Nicky over on Digbeth is Good has picked up on some Digbeth-themed animations by some BCU students.
This is Voices of Digbeth by a few people who have modestly decided not to put their full names to it:
And this is Wasted Digbeth by Keanu Jones (I liked his Attack of the Dinozilla too):
Wandering back down Digbeth High Street after a tour around The Event last weekend, it was good to see that someone’s doing something useful with the run-down car dealerships.
Digbeth is Good has the scoop.
Tony Graffiti presents Keep Graffiti Real, Smoke Crack, Sign On… a graffiti exhibition at Green Street Arts. The exhibition launches on 14 October and will run through to 23 October.
Digbeth is Good says there’ll be…
…a house band, DJ Boogie Dave, Drop Beats Not Bombs along side DJ Rosko, as well as Emjay Ladie, DJ Punk N Ska with Justin Bond from Boogie Down Brum playing early rave and britpop.
…and I’m inclined to believe them.
Boxxed – the art, film, music and education venue on Floodgate Street in Digbeth – is to close its doors.
The venue – which hosted the shoot for Juice Aleem’s Rock My Hologram music video and more – made this announcement on their Facebook page:
It’s with a great deal of sadness that we have to announce BOXXED ceased trading on Monday the 19th Sept 2011. We’ve had fun and we hope everyone that experienced our unique space did too, but it’s time for us to bow out.
Massive thanks go to everyone that was part of our project, particularly Dave Checkley, Ksmk Neil, all the graff guys that painted our walls just for the love of it (especially Hoaks & Fluid), The Project Pigeon Crew and everyone that volunteered their time to help us out. You know who you are.
According to Digbeth is Good (hat-tip for posting about this originally), Project Pigeon, which is based on Boxxed’s Custard Factory grounds, will be unaffected for now and there will be a couple of closing parties at the venue to see it off in style. Inquiries should be directed to the Boxxed team on 07826 523 650.
Yesterday afternoon I asked Twitter what I should write about next on CiB. I was given four topics and these are they (in reverse order).
Digbeth v the JQ (via @EleanorWi)
Ooh, good one – the battle of the so called ‘creative quarters’ – this could be fun. I’ve just moved from working in Digbeth to working in the Jewellery Quarter and Eleanor knows this, hence the request. FIGHT!
I shall now go on to disappoint with a bland appraisal of the two taken from my own point of view. Your experiences of the places may vary.
I’m enjoying the Jewellery Quarter. It’s nearer my house so cycling in is easier, there are useful amenities (there’s no need to get excited about cash machines around these parts) and there are some decent enough places to grab a drink after work.
The nightlife thing’s interesting. I’ve never been keen on St Paul’s Square as a place to go out but, with UAB book-ending things (with The Red Lion at one end, The Lord Cliffden at the other) and places like Vertu, The Vaults, The Drop Forge and soon The Rose Villa Tavern in between, I reckon we could start to see more people around here of a weekend. There are restaurants here too.
As for the creativity/arts/culture angle, there’s a bigger emphasis on heritage over this side of town, while a a lot of the current activity feels hidden away and goes on behind closed studio and workshop doors. Other than AE Harris (which I love) there isn’t much by way of a decent venue – there’s The Asylum and The Blue Orange Theatre but neither currently has a schedule of events that grabs me. Also, everything over this side of town seems quite managed and smoothly polished (which isn’t necessarily praise but is definitely a contrast).
Digbeth is rougher round the edges but it wears its distinctiveness quite proudly on its sleeve. It’s more performative. It feels like the art and creativity spills out of Eastside Projects, Grand Union, Vivid, Boxxed, Fazeley Studios and onto the streets. It’s a place for music and visual arts to tumble towards. If you want a night out and you like your music then Digbeth, with the Institute, Air, Space 2, The Rainbow, Irish Centre, Adam & Eve and others, can’t be beat.
Space must be cheaper there. That brings in the artist collectives, the gallery spaces and the graduates looking for their first studio space. It’s a shame a shame the developers have made such a mess of the place over the past few years though – too many decent places bulldozed leaving large swathes of cleared, fenced off land.
For a while, the Custard Factory drifted into becoming a nightclub which I’m not sure was a good idea, but maybe that was a result of trying to pack lots of activity into a fairly small area. It seems to be moving away from that again. Besides, Digbeth is sprawling away from the Custard Factory these days and that’s no bad thing.
Both sides of town suffer from a bit of a visibility problem – directing people to either from the city centre is no easy task.
