On Thursday night Ikon Eastside presents a night of music to mark the end of this year’s season. The Eastside closing party will be based on the work of Ryoji Ikeda who was last to show work in the space. The music and visuals, organised by Colour will be inspired by Ryoji’s work. You can see examples of the visuals here. They should be really impressive! Music will be from post-rock electronic duo worriedaboutsatan.
The dress code is strictly black and white. It’s an easy one to abide by. Visuals, lights and atmosphere will be monochrome. Can’t wait. I know what I’m wearing.
Entry will be free and there will be a pay bar. The party starts at 7.30pm and will go on til late. See you there!
Over the last two evenings I have sampled special ales in the pubs of Digbeth, listened to a fantastic reading of a nautical novel (suitably in The Anchor Inn), visited promising new art spaces, picked up lots of lovely publications and been guided round the area by Morris dancers. These are all things as part of The Event taking place until tomorrow at various venues around Digbeth/Eastside. Not to be missed. I’m off there again now… 
Flip Animation Festival takes place at the Light House in Wolverhampton from today to Saturday. It is well worth a visit to see the breadth of the medium of animation and the talent out there.
The festival launch event Animation in the West Midlands: a snapshot takes place tonight at Millennium Point in Birmingham from 7-9pm. Flip will be discussing the current state of the West Midlands’ animation industry. How the sector can develop and expand at a time of recession. This event, co-hosted by Flip, Birmingham City University and Animation Forum West Midlands, seeks to find out.
It will include a screening of work from leading animation studios and individual filmmakers and a panel focussing on some of the achievements and highlights from the region. The panel will include Chris Randall from Second Home Productions, who pioneered an innovative replacement animation technique and Andy Guest from The CharacterShop, who are involved in a number of international co-production projects.
It is a great opportunity to find out more about animation in the region, and to join the debate about how to help the sector develop and expand.
To reserve a space email: info@light-house.co.uk. For more information on the festival click here.
There will be contemporary journals, books, fanzines and The Event Ale Brew (courtesy of The Anchor Inn). The project will also feature a reading from Edward Wakefield, special one off artist editions from all those that applied for the event commission, and 10 limited- artist edition t-shirts.
The Event Ale will be on sale from Thursday at the Anchor Inn and throughout the duration of the festival. It will also be on sale at the launch on Friday night at Eastside Projects.
Before from 6-9pm at the White Swan, there will be a launch of a publication, Birmingham Art Zine (BAZ). Take a sneaky peak here. I’m still grinning at some of the articles (‘Ikon sculpture tried to eat my Missus‘ )
The Event takes place at various venues in the Digbeth/Eastside area from 4th-8th November. For more infomation click here.
4th November: Brief Encounter (1945) A classic romantic drama set in 1945 during WWII in and around the fictional Milford Railway Station. Meeting a doctor, a married woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
11th November: A Streetcar named Desire (1951) Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following WWII, this is the story of Blanche Debois, a fragile woman on a desperate prowl for some place in the world to call her own.
18th November: On the Waterfront (1954) Classic story of mob informers based in and around the docks of New York and New Jersey.
25th November: North by Northwest (1959) A New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. He gets involved in a series of misadventures and is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government.
2nd December: The Third Man (1949) An American pulp writer arrives in post WWII Vienna to discover the friend who invited him has died in mysterious circumstances.
9th December: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) A lawyer in a racially divided Alabama town agrees to defend a young black man who is accused of raping a white woman.
All screenings are free and include free popcorn! The Jekyll and Hyde is located on Steelhouse Lane, spitting distance from Snow Hill Station.
On Saturday 14th November Culture Jam takes place at Moor Street Station and Volt on Green Street in Digbeth.
Culture Jam is a series of events organised by the British Lithuanian Youth Association in partnership with Birmingham based EC-Arts and Chiltern Railways.
Now in its third year, it celebrates and recognises the cultural contributions of Western and Eastern European creatives. This year the event will explore the shared past, present and future of British and Lithuanian culture through photography, film, art and music on such subjects as genocide, war, political emancipation, nostalgia, cultural revolution and new and emerging subcultures.
The event will launch at Moor Street Station at 3pm with traditional Eastern European delicatessen food and a presentation of Mission Siberia - A group of explorers recall the harrowing experience of a journey to Siberia, researching untold stories of genocide and mass deportation by the brutal Soviet regime during World War II, in an evocative and poignant performance. At the station there will also be a photography exhibition of the works of Lithuanian born artists Rokas Darulis and Indre Serpytyte and interior designer Rokas Rupeikis.
