Graffiti artist Temper is exhibiting in Birmingham city centre from today with a collection called ‘Cut From A Different Cloth’. The exhibition was commissioned as part of Style Birmingham Live and features five of the world’s most famous fashion icons. Here’s some more info:
The collection, ‘Cut From A Different Cloth’ is being unveiled in Birmingham city centre on 30th June, as part of a commission by Retail Birmingham. The collection celebrates the world’s most famous fashion icons including Lee Alexandra McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, Tom Ford and Coco Chanel and will be in place for three months throughout the summer.
A sixth portrait will be completed over the summer following a public poll on the Style Birmingham website, where visitors are encouraged to vote for their favourite fashion designer of all time which will then be painted by Temper.
Eastside Projects‘ latest exhibition ‘BOOK SHOW’ is opening 2 July, with free entry 6-9pm, and continues until 4 September. The show is curated by James Langdon and Gavin Wade, and includes works by 2006 Turner Prize winner Simon Starling, along with John Latham, American artist Nina Katchadourian, and Zurich-based artist Rollo Press.
‘Book Show’ is an exhibition of artworks, objects and structures that address the physical form of the book. The starting point for the exhibition is Ulises Carrión’s provocative series of aphorisms ‘The New Art of Making Books’ (1975).
Eastside is open for you to nosey around Thursday 12 – 6:30pm, Friday & Saturday 12 – 5pm, with free entry.
On 29 July, 6-9pm, the gallery will also host the launch of ‘Book’, a book edited by James Langdon.
‘Book’, functions as a mobile extension to the exhibition. Including a facsimile reprint of Ulises Carrión’s ‘The New Art of Making Books’ as it originally appeared in the journal Kontexts; an illustrated text by James Langdon and additional works, both existing and newly commissioned.
Just had word of a hip hop and b-boy dance double bill at mac on Friday. It’s part of BASS Festival and features UK hip hop dance champions Smash Bro’z and Miami’s Rudi Goblen. Here’s some blurb about the performers and performances:
Smash Bro’z new dance piece Fresh Genes depicts the journey and discovery of a young scientist who is on a mission to find a cure for the misrepresentation of Hip Hop in the UK. The scientists then discover a new gene – the ‘Hip Hop’ gene. West Midlands based Hip Hop dance collective Smash Bro’z recently won first prize in the 2010 UK Hip Hop Dance Championships.
Insanity Isn’t, written & Performed by US based Rudi Goblen tells the story of Acey who, whilst trying to sleep through the American dream instead wakes to an American nightmare. He finds himself plagued by financial burdens, media propaganda, religious beliefs, keeping up with the Jones’, and apocalyptic prophecies. B-Boy movements, rhyme, beat box and live music weave together his journey back to insane sanity.
Notable among the early posts is the gallery’s Summer Exhibition which will run until 7 July. The second part of the exhibition launched on Friday 11 June featuring artists Stuart Free, Cameron Galt, and Stephen Earl Rogers, and the final stage will showcase the sculptures of Laurence Broderick?, the artist responsible for ‘The Birmingham Bull’. who is also making limited edition bronzes of The Bull available for the first time in Birmingham at the gallery.
The website’s up for the HMV Institute and tickets are on sale for a few of the gigs, the first one being Gong (wow – now that’s a website) on 20 Sept. It’ll be interesting to see the push and pull between this place and the Academy.
Work to your heart’s content – Home
This is Helga Henry (Fierce, Creative Republic, all sorts of other things)’s “scrapbook of the stuff I discover on my quest for expertise on joy, innovation and fun”. Some very useful resources here
I just read an email pointing out that Creative Playground has changed tack slightly and is now Digital Playground:
Digital Playground was created in an attempt to network the digital creative industries within Birmingham
The next meet-up is on Friday 25 June at the Spotted Dog in Digbeth. Joining the Meetup group and RSVP-ing would be handy.
There should be a fair few people down there. As well as this, the Spotted Dog will be hosting Digbeth is Good’s 2nd birthday and the folks at Aquila TV are relocating their regular All Bar One drinks for the evening.
