for the other winners - they were announced in December last year, and I can only apologise for not reporting it here before. Ron Davies' piece Magical Backdrop won the right to be displayed at Waterloo Station, while Daniela Visone's Journey will be erected at Whiston. I'm not sure if they have actually already been put up, to be honest - the press release says "early 2010", so I'll have to make a couple of return visits to be sure. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Together, the three winners represented the boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley and Sefton: embarrassingly, Wirral and St Helens couldn't rustle up decent enough entries between them, and so their stations will remain unadorned. This is quite shameful, and I wish I had some artistic talent so that at least Wirral could be represented. There must be some artists out there, surely?

Art on the Underground

This rather natty, rather interesting, poster was waiting at Birkenhead Park for me the other day. I quote:

Merseytravel is offering residents the chance to be involved in enhancing the journey experience by creating your very own piece of art to go on display at Merseytravel’s facilities near you.

What a fantastic idea! I’m a big supporter of the transport networks putting funding into the arts. The London Underground – my first love when it comes to urban rail networks (sorry Merseyrail) – has a long and distinguished history of design and graphic excellence. It’s more than just the iconic Diagram; it’s also the unified corporate world, the innovative posters, the elegant architecture, and of course the Art on the Underground project. Not only is it a great idea to have publicly funded bodies providing support for day to day beauty in people’s lives, but it also gives bored commuters something to stare at.

Big, big problem with Liverpool’s scheme though.

For more information and to download your entry form check out our website www.merseytravel.gov.uk.

Well Merseytravel, it’s five days since I first saw the poster, and there’s not a sign of this project on your website. Admittedly, it’s had a redesign since I was last there, so perhaps you’re all sweating buckets over a pile of hot HTML, but putting posters up to advertise a resource, and then forgetting the resource? CORPORATE FAIL.

It’s so disappointing when you try to be nice about someone and they let you down. To cheer us all up, let’s look at some nice horses:

Merseytravel have commissioned artist Janet Shearer to paint this to commemorate the Grand National, and there are posters of it in the subway to Lime Street. The design is taken from a 9 x 5m original at Liverpool South Parkway, which is bonkers for a couple of reasons: (1) 45 square metres of painting is just mad, and (2) there will be approximately 3 people using LSP as a means of getting to Aintree, so its value as a promotional device is pretty non-existent. Still, as I say, big thumbs up to Merseytravel for commissioning it in the first place, when they could have spent the money on a bus shelter or something. I might have to get off the train a stop early next week when I’m on the trip home so I can see it in all its mad, oversized glory.

EDIT: Robert has found the entry form - not through the website (heaven forfend!) but through a Google search. Which is fucking GENIUS, obviously. Anyway, here it is - if any reader wins, I want a credit!