i like... please don't leave me

by bas jan ader. this image haunts me. what happens when the light goes off?

reading list: the practice of everyday life

or how will i know if i'm doing it right?

touching 1000 people

diane borsato deliberately touched 1000 people over the course of a month. i am more and more interested in this kind of subtle intervention.

lifetime goals

alyse emdur collected the lifetime goals of school students. i love this one.

what happened was...

recent project by anna callahan. i love her work. precious glimpses of the beauty and strangeness of life out there.

I like... fifty states

jared larson's fifty states.
this is one of those videos i end up reblogging because it stays in my mind. there's something about it that i love. it reminds me how immediate and responsive art can be.

i like... two straight twelve mile walks on dartmoor

by richard long
two poems written at intervals along a twelve mile walk

i like... signs that say what you want them to say

by gillian wearing

little bit of liverpool

some great things about liverpool this weekend:

nicholas hlobo's ribbon maze, part of 'touched' at the bluecoat. so dreamy. so touchable.

a little boy dog in blue, a little girl dog in pink

street art reading 'poor are people,' 'pensioners are people' and 'do you like your neighbours?'

the word 'calamari' with a scouse accent

the language of sculpture, curated by carol ann duffy - especially the satchels full of magnetic words for visitors to play around with

bright red leaves carpeting the pavement

knitting salon at nest

i was lucky enough to acquire a last-minute invitation to the knitting salon at nest last night, organised by deidre from craftspace and trevor pitt of pod projects. It was admittedly a little more tame than the bourgeoius eighteenth century french salon of my imagining, but followed both of horace's aims - "either to please or to educate" - quite nicely. Taking placemaking as our theme, we talked about the city and its inhabitants; our experiences of migration and settlement; our relationship with our neighbours; intergenerational communication and misunderstanding; ideas of community, and how we are connected and disconnected from the places we live and work in. I really hope the series of talks continues as the benches tour the country, inspiring similar conversations as they settle in new spaces.

'under gods' by liz hingley

liz hingley's 'under gods' is a series of photographs taken over 2 years on soho road, handsworth. her experience was that religion is the primary source of identity drawn on by the diverse inhabitants of this area in birmingham. the beauty of her photographs taken inside bedrooms, living rooms, gurdwaras, sweet shops, mosques, convents, backyards, schools, temples and doorways reminds me how resourceful people are, and how our little buildings can become so much more than places to work, eat and sleep.

you can see the exhibition now at wolverhampton art gallery

christian marclay's 'the clock'

I wish I could get to white cube to see this. it's a film made of film clips that use the clock-face as a narrative device. and it's synchronised to local time.

diversity by numbers

My latest blog post about diversity in arts policy over at Hybrid...

"Fears that projects championing multiculturalism and diversity will suffer from restructuring in the Arts Council and become sidelined by other concerns have been fed by the fact that ACE seems to have distanced diversity from artistic excellence in their draft strategy for the future (Jatinder Verma, Arts Professional 21 June 2010.) Does this mean diversity will no longer be a policy priority, but an agenda confined to separate developmental work with no place within the wider culture of excellence ACE seeks to promote?"

Refugee Art

Link to a recent article I wrote on the Hybrid blog about Refugees and Imaginative Space:
"In the same way that work by black artists has become ‘black art,’ work by refugees and asylum seekers is considered ‘refugee art’ with expectations that it will contain certain themes – pain, loss, displacement, marginalisation. These are comfortable themes for what Rotas describes as a “right on” culture that wants to pat itself on the back for its commitment to diversity and giving voice to ‘others.’"

Fierce Interrobang: Regeneration

Fierce's Interrobangs are 'mash-ups of performance, experiments, enquiry, workshops, hot drinks, conversation and direct action.' The first will be taking place at Warwick Arts Centre from 24-26 June from 11am - 11pm. China Plate will be there running On Call sessions (more here), which offer a great opportunity to get advice and support or just have a general chat about your own work.

BE Festival

The Birmingham European Theatre Festival starts on 30th June, and the programme is packed with interesting stuff. It's all taking place at A E Harris. I love the poster - nothing better than going barefoot through a puddle.

ROAD WORKS: art on the meter in Birmingham

Image via inhabitat

Tomorrow, 48-hrs before we enter our final bid for UK City of Culture 2013, Birmingham City Council are transforming 5 parking spaces in the city centre in pieces of public art.

The project is BCC's contribution to PARK(ing) Day - in which artists, activists and citizens temporarily transform metred parking spaces into public parks.

