Capsule’s passion for genre bending sound and performances is at the heart of all their events – there are not many places where you can listen to funeral doom, prog, folk, avant jazz and grindcore in one weekend.
No there aren’t, but this autumn Digbeth will be one of them!
There was a definite chill in the air last Saturday afternoon but that didn’t stop a good crowd braving the great outdoors for We Are Eastside’s East Stride, a tour of some of the area’s key arts venues led by local historian Ben Waddington.
We started off from The Old Crown, which as Ben pointed out, perhaps isn’t as old as it purports to be. We then made our way to where much of what makes up Digbeth all began, at Bennie Gray’s The Custard Factory. Those hanging about didn’t appear to be the usual skater kids that frequent its skate park, they seemed to be a much more rag-tag bunch.
'Aggressive Localism'
It turned out they were the creations of people participating in the Craftspace Collective ‘Aggressive Localism’ workshop led by Juneau Projects. You’ll be seeing these Morris dancer inspired costumes worn by skateboarders in the Lord Mayor’s Parade later this year.
The Uses of Enchantment at Rhubarb East
From thereon we visited the newly opened Rhubarb East Gallery in Rhubarb Studios on Heath Mill Lane, which is exploring The Uses of Enchantment with some lovely fine art photography from The Jackson Twins and Vee Speers, whose child portraits I found particularly captivating. Rhubarb-Rhubarb’s Creative Director Rhonda Wilson spoke of her joy in at last having a space to display work:
For years we have watched while the sometimes extraordinary talent emerging from our reviews and mentoring schemes, has been shown by other people, both in the UK and in international spaces. Now we have the pleasure of exhibiting the results of our efforts, in collaboration with some of the world’s most interesting image makers.
The pod space in VIVID
We carried on down Heath Mill Lane, stopping off at Eastside Projects to enjoy The Curtain Show and hear Gavin Wade talk about the artist-led, ex-industrial space and VIVID, where Director Yasmeen Baig-Clifford told the story of its versatile pod space developed by architect Ranbir Lal, a perfect solution for an arts organisation renting rather than owning their premises.
Jim Simpson
Ex Black Sabbath Manager and Birmingham International Jazz Festival founder Jim Simpson popped by and chatted with Lisa and Jenny from Capsule about the rougher, tougher type of music that seems to stem from industrial Birmingham.
St Basil's by Steve Cadman
Ben’s tour also included elements of local history and interest, such as the amazing brickwork on St Basil’s headquarters, which used to be a High Anglican Church.
Pip McKnight
Whilst we were oohing and aahing who should pass by but Pip McKnight, who told us all about how 7 Inch Cinema began whilst Birmingham Film Festival was folding, which was a cloud with a silver lining as they got a lot of the old equipment!
Spacesuit at Grand Union
We got to have a chat outside Ikon Eastside, where many of the tour later got to enjoy Flatpack and Capsule’s screening of Burning, before crossing the road to find the tucked-away Grand Union. The current exhibition Gon-goozler is well worth a look with a fun space-travel theme that includes a spacesuit, a weather-balloon and of course, cheese, some of which had disappeared before the night was out.
Grand Union artist studios corridor
What was really impressive about Grand Union was the studio space, where about 8-10 artists get their own, cheap self-contained work units to get creative in. The artists we met were as happy as pigs in mud in this place and spoke of the need for more like it. Like VIVID, Grand Union are tenants rather than owners of the old industrial space, but the units are flatpack so should they need to move, their studios can move with them to be reassembled in a new home.
James Langdon and Ben Waddington talk the We Are Eastside typeface
We bumped into artist James Langdon whilst we were there, who spoke with Ben about his development of the distinctive We Are Eastside typeface. If you look carefully you’ll find the A’s are a particularly curvaceous treat and as Ben pointed out, not unlike the outline of Eastside itself, although whether this is by accident or design I’m unsure.
Claudia Borgna installation at Rea Garden
Last stop on the tour was the Rea Garden on Floodgate Street, where Arlene Burnett of Behind Closed Doors spoke about their development of the space, and resident artists Claudia Borgna and Alex Lockett of Project Pigeon explained their very different installations. Claudia’s plastic bag flowers looked like seeds from another planet had landed in the bottom half of the garden and taken it over.
