David Riley

If you have ever used the word ego to describe a characteristic of someone, you have been influenced by one of the most important thinkers of all time - Sigmund Freud. He revolutionised our view of the workings of the mind. Less well known are his visits to many places as he was developing his theories - one of these included Blackpool in 1908. These visits are the starting point for artist Zoe Beloff's Dreamland: The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and the Blackpool Chapter. The show is now on at the Grundy gallery and is well worth a visit.…

Elly Griffiths, who spoke at Moor Park library in this year's Wordpool on Thursday, has written a range of novels. She is most famous for the series in the crime genre centred on forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. The fifth in this series, Dying Fall, takes the protagonists away from their usual setting in Norfolk to visit us on the Fylde Coast. She told many tales of interest to those wanting more background to her own work as well as writers of all genres. Yes, her research was thorough - even including a ride on the Big One at the Pleasure…

Grand Words 2013, Blackpool's one act play competition was launched on Saturday at Blackpool Grand Theatre's studio. There was a production of last year’s winning entry, Zoe Lamond’s drama, Saturday Night at Guido’s and a rehearsed reading of one of the commended plays, Jennifer Smethurst’s Foul (or Fowl) Play. The latter, a comedy set in an imaginary local theatre agent’s office involved one of his clients being lured into “advertising,” i.e. wearing a chicken costume for a butcher’s in Layton. The cast included local writer and performer Ian Simpson as the shady agent, a role he performed well. The settings…

Grand Words One Act Play Competition 2013 launches on Saturday 11 May at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre Studio, at 7-30pm.  The competition has run at the Grand since 2009 and has seen some memorable plays written by participants from all over the north west of England (the contest‘s catchment area). As usual with this competition, the launch involves a production of last year’s winning entry which this time is Zoe Lamond’s drama, Saturday Night at Guido’s.  There will also be a rehearsed reading of one of last year's commended plays; Jennifer Smethurst’s comedy, Foul (or Fowl) Play. From Saturday, the competition…

All That Comes Between Us is an exhibition by Manchester-based modernist artist, Andrew McDonald.  It includes a number of new sculptures and hand-drawn animations.  When you enter the gallery, the first works you see are all in black, entitled Landscapes of Intimacy (numbers 4 to 13). The sculptures are small ovals that have the appearance of tree bark treated with epoxy resin graphite. They are intriguing and tactile, drawing on ideas of landscape. In the main gallery room are sculptures of houseplants entitled we saw everything but did nothing (numbers 1 to 5). The sculpture is recognizabe as plant forms…

There's a lot of creative activity going on in Blackpool town centre cafes these days. For instance, Caffe Dolce on Abingdon Street, runs monthly art exhibitions featuring local artists. These include some trained in fine arts, photographers and last month included works from a local sixth form group. This month they did something a little different. They invited six artists, working in pairs, to create a multiform exhibition. Downstairs, the Clarks (working as Wolfshead Photography) exhibited wildlife photos of tigers. They have over 20 years experience in this type of photography and if any tiger image is sold from the…

Emilio C. L. Tafani, Demonstration in Dissection, 1945. Grundy Art Gallery. Grundy Art Gallery is putting on a series of talks throughout 2013 which aim to open up the gallery's collection to audiences in a new and exciting way. The aim of the talks is to focus on and discuss a number of specific artworks from the Grundy's eclectic permanent collection whilst embracing wider issues relating to the collection's history and its evolution since the gallery opening in 1911. Grundy is recognised as a national centre of excellence for its contemporary visual art programme and is an Arts Council England…