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:
Grand Union: Inherited Premises, Evening Opening, 6–9pm Join the artists, curator and Grand Union staff for the private view of Inherited Premises a two person show by Rami George and Takko Taal, curated by Grand Union’s associate curator Sean Elder. Making reference to domesticity, language and ideas of nationhood, both artists explore their cultural and social lineages in relation to broader understandings of political traumas including conflict, war and imperialism.
Centrala: Three Models for Change, Exhbition Opening, 6-8pm Opening at Centrala for Digbeth First Friday, a collaboration with Grand Union and the University of Birmingham, Three Models for Change a group exhibition featuring work by Chris Alton, Ian Giles and Greta Huaer. The exhibition asserts the importance of historical awareness in establishing future potentials of communities. The works in this exhibition fluctuate between three actual and staged narratives: the formation of a fictional Quaker-punk band; the staging of cross-generational Queer histories; the uncertainty surrounding a newly formed volcanic island and its territorial disputes. Three Models for Change is curated by Alice O’Rourke, Ariadne T. and Ryan Kearny.
Centrala: Sneak Peek 100 Years, So What?, 6–8pm Centrala presents a SNEAK PEEK of a group exhibition 100 Years, So What? by Polish multimedia artists: Małgorzata Dawidek, Iwona Demko, Dorota Hadrian, Zofia Krawiec, Katarzyna Perlak, Alicja Rogalska and SIKSA.
International New School Gallery: Insights Open Evening, 5-9pm Insights brings together artists exploring and reflecting on a diverse range of themes and concepts, ranging from microplastics, the microscopic world of moss and the sublime effects of lighting on porcelain to the human condition, memories and remnants of time that has passed. Each artist has a story to tell, revealing elements that often go unnoticed or are hidden. In doing so, they give us new insights by helping us look at the world around us from a new perspective, giving it new context and meaning.
The Framers: Lucy McLauchlan Print Launch, 6-9pm Join the Framers at their newly completed gallery space, Studio 4 Gallery, with an exclusive print launch by renowned artist Lucy McLauchlan. British born Lucy McLauchlan’s large-scale monochromatic paintings have covered multi-story buildings across Europe, gigantic billboards in China, windows in Japan, huts in The Gambia, Italian water towers, Norwegian lighthouse, Detroit car parks and abandoned NYC subway tunnels. Implicit within her work is a deep respect for nature as she draws inspiration from her immediate environment; allowing it to inform and direct what is an intuitive and explorative process.
Vivid Projects: Visceristahood, 6-30-8.30pm, Performance at 7pm In response to the 200th Anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Visceristahood (Kate Spence, Sarah Walden, Siân Macfarlane and Vicky Roden) will be performing a live soundtrack to their ‘Frankenfilm’; an assemblage of horrifying fragments in 4 movements. Not for the faint hearted.
Eastside Projects: Gallery Relaunch – mixrice: Migrating Flavours, 6-9pm Everyone is welcome to join Eastside Projects for the relaunch of our gallery ‘Another Reality’ for June Dff and new exhibitions:
mixrice is an art collective led by Seoul based artists Cho Ji Eun (b.1975) and Yang Chul Mo (b.1977). They have many stories to tell and they’re making their first solo exhibition in the UK as part of the Midlands Korea Season which is led by Eastside Projects and New Art Exchange. We invite you to their world of ‘Migrating Flavours’.
General Public present ‘The Endless Village’, investigating life, localism and trade relations in an imagined future post-EU Britain. The project’s central element is a sitcom pilot titled ‘Banana Day’, presenting a satirical meditation on future daily life in NFKATUK (the Nation Formerly Known As The UK).
Stryx: The Dry Womb, durational performance, 6-9pm This installation by artist Hannah Mary looks at the addictive nature of neurotic behavior that has developed into alcoholism and presents different perspectives for the viewer to experience the secrecy and the safety of repetition through explorations into the womb and how the emotionally absent mother distorts the child’s innate understanding of its place through the image of the disintegrating mother. It presents a narrative of a relationship through the severity of the repetition and the absence that appears within its presence. Following a durational performance on Friday the Exhibition will then be open Saturday 2 nd June 10am – 2.30pm to the public Followed by Workshop 3pm-6pm led by the Artist Hannah Mary ‘Games of Absence and Presence: Performing Ritual.’