Bluen with her chick by Project Pigeon
Project Pigeon is a longer-term installation in the space, which means we get to see the pigeons develop from eggs to fully-grown birds. I got to stroke Bluen’s tiny chick (above), which is now the healthy, strapping 28-day old bird below.
Alex Lockett with Bluen's fully-grown chick
Unfortunately Ben didn’t have the time to take us to see Friction Arts’ The Edge or The Lombard Method, but both are well worth taking the time to venture over to the other side of the High Street.
Curtains at Curtain Show, Eastside Projects
There’s been some interesting online discussion about We Are Eastside since its launch, including a brilliant post by Jon Bounds at BiNS about increasing engagement in the arts, both by simple awareness raising and more in-depth local collaboration. The latter is something I’d like to see lots more of Digbeth – there’s some amazing cultural stuff going on around here, such as Irish Heritage and St Patrick’s Festival Birmingham which, for whatever reason, feels completely unconnected to much of the arts activity in the area.
Cheese at Grand Union. Mmmmmm....
From my resident’s perspective, both camps are making interesting, creative and exciting stuff happen, so it would be great to see them bounce off each other more. I suppose that’s why I’ve kind of fallen in love with Friction Arts, because they are so embedded within the community. I’d love to see arts organisations reach out more and work with local people who are already getting together and doing brilliant things under their own steam, my guess is that all involved learn an awful lot!
I’m hopefully getting a guest post on Flatpack from one of the film festival’s hard-working volunteers, but I thought I’d offer a little round-up of what were my Flatpack picks.
On Friday I went to see those crazy Synth Eastwood lads at The Rainbow Warehouse. As soon as Michael and I entered warehouse we were taken to one side and photographed three times. These photos were made into animated images which became part of the visuals later that night, pretty much all of the audience got to see themselves on the big screen.
Soon after getting papped we found the boy in the box. It seems Hugh Cooney was taking a break from being a big bird man to draw his interpretation of audience members’ suggestions posted to him through a slit in the box, on a PC in Paint with his work in progress being projected onto the wall opposite. Above is what he made of Micheal’s suggestion to ‘Listen to The Archers on a Sunday, the theme tune’s better’. I’m not even going to begin to describe his depiction of my Grandad in his old chip shop, my mum reads this. But I got a signed and framed print-out to take home, which was nice.
The music from the likes of Health & Efficiency, Clark and the Synth Eastwood Band was great, but I found the visuals even more impressive. The shots of famous film scenes cutting to a green figure striking the same poses really blew me away, it must have taken them so long to film and cut that together. The Synth Eastwood people said that they were keen to make new friends in Birmingham so I made sure to have a bit of a chat with them and can confirm they are as lovely as they are clever and stark staring mad.
Saturday was taken up with We Are Eastside’s East Stride, which really warrants its own dedicated post so please be patient.
In the evening I went to Ikon Eastside for Flatpack and Capsule’s screening of Burning, a film of Mogwai’s residency at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. I really enjoyed immersing myself in Burning, it was beautifully shot. Because I’m well hopeless when it comes to music it’s pretty much the first time I’ve sat down and listened to Mogwai, and I liked a lot – definitely a download for all those springtime canalside bike rides I have planned. It also meant I got to see Brumcast’s Little Chris in the flesh and he did a brilliant job of a friendly, relaxed interview with Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite.
After Mogwai was the Plasticine Party at VIVID, which was a lively affair of extremely rude and/or cute plasticine shapes, great live and DJ’d music, drinking and dancing. Unfortunately I had far too much fun to make it to The Secret of Kells the next day, but I did manage to get it together in time for Belbury Youth Club’s Ghost Box at VIVID.
It was an evening screening of old adverts and TV dramas that ranged from the spooky to the just plain strange, such as the philosophical, homo-erotic Penda’s Fen. I couldn’t work out what the hell was going on, if I’m honest but found it interesting all the same. The big slab of victoria sponge cake helped.
After Julian House’s Winter Sun Wavelength a little later we were treated to a special live performance of Moon Wiring Club weaving some musical magic along to visuals made up from the strange, strange things we’d watched earlier. It was chilled, lovely and the perfect wind-down to end a brilliant Flatpack film festival. Well done to Ian and Pip and all rest of the Flatpack crew!
