Grand Union

There’s just over a week to go until our Soil Seance Listening sessions with Michelle Atherton for September’s Digbeth First Friday! 🔊 🗓️ September 6⁠ ⏰ 2–7.30 pm; 45 minute bookable time slots.⁠ 🎟️ This is a free event, but booking via eventbrite is essential .⁠ This event offers you the unique experience of communing with the ground; turning your senses downwards and using electronic devices to hear the subsonic frequencies in the earth. 🌀 About the Artist: Michelle Atherton’s work holds a fascination with the complex relations, dynamics and contradictions at play in day-to-day experiences and phenomena. Her work often uses a remix aesthetic incorporating sound, image, text and installation to create fragmented narratives as hooks to explore our slippery perceptions of the world. 🌌 Find out more about the Soil Seance Listening Sessions here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/erA7d5Wf 📸 Image courtesy of Michelle Atherton, 2024. @its_m.atherton⁠ [image description - A portrait image of a leafy green canal-side banking, filled with nettles, ivy, and other plant life. To the bottom left of the image, next to the lone patch of soil not covered in vegetation, there is a black umbrella set up over various equipment that is only partially visible.]

There’s just two weeks left to watch ‘Love is Real, and It’s Inside of My Computer’ by Babeworld x utopian_realism on our website! 🖥️ You can also find a video and audio walkthrough of the exhibition, accompanied by transcripts, on our website, in case you didn’t get to see the show in person. This will all be available until September 6. 🌀 You can find the film and the walkthroughs here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e3RgyiJi [image description - a landscape film still from Babeworld’s ‘Love is Real, and It’s Inside Of My Computer’. The still features a person wrapped in a blanket sitting up in a dark room. They are illuminated only by the light of the phone screen they are staring at. White text at the bottom of the screen reads ‘Hunched up in a ball, I don’t know why I’m not just laying down.’]

🌀 Soil Seance Listening Sessions with Michelle Atherton ⁠ 🗓️ September 6⁠, 2024 ⏰ 2–7.30 pm; 45 minute bookable time slots.⁠ 🎟️ This is a free event, but booking via eventbrite is essential ⁠ Join us on September 6 for Soil Seance listening sessions on the Digbeth Branch canalside with artist Michelle Atherton! Attempt to gain sonic access to Birmingham’s subterranean landscape. 🔊 Soils are constantly shifting and changing over time. They have a genesis and a lifespan. They originate from rocks transformed over millennia by climate conditions, geological movements, biological processes, and the actions of organisms, at all scales. Soils are the product of highly complex relationships. They are both living and non-living. 🪨 Access: This event will take place outside and relies on listening to minute sounds, please see further access information on our website, or get in touch to learn more about this event. Find out more about this event and book your place here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/erA7d5Wf [image description - A landscape graphic image featuring a colourful abstract image that looks almost like a spaceship orbiting a planet in shades of neon green and grey. In the bottom right corner of the colourful image there is a white volume symbol. Behind this colourful section, there is a white background that is covered in abstract line drawings in grey.]

We’ve been busy working in the garden with residents at St. Anne’s Hostel over the past few months. Here’s some words from one of our fantastic facilitators, Exodus, to update you on what's been going on at the site: ‘We’ve been earthing up potatoes and onions which have clearly been loving the muggy weather as there’s so many of them. We’ve also cured some garlic which has made the greenhouse smell delightful.’ 🥔 ‘As always, I’ve been using herbs and things from the garden to make tea. I always invite residents to drink from the garden and to learn about the properties and benefits of the different plants in each tea. Quite a few residents are willing to try my nettle, mint, fennel, and rosemary blends these days.’ ☕ You can learn more about the Growing Project here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/enh8agEC [image descriptions Image one - a portrait image of a person holding a green plastic crate filled with small potatoes. The person is only partially visible, but they wear a blue denim jacket and lots of silver rings. Below the crate of potatoes, a raised bed filled with green leafy plants can be seen. Image two - a portrait image of a piled of pulled up onions lying on top of soil in a raised planter. The onions are covered in soil and have long green stems. Other raised beds and leafy green plants can be seen in the background.]

