To mark the occasion I’ll be washing down some birthday cake with miscellaneous alcohol in The Spotted Dog’s back garden from 6pm this Friday evening. I don’t particularly enjoy drinking alone so please come and join me if you can – everyone is welcome and it would be lovely to celebrate two years of this blog with friends old and new. :-)
British artist Andrew Cross is to premiere his new film at Ikon Eastside 1-25 July. The Solo features a performance by Carl Palmer, legendary rock star drummer of 1970s ‘supergroup’ Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
The Solo considers the relationship between music and space by focusing on a much-maligned musical form: the rock drum solo. Popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, drum solos were a key feature of concerts at that time, combining extraordinary musical virtuosity and showmanship.
…Alongside The Solo a selection of colour photographs by Cross will be displayed, each showing an unassuming field that was once the location of the Knebworth Festival during the 1970s. Pictured at different times of day, the silent landscape holds memories of long summer days and rock legends. As with the film, Cross hones in on a specific moment and through intense scrutiny throws into question our relationship to places loaded with personal and cultural significance.
This is part of Ikon’s This Could Happen To You: Ikon in the 1970s, a retrospective exhibition that ‘surveys the gallery’s programme from 1970-1978′, with works also being displayed at Ikon Brindleyplace and the Pallasades Shopping Centre.
Last Friday my artsy evening kicked of with the launch of the hobbypopMUSEUM at Eastside Projects, which seemed to be an installation that conjured up the quintessential English country garden.
When Eastside Projects Curator Gavin Wade told me this was hobbypopMUSEUM‘s reaction to Birmingham I was understandably very confused!
But when he elaborated and explained it was concerned with the gentrification of the area it made much more sense. They even give us a depiction of a gent, which was good as it’s been an awful long time since I’ve seen one round these parts, so I needed reminding.
The garden had some unique flora and fauna.
It also had a dark side in the shape of the Night Garden, where you wouldn’t want to be alone at night and in danger of the beasties getting at you.
After enjoying a lovely, sunny glass of Pimm’s, I strolled on over to The Bordesley Centre of Contemporary Art on Bowyer Street, which opened its doors for the first time. Visitors had the opportunity to kiss and pray to the mythical Bordesley Stone.
Those not pure of heart enough to look at it without turning into a pillar of salt at least got to appreciate street artist Newso’s depiction of it. And a bit of dubstep.
The hobbypopMUSEUM is in Eastside Projects until 13th June. I’m not quite sure what those crazy kids at The Bordesley Centre of Contemporary Art are up to, but their Programme page mentions something about a bike jumble and a giant wooden car.
Digbeth-based photographer Richard Battye is launching his new exhibition this evening Still – Dancing, which runs from 19th April – 8th May in the Custard Factory Gallery.
Richard Battye’s “Still – Dancing” at the Custard Factory Gallery showcases several years work in capturing leading dancers, shot both in the studio and on location in the City….Richard continues: “Dancing is fun to do but it’s just as much fun to watch. Hopefully my pictures will encourage people to get involved at all levels.”
Richard’s exhibition opens with a preview at 6pm this evening. It coincides with the International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB), which Ikon Eastside is playing host to a number of performances for, namely:
Running Sushi, Chris Haring (Friday 23 & Saturday 24 April)
Double Bill of Meryem Jazouli (Morocco) & Muhanad Rasheed – Iraqi Bodies (Iraq) (Sat 1st May)
Self Unfinished, Xavier Le Roy (Thursday 13 & Friday 14 May)
There’s a much more detailed report of dance activity at Ikon Eastside this spring at Spaghetti Gazetti. Check out the IDFB website to find out more of the myriad of dance activity going on locally, in venues such as the Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Town Hall.
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.
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.
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!
Last Thursday evening was an incredibly varied one for me. It started with the Social Media Surgery organised by Nick Booth in Fazeley Studios, where we gave social media advice and help to people from local voluntary and community groups. This was the Social Media Surgery’s first birthday and it’s come on in leaps and bounds since its humble beginnings as a one-off event in the BVSC building. Many happy returns.
I thought I’d also better check out the art launches of that evening – Ryokji Ikeda’s data.tron at Ikon Eastside (pictured above) and Jordan McKenzie’s live performance piece Day Into Night at VIVID.
Like the blurb said, Ryoji Ikeda’s video art is ‘truly engrossing’ – I found the rows after rows of data speeding by on the big screen kind of hypnotic and I kept glazing over, like my brain was tuning into its white noise. Or maybe I was just a bit tired. The exhibition is on until 8th Nov, shortly after which it will become part of the Ikon Eastside closing party on 12th Nov.
I popped into VIVID on my way back but found I couldn’t really get into it – Jordan McKenzie was in the corner of a cold, dark room repeatedly lighting matches off the wall. I think the best thing about it was the burnt-out match smell that hit me as soon as I walked into the room. You can re-watch VIVID’s recording of the piece.
After that I made my way to Manzil’s curry house for a spot of dinner, but found myself distracted by a late-night student sale at COW Vintage store. This is a great business booster of theirs – give the fresher students an after-dark party of beer, cakes and pumping music and rake in their student loans through the cash tills. It worked, too.
After purchasing a rather fetching yellow bangle, I made my way to Manzil’s on Digbeth High Street to celebrate photographer Karen Strunk’s birthday in style. The curry was up to its usual delicious standard and was nicely polished off with birthday cake and modeling balloons, courtesy of her magician friend Pat.