My, my I’ve a busy weekend in store, what with the Flatpack Festival and We Are Eastside launch and all. I’d better make a list of all the things I’ve bought tickets for or promised myself I’d see, just so’s I don’t miss anything. Now, let me see….
On Friday I’ve got a ticket for Synth Eastwood’s Fast Forward Show at The Rainbow, which ‘has 27 heads, is part-Irish part-English part-French, eats loud repetitive beats, projects wobbly animations and wants to meet new friends in Birmingham’. I’m really looking forward it, but sad I’ll be missing the Feast of Fools at The Edge.
Atsuhiro Ito « More Canals than Venice – What looks to be an astounding concert at VIVID this Wednesday 10 March – Capsule present Japanese musician/artist Atsuhiro Ito:
He uses a device he has made called an Optron, fluorescent light tubes with integrated guitar pick-ups which are sent through guitar amp stacks. ‘When a voltage applied to the tubes is altered, the lights flicker and the pick-ups harvest the electromagnetic noise perfectly synchronized with the flickering light. The intense noise creating a visual hallucination and the sounds veering from some kind of extreme techno to outright noise. ‘ Wow.
This coming weekend sees the famous St Patrick’s Festival. The fun kicks off with a Festival Launch Party at The Irish Centre on Friday night, ‘a free evening of entertainment, dancing and a buffet’. To request tickets for the event email stpatricksbirmingham@gmail.com.
A Saturday of The Reel around The Bullring leads into the big Sunday parade, which starts with Mass at St Anne’s Church before the street parade and dancing around the St PatROCKs stage in South Birmingham College.
Post-weekend, the celebrations take a cultural turn with Irish film, literature and theatre events. NLP Theatre perform Singin` I’m No a Billy, He’s a Tim on Monday 15th March in The Paragon Hotel. On Tuesday 16th March you have a choice between an Irish Film Night at The Spotted Dog or a St Patrick’s Literary Festival at The Old Crown Inn. On St Patrick’s Day, Weds 17th March, Irish Storyteller Katrice Horsley will be weaving her magic at The Irish Centre, as will musicians John McNicholl and John Kiernan. Rather amazingly, all of these events are free.
We Are Eastside
Friction Arts' The Edge - part of We Are Eastside
Once you’ve recovered from the St Patrick’s festivities you’ve a little time to pause for breath before the launch of We Are Eastside on 27th March, ‘an online and printed guide to the artists, collectives, promoters and spaces helping to transform Birmingham’s industrial heartland into a thriving creative playground’. The weekend will be jam-packed, with the Flatpack Festival being joined by local arts organisations showcasing their wares.
On Friday there’s a Curtain Show at Eastside Projects whilst The Lombard Method goes all Cinematic on us. I personally will be striving to catch Monuments at Ikon Eastside and mischievous audio-visual antics Synth Eastwood: Fast Forward at The Rainbow Warehouse.
Supersonic 2009 - Capsule are leading We Are Eastside and I get to post a picture of someone's bum
Saturday promises to be rather magical, with the new Rhubarb East gallery opening with The Uses of Enchantment, ‘inspired by fables and fairy stories, nostalgia and psychology’ and Laterna Magicka at Ikon Eastside, which later hosts the new concert film Burning, featuring Mogwai. VIVID will be providing the late-night space to let your hair down, with an Eastside Plasticine Party of ‘Psychedelic claymation’ by Bruce Bickford, which I think I’ll need to see to understand.
If you’re still standing on Sunday there’s plenty going on, with Paul Sharit’s 70′s Flicker films at Ikon Eastside and Belbury Youth Club’s evening of haunted audio and creepy telly at VIVID. I love a good scare…
So there we have it – we can finally see an end to the long, bitter winter and taste spring in the air, with lashings of Guinness and culture in equal measure. Swap your winter coat for a fetching emerald green number and enjoy!
YouTube – Supersonic Festival – 2005 – Tweeted out by @supersonicfest this afternoon, a funky Supersonic Festival 2005 promo film of live action in the Custard Factory, with music by Modified Toy Orchestra. Filmed by local lad Chris Keenan. I can’t wait for Supersonic 2010!