Recently we got to take the Minerva Group on Ikon Gallery’s slow boat for a trip down the Birmingham canals! 🚣 We had a great time cruising from Brindley Place to the University of Birmingham, and back again. The group loved sitting out in the sun, watching the leafy green canal bankings go by, and getting involved in some collaging on board the boat. ☀️ We also popped into Ikon gallery to see their exhibitions, before tucking into lunch outside on the grass. Thank you to Ikon for making this happen, we had such a lovely day! 💗 You can find out more about the Minerva Group via our website 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e2adpd-y @ikongallery @tnlcommunityfund [image descriptions - Image one - a portrait image of a group of people sitting inside a narrowboat. The space is filled with tables and chairs, and sunlight streams through the many windows. Image two - a portrait image of a group of people dressed in summer clothes, standing in a line by the side of a narrow boat on a canal. The group smiles and waves at the camera. Behind them the bright sun illuminates lots of shops and restaurants. Image three - a portrait image of a person flipping through a magazine whilst sitting on a narrow boat. The person wears a bright yellow vest top, a blue head wrap, and lots of silver jewellery. The table in front of them is covered with other magazines, glue sticks, and other art materials. Image four - a portrait image taken through the windows in the door of a narrow boat. The image is taken from inside the boat, and looks to a group of people dressed in summer clothes sitting and standing on the outdoor section of the boat.]

🌀 September Digbeth First Friday: Soil Seance Listening Sessions with Michelle Atherton 🗓️ September 6 ⏰ 2–7.30 pm; 45 minute bookable time slots. 🎟️ This is a free event, but booking via eventbrite is essential What is it like to commune with the ground? To turn your senses downwards – using experimental and electrical devices as portals to the underworld? 🔊 For September’s First Friday, you can sign up for a one-to-one session with artist Michelle Atherton, to spend as short or as long a time as you please, attempting to gain sonic access to the subterranean sounds along the Birmingham Canalside. 🏙️ Access: This event will take place entirely outside and will involve walking across uneven ground. The event relies on listening to minute sounds and there may be no sounds at all. Please visit our website or get in touch via [email protected] for more detailed access information or to have a chat. Find out more about this event and book your place through this link 🔗 https://lnkd.in/erA7d5Wf 📸 Image courtesy of Michelle Atherton, 2024. @digbethfirstfri @its_m.atherton [image description - A square image of pink and blue frequency waves on a aubergine purple background. A single bright, electric blue wave line shoots horizontally across the centre of the image. Below this blue line, there are many bright pink waves and lines, which increase in intensity towards the bottom of the image.]

Now that ‘Love is Real, and It’s Inside Of My Computer’ has come to a close at Grand Union, we just wanted to take a moment to say a massive thank you to Babeworld and utopian_realism! 🌟 Not only were Babeworld and utopian_realism some of the most well-organised and lovely artists we’ve ever worked with, but they produced a generous, funny, important and relatable work that we’re so proud to have exhibited. 💖 We’re missing ‘Love is Real, and It’s Inside Of My Computer’ in the gallery space, but the energy lives on through our Babeworld mascot, Turnip. We love Turnip! 😻 You can still experience ‘Love is Real, and It’s Inside Of My Computer’ on our website until the end of the month 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e3RgyiJi [image description - a square image of a small cat toy on a wooden shelf in front of many books. The white cat, which is lit up by an internal yellow light, waves one of its arms, and its cartoonish face displays a small smile. It has a blue and white chequered ribbon tied in a bow around its neck.]

