Black Book Brum is a blog that is:
dedicated to Brums hard working and often underestimated Graffiti/Street artists.
Whether you interested in old school graf, sticker kings and queens or just the general art scene around Birmingham this is the place for you. Join me as I travel across the City noting the newest work as it happens!
Moseley Exchange are exhibiting work by Hoakser in a show called GRAFFITI VS ART from 19 October to 19 November (with the opening on 18 Oct).
Meanwhile, 6/8 Kafe have got work by Golden Boy, Lisk Bot and Miss150 adorning their walls until 19 November.
Gutter Floozy has a blog and is on Flickr (I’d have embedded a couple of pics but embedding is turned off). She says:
I am not an incredible photographer but I aim to fairly attractively show what’s happening on Birmingham’s streets, mostly in Digbeth. I’m also a Landscape Architecture student and knitter of toys and vandalism.
There’s an interview with Chu in the latest VNA. It’s not online, but here’s an excerpt:
Where were you painting in those days?
Back then you couldn’t afford a train ticket; you’d get a coach down to Bristol with a bag of paint. Because I worked for Walsall Youth Arts, there were only three sites supported by the local authorities in the country; Barton Hill, Selly Oak and Walsall. The one in Walsall was called The Paddock, which was a sunken foundation for a block of flats. So we came up with the idea to take it over and develop it as a painting site on submission of all this bureaucracy. I became the caretaker of the place, so journeys to Bristol and Selly Oak became the backbone of my graffiti world.
I’ve just been noseying around the Red Bull-sponsored Street Art View. It’s a little like the Google Art Project thing that launched a few weeks back, only it takes a collaborative approach to building a map of street art that can be seen on Google’s Street View.
There’s not a lot in Birmingham (yet?), but someone’s added three views of this:
This cool little video was spotted by Urbanfly. Made in celebration of Ninja Tune‘s 20th anniversary, they’ve taken over Shoreditch with the help of graffiti artist CHU who’s from Birmingham.
I spotted this in Forward, the lightly reprehensible propaganda rag that Birmingham City Council foists upon unsuspecting folk every once in a while. The general gist is that graffiti is great in the right place; bad in the wrong place. I paraphrase, so before taking issue with that you’d best read the original here (PDF). Anyway, there’s apparently a fund for getting rid of naughty graffiti, it’s a great success, etc and blah.
On the other hand, of course, Birmingham is a canvas – see canvasbirmingham.com for proof. That’ll be the difference between literal and metaphorical right there.
However, none of that is the point. I was pondering about how council folk can encourage what you might call ‘edgy and alternative elements’ of their city. Other places are known for the quality of their street art – name your own names there. Do they set out to foster that kind of thing? Is it included in glossy brochures selling their city? How did that happen?
In other news, this made me laugh like a drain.
As One (or AsOne or AS1, depending) is one of the more prolific graf and sticker hounds around town. If you’ve ever wandered around Digbeth you’ll have seen his stuff – often evangelising the benefits of a nice cuppa.
You’ll also see designs/illustrations for nights at the Rainbow and if you see half a skateboard tied to a lamppost then chances are that’s AS1 too.
This here wall is a recent edition to Digbeth’s landscape and was done with Tempo33:
Covering walls in public places can’t be easy, but apparently (and here’s a tip):
no-one sees past a high vis jacket and a purposeful look….
Sounds like the Writing on the Wall event at The Rep the other night went well – it even created some amusing fuss on the event page’s comments thread.
There’s more Aerosol Arabic action at Bullring this weekend, with Mohammed Ali creating a big mural in the shopping centre.
There’s an online interactive element to this one – he’ll be taking suggestions from Twitter users for words, phrases, thoughts or whatever to influence his piece. Just tweet @lifefeelsbetter during the day.
After a fair amount of globetrotting, Mohammed Ali seems to be doing a fair bit more in his home city at the moment – there’s a snippet of him doing a bus tour of Birmingham mural’s from Midlands Today here too.
Mohammed Ali is holding an evening of live graffiti-art and poetry in The REP’s soon-to-be-demolished workshop (Kate Beatty’s photos of which you can see here) on 21 January 2010. Tickets available from The Rep.
Jonzi D is directing the event with Dreadlock Alien, (the superb) Zena Edwards and Amir Sulaiman performing new poetry.
After the performance itself you can pop into the workshop to see the graffiti on:
Apparently there are a few things happening in the workshop area before it’s knocked down. At this stage I have no more info than that. I’d go and investigate but right now there’s a cinnamon bun calling to me.
The Bench 504 is a graffiti store in the Custard Factory. Their blog features lots of (often Digbeth-y) street art stuff.
Nicky Getgood noticed this.
Spiritual artist Mohammed Ali, known for merging graffiti style with Islamic art, has just won an ITV South Bank Award in the Arts Council England Diversity category.
Although aerosolarabic (aka Mohammed Ali) travels worldwide to create new work he is still based in Birmingham. Recently he has painted murals in the city addressing the recent Gaza crisis and is known for painting murals highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people. Worldwide politics aside, Ali has been at the forefront of the discussing local graffiti politics, as mentioned in a post back in Jan ’08. On an international level he has managed to connect people of different communities through his art.
Overwhelmed at receiving the award, Mohammed Ali said:
“It’s an honour to accept a mainstream British Arts award. The art that I do is for everyone, it is universal. I truly believe that art enhances people’s lives and brings communities together and I hope that my work continues to inspire people from all walks of life.”
The awards will be screened on ITV on January 28th 2009.
Walking round to grab some food at Rootys earlier, I was surprised to see this floating about:
I’ve tried to find some infomation about it but, other than rumours of a flyer (no pun intended) knocking about, the sole font of knowledge is Pete Ashton’s post from the other week on the Custard Factory blog. From that I learn that it’s an installation by artist Vika Verb:
a challenging reminder of where we are and how we got here – is in the form of poetry inspired graffitti which will float above the Custard Factory in Birmingham. It is the first of a series of similar installations at the Custard Factory.
and it’ll be properly unveiled at 5pm today.
I assume that’s what it is anyway – what are the odds of their being two big inflatables floating round the Custard Factory today?
Those that were wondering about Aldi’s involvement with Aerosolarabic‘s graffiti mural (mentioned here the other day) that overlooks the Aldi car park on the Stratford Road now have an answer. To quote the artist:
Aldi are not keen on the Feed the Poor mural, as it overlooks their car park, and they feel its not something Aldi wants to have their customers using their car park, wanting to see…?! The building that is painted, has nothing to do with Aldi
Apparently yesterday’s completion of the project went quite well until the police and Aldi’s regional manager showed up.
There’s a chance the mural may have to be painted over so Aerosolarabic, aka Mohammed Ali, has documented this on his blog where there are pics showing the mural’s progress.
Graffiti artist Mohammed Ali started work on this mural in the car park of Aldi on the Stratford Road, Sparkhill today and will be back down there at about 12pm tomorrow to finish it off.
This is a message for all the traffic that mounts along this busy road, as well as all the buses. Not very artistic, but rather a big bold message for everyone to ponder on….
Ali also goes under the Aerosolarabic name and fuses graffiti art with Islamic calligraphy. He’s worked throughout the UK and abroad, with trips to Montreal and Melbourne booked later this year. He also blogs here (where the above image is taken from).