There will also be screenings of short art-documentaries produced by independent filmmakers from across the West Midlands and Lithuania, including a short on the demise of the MG Rover factory in Longbridge, and a hard hitting drama about the journey of an Eastern European family who move to the region.
In the evening at the Volt, CultureJam will host live performances from Norwegian/Lithuanian cinematic six-piece Rasa Basom and electro folk pioneers Black Diamond Bay.
Culture Jam takes place at Moor Street Station from 3-7pm and 10pm-3am at Volt, 22 Green Street, Digbeth. Tickets cost £8 for both venues or £5 for each venue.
Graft are a curatorial collective based in the Midlands who are looking to find a space for up and coming and newly established artists. On 9th December they launch ARC, a new night at The Vaults in the Jewellery Quarter.
The Vaults is a unique Victorian building, now a bar and restaurant. In its past life it has been a shipping house, wire works, a brewery and is rumoured to have been used as a workhouse and holding prison.
For the launch they are seeking proposals from newly estabished artists working in experimental performance, sound and video in response to The Vaults. Submissions should include an artist CV and background statement, a short outline of the work, relevent supporting material (images, recordings) and speculative technical requirements and equipment needs. For more information and to send submissions please email arc.birmingham[at]googlemail.com by 12 noon on Monday 9th November. Selected artists will be notified in the following days.
I look forward to hearing more about Graft and ARC nearer the time. Get those proposals in!
Earlier this year, Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum (BCAF) asked for proposals and submissions from artist projects and artist/curators in the Midlands. A number of fascinating commissions have come out of this. I look forward to seeing them over The Event weekend (4th-8th November). These include:
- Juneau Projects will be performing a new work, The Forward Statue in Flames which ‘considers the live gig as a form of sculpture’. The work will feature their amazing handmade instruments (Can you make me one guys?!) and costumes along with sound reactive visuals. They will play live at Eastside Projects from 9.30 on 6th November.
- Mark Essen has a number of interesting interventions planned for the weekend. At the Anchor Inn the ‘Mark Essen Event Brew’ ale will be on sale and on Friday 6th, the performance And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Morris Men will take place, Morris Men escorting audiences from venue to venue. Wow! (with bells on…)
- An Endless Supply have created Issue 7 of their monthy open submission arts publication specifically for The Event and will feature work from the artists involved.
Laura Marling is currently touring the country supporting Daniel Johnston. Unfortunately when she plays Ikon Gallery (sold out) on November 10th he will not be on the same bill. However, he will be joining us in Birmingham in film- form with a screening of The Devil & Daniel Johnston on Sunday November 8th at the Victoria presented by Let’s Go Swimming.
Daniel Johnston is a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist. The Devil & Daniel Johnston is a brilliant portrait of a genius who nearly slipped away.
After running away from his fundamental Christian family and joining a carnival, Johnston began to hone his musical career, recording folk songs on a series of homemade, lo-fi cassettes, which he handed out free to fans, friends and journalists in the early 80s. With the help of a timely break and the thriving Austin music scene, he managed to secure a brief spotlight on MTV making him a minor celebrity. But just as he was beginning to make a name for himself, his inner demons began to surface and his ongoing struggle with manic depression became more and more evident in his songs and drawings.
It is a fascinating documentary which merges current footage, vintage performances home movies and interviews with friends and family.
Now in his 40s, Daniel Johnston is a prolific cult visual artist. He has worldwide recognition and critical praise, producing international exhibits where he continues to sell his vibrant and intimate sketches. He has recorded over ten full length albums, and his supporters have included Kurt Cobain, who was often seen wearing a ‘Hi, How are You’ t-shirt, Matt Groening, The Butthole Suffers, Sonic Youth, David Bowie, Tom Waits, Beck and The Flaming Lips.
The screening starts at 5.30. Entry is free.
From 4th-8th November the Digbeth/Eastside area will be buzzing with The Event, a contemporary arts festival showcasing the best in artist-led activity in the city which will bring together many artists, curators and artist-led projects.
The Event will comprise of visual arts, performance, live art, film, video, web-based, installation, intervention and sound, all demonstrating the diversity of the thriving arts community in Birmingham.
Venues include Birmingham Central Backpackers, The Rea Garden and the new artist-led initiative Grand Union. Those involved include Springhill Institute, [insertspace] , Eastside Projects and Crowd6. Earlier in the year The Event also called for submissions and will be joined amongst others by Juneau Projects and An Endless Supply.
There is so much happening that I will write in more detail in the next few days (particularly as Royal Mail seem to be keeping my programme safe…) To warn you in advance, the post may well include Morris dancers 