Of course, it might be popular for another reason. A meet-up for Digital Playground? Um, did anyone try googling that?
This summer Creative Republic is running a project to help raise awareness of the many creative ideas that happen in Birmingham. To nominate your favourite creative concept, project, event, exhibition, individual or company simply register for free and ‘nominate’. Winning nominations will be included in a book, video and a final event at the end of the summer.
I’d heard Creative Republic were gearing up again recently. This is the first peep to be heard from them in a while.
The name of the project is slightly reminiscent of the ‘Birmingham – The Forgotten City’ prints that Smile sold in the CiB Shop (v popular they were too).
Tomorrow afternoon at Zellig (the new Custard Factory bit – that name’s still not sitting right with me) there’s an event for creative freelancers called Know Your Place. Those who are well tuned in to this sort of thing will know that a similar thing ran at Fazeley Studios a few months back (I even spoke at it). It seemed to go well and is now back by dope demand. It’s free but I’m not sure whether there are places left, so be quick.
The line-up for the first Birmingham European Theatre Festival (Wed 30 June to Sat 3 July) is now up. I don’t know enough about theatre (European or otherwise) to tell you whether it’s good or not, but really that seems like reason enough to get a ticket. Anyway, I’ve been assured that it is a good line-up.
Also, it’s only a tenner for an evening of entertainment. Tickets here.
Beth White (of LovLi Design) is putting together an exhibition in the cafe area of The Public in West Brom. The plan is:
to produce some really fantastic bunting using over 150 different artists. Each artist can create more that one piece of bunting, but each piece must be completely unique. The final piece will be used again and again through the years
Rhubarb Rhubarb are having a busy time of it at the moment with one exhibition closing and another soon to open, a seminar and an International Review.
The seminar, Photography Still Moving, is on today down in that London and will look at multimedia storytelling.
The International Review, titled Collision: Where Image Worlds Meet, is on from 30 July to 1 August at Aston Business School. Tickets are still available, as is the chance to have your portfolio picked over by experts:
This year the intention is to see where documentary and commercial practices cross over into the world of fine art, giving participants the opportunity to show their work to specialists from different sectors and reviewers the chance to look at folios that may not usually come their way
Thematically tied to the International Review is the upcoming exhibition for their Hungry Bursary 2010 award winners. That’s at Rhubarb East from 22 June to 21 August.
Meanwhile, their exhibition at the new Rhubarb East Gallery on Heath Mill Lane, The Uses of Enchantment featuring Vee Speers and The Jackson Twins, ended last week but seemed to go well – there’s a round-up of that here.
ARC #5 – curated by An Endless Supply « ARC’s blog
“join ARC at The Vaults on Wednesday 30 June, 6-8pm, for ‘Peace Out June! (Piece in June)’, an exhibition curated by Robin Kirkham and Harry Blackett, the artists behind publishing collaboration An Endless Supply”
call for submissions « ARC’s blog
“I am currently seeking submissions for an exhibition I am developing which explores the physicality of sound”
Ceramics in Birmingham | Birmingham Conservation Trust
“Ceramic tiles cover walls and floors, roofs and pavements, furniture and stoves, and can be seen in churches, mosques, pubs, shops, hospitals and homes in Birmingham” Here are some examples…
genzai·chi » Prototyping games for the whale hat
On Monday I went to a Pervasive Games Lab at the MAC, organised by Fierce with Hide & Seek. It was interesting and fun. Here’s Nikki Pugh’s write-up
‘Rhymes’ Performance Poetry Special
“After a brief interlude, ‘Rhymes’, Birmingham’s premier platform for Performance Poetry and spoken word is back with a special one-off format to celebrate it’s first year”
The Arts Council have announced a 0.5% cut in the funding given to RFO’s. It’s not as much as people were suggesting it’d be, but the blow is being softened by ACE being told to dig into their reserves.
Here’s a spreadsheet of the organisations in the West Mids and how they’ll be affected.
