Art of the Terraces, strategically breaks the silence at the Walker.
Chanting crowds, techno and strobe lighting penetrate the exhibition. If you are pursuing a mindful break from the clangour of the Christmas markets to therapeutically peruse a few historic canvasses, surrounded by meditative silence this exhibition is one to bypass in haste! Fashions, fanzines and footy transport us to the stadiums of the soccer greats and notably the Kop.
Ross Muir’ Square Gogh captures our focus in the central gallery. A re-envisaged Van Gogh,’ considered to be final self-portrait, brandishing a striped, black Adidas tracksuit top. Muir, a self-taught artist grew up in Northern Scotland and is now based in Glasgow. Square Goth was made recognisable by all across Scotland’s largest city with the ‘Jist Gogh Hame’ billboard campaign. Reprints of the image and slogan were pasted across the urban landscape of central Glasgow. Muir has shot to fame and is now represented by the prestigious Maddox Gallery.
Adidas is a brand particularly adorned by the red army of Liverpool Football Club. LFC secured the first ever UK sponsorship deal with Hitachi in the late seventies. 1985 saw Adidas embossed on the players shirts. After a period with several other sponsors, notably Carlsberg, it returned to the stripes of Adidas as it stands today. Liverpool’s successes in Europe in seventies and eighties led to numerous supporter pilgrimages transcending the Continent. They returned with unknown sports brands from Italy and Milan in particular. Trainers and sports brands became staple wear of the terraces.
Lothair Road serrates the whitewashed gallery space, work from locally based Christine Physick: View from the Terraces. Physick combines photography, paint and drawing media throughout her work. The artist responds to the positive and negative emotion of football and the way in which it configures our identity. Lothair Road, along with Alroy Road, Rockfield road and part of Anfield Road were flattened during the summer of 2021 to make way for the expansion of the Stadium. LFC began purchasing nearby properties after the millennium, many were ‘Tinned up’ for two decades before demolition. 2013 saw the Club make the decision to stay on their current site and launch an expansion plan. What was originally 4,800 became a 7,000-capacity extension. Costing a whopping 80 million it looks to be completed during the 2023/24 season.
‘Fiorucci made me hardcore’ adds some indulgently imposing strobe lighting to the Walker. Mark Leckey’ 1999 video installation portrays a euphoric, chant-like quality of the underground club scenes of the 1970’s to the dying days of the acid house rave scene of the nineties. Birkenhead born Leckey grew up in the shadows of Liverpool from Wirral located Ellesmere Port. Working class, both his parents employed by Littlewood, he found himself on the side-line looking across at the Dock governed cityscape. This translated to him navigating toward the side of dance floors, observing the frenzies of cyber clad movers and informing his video production. Even more striking in the digital age, paying homage to the softness of the analogue VHS tape. Leckey went on to take the Turner Prize in 2007/08 when it was held in Liverpool for the Capital of Culture year. Fiorucci made me hardcore has been exhibited globally including the Gugenheim Museum.
Further great works take on the gallery space, a human size sculpture made from Puma trainer tongues. The staples of both stadiums from Anfield based Frank Green. The re-posing of a true football supporting boys bedroom including a floor-based game of Subbuteo a retro indulgence.
We do not have an exhibition which encompasses sports culture of the seventies, eighties and nineties, we have terraces which have been brought to the gallery. We have sound, chanting, an accompanying playlist, masses of large scale print media….
…but most of all, we have and exhibition where you are not afraid to ask the person next you;
‘Who are Yer?’
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker-art-gallery
Exhibition continues until the 12th of March 2023.
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4000887400212447
alisonlittleblog 
Leave a reply to elenamitchell Cancel reply