Experience the incredible variety of events on offer this month, discover something new and enjoy the fantastic independent culture Digbeth has to offer!
On offer this month:
Brum Radio: Claire Davies, 5–6pm
For April’s Digbeth First Friday, Brum Radio are hosting a new artwork made by Nottingham based artist Claire Davies. Interested in the sense of awe and wonder surrounding the activity of being, her practice merges the mundanity of the extraordinary and the exceptional of the everyday into combined narratives or elusive objects questioning how we understand the world.
Eastside Projects: Sonia Boyce: Wallpaper / Performance, 6–8pm
Once again Eastside Projects will be filled with the sights and sounds of skateboarders and ukulele players. Responding to a score by Jorge Gomez Abrante, the improvised performance will be set in the main gallery against the backdrop of a new wallpaper work which Sonia has created following February’s ‘Wallpaper/ Performance’.
Documentation of the event will form the basis of a new film by Sonia that will be shown at Eastside Projects later in the year. The performance will continue throughout the evening so you are welcome to drop in and out at any point. Experienced skaters are invited to bring their boards and participate.
Centrala: Post-Paradise, 7–9pm, Degenerates Social, 9pm–2am
Centrala are playing host to a collaboration by two Birmingham-based creative projects; Flatpack Film Festival and PostParadise.
From 7–9pm, artists invited by Post-Paradise will perform around the space, exploring its sonic tones and textures, accompanied by home-grown visuals from Birmingham-based artist Duncan Poulton.
Degenerates Social is a night of queerish music for queerer people. It offers a welcoming space for deviants, freaks, forsaken children, lost souls, and all the other ‘others’ that find themselves on the margins of nightlife. Go along and find them dancing to oddly soulful tunes with your DJs LMGM, Pip Longsocks and Kim McAleese.
Stryx: slice presents SEIZE Project, 6–9pm
This Digbeth First Friday, Stryx presents the launch of an ongoing project devised by – object-maker/collaborator/facilitator – Emma McKinney. slice is a platform; fleeting and fluctuating. A programme of monthly interventions/exhibitions/displays, the project aims to provide opportunities for emerging artists to share their work with the city of Birmingham.
For the launch of the project, and coinciding with April’s Digbeth First Friday, Leeds based artist collective SEIZE have been invited to exhibit in the main gallery space. The exhibition brings together the five individual practices of Lily Ackroyd-Willoughby, Sarah-Joy Ford, Daisy Forster, Tom McGinn and Ned Pooler. Ranging from sculpture to painting, their work is often critical or tongue-in-cheek.
Grand Union: Artist Super Market, 6–8pm
Artist Super Market, a distribution label by Rope Press, is at Grand Union this First Friday.
Artist Super Market will host their open exhibition where you can explore a large range of prints, books and artworks by regional and international artists, displayed on various installations built specifically for the show.
Bring your wallets and pennies to support this incredible display of new artists’ goods!
[-Taking both Card and Cash-]
The Edge: Benin City, 8pm-late, £4 on the door
Unofficially part of their illegitimate year of degentrification; The Edge are bringing straight-talking Benin City and super smooth sounds from AffieJam to April’s Digbeth First Friday. Expect riddling lyrical prowess, melodic guitar and belly-warming vetkoek from Ubunu Foods.