My Work on The Culture Show

Here's a six and a half minute item by Michael Smith, investigating the cultural highlights of Birmingham. It appeared in Friday night's edition of The Culture Show on BBC 2 and briefly features (almost 2 minutes into the item - for those of an impatient disposition) my sculpture, The City, which was on show at the Creative Machines, Minimalist Sculptures exhibition at the old Curzon Street Station, as part of Birminhgam's The Event 2011.
Alternatively, you can click on this Culture Show link which will take you direct to the relevant page of the BBC website.

RCA Secret Blog Interview

Well it’s that time of year again and the RCA Secret postcard show is almost upon us. It seems to come round faster every year and as usual I only just made the deadline for getting my cards into the show. This year, because of other mounting arty-farty commitments, I left things a bit late and was working on my six entries (three cards as Wayne Chisnall and three as Chig, the name I used to illustrate under and the one I'm more commonly known by back home) up until 3AM the night before the last handing-in day.

For anyone that fancies finding out what I and a few of the other regular contributors the RCA Secret think about the show please feel free to check out our interviews on the RCA Secret blog.

Here are a couple of my entries from last year’s RCA Secret show.

This one, Werecrow, under the name Chig…

And this one as Wayne Chisnall.

The Event at Curzon Street Station, Birmingham

The launch night of The Event 2011 went off fantastically and I would definitely recommend that anyone who finds themselves in Birmingham between now and the 30th of this month should pop along to see it. And I’m not just saying that because I have a piece in the show. Even if you are not that interested in art (of which there are some great examples in the exhibition – I particularly liked the MDF sculptures) it is definitely worth going just to check out the time capsule that is the old Curzon Street Station – an old railway station building that is very rarely opened up to the public.

Up until I got off the train at Moor Street and headed for the show I didn’t know anything about the venue but once I saw it I was mightily impressed. Curzon Street Station is a haunting looking cube of a building standing alone in a waste land (the surrounding land presumably having been cleared to make way for new developments). If you do manage to make it to the show then check out the mummified cat set into the wall of the main entrance. Apparently if was discovered by builders whilst they were doing some renovation work and is thought to have been deliberately bricked up in the walls when the building was first built. Some sort of superstitious/good luck thing I believe.

Here’s picture of me tinkering with my sculpture, The City (photo courtesy of Rosie Mayell).

TROVE: THE EVENT 2011
21 – 30 October 2011
Launch Night – Fri 21st (5-9pm)
Curzon Street Station,
corner of Curzon Street and New Canal Street
(opposite Millenium Point),
Birmingham B4 7XG
UK
(Nearest train station: Moor Street Station)

DOMUS

If any of you have walked along Great Sutton Street in Clerkenwell, London recently there’s a fair chance that you will have seen what I’ve been up to on the side of a 35 metre long hoarding. No, I’ve not decided to try my hand at being a street artist (I’ll leave that other, more stealthy characters) – instead I’ve been commissioned by Domus to decorate the hoarding that currently covers the front of their new and soon to be completed showroom.

Domus is the leading UK supplier and specification advisers of tile, mosaic and stone solutions for commercial and residential projects and as well as displaying a massive selection of their fine wares the new showroom will also incorporate a large gallery space for the exhibition of artwork. As well as designing and painting the hoarding (with a lot of help from fellow artists and friends, Sam Frith, Lola Gunn, David Kong and others) for Domus and have also been asked me to curate the exhibition space once it opens.

To coincide with the opening of the new showroom and because their main clients tend to be architects, Domus have commissioned artist, Jessica Walters, to create thirty 45cm tall miniature sculptures based upon the small figures that populate architectural models. These figures (all modelled on Domus employees) are being positioned in public spaces around the city and three of them can already be found high up on the wall of the building opposite the showroom, nestling in some old fireplaces that were exposed during the WWII bombings.

To see the work in progress for both the building site and the hoarding check out Steve Charles’ photos.

Launch Party – This Friday

This Friday will see the launch of The Event 2011 at Curzon Street Station, Curzon Street, Birmingham. I’ll be exhibiting my sculpture, The City (see the post below) and will be at the show from 5pm when it opens. If you are in the mood for checking out some art that night and in the area then please feel free to pop along and join me.

TROVE: THE EVENT 2011
21 – 30 October 2011
Launch Night – Fri 21st (5-9pm)
Curzon Street Station,
corner of Curzon Street and New Canal Street
(opposite Millenium Point),
Birmingham B4 7XG
UK

(Nearest train station: Moor Street Station)

Artists include: Wayne Chisnall, Stephen Cornford, Jamie Jackson, Markus Kayser, Rob Mullender, Alex Pearl, Ben Rowe, Martin Sexton, Laura Skinner, Minnie Weisz, Luke Williams and Adam Zoltowski

The Event 2011

I’m delighted to say that I’ve been invited to exhibit work at TROVE's (a heritage site located in the Engine Room of Birmingham’s old Science and Industry Museum) new show as part of this month’s The Event 2011 (the third bi-annual visual art festival hosted by Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum) which runs from 21 – 30 October. The show brings together a combination of Heat Robinson-esque machines and 2D dreams of machines and is curated by Charlie Levine of TROVE in conjunction with Minnie Weisz Studio of King’s Cross, London. The exhibition will cross sound, film and object/sculpture and be based around the narrative of ‘Creative Machines’ and minimalist sculpture – a look into pure machines meets pure minimalism.

  
My contribution to the show will be my mobile cabinets of curiosity sculpture, The City.

TROVE: THE EVENT 2011
21 – 30 October 2011
Curzon Street Station, Curzon Street, Birmingham

Artists include: Alex Chinneck, Wayne Chisnall, Stephen Cornford, Jamie Jackson, Markus Kayser, Rob Mullender, Alex Pearl, Ben Rowe, Martin Sexton, Laura Skinner, Luke Williams and Adam Zoltowski