Mine is normally the only bike parked along this wall behind my work, but this is how it looked last Friday evening – swamped with visitors to the triple whammy of exhibition launches by VIVID, Ikon Eastside and Eastside Projects.
VIVID have some interesting pieces of video art on display. Ran Huang’s ‘Fake Action Truth’ is quite clever, playing pornographic grunts over a scene of two guys boxing so you think you’re hearing their athletic exertion. It takes a while and a freesheet to twig, but once you do it’s quite good fun imaging what images those sounds originally accompanied. VIVID ligging was bought to you by Birmingham Pale Ale.
My Very Own Cinema, the Ikon Eastside exhibition of films by Polish video artist Josef Robakwski is well worth a visit. From My Window, Josef’s view from his apartment window in Lodz, is a brilliant film. Filmed over a period of twenty years, it shows quirky little details of local life such as his neighbour’s dogs mating, fond memories of the annual May Day marches and more sinister aspects of life under military rule when he sees his wife being followed by a mysterious, official looking car. It’s made all the better for the artist’s very funny running commentary but the voyeuristic nature of it did make me wonder if he’d picked up a trick or two from the oppressive socialist regime. Ikon kept the ligging suitably themed with Tyskie Polish lager.
I must admit to not being terribly taken with the Sculpture Show at Eastside Projects, none of the pieces there really excited me. A lot of people managed to walk through this artwork, which the poor gallery assistant had to keep rearranging.
But the evening was as much about the buzz as it was about the artwork and that seemed to work – bringing a sizeable crowd into the area and keeping them there for the evening, hopping from one great venue to the next. More joining the Digbeth dots like this, please!
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