Join us for a celebration of work developed from projects, tests, growth and play with our Black Hole Club members through 2022.
Staying With the Trouble brings together kin, conversations and looks at the possibilities held in works that are in process and have room to grow. Making a space for the convivial; the what might happen and the what is happening now, has been a primary concern for Black Hole Club in a year when members have been working both within the East and West Midlands and internationally.
Staying With the Trouble is realised through a series of workshops and events in December and January in which we invite in melissandre varin to work with us. We look forward to sharing more from the journey ahead as it occurs.
Vivid Projects is delighted to present an exhibition of recent work by artist Adam Lewis Jacob.
Using the decommissioned industrial apparatus of the former factory in which Vivid Projects in situated, Lewis Jacob reanimates the architectural space in dialogue with the rich archival sources explored in his video works, People Meeting In A Room (2019) and Idrish (ইদ্রিস, 2021). Both video works were developed through research focused on the TURC Video archive, part of the Birmingham Trade Union Resource Centre and an antecedent of Vivid Projects.
Working with the recent industrial context of the site, using motifs of repetition, labour and community, Lewis Jacob’s exhibition thus creates a context for engagement with the complex histories of the site and it’s histories. Images, campaign flyers and texts found in the archive are reimagined. By bringing the past into the present the exhibition collapses time, policies and images echo throughout the space, reflecting the changes the local area has undergone in the shift from manufacturing to entertainment, factory to cafe culture.
Matters of Interest (Mol) invites you to Mol’s first ever IRL workshop at Vivid Projects, with Black Hole Club.
We will explore the re-cultivated land of the ‘library’ themed reader that we developed in an online workshop on the 28th of September. This work will be re-constructed into an annotated digital map, co-designed by all participants as Mol continues to re-visit questions of what it means to ‘carry’ and ‘contain’ knowledge, particularly as that knowledge (re-)evolves.
Bar availableVivid Projects and Birmingham 2022 Festival presents the finale of 2022 (Algo|Afro) Futures programme. This Digbeth First Friday, 5 August, all are welcome to join us for an evening of live algorithmic techno and visuals from our fantastic cohort of talented artists: Canaan Brown | Demarae | Japhet Dinganga | Meesha Fones | melissandre varin | Sym Stellium | Tyger Gill
(Algo|Afro) Futures 2022 is funded through the Creative City programme, supporting Black artists to take part in a series of workshops led by internationally recognised artist mentors Antonio Roberts and Gary Stewart, with co-founder of the Algorave live coding/algorithmic music movements, Alex McLean. Throughout July, the artists have been learning to use live coding as a performance practice, developing the skills to create live music and visuals ( as seen in the electronic dance music events called Algoraves) and as a technique.
We can’t wait to see what the cohort produce.
Join Beverley Riviera and friends for a performative evening of cake!
Down The Cake Hole is an exhibition about cake – its origins, its evolution and its cultural significance. Originally (and in some areas still) a term for a portion of bread, cake has become a glorious item of indulgence that is with us at almost every significant point in our lives.
Try a quintet of baked goods including ancient Greek recipes once sacred to the gods, cakes designed to save souls from damnation and concoctions created to ensure that even in the bleakest of times cake will still be with us.
Discover how ‘Everything is cake’ had its origins in political power plays, ostentatious feasts, and literal seventeenth-century Hunger Games. And join Beverly Riviera, an amalgam of celebrity chefs, in a live baking demonstration accompanied by a helper channeling the resentment of a thousand put-upon assistants. Plus, one lucky visitor will be crowned the Monarch of Misrule!
Live performance By Emily Mulenga at 7:30
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery & Vivid Projects collaborate for a second iteration of Cut, Copy, Remix. The project connects members of Black Hole Club with artists at significant development stages to make new work in response to Birmingham Museums Trust Digital Image Resource.
Cut Copy Remix II is spearheaded by Emily Mulenga, an artist who explores the aesthetics, consumption & production of digital media. Mulenga has considered the real & digital hybrid existence of the Birmingham collections & the emotional legacies present in archived telecommunication devices.
Fatt Butcher is our second commissioned artist. The Pageant of Birmingham explores the camp, chaotic, & downright baffling history of ’The Pageant of Birmingham 1938’ – an enormously expensive city wide performance pageant featuring a fire breathing paper mâché dinosaur and the formation of the city of Birmingham.
Black Hole Club’s Courtenay Welcome, Sophie Huckfield & Polly Brant will use time & space at Vivid Projects & online to test & develop work for Cut Copy Remix
Work made for Cut Copy Remix will culminate with Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in October 2022.
Join us for an evening of experimental and temporary publications with Duplicate Publishing Fair before their launch at Birmingham School of Art on the 7 May.
Expect opportunities to make something new in a collage party, explore projection and more throughout the evening.
Alongside these activities, Black Hole Club will launch for 2022 with new members. The group will explore publishing as a way of starting conversations with each other and considering how the year ahead might be approached together. Exploring how we can share our publications has been a focus for Black Hole Club over the past three years through projects including www.artofficedoc.online, work with Ikon Youth Programme, the Mayday zine and Artists Newsletter #1.
Vivid Live is delighted to present Niya B and her current project 912, a Virtual Reality 360o video experience based on participatory performance of trans and non-binary people, who have lived experience of waiting for an appointment at the Gender Identity Clinic (GIC).
912 is dealing with the opposing forces of waiting and at the same time finding the strength to carry on, within a repeated life cycle of a day.
Through the use of VR technology, the project aims to build bridges and create empathy and understanding with the wider public.
This drop-in event will include an exhibition of work-in-progress material and a performative presentation by the artist.
Vivid Projects is pleased to announce the launch of our 2022 Spring/Summer Programme, featuring new artist commissions, live art and film performances, digital museum collaborations and new support programmes for Black artists.
All are welcome to join us for an introduction to the 2022 commissioned artists: Antonio Roberts, Samiir Saunders and Hannah Sawtell, who will be presenting recent works. Visitors interested in participating in development programmes can pick up information on callouts for Black Hole Club and (Algo | Afro) Futures.
To celebrate the work of Black Hole Club members and the opening of the callout, we are also running an editions sale on the night, offering an opportunity to buy artists books, posters and publications from the Vivid Projects archive.
This winter Black Hole Club invites you to The New Earth for a programme of events that have evolved through experiment, process and conversation. From 3–11th Dec our activities and work respond to a cycle of terrestrial events, from arrival, exploration and trading to rewilding.
Present on the New Earth for Arrival, on the 3 Dec, 4pm–8.30pm.
De’Anne Crooks presents a broadcast from a new environment: Location: unknown. Joseph Winsborrow with a 1-1 performance: Ritual for New Dreaming. Roo Dhissou & Larissa Shaw engage in conversations with ARC: Artist Rehab Club PT1 (PT2 the online speakeasy on the 6th of Dec). Rosa Postlethwaite performs a recital of terms and conditions and one of breath.