It’s a good time to be a book-lover in Digbeth. On Saturday, I went to see Inbindable Volume at VIVID – a video installation by Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry projected onto three large screens with narration that ‘describes the lifespan of a building from conception to abandonment’, but what I loved about it was the lingering shots of Birmingham Central Library’s Brutalist architecture and lots of lovely books…
Birmingham Forward: a symbol for endless demolition?
After I watched the film it was time for local historian Chris Upton and author Catherine O’Flynn to discuss their reactions to the piece, which were pretty insightful. Catherine described herself as being in a ‘perpetual state of nostalgia’ for lots of lost Birmingham buildings and wondered aloud if the hammer on the Birmingham Forward symbol is a motif for the endless demolition that takes place? Both her and Chris seemed to agree that, whatever our feelings towards the aesthetics of Brutalism, to wipe away the physical mark of an important piece of Birmingham history would be like erasing a piece of the city’s memory.
Fellow book lovers may also be interested in a talk at Eastside Projects this Thursday 19th August from curator Moritz Küng in the third of a series of book talks:
In the spirit of ‘Curating the Library’ (founded by Küng at deSingel in 2003) Küng has been invited to select publications to become part of the Eastside Projects Library. His selections have been on display at Eastside Projects throughout ‘Book Show‘, and on Thursday Küng will discuss how each title informs his practice.
I’m a big fan of books, not just what’s written inside them but the books as physical objects in themselves. Dusty covers, rustling pages, scrawled blue ink inscriptions on the title page – all overly romantic, slightly fetishistic reasons why I love nothing more than a day out in Hay-on-Wye.
So I was rather taken with The Book Show at Eastside Projects, which launched on Friday evening. There were big bulky books.
There were torn up books.
There were foreign language books.
And there were the sort of books that needed no translation.
And then there was the total absence of books – there were the shelves and library trollies for them, but these were completely empty. I found it a little spooky – where had they gone? It was like entering the world of Farenheit 451.
An exhibition of artworks, objects and structures that address the physical form of the book, including work by Simon Starling, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, and Radim Peško.
The starting point for the exhibition is Ulises Carrión’s provocative series of aphorisms The New Art of Making Books, 1975. Carrión was the founder of Other Books and So in Amsterdam, a gallery and bookstore that during its short life (1975–1979) became the first major centre for the flourishing international artist-led publishing scene.
A new publication will accompany the exhibition. BOOK BOOK will include, ‘a facsimile reprint of Ulises Carrión’s ‘The New Art of Making Books’ as it originally appeared in the journal Kontexts; an illustrated text by James Langdon and additional works by Melissa Dubbin and Aaron Davidson, Tauba Auerbach, Kelly Large, Åbäke and others’.
The Meanwhile in Manchester exhibition is half of an exchange between artists in Birmingham and Manchester, in collaboration with Eastside Projects and Extra Special People. Rogue Studios in Manchester show Meanwhile in Birmingham on 5-6 June before Meanwhile in Manchester comes to Grand Union and The Lombard Method with a private view on Friday 11 June, 6-9pm. The exhibition continues 12th to 20th June, Thurs – Sun, 12-5pm.
An Endless Supply | Issue Eleven up and out – Issue 11 of the art zine is out now and available at Eastside Projects, VIVID and Ikon Eastside. It seems there’s a tabby missing, which is very sad.
Yesterday Amar was nice enough to let me have a sneak preview of the Mitchy Bwoy exhibition at the Sauce Gallery in The Custard Factory. The official launch is from 5.30pm ‘until late’ tomorrow (Thursday 8th April) with what must be the first barbecue of the year:
We have secured a major scoop bringing Mitchy Bwoy to the city and showcasing his famous work. From album covers and illustrations, to famous fonts and fashion designs, fans will be able to see and purchase a range of prints, one-offs and originals. Synonymous with new music and club culture, London-based Mitchy Bwoy has worked with some of the best names in the industry. From his studio, the ‘post-graff’ artist has designed album covers and branding for the likes of Chase & Status, Ziggy Marley, Nitin Sawhney and Amp Fiddler.
There’s also an artist’s talk at Eastside Projects tomorrow evening with Grace Ndiritu, whose piece Still Life is currently on display as part of Curtain Show. The talk, introduced by Gavin Wade, is 6.30-8pm. Entry £3 (free to ‘Extra Special People’) email info@eastsideprojects.org to reserve a seat.
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!
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.
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!
