Cains Brewery for Liverpool Biennial 2016
Polly Checkland Harding
Cains Brewery is being dubbed the ‘heart’ of the festival – and no wonder with the calibre (and number) of works being presented here. At the centre of the space is a large structure inspired by the Large Hadron Collider by artist Andreas Angelidakis. It divides the space up; circling it are art works including sculptures by Sahej Rahal made from clay and wood that imagining mythical beings from different cultures, and which are part of an ongoing series.
These pieces are joined by a bizarre series of sculptures by Iranian artists Ramin, Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian that are a bit like collages made from objects. Work by these three artists runs throughout the Biennial, popping up in a variety of locations and including objects, props, films and works from their collections, ‘smuggled’ by sea in a shipping container from Dubai, where they are currently living in exile.
Inside the collider there’s an outer and inner ring, dotted with works such as Rita McBride’s haunting outlines of houses in Pomeii, and, at its centre, a small viewing tent in which to watch Marvin Gaye Chetwynd’s bizarre, funny and poignant film made with 34 children and 44 teenagers, Dogsy Ma Bone. It’s part-inspired by Bertold Brecht’s satirical The Threepenny Opera from 1928.
