Forward art exhibition at Wild Building, Floodgate Street

This seems to be something that’s going on alongside The Event in The Wild Building on Floodgate Street. Here’s the blurb sent to me by organiser Laura McNamara:

Working with BJ Components, a manufacturing company based in Digbeth, artists have produced works that celebrate Birmingham’s role as a manufacturing centre, often using products produced by BJ Components as the base for their works. The work that these artists have produced for Forward will be displayed in and donated to B J Components.

Birmingham’s Coat of Arms depicts industry and arts standing alongside each other, with Forward as the motto. Nowhere else in Birmingham depicts this better than Digbeth.  The area around Digbeth was the first centre of industry in Birmingham and became one of the most heavily industrialised areas in the city and remains an industrial hub even today. Although the larger companies such as Typhoo Tea and Bird’s Custard have long since moved out of Digbeth, hundreds of small independent industrial companies still remain.

Walking or driving through Digbeth, it is not obvious what or whom is behind the shutters of these industrial units. They are not open to the public and the artwork produced for Forward will also not be on view to the public. The only way that the viewer is made aware of Forward is through video documentation of the exhibition, which will be aired in the Loading Bay of The Wild Building, Digbeth between 12 and 4pm from the 5th – 8th of November.