a show in which we make work in direct competition with other artists on topics chosen at random, both selected by an impartial curator Charlie Levine

There’s a preview show from 5pm – 7pm on Thursday 26 January at Colmore Plaza. For more info head to:

• The Aedas Presents blog
• Sparrow+Castice‘s website

Shadow maps is the third exhibition in the ‘Aedas Presents‘ series, showcasing the work of artist Jo Gane.

For Aedas, Gane has assembled a body of work made with teams of field archaeologists at various dig sites which explores the search for evidence of history and plotting of time within the landscape.  Instead of unearthing finds, the archaeologists spend time chasing shadows and mapping out past events.

Including photographs, archaeological constructions and projections, the installation will make use of shadows to describe the unknown historic events that occurred within these sites.

After opening at a preview event on 10 February, the exhibition will be on display until 18 February. To arrange a visit, email aedaspresents@aedas.com

Trove‘s latest project, initiated by curator Charlie Levine during a summer spent in Paris, features an exchange of postcards between 17 artists across the world.

Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s method of documenting travels via postcards sent home, Levine commissioned 17 artists to instead design a postcard.

These were then printed and packs of the final 16 postcards distributed to all the artists involved with each other’s addresses. During the month of August a postcard exchange project took place. Cards were altered, added to, written upon and cut up and sent around the world.

Contributing artists include; Darren Banks, Ana Benlloch, Tom Butler, Martyn Cross, Vicky Cull, Anna Francis, Jo Gane, Caitlin Griffiths, Gabo Guzzo, Elizabeth Hingley and Tomonaga Tokuyama, Lulu Horsfield, Calum F Kerr, Hayley Lock, Kira O’Reilly, Samantha Voong and Emmett Walsh.

Paris Correspondence School opens at Trove with a preview on 21 Jan at 6-8pm. The exhibition can then be visited until 28 January by appointment.

Aedas Presents is a new monthly art programme held at Aedas Architects in Colmore Plaza, which will present a series of exhibitions by students and emerging artists.

The first 12 months are to be curated by Charlie Levine, and the first artist is Hannah Ainsworth, whose work focuses on matters relating to light, movement and surface

Duration is explored through work that is in a state of decomposition alongside a process that could be eternal.  Perceptual experience measured through time is tantamount to the reading of Ainsworth’s work and these works in particular.

After opening on 18 November the exhibition will be displayed in Colmore Plaza until 26 November. To arrange a visit, contact aedaspresents@aedas.com

The Terminal Bar is the latest exhibition and it launched the other side of the weekend. Here are some pics and here’s a short interview with guest curator Morgan Quaintance:

Read it here.

So, in chronological order…

At the end of June this year, Terry Grimley revealed that a feasibility study was being undertaken into developing such a museum. The Arts Council and AWM had each chucked in £90k and the city council have apparently also contributed £200k ‘to enable Ikon to mount a programme of high-profile events in Eastside as a test bed’.

The idea for this was first mooted in 2006, around the time Ikon Eastside was first opened. Unfortunately I can’t find Terry Grimley’s article from back then.

Coun Martin Mullaney was quoted saying:

I’m keen to support this. We want it to be on a par with Tate Modern and the Guggenheim in Bilbao

and suggesting the site of the wholesale markets as the location. The Birmingham Central blog picked up on this, adding:

With the Wholesale Markets moving and a large space being created it would offer a central focal point to attract visitors to the Southside area and build on the creativity of Digbeth.

The idea was discussed by a panel at The Art of Ideas II – A New Museum for the 21st Century on 8 July, but I’ve no idea what was said. Does anyone know if there was a recording?

A few weeks later, The Guardian’s Matt Price asked ‘Does England really need another contemporary art museum?‘ He put some bones on the proposal:

From the public discussion earlier this month, it was clear that Watkins (Jonathan Watkins, director of Ikon, and the person leading the proposal) is thinking big: he wants vast spaces capable of presenting large-scale sculptures and installations, with an acquisitions policy aiming to collect the most celebrated artists currently working around the world

He also pointed out some of the rationale behind the project – that many towns:

don’t actually own much of the art they show; public collections of contemporary art around England simply aren’t as good as they should be. Arts Council England acknowledged this in a 2006 report, bluntly asserting that “regional collections in England do not represent the visual art of our time”

Providing some balance, he goes on to point out that many West Mids museums have good, specialist collections of contemporary art and that developing these might be worthwhile (not to mention cheaper). However, the conclusion to the article, and so Matt’s answer to the question, is ‘yes, it could be really good if it works’. Well, yes…

Curator and writer, Charlie Levine, chipped in with an article ‘Tricky: A new museum for Birmingham?‘. Although initially convinced by the arguments espoused at the Art of Ideas II, she sounded a few cautious notes and wondered whether it would not be better to invest in and support local, emerging artists ‘to create a successful and supportive art economy’.

Which leads us to the item that sparked this post – a news piece on the Arts Council website proclaiming that ‘Our chair welcomes plans for Birmingham contemporary art museum‘.

Arts Council chair Liz Forgan, at Ikon’s annual dinner this week, said:

It is truly ambitious. I know that it is early days, and the feasibility study is only just being developed. But Birmingham needs the visual arts to flourish in the city; it needs to realise its aspirations for the visual arts that it has already achieved in other art forms. People may say that it’s not an auspicious time to raise funds for such an ambitious project. But I say ambition is good!

We at the Arts Council support ambition and excellence and we will do our utmost to support you in this endeavour. Of course I can’t make any commitments, and I am sure you wouldn’t expect me to – not here, not tonight anyway! But I do want to say that we have supported you, we are supporting you and now we are keen to try to apply some of the innovation we have talked about tonight to find new ways of supporting you.

Although she also made some odd claims about Ikon’s existence halting the proliferation of lap dancing clubs in the city. You can download Liz Forgan’s speech here.

So where does that leave us? Well, the feasability study’s yet to be completed and there’s been very little mention of the cost of the thing so far, which must be a big issue at the moment. There seems to be a lot of intial support for the idea though, so I guess we wait and see what that report says.

GOODS In: a one-day exhibition curated by Charlie Levine and Harminder Singh Judge.

This is a group show with the works chosen for the theme of “mechanics, engineering, the factory and multiples” in response to the location: a disused bed warehouse.

The warehouse can be found at 332-346 Moseley Road and the exhibition will be open from 4pm to 8pm on Saturday 28 June.

What’s also interesting is that the owner, Sham, is apparently working to turn the huge warehouse space into a viable arts venue of some sort.  Which should be supported, I reckon.

Nikki Pugh will be exhibiting some work there on Saturday before shows in Manchester and Germany in the coming weeks.  Read about that on Nikki’s blog.