i like... please don't leave me

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

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... two straight twelve mile walks on dartmoor

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

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

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.

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.’"

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.

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