When mac closed the doors at its Cannon Hill Park centre in April 2008, work started on a £14.8million Building Project to create a newly refurbished arts centre to re-open in 2010.
To celebrate, mac in association with sampad has awarded six artists’ commissions to create new site specific work. The commissions include three permanent pieces of art for the new building and three projects working with the people of Birmingham to reflect the new mac.
Inside The Building:
Sweet Nothings – conceptual artist Jason Bowman will work with a local glassblower to create a rotating mobile of glass-blown mirrored tears in a kinetic sculpture exploring our emotional responses to art and culture.
Sijelo – Myfanwy Johns, working with members of the Bosnian Cultural Centre Midlands, are creating designs for a new first floor carpet, an area of wood panelling in the new café and floor tiles in the foyer, using the patterns and shapes created through crochet.
50 Tiles – Sara Taylor will create a collection of 50 individually designed tiles representing 50 years since the mac vision was first introduced, with design influences including both the natural setting and trees of Cannon Hill Park and traditional Islamic patterns.
Outside The Building:
Amplifying The Map – Kate Chapman and Charlotte Goodwin are inviting people who live, work or play close to mac to re-discover familiar places and explore places they have never visited before, sharing their thoughts and observations to create an audio map of the changing landscape.
The City Sings – Artmusic’s Helen Ottaway is composing an anthem for mac to ring out across the city, played and sung by people of all ages and from all backgrounds and culminating in a processional performance leading to the new centre.
Time and Place – writer and artist Laura Guy is leading a participatory work that will gather public information and personal recollections to form a unique archive leading to a creative visual retelling of the story of mac and the significant presence it has in Cannon Hill Park.
The artists have their own website devoted to themselves and the artworks and will be blogging about the progression and development of the work shortly.