JFK FOR FLOODGATE STREET – Seems the old mosaic is destined for Floodgate Street following last night’s consultation meeting at The Irish Centre. Even better news is that:
Proposals to revamp the artwork by including more contemporary figures such as Nelson Mandela – described as “crazy” by Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture Martin Mullaney – were rejected.
YouTube – SHIPWRECKED: MY LIFE FOR A BAG – Slightly creepy-but-cool video of Claudia Borgna’s installation and silent performance at the Rea Garden, Floodgate Street:
1000 Plastic bags where filled with water and hanged in the outdoor space
YouTube – Hide and Seek at The Rea Garden – Nice, atmospheric little film shot at The Rea Garden on Floodgate Street. Unfortunately embedding is disabled but it’s worth a watch:
It was taken during my photography shoot for my foundation project entitled ‘Hide and Seek’. My aim in the project was to explore how the female form interacts within its surroundings and to blur the line between the human form and abstract shapes and textures.
I Am Camera – a set on Flickr – A nice slideshow of photos from Fiona Cullinan from the final day of the I Am Camera exhibition in the wild Building, Floodgate Street.
Record pressing plant in Digbeth – Graham Dunning, a Manchester-based artist soon to take up a residency at The Rea Garden on Floodgate Street, puts an appeal on the Birmingham History Forum for information about the old Record Pressing Plant that used to be on The Rea Garden’s site:
Much of my work deals with sound. As it happens, the site was formerly a record pressing plant and there are shards of shellac from old records scattered all over the site. I’m planning on using these to make sounds with.
Anyway, to get to my point, I wondered if anyone had any more info on the pressing plant. Does anyone know of anybody who worked there I could talk to? I understand that it was owned by Philips but not sure if that’s correct. Basically I want to find out all the info I can about that part of the site’s history but, to be honest I’ve no idea where to start! Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. I’ll be at the site which will be open to the public every Friday from 25th June. Feel free to pop in for a chat.
Artist Brigid McLeer has been working down at the site since April in preparation for her ‘durational performance’ ‘One + One (The reading)’. Whilst resident Brigid will be laying a miniature railway track at the site which will be used a camera track. ‘One + One (The reading )’ is inspired by numerous sources, one being Jean Luc Godard’s film ‘Le Mepris’ – a film about the making of a film of Homer’s Odyssey. In the opening sequence of ‘Le Mepris’ we see a woman reading, McLeer’s piece will reference this shot, however during the durational performance Brigid will be reading text from James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Brigid McLeer hopes her reading of Joyce’s classic will ‘speak to the surrounding context of Digbeth’s immigrant Irish community’. The reading is open to the public on Sat 19 June from 12pm and will be filmed using the tracking system.
YouTube – Death of the Digbeth Pigeon – “Now I’m dead. That’s right. Brown bread.” Sorry to hear that. But his loss is our gain, as he uses his afterlife to swagger around Digbeth like some great big Ian Brown bird, educating us in the way of the pigeons. This is well strange film, in a good way.
Claudia’s Night 3 | Behind Closed Doors – A lovely photo of Claudia’s Borgna’s exhibition open evening at Rea Garden on Floodgate Street last Thursday 11th March. Her plastic bags look like lovely magic lanterns…
The site is now open daily 11am – 4pm until 28th March 2010.
