From dan-ish
Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.
Archive for February, 2008
From andrew meager
Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.
Harry Palmer reports on his first Site of Social Special Interest, the underpass on Bristol Street blogged about here. It’s a long report but well worth reading. I think I finally really get where he’s coming from with this. An excerpt:
In February 2007, I travelled on a new route in the city, cycling from Digbeth to Five Ways in central Birmingham, crossing under a subway at the bottom of Lee Bank near St Luke’s Church on Bristol Street. It was here where I came across the most striking art that I have seen in recent years. On the one side of the wall ran a succession of six large bright and colourful infant school murals (8 ft by 4 ft each approx). Lit up by powerful fluorescent lights, they were simply ‘on exhibit’, a by-product of public passageway illumination. I got off my bike and spent 15 minutes viewing and photographing these fantastic paintings. I was absorbed by the parallels I have had as a very occasional painter and my on-going fascination with anti-authoritarian art making and manifestations.
His second SSSI will be announced soon but I can reveal it’ll be somewhere in Digbeth.
The Stirrer has a short interview with Sally Luton of the Arts Council where she lays out the conditions for Birmingham Opera Company to continue to receive funding. Here’s the meat:
“The issue has never been, ‘is this good quality work?’ The issue is that the work happens infrequently, so how can we ensure that a company which claims to be about community opera actually is part of the community.
“Each of their projects tends be a one-off which is very exciting, but what happens afterwards? Can we have a programme of year round activities, maybe by developing partnerships? That’s the issue.
Last year Screen West Midlands got a £4m Media Production Fund. Rather that throw the money around at naked champaign parties they’re meeting with local film and media companies to see how it might benefit them in a series of roadshows this month. Here’s the schedule:
* Tuesday 19 February, 3pm – Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry CV 4 7AL
* Wednesday 20 February, 10.30am – Old Market Hall, The Square, Shrewsbury SY1 1LH
* Thursday 21 February, 3pm – Birmingham Midland Institute, Margaret St, Birmingham B3 3BS
* Monday 25 February, 2pm – MET Studio, Stafford Gatehouse Theatre, Eastgate St, Stafford ST16 2LT
* Tuesday 26 February, 2pm – The Courtyard, Edgar St, Hereford HR4 9JR
“The roadshows are designed to provide information on the Fund, and offer advice on the application procedure and eligibility criteria. They will also highlight the far-reaching benefits that the Media Production Fund brings to the West Midlands.” More info and contact details.
-
A short summary of Andrew Moscardo-Parker’s “sound art project” soon to be supporting Earth.
-
D’log investigates
-
Nick Booth’s podcast highlighting active citizens in Birmingham tops 100,000 downloads and he lists the most popular ones.
-
Andrew Dubber talks about the work he’s been doing with the Friendly Fire reggae collective through the Knowledge Transfer Fellowship
-
D’log picks his highlights of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s 2008 program.
Spaghetti Gazetti brings notice of a forthcoming Pogus Caesar exhibition at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery running from April 26th to July 12th. Here’s one of his photos from the 2005 tornado:
Taken from the wide range of photographs, photomotages and films on his website.
Most of Caesar’s UK photography is based around his home city of Birmingham and important events such as the Handsworth riots and the Birmingham tornado. He has photographed well known personalities such as Stevie Wonder, Desmond Tutu and actress Julie Christie. Internationally, Caesar has visited places as diverse as South Africa, Spain, Albania, America and India to photograph people and events.
More details at SpagGaz (who I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been following. Bad me. Bad bad me.)
-
A mini folk festival at Town Hall in April featuring Billy Bragg, Seth Lakeman, Tunng, Norma Waterson, June Tabor and Kathryn Williams. Like Moseley Folk with chairs.
-
offering two pathways: Animation or the more tailored Animation for Games Design.
-
Aiming to record the city’s rich LGB social cultural and political heritage, the project team has collected reminiscences and information from nearly 80 interviewees spanning seven decades, plus boxes of magazines, flyers, photographs, badges and other
Combining the arts of the rock video and the avant-naivety of post-art cinema with the spirit of “Whey-hey! holiday!”