Located in close proximity to Victoria Square, St Phillips Cathedral (Colmore Row) and Waterloo Street the ROADWORKS will feature:

• ‘Not My Type’ by Fluid Design and collective illustrators
  Three easels will be set up and some of Birmingham’s best graphic designers will be demonstrating their skills, illustrating letters forms and numbers, as the public look on. 
• ‘Camera Obscura ‘ by Arlene Burnett
  This will be a ‘walk in camera’ in a light proof garden shed, projecting an image of some of Birmingham’s impressive civic buildings onto its inside surfaces.
• ‘The Incidental Estate’ by Trevor Pitt
  A domestic, suburban garden transplanted into the city centre. A space to sit in, enjoy the flowers and consider the sense of freedom it can give you.
• Human, All too Human’ by Nat Pitt
  This is a bird spotters hide, fitted with periscopes for members of the public to view animal characters who will be appearing nearby, you may spot an owl with a pushchair, a cat traffic warden or a badger with a briefcase.
• ‘Digger’s Revival’ by Uddin and Elsey
  This artist’s duo will create a growing environment, inspired by Van Gogh’s painting of the ‘Potato Planters’, with wooden pallets, grow bags and plants. They will invite the public to take away seeds and encourage them to grow their own vegetables.

Intercultural dialogues

A recent blog post  about intercultural dialogues at the mac. From my blog at hybrid.

treasured a secret journey

Treasured - A Secret Journey from Jane Packman on Vimeo.

I just received a link to this trailer for Jane Packman's Treasured - A Secret Journey, which is currently at the mac. It's beautifully shot. I think I will have to check it out.

who wants to be?

A response to Birmingham's bid for UK city of culture Who Wants to Be Birmingham is a 'spontaneous, democratic, live theatrical experience' that aims to harness the full power of the public imagination. If these are some of your favourite words you don't want to miss it. It's on Friday 11th June at 7pm at The Patrick Centre, delivered by The Hippodrome and  Fierce.

intercultural dialogues at mac

Sampad and mac deliver the first in a series of conversations about important issues in society around themes of cultural space, policy, arts and communities. Hopefully this will give some insight into the development of the new mac centre and the thinking behind it. At the hexagon theatre on monday 7th June from 6-7.30pm. More here.

this week...

Protest: Fight The Power, part of BASS Festival, opens June 2 at Devonshire House, Digbeth. Celebrating radical poster art from around the world. See a short gallery of images on the guardian online here.

Routes to New Routes at St Martin's Arts is on until June 15th. Featuring metal work and textiles produced by women from the Community Integration Partnership in workshops led by artists Mel Tomlinson, Nicola Griffiths and Ruth Singer. It's a simple, unassuming exhibition that is really worth seeing. (Image via we are eastside)

Determinism: Where ever we go, we shall lead the way for our daughters is the final show of Walsall College HND Fine Art Students Katie Hobday and Sharon Powers, which looks really fun. Preview is on Friday June 4th 6pm-8pm at the New Art Gallery Walsall

t.rex: the killer question

Omg, dinosaurs. New exhibition at BMAG including animatronics, life size skeleton casts and real fossils.

speaker's corner at the hubb

Last night was the first Speaker's Corner at The Hubb Arts Centre (no website yet but you can find them on facebook). Hosted by Mohammed 'Aerosol Arabic' Ali and with input from spoken word artist Aeon and Raymond Douglas who delivered the evening's lecture on street gangs.

Anybody can suggest a topic, performance, lecture etc. It's a totally open forum for discussion, social action and community engagement. It'll be happening every last Friday of the month so look out for flyers.

Although it's only just coming into it's own there is a real sense of excitement and aspiration about the place. And there were cupcakes.

new custard factory site

This is exciting. The Custard Factory has a new website. I work there and I didn't even know. Luckily I came across it on Birmingham: It's Not Shit before it had been up for an embarrassing amount of time ( I also borrowed their screen capture.)

for the young ones

Craftspace Collective have a few events coming up. On Saturday 29th May they will be meeting at Pigeon Park for felting/gaming/music - just email them if you'd like to go along. It's free!

Craftspace Collective is a project is for 16-19 year olds from inner city Birmingham who have an interest in guerilla craft, craftivism and DIY crafts. I would have loved this when I was that age.

Earth|Atmosphere

I recently went to Earth|Atmosphere at the Bilston Craft Gallery, which is part of The Shape of Things. The geolinear ceramics by Halima Cassell were each made of clay from a different country and set up so that each connected to the next through a series of holes and gaps built into the piece. I thought this was a really elegant way of evoking the ideas of belonging and home soil, but also the interconnectedness and diversity of our communities. They were incredibly beautifully crafted and she had constructed a mirrored plinth so that the bottom of each piece was visible which was a lovely touch.

The "Atmosphere" element was provided by Seiko Kinoshita whose woven textiles evoked days of rain and sunshine. These installations were a witty reference to the obsession we Brits have with the weather, expressed using traditional and distinctive Japanese methods. They were really striking pieces that you wanted to run your hands through or stand in the middle of. She provided a few samples of her yarns and woven pieces for handling, and I don't think there was anybody who could resist them. They were hand dyed paper-based yarns that really made me want to go to her workshop but alas, I couldn't make it. ( I also couldn't find a good picture of Seiko's work at the gallery so I chose a different one from her website...)

The exhibition is on until July 10th.