birmingham seen

Some great stuff from the past year

Chris Unitt — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:03:14 +0000

I’m not about to do a full on ‘best of’ thing, but there was plenty of goodness about in 2009:

Birmingham Opera Company’s ‘Othello’
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s ‘Quantum Leaps’
‘Birmingham Seen’ at BMAG
Zena Edwards’ ‘Security’ at The Rep
Tom Dale Company’s ‘Roam’ at DanceXchange
The Event
Kindle Theatre’s ‘All You Can Eat’

And plenty more besides, although nine months away from CiB (and a fair amount of time out of the country) meant that I was slightly more out of touch with some of the smaller-ticket stuff.

What did you enjoy?

CiB links for 22 December 2009

Chris Unitt — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:13:33 +0000

Shooters in the Pub (Birmingham)
Timely this, seeing as how Film Forum WM seems to have gone a little quiet. “‘Shooters in the Pub’ is a new casual, but productive networking night for Shooting People members”. First one will be from 6-9pm on 4 Jan.
Birmingham Seen – Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Now extended to 31 Jan. Do go and see it, it’s ace
It’s Just Noise
“It’s Just Noise were originally a collective of writers and promoters from various locations around the UK… Originally putting shows on across the country, our efforts are now primarily focused in Birmingham, supporting local and touring artists”
Improvisation Birmingham
MAKE YOUR CITY
“The purpose of this blog is to highlight creative activity, music and other interesting stuff happening in and near Birmingham, UK. And To let the people of this city know about what they have infront of them rather than keep it quiet and exclusive”. Been quiet since Sept 09, will hopefully make a comeback
Heat And Light
“Gigs, events, art, exhibitions and creative activity from a DIY collective based in Birmingham, U.K”

Birmingham Seen

Chris Unitt — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:49:32 +0000

The picture above is Boundary II by Barbara Walker. Looking at it on screen really doesn’t do it justice though and I wholeheartedly recommend you go along to Birmingham Seen at BMAG to see it nice and big.

It’s a great exhibition with a fair few highlights – the early photography of the city is absorbing, the Derek Fairbrother timelapse is morbidly fascinating with few sticking around to watch it a second time and the 1940’s (?) plans for the city’s civic area were .

I also loved the paintings by Paul Hill, a long-time Castle Vale resident. Unfortunately it’s tricky finding any decent examples of his work online. I also liked Michelle Lord‘s work, including this titled Ultimate City #1:

So yes, get along and see it if you can. It’s at the Gas Hall until 3 Jan.

Derek Fairbrother – Birmingham timelapse

Chris Unitt — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:07:07 +0000

Ian from 7 Inch Cinema correctly guessed that this video might be up my street – a collection of images they’ve compiled for Birmingham Seen which opens at BMAG today and runs until 3 January 2010.

Ian also sent over a biog of Derek Fairbrother (1931-99), whose images they are. The following is an extended copy and paste job:

In the 1960s and 70s research chemist and amateur photographer, Derek Fairbrother, made over 20 photographic time-lapse sequences showing the demolition of old buildings and their replacement by new buildings and new road systems in Birmingham city centre.

The completed sequences, often running to some fifty images taken over a period of five or more years, were then connected together in a narrative sequence in the form of a strip of postcard sized prints. Fairbrother intended to use a cine camera to photograph each sequence, thereby compressing years of work into a series of short films. However this ambition was not realised in his lifetime.

After his death in 1999, his widow Gaynor gifted his prints and negatives to the photography collections at Birmingham Library.

These short films, which will be shown for the first time in the exhibition Birmingham Seen (Gas Hall, 31st October 2009 – 3rd January 2010) have finally enabled Fairbrother’s work to be seen in the way he intended.