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Under the Volcano: An exhibition for Malcolm Lowry

25 September - 22 November 2009

On the centenary of Malcolm Lowry's birth in 2009, we hosted an exhibition curated by Bryan Biggs, Under the Volcano: An Exhibition for Malcolm Lowry (1907 - 1957)

Curated by the Bluecoat's Artistic Director Bryan Biggs, the exhibition was the centrepiece of a two-month programme celebrating the Wirral-born writer. The show brought together artists from Merseyside and the North West, Scotland, Canada, Mexico and Chile, whose work related to Lowry in different ways, as well as historical works, documentary film and archival material.

The work on display included new film and installation commissions, sculpture, drawings, prints, ephemera and loans of historic paintings by Edward Burra, Adrian Henri and other international artists, reflecting the various points on Lowry’s compass: Merseyside, the Isle of Man, New York, Mexico and Canada

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Curated by the Bluecoat's Artistic Director Bryan Biggs, the exhibition was the centrepiece of a two-month programme celebrating the Wirral-born writer. The show brought together artists from Merseyside and the North West, Scotland, Canada, Mexico and Chile, whose work related to Lowry in different ways, as well as historical works, documentary film and archival material.
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Reflecting Lowry's more recent legacy in Canada, these posters were from the Malcolm Lowry Room, a nightclub set up in Vancouver in 1993 by writer Michael Turner. His goal was "to open Lowry's work to the public, but in an unstable environment - fear being a good way to heighten one's senses".

The exhibition was accompanied by commissions of dance from Angus Balbernie and a song cycle by Ian McMillan and Luke Carver Goss, a Day of the Dead community participation day, a film programme, including John Huston’s Under the Volcano, a psychogeographical coach and walking tour of Lowry’s Wirral, and a talks programme, including Lowry’s biographer Gordon Bowker. A book, Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World, was published and a beer, ‘Malcolm Lowry’s Golden Ale’, was brewed for the occasion.

