Created in Birmingham

Things over on Eastside are really hotting up over the next few weeks. I will be heading down Digbeth way on Friday evening for the opening of SCULPTURE SHOW – an exhibition of work by the following artists showing at Eastside Projects:

Athanasios Argianas, Art & Language, Mel Bochner, Susan Collis, Michael Dean, Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez, Lothar Hempel, Torsten Lauschmann, Marko Lulic, David Medalla, Scott Myles, Elizabeth Price, Tommy Støckel, Sue Tompkins, Franz West.

I have linked to articles or websites about all of the artists. Have a look around and I’m sure you will agree this is indeed an exciting exhibition of contemporary works.

Just up the road that evening VIVID will hold a late opening from 6-9 pm, to present new work by Ran Huang and Nika Oblak & Primoz Novak. The artists will be in residence at VIVID throughout Spring 2009 as part of the two year European Media Artists in Residence Exchange programme. Mike Stubbs, Director of FACT will be in conversation with Ran Huang at 6pm.

Next door, IKON Eastside will be opening  Józef Robakowski’s My Very Own Cinema, a highly subjective body of work produced between 1970 and 2000 by a pioneer of Polish Independant Cinema.

If you have never ventured to this historically industrial area of Birmingham, this will be a great opportunity to experience the type of art you might not find on the tourist trail.

Halloween might not be my bag but at least it’s an excuse to put some interesting events on.

Aside from the Ikon Eastside closing party there are a fair number of Halloween-themed things going on.  These are they (all happening on Friday 31 October, except the last two):

• The National Trust are putting on events in the back to back buildings (50-54 Inge Street/55–63 Hurst Street, Birmingham).  From 11.30am – 4pm they’ve got some nice events for the kiddies, then from 7pm to 9.30pm they’re “offering visitors a unique opportunity to linger for a while in our shadow-laden rooms, and silently reflect on the atmosphere of the back houses lit by candles, fires and oil lamps”
• The Town Hall are showing Nosferatu with an organ accompaniment by Nigel Ogden
• The Light House are showing Dracula, the Hammer version with Christopher Lee
• The Local Shorts Film Club are running a Halloween special at the Library Theatre
• Vivid are showing a slowed-down version of Psycho that will last a full 24 hours.  It starts at 9pm on Friday 31st and ends at 9pm the next day.  Entry is free
• At the Old Joint Stock Theatre, “Gemini present an evening of ghostly tales around the history of the Old Joint Stock followed by readings from a Medium”.  The night’s called Ghostly Histories and perhaps the scariest part is that the blurb mentions “clairvoyants with solid reputations”
• And on 1 November the Outer Edge’s next event at The Edge features “some obscure 3D horror and live horror sound effects from DJ FreakBeat”. Email outersight@live.com or text 07887 956297 for info.
• Also on 1 November, Capsule/ATP are putting on a Halloween show.

Thanks to the West Mids Life blog for a leg up compiling this.  Is there anything good I’ve missed?

• Bits of Britain
  John Dale is a “trade plate driver, collecting and delivering vehicles around the UK” but is based in Birmingham. His blog is a collection of his travel writing. In his email he adds “I’ve previously had writing published in the Moseley based magazine Birmingham 13 and in Raw Edge. I’ve also had stories short-listed for the Fish International Short Story Prize and the Writers’ Forum monthly fiction prize”
• YouTube – BirminghamRepTheatre’s Channel
  The REP have been on YouTube for a couple of months by the look of it. Will be interesting to see what they do with it (anyone want to throw a suggetion in the comments?)
• Digbeth is Good – Scary decisions
  Nicky Getgood rounds up the Halloween options in Digbeth – Ikon Eastside closing party, 24 Hour Psycho at VIVID, Bill Drummond at Eastside Projects, Outersight’s Halloween Horrorshow and Capsule/ATP’s Release The Bats at the Custard Factory. Decisions, decisions
• ClustaSpace
  Clusta have launched ClustaSpace which “provides 3D visualisation for marketing, planning and advertising” which looks very clever indeed
• Iron Man Records on Posterous
  Nice to see someone jumping on the ‘forward your mailouts to Posterous and get them published on the internet’ thing.