Dr. Gregory Salter, Associate Professor in History of Art at the University of Birmingham, has written a new article about our 2023 exhibition, Ed Webb-Ingall's 'A Bedroom for Everyone'. Gregory’s research centres on art in Britain since 1945, particularly focussing on histories of gender, sexuality, migration, and ideas of home/ the domestic. 🏡 Drawing on the use of the archive and history in Ed’s work, Gregory speaks to the way in which ‘A Bedroom for Everyone’ draws parallels between the present-day housing crisis and housing struggles under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Parallels that feel particularly pertinent within the context of Birmingham given the City Council’s bankruptcy announcement late last year and the intensive regeneration plans in place for Digbeth and other areas in the city. 🏙️ Despite the disheartening similarities between the present and the past featured in the work, which perhaps indicate a lack of change or progress, Gregory points to the way in which Ed’s work serves to generate and foster camaraderie, solidarity, and resistance. Illustrating how the world could be, and has been, different. 🌍 As Gregory writes: ‘This is art not as service provision, even as arts institutions have been increasingly compelled to frame their work in such terms by funders, but art as a space of demystification, mobilisation, and possibility.’ 💙 You can read the whole article here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ggDnHFwA 📸 Image by Patrick Dandy, 2023 [Image description - A landscape image of a large screen within a darkened gallery space. The screen shows a brightly coloured animation of a varied group of people holding placards bearing slogans such as ‘Together is Better, know your rights’, ‘Repair don’t Demolish’, and ‘Housing is a human right.’ Atop the image, large yellow words read; ‘A Bedroom for Everyone’ in capital letters on the diagonal across the screen.]⁠

After dismantling our Gardeners’ World Live garden, we moved a lot of the plants used back to our Growing Project sites around Digbeth. As a result the Floating Garden got a colourful update! 🪻 The bright purple loosestrife on the Floating Garden is currently in full bloom and looking gorgeous in the sun. Purple loosestrife is a great source of pollen for butterflies and bees. The plant also works very well as a water pollution remediator, serves as a natural fungicide, and is used as a herbal medicine for lots of different ailments. 🐛🐝 We also got the kayak out a few weeks back in order to re-moore the Floating Garden. Our programme director Jo had a great time out on the water – we were worried we might never get her back in the office! 🚣 Read more about the Floating Garden here🔗 https://lnkd.in/euKMSmp8 [image descriptions - Image one - A portrait image of a structure floating on the still surface of the Digbeth Branch canal. The wooden structure floats on bright blue plastic buoys and is covered in various plants, some of which are covered in purple flowers. Behind the structure, there is a red brick wall covered in a large graffiti tag that reads ‘2 deep’. Behind the wall, Birmingham’s rotunda building is partially visible, and the pale blue sky is filled with fluffy white clouds. Image two - A portrait image of Grand Union’s programme director Jo in a bright yellow and red kayak on the still water of the DIgbeth branch canal. Jo is dressed in all black, and holds a long black and grey double-ended oar in front of her. She smiles widely, and looks excited to be in the boat.]

Our Common Field canalside site has been flourishing in the recent warm and humid weather, and our cultivators have been busy keeping on top of it! ☀️ Over the past few weeks we’ve been focussing on clearing bracken, litter, and weeds, as well as sorting out our compost bays. We’ve also been working on cutting paths through the site to make navigating the space a bit easier.🍃 After the intensity of preparing for Gardeners’ World Live, we’ve been working slowly and taking stock of the site, making sure we end each session with a (now traditional) jacket potato. 🥔 Aakash Basi, a PhD student from the University of Birmingham, has been hard at work continuing his research project on site, which we’ll share more about in due course. 🌿👀 Read more about our work on the canalside here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eU529fx2 📸 Images one and three by @slmhopkins, image two courtesy of Grand Union. [image descriptions - Image one - a portrait image of a person standing, crouched down, on the corner of a wooden compost bay. The person wears black trousers and a khaki t-shirt, and looks intently at something in their hands. The wooden bay is filled with plant matter, and the Digbeth Branch canal and green vegetation is visible behind them. Image two - a portrait image of a variety of green leafy plants growing in a garden space. The cultivated plants grow in front of a short wooden fence, behind which wild plants grow in a more haphazard nature. Image three - A portrait image of two figures standing with their backs to the camera, spreading bright green netting over a small garden. The figures and the garden are surrounded by dense green leafy plants, and the bright blue sky is visible above the tree tops.]