Exhibition Photography

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Front courtyard banner announcing the exhibition at the centre of the Bluecoat's two-month celebration of Malcolm Lowry.
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Entrance to the exhibition, with the Hub to the right, bedecked with Mexican Day of the Dead bunting.
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Exhibition introduction in the Cloister, with Adrian Henri's painting The Day of the Dead in Hope Street visible in the main gallery.
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Works by Adrian Henri (1932–2000) including Calaveras, Hope Street, Couple (1998, Estate of Adrian Henri) which transposed the Mexican Day of the Dead in Liverpool.
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Julian Cooper's Under the Volcano painting series took episodes from the book, including (left) On the porch (1983, collection of Sandra Blythe) and (right) Yvonne – The Consul’s wife (1984, collection the artist). Between is Adrian Henri's painting, Nocturne, Calaveras (1997-98, Estate of Adrian Henri).
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Julian Cooper's Yvonne – The Consul’s wife (1984, collection the artist), from his Under the Volcano painting series; and (left) Adrian Henri's painting, Nocturne, Calaveras (1997-98, Estate of Adrian Henri).
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Stills from Cian Quayle's film, part of an ongoing body of work that interrogates Lowry’s fascination with the Isle of Man, Quayle's birthplace.
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Stills from Cian Quayle's film, part of an ongoing body of work that interrogates Lowry’s fascination with the Isle of Man, Quayle's birthplace.
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Photographs from Cian Quayle’s ongoing body of work that interrogates Lowry’s fascination with the Isle of Man, Quayle's birthplace.
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This installation shows watercolours by Edward Burra (1905 –1976) who visited Lowry in the 1930s in Cuernavaca, Mexico where Under the Volcano is set. Left to right: Mexican Church (1938, © Tate, London), Dancing Skeletons (1934, © Tate, London ), Skeleton Party (circa 1952-54, © Estate of Edward Burra, courtesy Lefevre Fine Art, London).
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Chilean artist Jorge Martínez García’s series of etchings, previously unseen in the UK, reflected the central themes of Under the Volcano.
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Chilean artist Jorge Martínez García’s series of etchings, previously unseen in the UK, reflected the central themes of Under the Volcano. Left to right: Tríptico: El Mezcal, Tríptico: El Volcan, Tríptico: Los Comisarios (2007, ©The Artist and Craig Scott Gallery, Toronto).
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Paul Rooney's film Bellevue, co-commissioned by the Bluecoat and Film & Video Umbrella, drew on Lowry’s time in a psychiatric ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital in 1935, which informed his novella, Lunar Caustic. The film evokes scenarios from the book in the setting of an advertising agency's focus group meeting at an English stately home.
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Paul Rooney's film Bellevue, co-commissioned by the Bluecoat and Film & Video Umbrella, drew on Lowry’s time in a psychiatric ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital in 1935, which informed his novella, Lunar Caustic. The film evokes scenarios from the book in the setting of an advertising agency's focus group meeting at an English stately home.
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These darkly humorous cartoons by Liverpool artist and Lowry fan Brian O'Toole (1946-2001) included in the exhibition have an affinity with Mexican artist Posada's popular Day of the Dead prints.
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Prominent English cartoonist Ray Lowry (1944-2008), known for his work in Punch, Private Eye and NME, was increasingly drawn to this Northern namesake, producing a series of vivid works on paper on an Under the Volcano theme, shortly before his death.
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A resident of Cuernavaca, the town where Under the Volcano is set, Cisco Jiménez presented several mixed media sculptures in the exhibition, making playful reference to Lowry's life - his drinking, golfing prowess, and encounters with Mexican folklore. Left: Peddler (1998); right: Necklace (2007), © The Artist.
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A resident of Cuernavaca, the town where Under the Volcano is set, Cisco Jiménez presented several mixed media sculptures in the exhibition, making playful reference to Lowry's life, including his interest in Mexican folklore. Image: Peddler, detail (1998), © The Artist.
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A resident of Cuernavaca, the town where Under the Volcano is set, Cisco Jiménez presented several mixed media sculptures in the exhibition, making playful reference to Lowry's life, including his drinking, seen here in Two atoms connected (2007), © The Artist.
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Left: Donald Brittain's documentary film, Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976); and three works by Cisco Jiménez.
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Paintings by Pete Flowers; and Donald Brittain's documentary film, Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976).
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Pete Flowers' paintings from a series inspired by Under the Volcano, from left to right: Skulls and Flowers – Las Calaveras y las Flores (2008), A Prayer for the Consul (Virgin of Guadalope) (2009), A Prayer for Malcolm (Virgin of Guadalope) (2009), Skeleton Angels – Los Esqueletos Angelicos (2008), © The Artist.
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Ross Birrell and David Harding's Cuernavaca: A Journey in Search of Malcolm Lowry (2006, commissioned by Kunsthalle Basel) was a two-part work comprising a film and an installation in the upstairs gallery. The text repeats the mistranslation from the Spanish of a key text in Under the Volcano by the book's main character, The Consul. It should read: 'Do you like this garden, which is yours? Make sure your children don't destroy it!'
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Ross Birrell and David film, Cuernavaca: A Journey in Search of Malcolm Lowry (2006, commissioned by Kunsthalle Basel) traced Lowry’s footsteps to the shadow of the twin volcanoes in Mexico that inspired his novel, Under the Volcano. The artists constructed a companion installation in the upstairs gallery.
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One of several cablegrams (this one from 1938) in the exhibition that were sent by an agent employed by Lowry's father (a cotton broker in Liverpool) to keep an eye on his wayward son in North America. The succinct reports described Malcolm's increasingly desperate situation. Cablegrams lent to the exhibition courtesy of Liverpool Record Office.
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Wirral-based Lowry expert Colin Dilnot contributed original material to the exhibition relating to Lowry's early life on Merseyside. This included a catalogue from the Liverpool Museum of Anatomy on Paradise Street that so terrified the young Lowry, and press cuttings relating to his first sea voyage as a deckhand in 1927, sailing to China from Birkenhead Docks.
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This timeline was created for the exhibition to provide an introduction to and potted history of Lowry's relatively short life.
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The exhibition viewed from outside on College Lane.
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The exhibition viewed from outside on College Lane, with paintings by Pete Flowers (left) and sculptures by Cisco Jiménez.
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For the Malcolm Lowry centenary season, the Bluecoat's Hub space was bedecked with Mexican Day of the Dead paper cut-outs.

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