From 4 September to 19 October Ikon Eastside will present The Eternal Now: Warhol and Film ’63-’68, organised with the Warhol Museum, Pittsburg:

Key films by Warhol and his collaborators are presented, from the earliest period of the Factory when Warhol announced he was no longer making painting

Some of Warhol’s series of Screen Tests will also feature, these were short video portraits of visitors to the Factory:

Ikon presents several reels showing individuals such as Lou Reed, Marcel Duchamp, John Cale, Edie Sedgwick, Billy Name, Lucinda and Ondine

This is the last event of the Ikon Eastside’s season – I think I’m right in thinking it’ll open again (in the same venue) in May 2009.  The closing party goes by the name ‘Here & Now & The Future (Do you want to dance and blow your mind?)‘  and sounds fun:

Paying an affectionate homage to ‘The Exploding Plastic Inevitable’ and The Velvet Underground and Nico, “the most infuential and unpopular band in history”, there will be performance, film, light, oil wheels, music, dancing and marshmallows. Dress code is strictly black and white.

That’s on 31 October from 7.30pm til late.

• Brumcast 106 ‘Asshole, Jackoff, Scumbag’
  Little Chris is back once again, like some sort of renegade master
• Inter-Act
  Shiny and new – “Inter-Act is a newly established devising company made up of young creative artists. Inter-Act are dedicated to creating new and exciting pieces of work whilst also providing educational programs for young people”
• The Big Picture – Help make the World Record mosaic at Thinktank
  From Monday 4 August until Thursday 21 August production of the individual panels that make up the mosaic will be taking place in Thinkspace, in Thinktank, Millennium Point. Volunteers are needed
• 7 Inch Cinema: Birthday Film
  From Scott from Film Ficciones – “I made this for UK film outfit 7 INCH CINEMA to be shown at their 5th birthday night, inspired by Kubrick. It’s all a bit of an inside-joke, so apologies to anyone stumbling across this completely unawares”
• Sutton Festival of Arts 08
  Photos from the weekend by Stuart Parker
• How to put people off contemporary art – The Eclectrician
  On the new Ikon Eastside exhibition – “The exhibit looks great, but oh, how my heart sank as I read the accompanying blurb”.

• Digbeth Is Good – The Ikon in Eastside
  Nicky Getgood’s take on the new Ikon Eastside exhibition by Tercerunquinto and the He An installation at Moat Lane Car Park
• Lucy Nicholls
  Lucy is “an artist working within theatre, dance and performance. I run educational and recreational workshops, classes and programmes for children, teenagers and adults, as well as creating my own work and performing”. And she has a blog.
• Ambient Sound Machine | TAK! Design & Art
  “A sample of an experimental sound application from a site we’re making for photographer David Rowan. You can leave it playing on it’s own or interact with the lines to sculpt the audio”

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

The opening exhibit at Ikon Eastside, Island by Soi Projects, will be closing on Sunday 22 June.  However, on Friday (20th) at 1.30pm the gallery are arranging for a free tour which should last about 20-30mins.

It’s well worth a look – I was a bit non-plussed when I saw Island on the launch night but as a little time passed the subtleties of the piece came out really well and I left thinking I’d seen something really quite clever.  Sorry for the vagueness, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who does go along.

In the meantime, here’s the Fused take on the exhibit.

Oh, Ikon Eastside is at 183 Fazeley Street, Fazeley Studios, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SE if that helps.  Open 1pm to 5pm and admission is free.

Ikon Eastside opens on 27 May with a party entitled ‘Flip Flop Or Die’ hosted by Soi Project. The party starts at 8pm with DJs, a band and a (pay) bar. The dress code only specifies the footwear required, which I’ll leave you to work out.

Soi Project’s installation ‘Island’ will be on show from 27 May to 22 June.

Ikon Eastside is at183 Fazeley Street, Digbeth and will be open 1pm to 5pm Thursday to Sunday. Admission will be free.

Photo by Stuart Whipps.