For April’s Digbeth First Friday, Grand Union and Shout invite three artists, brutalisturinal, Ryan Aysbury, and Jessa Mockridge to explore what the gentrification of Digbeth means for sex and intimacy. Inquiring about what happens to the ‘margins’ that have fostered sweaty human connections, and navigate the precarity of spaces where humans are free to make and seek a whole range of experiences- sexual and emotional.
The re-densification of Digbeth is speeding up. As HS2 draws ever closer, high rise buildings packed with luxury flats have begun to populate the skyline, larger institutions are making their way in, and historically lax landlords have turned their attention to squeezing profits out of previously forgotten land. As the landscape shifts, who/ what experiences (that lie outside of the consultation process) are being lost and erased? What happens as the safety and anonymity of a post-industrial area with minimal infrastructure falls away into regeneration?
