Chris Keenan, aka Prime Objective, was one of four artists (along with Jo Naden, Eryka Isaak and Matthew Robinson) to be commissioned by a large, local confectioners to produce artwork for the company’s new ‘Bournville Place’ offices.
Chris posed purple objects – bikes, balloons, bunting, drumkits and so on – around the (reassuringly clean-looking) factory.
With thanks to Surely (who have more pics).
On Thurs 10 July the first screening of Finished With The War will take place as part of New Vibes at the Patrick Centre. New Vibes is DanceXchange‘s annual showcase and Finished With The War is
a dance for camera piece that explores the relationship between the First World War and the current war in Iraq through research into the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Andrew Motion
It’s been produced/choreographed by Lucy Nicholls with direction and post-production by Liam d’Authreau and an original music composition by Marc Reck.
There’s more info on the eflyer and also on the Blendstate site and Lucy Nicholl’s own blog.
Some good news from the Edge has dropped into my inbox. Having secured a ten-year lease for their premises they’ve now secured funding for a big refurb:
The wonderful SITA trust have blessed us with the resources to install a new heating system, disabled loos, insulation and a new kitchen! Â This will be stage one of our ongoing plans to develop the place as the (informal) venue for experimental arts in the city and operate year-round.
There’s good news and bad(-ish) news: the bad(-ish) news is that public activity will be suspended until late summer while things are sorted out. The good news is that they’d like people to help out with, in their words:
mainly smashing stuff and chucking it away/recycling, quite therapeutic, actually
So if you’d like to get involved drop them a line.
There are still a few events happening at the Edge in the meantime – the Strange Ways Cheapside Show is there until 12 July and there are some talks on 25 July which I’ll blog about later.
I went along to the meeting for the previously mentioned Rhubarb Radio on Thursday last week.
Things are still tripping along quickly, with equipment due to move on-site shortly and small teams of volunteers being allocated to look after certain other matters. As much as possible, discussion about the direction and development of the station will be conducted out in the open. For starters there’s a Rhubarb Radio blog for ideas to be kicked around on.
Paul Hadley (Dynamics Arts) has posted his minutes of Thursday’s meeting on the blog but you can also download or stream the audio from this post.
Most encouragingly, the people involved at this stage have a wide range of expertise to lend to the project and there’s a lot of enthusiasm. If you want to get involved then either email paul[at]dynamicsarts.com or perhaps leave a comment on the Rhubarb Radio blog – I’m sure it’d be picked up on.
Returning to Birmingham after last year’s exhibition, ‘Please Excuse Our Appearance’, Tercerunquinto are back at Ikon Eastside with ‘I Am What I Am‘.
The exhibition will run from 10 July to 24 August but there’s a preview on Wednesday 9 July from 7-9pm. What’s more:
A free bus will run from Ikon, Brindleyplace to Ikon Eastside at 8pm, and then at 9pm from Eastside to Ikon’s project with Chinese artist He An, at Moat Lane Carpark.
There’s an interview with the Mexican collective from September 07 on the New Langton Arts’ Blog which gives a little background to what they’re doing:
the new facility that Ikon is going to occupy in the eastside is a previous storage facility — a quite emblematic and representative construction in the area. As such, the institution was using the space of someone who had been previously displaced because of the renewal strategy, something that is reflected in the current urban phenomena that the place is going through
Next weekend Capsule‘s festival of rock and electronic music – Supersonic – is taking place at the Custard Factory. In addition to planning that, Capsule recently took local acts Pram and the ZX Orchestra to Barcelona’s Sonar festival for a well-received showcase.
Frankie sat down with Jenny and Lisa to discuss DIY ethics, council funding, the city’s lack of suitable venues and this year’s Supersonic festival.
Capsule Interview from Created in Birmingham on Vimeo.
If you’re going then you might want to check the timetable for each day and see what talks and presentations have been announced.
If you’re not already going there might be a few e-tickets left, so if you want to see why people are flying in from around the world to visit this then get in quick.
Staging ArtsFest is a huge undertaking as a few of the photos on the ArtsFest365 blog hint at. They seem to have taken on a few volunteers recently but they’re looking for more. If you fancy getting involved (and I imagine they’ll have all kinds of work) then email artsfest[@]birmingham.gov.uk.
Also, there’s an ArtsFest Twitter for you to follow if you’d like updates in the run-up to 12-14 September.
A reminder that the Birmingham International Jazz Festival started yesterday. There are no particular marquee names as such but the ethos is to put on as much jazz music in as many places as possible for the next week.
You can see the programme here but otherwise don’t be surprised to stumble across something if you’re out and about this weekend.
Also, not strictly affiliated with the festival but not a million miles away (the Birmingham Jazz Youth Group are on the bill), this event from Celebrating Sanctuary following on from June’s Refugee Week has been brought to my attention:
It’s on Sunday 6 July from 5pm til late at the Yardbird. Entry is free.
The Thinktank at Millenium Point is hosting the Birmingham International Comics Show on 4-5 October and, with expansion this year, it’s aparently now the UK’s largest comics convention.
Unfortunately, unlike the previous incumbent of the CiB hotseat I haven’t much of a clue about the world of comics so the list of overseas and UK guests is a bit lost on me.
