Grundy Art Gallery, Queen Street, Blackpool FY1 1PU
From a giant inflatable moggy slumped against the gallery wall, to a projected animation of a rhythmically flicking black line, this exhibition brings together a number of works made by Mark Leckey over the last nine years that feature the character, and more precisely the tail, of Felix the Cat. Review by Laura Mansfield
Further reading +MMK 3, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Domstraße 10 60311 Frankfurt am Main
A sense of uncertainty adds to the overall effect of Prouvost’s work. This is another world, or rather it is our world stained, oddly seductive and uncertain. Review by Laura Mansfield
Further reading +Focal Point Gallery, The Forum, Elmer Square, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1NB
Rather than simply describing intellectual inability or lack of understanding, the show’s curators demonstrate that stupidity can be used as a constructive mode of critique employed to reveal, reframe or subvert standard modes of thinking. Review by Laura Mansfield
Further reading +Rodeo Gallery, 123 Charing Cross Rd, Soho, London WC2H 0EW
In the corridor of Rodeo Gallery’s reception, fragments of material hang in an assemblage of abstracted male and female forms. Lurking silently, the figures observe my arrival. The assemblage is part of a new body of work by Franziska Lantz on show in the first floor gallery space. Laura Mansfield reviews Lantz within the context of 'Condo'.
Further reading +Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL
Drawing inspiration from dystopian literature, ‘Qwaypurlake’ presents the audience with a narrative proposition: to reimagine the Somerset landscape as dominated almost entirely by water, a future world in which humans have been marginalized. Review by Laura Mansfield
Further reading +Manchester International Festival, various venues
Incorporating a programme of music, dance, theatre and contemporary art, Manchester International Festival is expansive. With daily broadcasts by BBC 6 Music’s Radcliffe and Maconie and regular email updates on what to do at MIF landing in my inbox, it can be difficult to find one’s own way into and through the programme beyond the mediated story of the festival with its pervasive marketing and slick imagery. Yet perhaps this very mediation provides an additional facet to the theme of storytelling that seems to echo throughout MIF’s varied programme. Laura Mansfield reviews
Further reading +Liverpool Biennial, 55 New Bird Street, Liverpool L1 0BW
What is always already an inevitable attribute of a city-wide exhibition is actively embraced and enhanced by this year’s Liverpool Biennial. Using the thematic framework of the ‘episode’, the Biennial’s programme brings together a constellation of diverse narrative fragments, scenarios and scenes. Review by Laura Mansfield
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