An Endless Supply « More Canals than Venice – PixieSixer interviews Harry Blackett and Robin Kirkham, the duo who met at Eastside Projects in 2008 and cooked up the art zine An Endless Supply between them. Free copies are available from Eastside Projects and Ikon Gallery ‘for as long as stocks last’.
EXTRA SPECIAL PEOPLE SALON
Please join us between 6.30-8pm at Eastside Projects for an introduction to ‘Changing Room’ a project by the Visual Realisation Unit at EP. With an outline of the project concept by lead artist Michael Magruder and EP director Gavin Wade, individual presentations by those developing work and a workshop exploring the technology that makes it happen.
Artist Ana Milgram has also been working on the project and writing about her involvement:
…I’ve taken phrases that suggest control, persuasion and compliance from Liam Gillick’s plays (that are being performed for his exhibition in the RL space), and scripted them into objects for avatars to sit in.
Liam Gillick ~ Two Short Plays « More Canals than Venice – Seems this weekend is the last chance to see Liam Gillick’s Two Short Plays at Eastside Projects – murder mystery Lapdog of the Bourgeoisie (2009) and a restaging of Mirrored Image: A ‘Volvo’ Bar (2008). If you haven’t had a chance to see them yet, go along this Thursday to Saturday at 2pm.
The Event » About – The Event looks like a fantastics start to winter, taking over Digbeth on Wednesday 4th Nov until 8th Nov.
…when the steel bashers moved out and abandoned their factories the artists moved in and new spaces emerged. Several of these new spaces will be open to the public for the first time including Grand Union’s unit on Fazeley Industrial Estate, Fazeley Street; a temporary space at 119 Floodgate Street which will be home to Mona Casey Projects for the duration and Crowd6’s use of fellow artist group The Lombard Method’s raw space at 68a Lombard Street, B12.
The artists will also be found at more unusual venues, such as Mark Essen’s Record Exchange Celebration roaming from the Anchor Inn on 5 Nov to The Event’s official launch on 6 Nov, when ‘Essen will lead a performance of “and you will know us by the trail of Morris men” where Morris dancers will escort the audience from each venue to the after party at Eastside Projects.’
Pigeon-loving artists Alex Lockett and Ian England are racing their feathered friends at the Pigeon Loft in The Rea Garden, Floodgate St 2-4pm on Friday 6, Saturday 7 and Sunday 8.
And the latest artist led initiative Grand Union open up their new home at Fazeley Industrial Estate (166 Fazeley Street) with an artists’ publishing fair on Friday 6 from 12pm.
For those that want to see it all, The Event are also holding free, guided tours of the whole kaboodle from Eastside Cafe everyday at 3pm.
It’s not every day you see men washing shellfish in urban Digbeth. But that’s exactly what workers from Eastside Projects have been doing for the past couple of days on Floodgate Street. It’s in preparation for the launch of the new exhibition Abstract Cabinets on the evening of this Friday 25 Sept.
Abstract Cabinet Show is a public sphere of groups, collaborations, galleries in galleries and other phenomena joined together to execute functional constructions and to alter or refurbish existing structures as a means of surviving in a capitalist economy.
So expect to see these shells turned into into something thoroughly useful.
Other events coming up at Eastside Projects include a Comedy Night on 8th Oct (7pm, as part of Birmingham Comedy Festival), the Mother of All Book Launches from 6.30pm on 22nd Oct and the launch of The Event on 6th Nov, which looks particularly promising:
For the Launch of The Event, the 2nd festival of artist led activity in Birmingham, there will be two new major performance works. Stan’s Café will provide live commentary of the launch night as a durational performance from the top of the large tunnel structure in the gallery and Juneau Projects present a new multi-media performance in the form of a live gig with hand made instruments/sculptures, outfits and sound reactive visuals and audience percussion.
I’m at once amused, baffled, frustrated, and in concordance with this demarcation: it makes perfect sense in terms of following the existing lines of major roads etc, but I’m galled by the idea that what was once intended to be the ‘Cultural Quarter’ (I don’t know if that’s still the case) can be defined by a staked out territory and then filled in. Of course departments and policies need to name and define, but I have trouble mapping that onto creativity and culture which I conceive of more as bubbling out from particular points where circumstances collude to allow things to transpire…
As well as a lot of building sites and demolition, Nikki also finds uncertainty from her GPS devices, resulting in pretty pictures of lines:
Scrapbook: Digbeth Art Exploration – Liz Watkin has a wander around Digbeth with her camera, resulting in three very interesting posts about artsy stuff around Digbeth, including the Custard Factory, Ikon Eastside and Eastside Projects. Unfortunately she was unable to capture the pungent smells:
The thing about Digbeth is the variety of smells; greasy food, but mainly chemical smells like diesel, oil and paint. It’s a quietly busy area with businesses ranging from graphic design studios to limousine rental places. You walk down a street not quite sure what you’re going to find and then not sure what you actually have found. On several occasions I was sure I had found an art space of some kind but never found out how to get in or what it really was.
A really great trio of posts about a stranger’s first impressions of Digbeth and what it has to offer. Planners and gallery owners take note. I’ve linked to the first instalment here, but be sure to check out Part II and Part III as well.
Cardboard Wars | BARG – Oh yes, Juneau Projects (Ben Sadler and Philip Duckworth) are ’spoiling for a fight. With cardboard.’ And they want us to join in the fun at Eastside Projects on Saturday the 22nd of August between 1-4pm:
‘There will be a photoshoot and a tournament to see who has constructed the best cardboard weapon (i.e. the one that doesn’t break after clashing with the other cardboard weapons.) They will provide the materials, the refreshments and the amazing prizes. All ages welcome. No experience necessary.’