So, to ramble to a conclusion – horses for courses, innit.
Comedy in Birmingham (via @RosieHighlight)
I’m going to duck this one slightly and refer back to the post I wrote a few months back about comedy in Birmingham. Although I’ve asked Ian and he’s reminded me about the Fat Penguin, Cheeky Monkey and Laughing Cows nights in Kings Heath/Moseley that are often overlooked. I’m not sure I mentioned The Drum as another venue for that sort of thing either.
The upshot of that previous conversation was that there’s a reasonable amount of stuff going on although we’re not quite world-beaters, there could be more and it could do with being more visible. Couldn’t that apply to pretty much anything we do here?
Burning Ham (via @LouisHudson)
Louis is presumably referring to EXYZT’s contribution to this year’s Fierce Festival. I wasn’t around Birmingham when most of the events were going on down there and this round-up made me a bit regretful of that. It’s good to see that they’ll be back to work on a new site for the next festival.
Bunnies (via @Ravonski)
With the whole arts funding situation having settled down somewhat and no more cuts looming in the immediate future, I haven’t had much cause to lighten a gloomy post by finishing with a picture of a bunny.
That said, I expect there’s still bad news to come as the effect of the earlier cuts comes to be felt. There’ll be a few more leaving parties, closed signs, permanently-out-of-office messages and euphemistic talk of ‘transitioning’.
So on that downbeat note, cue bunnies:
(Photo by captainsubtle)
On Saturday Electric Carnival is taking over half of Digbeth – the HMV Institute, Custard Factory, Air, Heath Mill Lane car park and the Rainbow venues – and they’ve got space for 9,000 people (1,500 more than last year). That’s kinda big.
Via Digbeth is Good, who also have a map of road closures for the more logistically minded.
Gor blimey, it’s another one of those really long weekends. Here are some things you might want to consider filling all that time with.
For starters, I haven’t got a flyer for this one but Lizzy Parks is playing in the Symphony Hall foyers today (Friday) from 5.30pm to 7pm and it’s free. Info on the THSH website. Or indeed the Birmingham Jazz website.
Earlier in the day (in fact from 12pm to 7pm) head over to Lombard Street in Digbeth for PST’s street party. This here flyer says there’s going to be food, live art and heavy bass. And face painting.
MakeIt Zone are having an open day on Saturday.
Capsule have got an event at Kings Heath’s Hare and Hounds on Saturday night called Wedlock. Dunno what that’s a reference to but I like the pretty picture.
There’s loads of other stuff happening too. Have a look at Live Brum for listings.
As we prepare to bid farewell to Ikon Eastside ahead of it’s April closure, they’re gearing up for a rather special three night music festival, Rites of Spring, from 7 – 9 April.
Celebrating the venue’s five year contribution to Birmingham’s cultural scene, the festival welcomes headliners Modified Toy Orchestra, Martin Creed and his band and Fyfe Dangerfield, along with the first UK video installation from US band Matmos.
The full line up showcases a collection of folk, pop and electronic musical offerings, from local talent along with further afield artists.
Thursday 7 April
Modified Toy Orchestra
epic45
Shady Bard
Poppy Tibbetts
Friends of the Stars
Friday 8 April
Martin Creed and his band
David Cunningham
Matmos (video set)
Is I Cinema
Arc Vel
Saturday 9 April
Fyfe Dangerfield
Lulu and the Lampshades
Boat to Row
Young Runaways
Timothy Parkes
Tickets are £12 (£10 for students), or for the full festival £30 (£27 for students) and can be booked online or by calling O844 87O OOOO
—————
By William Fallows
William Fallows documents Birmingham through video and photography at vimeo.com/newfolder and flickr.com/newfolder.
To your right, you see glorious Cheapside. Factories and warehouses to let with flexible terms.They say that this area will eventually be regenerated, and this street, being closer to the main drag may be ripe for the pickings. Already, the café at the post office hosts storytelling and poetry evenings, serving drinks, snacks and light refreshments; further up the road is the Edge, for arts and artists to congregate and further on, The Fountain, open to the residents and the workers within the area. A cosy pub, no nonsense. Trespassers arrive and the doors shut behind them. The regulars turn and observe, and the trespasser can cheerfully order a pint of lager and some cheese and onion crisps. You begin to walk up the hill in wonderment, but decide to stop and sit on a bollard to roll a fag. The building to your left looks like a possible bathhouse. A swimming pool in Cheapside maybe not, but a Turkish Baths? Rather like the Ford Meteor Garage in Moseley or the disused dance hall in King’s Heath, both possible venues, cinemas, gig venues, arts centers? Up Cheapside there’s already plenty of offices and warehouses, it more recently boasts a Costcutter, a chippy and a cornershop. No need for another Tescos or more flats. No. There needs to be something new, something different, something for the residents and the outsiders to get their teeth into. Maybe even they’ll get used to the diagetic sounds that come from the quiet area. As you start walking again, a skipyard belches smoke. Wooden pallets ablaze, its firestarters stand around, warming themselves against the chill February afternoon. A half demolished building cries from your right, the smoke and soot cry out, face torn in two, locked in perpetual agony. Else Francis Bacon is alive and full of distemper and living in Cheapside.