The website is still being put together but there’s enough info on there to give you a sense of what’s going on. In the meantime it might be worth watching this thread on the Inside Pulse forum where one of the organisers is posting updates.
Found via D’Log.
The first Sutton Festival of Arts is launching on 9 July and carrying on to 13 July with the majority of events taking place in Saturday 12th.
Jon Hickman, the chair of the organising committee has picked out these highlights:
The programme is only available as a PDF download on the site (boo! hiss!) so I’ve stuck it on Scribd for all to see.
There’s all sorts of other things going on too. Have a look at the Sutton Festival of Arts website and, if you’re feeling saucy, follow the Twitter profile.
If you fancy being a volunteer, I think they’re still looking for help so get in touch with them.
Before we get to the interview, you need to know that PolarBear will be at the Garrick Theatre in Lichfield on 9 July – details after the interview. Anyway, I’ll leave Frankie to get on with things…
When Frankie Met Poet/MC PolarBear… or didn’t! Due to being immensely popular an arranged meeting never materialized and instead the two conversed via email:
Frankie: So firstly, the new show “If I cover my nose you can’t see me” is described as a story about what happens to what we used to want. So what does that mean and what should audiences expect?
PolarBear: The story is about the idea that what we plan as kids often gets completely lost. Some part of us is always a kid and that somewhere those plans stay with us, it’s just that grown up stuff covers over them.
Audiences can expect a story about a 10 year-old boy and a man of 28 as their lives intertwine and they both make decisions that will completely change their lives.
You’re starting off in London too. When and where will Birmingham audiences get to see the show?
Yeah gonna do a couple nights at Purcell Room, Southbank centre which is exciting with Goonism doing live art work and a music event after. Will be doing some one offs here and there and come to Birmingham REP in October this year, I think around the 17th/18th. Goonism will be there too so be good to show the finished article to brummies.
On your Myspace page you call it ‘The best thing I’ve ever performed’ and praise the team who you worked with, including director Yael Shavit. A lot of people who write and perform their own pieces also choose to direct it. What made you get a separate director involved and how was the experience of working with her?
I honestly believe that you can’t direct yourself. Not properly. Just like you can’t edit yourself. Not properly. It’s important to get someone else’s eyes involved. With Yael (Shavit) it was a matter of me liking her work and her appreciation of a story and realistic characters and trusting that she could get the best out of me.
Working with her has honestly been the best thing ever for my performance. We understand each other and trust each other, which feels like it is the basis for a good creative relationship.
The production also features music by Foy Vance. I’ve always had him down as the acoustic/folk type. How did that collaboration come about?
I met Foy a couple of years ago on a TV thing and we became friends. I like what he does and he likes what I do and we started working together when we got chance and I asked him to create some sounds very early on in the process.
Moving onto Afrobear… is that a musical partnership? Is the recorded music on your myspace page part of Afrobear or is that part of an individual project?
Afrobear is a long-standing relationship between myself and my friend Len who produces under the moniker Afrosaxon. Basically he is my favourite beat maker ever and I get to write rhymes and make tunes with him as AFROBEAR. It’s our version of what hip-hop should be today.
There is, at any one time, maybe one or a couple AFROBEAR tracks on my myspace and these will be credited clearly. Other stuff is work with other producers or just me on my own.
Why have you called the album ‘Not Shit’? Are you expecting backlash!? What can we expect from it?
Not too fussed about backlash to tell you the truth. ‘Not Shit’ is a term we use to describe stuff we like, a lot. It’s a Brummie trait of not being that impressed by much so the norm is ‘shit’ and good stuff is ‘Not Shit’.
You’ve called Brighton your favourite place to perform. Why?
I’ve been lucky enough to perform in lots of places in the last three years and had some great experiences and to date, no terrible ones. Some ones I’ve not particularly enjoyed but none that have gone really badly. With Brighton, I performed at a place called the Komedia and the crowd were the warmest most respectful audience to every single performer. It was pretty inspiring and I’m quite a cynical person really. Amazing.
Good people down there.
Do you think it is important to remain in Birmingham or are you planning to move to London? Is Brum part of your ‘creative process.’
I’m actually based in London now due to my family. My girlfriend works in theatre and her work meant she couldn’t leave London and we had a little boy and being free-lance I could be based anywhere so I went down. I’m up in Brum at least two days a week for workshop work and so it feels like I live in two places, but it’s working. It’s important to me to be from Birmingham.
It will always be home. The people I grew up with here and know now are the inspiration for everything I have written so far.
And finally… after Colin Murray played ‘Jessica’ on his show you must have got a lot more interest. What was the inspiration for ‘Jessica’ and is Jessica real?
Nice one Colin Murray. I mean it’s nice to reach more people’s ears I guess and I didn’t even know it was gonna happen. He’s played it a few times now which is nuts but good exposure.
Jessica is based on reality and was inspired by a few experiences in my life as well as things that haven’t happened yet.
Jessica is very real. But maybe I changed her name.
PolarBear will be appearing at the Garrick Theatre at 10pm on Wed 9 July. Tickets are only £6.50 – which is an absolute bargain.
