On my way to ArtsFest on Sunday afternoon I took a walk around the route of 48 Sheet – four advertising billboards in Digbeth transformed into pieces of art by local artists. I was doing the route a bit backwards, so I started with billboard no. 4 on Bradford St. The bright yellow bells of ‘Campanile’ by Harry Blackett and Robin Kirkham seemed to move someone to express their joy on the blank billboard alongside it.
Next stop was Lucy McLauchlan’s untitled creation on Barford St, which she created recycling found objects.
Whilst I was taking a photo a group of young types walked by.
“Ah….what’s that?”
“That’s art that is.”
“Art?”
“Art….Arrrt….ARRRRRttttt….Ra Ra-ah-ah-ah/Roma Roma-ma/GaGa Oh la-la/Want your bad romance…”
Elizabeth Rowe’s ‘Will Go Underground’ on the corner of Pershore St brought me onto the route of the SkyRide cycling thingy, the one day when road safety for cyclists in central Birmingham was what it should be.
Just up the road is Ian Richards‘ ‘What You Looking At’ in large, chunky, black three-dimensional lettering.
On the other side of the road was another billboard rendered rather pretty, not by artists but by a lack of paste, which made the paper billow in the wind like a big, sideways flag.
It wasn’t ‘the most beautiful thing in the world’ a la American Beauty, but it was quite nice to watch for a while.
48 Sheet ends tomorrow (Tuesday 14 September) with a walk around the four billboards at 6-8pm organised by EC arts, followed by drinks at The Anchor.
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