Bacon would have been proud of the free art gallery on Bradford Street. Take a look…
Artists unknown but the quality speaks for itself. A cyber-lady, face obscured, pvc legs akimbo. Super-cool. Is that meant to be Corey Feldman as Golden Boy? Resplendent in spectacles and monochrome? So good it speaks for itself twice. An alien baldhead? And a Judge Great helmet, together with a motif that has been placed there by the forthcoming robot destructors, ready to obliterate Birmingham’s human populace. All there. A few tags screaming for recognition amongst poetry and quotations make you think of the putter-therer; ‘Keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds’ and better still;
But one of the finest free art collections in the city obviously is. The Kid dangled himself about for a bit in his ill-fitting school uniform that looked crap anyway. He knew it, the teachers knew it, his peers knew it, and his parents knew it. Everybody knew it. He got his fags out, and stood on for a while on Bradford Street, swigging his energy drink. Observing all around him, the creator of his own destiny, for the while. Blowing smoke out. Tomorrow, another day, back to face the consequences. He got his marker pen out and created. ‘Classroom’s not for me’. He’s a bright lad, the apostrophe is in its right place, as if that matters in the Great Scheme of Things. No, The Kid knew. Looking down the road, at the White Swan and beyond, The Anchor. Up the road, The Adam and Eve. Another swig. This city’s mine, he thought. He knew it. ‘Classroom’s not for me.’ In his few years, he’d seen it all. Nothing they could teach him. Ducking round the corner, he saw the prime minister’s face staring up at him.
Weather-beaten and worn, slashed with knives, torn from side to side. The Kid wondered; ‘Is this what I’m here for? Is this all there is?’ ‘Stop the cuts’ the poster pleaded. The Kid drank, and soaked in the image for a minute. He chucked his milkshake on the floor, spat, and got the 50 back into Balsall Heath. But the journey doesn’t stop there.
The Abacus Apartments stand erect on Alcester Street. But you’d think they’d be proud of their position, facing the derelict building and the Spotted Dog pub, but they’re not. Instead, they stand ashamed. Abashed. The bricks and mortar know that the pub used to be a thriving epicenter of Irish tradition and punk rock in-the-garden, but a few of its inhabitants had better ideas. And the apartments looked on in horror, as noise-abatement orders were issued, and the street sang not no more, but a little quietly, like poor church mice. The apartments thought;
‘No, this is not what our intention was. We wanted our lot to be vibrant, sexy, hip to new ideas and existing avenues. Look at the building opposite, with its smashed in windows, and weed strewn floors. I told you we shouldn’t have mocked, as we were being loaded out of the pallets. I told you. Now look at us. Standing proud, but everybody hates us. We’re pariahs. It’s not our fault.’
If you listen carefully on a still day, you can hear the low cry of the Abacus apartments, wishing they could invert themselves like the house in Poltergeist, but they know they shouldn’t. They just stand there, doomed to mockery and snide comments, whilst the pub opposite proudly boasts the name of the landlord and the landlord’s mantra, ‘Licensed to sell all intoxicating liquors for consumption on and off the premises.’ The Abacus Apartments also look glumly over the road, at the Rainbow pub. Monday afternoon, the pub should be swarming with hipsters and haircuts, munching on fish finger ciabattas and posing about.