Interesting looking show coming to the Custard Factory gallery in March.
Featuring emerging as well as established artists, PLATFORM 01 is the first in a series of shows intended to give artists from the Midlands and surrounding areas a venue in which to display their work and to create connections between themselves, their art, and the community of collectors who live and work in the area. We believe that experienced and new collectors should be able to form relationships between themselves and the artists and galleries in the Birmingham area, and that Fine Art should be accessible to all. Additionally, all commission on artworks sold at PLATFORM 01 will go to our chosen charity, Breast Cancer Care, to help play a part in beating breast cancer.
Under the remit of Nature as a topic, the exhibit shows the relationship between the artist, the work, and the observer as interpreter, through both personal experience and the subjectivity of how each individual interprets the natural world. For both the observer as well as the artist, interpretation and interaction happen both within the medium and when the work is viewed when complete.
The role of the natural world in the lives of individuals in the 21st century is changing at an exponential rate, as is the relationship of the visual arts to environmental issues. Whether benevolent or threatening, in both urban and rural settings, the natural world affects the way we live in an increasingly important way. Technology is now inextricably linked to the natural environment as we look for new and better ways to power our lives, and the implications of tech-natural hybridity only serve to remind us of how dependent we are upon the natural world for our energy, our food, our homes, and even our artistic inspiration.
Skimming through the biogs of artists involved shows it to have a pretty national reach, which is good to see, as well as spotlighting local talent. Here’s the list:
Amy and Claire, Claire Diamond, Will Grant, Ruth Green, Ken Hurd, Hilary La Force, Richard Lawton, Emma Levick, Chris Pepler, Susann Pocknell, Tim Robottom, Gaelle Roche, Sharon Snaylam, Maureen Stone, Vicki Walkden, Miles Walkden and Catherine Whitehouse.
Astonishingly the private view on March 4th actually is private. To get an invite get in touch with the organisers, Antika.
Logulogu. Lawrence Roper of the Studio 4 gallery and the Outcrowd Collective, has a weblog for his side projects and the like. Here’s a nice picture currently gracing the front page by Tsz.
Attention is drwn using this to Electric Eskimo, a “secret side project, just for fun really, fairly lo-fi and analogue. My attempt at singing and a reason for collaborating (getting drunk and messing about) with other musicians and friends…”
via Self Ctrl.
-
Needed a total refit having been gutted in a fire last year and, according to this report, looks to be doing live music.
-
“the artist name of musician and producer, Sam Underwood” who’s also one of the chaps at Stereographic
-
“a group to bring together bands, artists, fans, promoters, venues, photographers, magazines, recording studios and other people involved in the music scene in Birmingham, England and the surrounding areas.”
Kate Beatty is working on a series of portraits of “Birmingham Creatives”. Here’s one, of Andrew Dubber.
Oh, and here she is taking the photo:
-
“Great electro from Future Daze, Distinct Radi0, Frysch, Crash Repeat & Arc Vel. Top Punk from RAM-MAN, Beestung Lips, and Verbal Warning. Acoustic stuff from Matt Tyler and Barnesy, and a whole lot more including The Courtesy Group & The Destroyers.”
-
“in which BBC WM’s Ed Doolan and Carrott talk seriously about the serious matters around writing, performing and making money from comedy.”
-
an opportunity for people interested in circus skills (juggling, unicycling etc.) to get together and practise – to learn new things and pass on tips to others. It’s also a chance for people to just sit back and watch.
-
as a WordPress blog. I’m liking this trend.
-
Next one on 23rd Feb. “We’re going to hysterically applaud a total stranger for doing something completely normal. “
BIAD has a new website and rather than just tell you that I thought it’d be nice to reproduce a few of the images from their gallery there.
Sonia Poli – BA Visual Communication
Helen Freeman – BA Fashion and Textiles
Francesca Prowse – BA Visual Communication
Hat tip to D’log