No such luck. A bare floor, well swept. The upmarket lights and fans dangle lifelessly, not really doing anything at all. Bare. There should be bare people in here. But there’s nothing. The games machine doesn’t even bleep. Nobody’s been in here today. The chairs cold, waiting despondantly for the snug warmth of bottoms. The room sighs. The Big Bulls Head down the road was doing a roaring trade today, the air thick with burly chatter and chip grease. Friends and family locked in garrulous chatter, the women swigging manfully from their pints of Carling Cold, and the debate of another one for the road is answered easily with money changing hands over the bar. For a moment, the front bar of the Rainbow feels irritated, and annoyed. But the feeling dissipates as it considers the love and attention that has been tattooed on the bricks of its swaggering cousin, the Rainbow Warehouse…
—————
By James Kennedy
James Kennedy is a multimedia artist living in Birmingham’s city centre. The below piece is adapted from his forthcoming full length project ‘The Wind’, about re-imagining the city centre as a place of utopia and beauty.
Blog – www.jameskennedycentral.wordpress.com // Links to all the photos taken for this project can be found at; www.flickr.com/photos/james1kennedy
After settling at 183 Fazeley Street back in 2008, Ikon have confirmed that as of April 2011, Ikon Eastside will be closing up for the final time, due to public funding cuts.
The large exhibition space at the heart of Digbeth, has provided the perfect setting for large-scale work, video and events over the past few years. It’s hosted work by internationally recognised artists, including Andy Warhol, Damián Ortega, Józef Robakowski and Siobhan Davies Dance.
Rites of Spring, a three day music festival featuring Turner Prize winner Martin Creed, Modified Toy Orchestra and Epic45 will be the last event held at Ikon Eastside, from 7 – 9 April.
We are extremely saddened to be losing Ikon Eastside, but our commitment to bringing internationally recognised art to the city is unwavering. Looking to the future, our goal remains to create a permanent museum of contemporary art for Birmingham.
- Jonathan Watkins, Ikon Director
It’s not all sad news though, since Ikon are intending to keep up their involvement with the Eastside district, focusing instead on site-specific events and promoting cultural regeneration through their membership of the Eastside Contemporary Art Consortium. Their current study into the feasibility of this permanent museum, (‘Ikon Two’) also remains unaffected.
Excuse the preponderance of Digbeth, but:
ISIS Waterside Regeneration are inviting arts, cultural and social enterprise agencies on a site tour of Warwick Bar, at the heart of Eastside cultural quarter on Thursday 24 February, at 12 – 2pm and 4 – 6pm (arriving at 12pm or 4pm).
Visitors will be given the opportunity to express interest and early stage ideas for use of the buildings and spaces, including temporary events, installations or performances from one day to monthly lets.
There remains a commitment to retain Warwick Bar as a distinctive quarter, currently home to Grand Union, the area provides links to Birmingham’s cultural community through a varied mix of on-site activity.
Light refreshments will also be available, with owners and agents on hand to discuss ideas and approaches to sustaining activity in the Eastside area.
RSVP to admin@sueball.co.uk, and meet for the tour at 122 Fazeley Street, B5 5RS.
Since we last told you about The Post-Industrial Revolution, Polish artists Kamila Szejnoch, Christian Costa and MASH/HER/DIP have arrived in Digbeth and are currently undertaking their residency at The Lombard Method.
The project is being documented over on the Post-Industrial Revolution blog, introducing the artists involved and the research they’ve been doing. They also have a few events coming up in association with the final exhibition;
Artists’ Talk
Thursday 17 February 2011, 6.30 – 8pm
Eastside Projects, 86 Heath Mill Lane, Digbeth, Birmingham, B9 4AR
For further information visit http://www.extraspecialpeople.orgPreview
Friday 18 February 2011, 6-9pm
The Lombard Method, 68a Lombard Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 0QR
Admission freeExhibition
Saturday 19 – Sunday 27 February 2011
Open Thursday – Sunday from 11am -6pm
The Lombard Method, 68a Lombard Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 0QR
Admission freeParent & Children Workshop
Sunday 27 February 2011, 11am-12.30pm*
The Lombard Method, 68a Lombard Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 0QR
For more information, also check out their website.
Project Pigeon currently reside in Boxxed‘s backyard in Digbeth. Working with pigeons and people, they aim to bring about social change, and so are currently working on a community pigeon loft.
Traditionally, pigeon lofts are designed to reflect the culture in which they’re located, and so in keeping with this they’re after the designs and ideas of local residents in order to build a loft that reflects all the different cultures in Digbeth and Highgate.
They’ll be holding Community Consultation Days throughout February on the following dates for people wanting to get involved;
Designs can also be submitted to projectpigeondigbeth@gmail.com
Eastside Café will be exhibiting designs between 9 -12 March, plus keep an eye on their Flickr photostream where they’ll be uploading entries.
The pigeon loft will then be built between mid March and May 2011 so look out for further information.
