The collection will feature an array of A5 artwork postcards by 22 Japanese artists, many of whom lost family and friends when the disaster struck. The works intend to offer visitors a stark insight into the grace and resilience of the Japanese spirit and the exhibition is curated by Hirinori Katagiri and Kate Thompson, two respected fundraisers who were working in Tohoku when the earthquake hit North East Japan on 11th March 2011.

The inspiration behind the exhibition’s works comes from the detrimental effect the tsunami had on Japan’s communication channels; where many landlines, mobile phone networks and internet services went down, forcing the Japanese people to depend on the country’s postal service as their primary method of communication, in many cases to report news of survival or death to loved ones.

Postcards From Japan – A Message From Tohoku Artists
Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Birmingham, West Midlands B1 2HS
15 February – 22 April 2012

Image credit:
Shigenobu Yoshida (1958–), Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture
Light Bird, 2011
Acrylic on acrylic board
5 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (14.8 x 21 cm)

Words: Jon Price

Stephen invited independent, artists and producers from the cultural industries, based in or associated with Birmingham, to appear in the paintings and asked them to choose one of the scenarios.

When he approached team Fused (image above) to take part we scoured the book and opted for this ‘Jab to the Eyes’ pose – we must have been on deadline! We were also allowed to choose the colour. A few photo’s, one sitting later and, we’re sure, painstaking hours of time by Stephen, and the results will be seen as part of Ikon Gallery’s Autumn Almanac from the 17th – 20th November.

Other practitioners featured are Ian and Pippa Francis of 7 Inch Cinema, artist duo Juneau Projects, writer and curator Matt Price (pictured above), artist Tom Ranahan, the Founding Directors of artist-led space Eastside Projects and a self-portrait.

“I approached each of the subjects and asked them to look through the book and choose a particular illustration that they were attracted to. I offered a limited range of colours to choose from and only permitted myself to add white to the body of the chosen colours. These monochrome paintings are transcriptions and re-enactments of the illustrations found in the book”. Explains Stephen. “The book’s role is to inform the reader of how to be self-sufficient in difficult circumstances, an important quality for anyone involved in the cultural industries, a precarious life with no clear career paths or financial certainty”.

Showing Thursday 17 November – Sunday 20 November, 11am – 6pm at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (Second Floor Galleries). Free admission.

There are a series of events taking place for the Autumn Almanac:

Oliver Beer – The Resonance Project: Pay and Display
17-20 November, First Floor Galleries
In June 2010 artist Oliver Beer worked with Ikon and singers from Ex Cathedra to create a sound piece at Pershore Street Car Park in Birmingham.

Ikon Posters
17-20 November, Second Floor Galleries
Specially selected by Ikon’s Director, Jonathan Watkins, these posters assert the breadth of artistic talent featured at Ikon during the last eleven years.

7 Inch Cinema – 17.11.11,
Thursday 17 November, 7-10pm
£3 on the door (Or free if it’s your birthday. Proof required)
An evening of short films and music, taking place on and inspired by the seventeenth of November.

Moseley Folk Festival – Treetop Flyers
Friday 18 November, 7.30pm – 10.30pm
£4 plus booking fee from www.moseleyfolk.co.uk or £6 on the door
. Five-piece Treetop Flyers recently earned themselves a slot at Glastonbury’s prestigious Other Stage after winning the Emerging Talent Competition earlier this year.

Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham – Crossroad Collision
Saturday 19 November, 2-3pm
Free, Donations welcome
Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham harnesses the arts to raise awareness of the contributions that refugees make to the UK, and in particular to the city of Birmingham.

Slow Boat Sessions
Saturday 19 November, 7.30-10pm
£5 on the door
In September, Ikon Youth Programme’s (IYP) Slow Boat hosted a series of performances by local musicians, embarking on a journey of sound along Birmingham’s canals.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Sunday 20 November, 2-4pm
Free
BCMG gives a rare performance of all 34 of Luciano Berio’s Duetti for two violins, with a sprinkling of solo pieces by composers including Howard Skempton and Oliver Knussen.

Capsule present Andrew Moscardo-Parker and the ensemble Ore
Sunday 20 November, 8-11pm
£6 (available via www.theticketsellers.co.uk and on the door)
Andrew Moscardo-Parker performs as Lash Frenzy, exploring the action of playing, turning performances into immersive, participatory events.

You’re from Rubery, and I’m from Rubery, and I’ve got to say that not once have I been like ‘Shit, that’s definitely the flyover!’ eyeing one of your landscapes. If anything, a lot of your stuff seems to have an East Asian or Aztec kind of influence (when it’s earthly at all). Do you think there’s actually something inspiring about coming from an ostensibly hugely uninspiring place? Like you have to create your own somewhere beautiful and not grey?
First of all, I still haven’t been abroad. I know for a lot of people that’s the equivalent of me saying I’ve never yawned. However I think it’s had a huge bearing on my work… the rest of the world to me is truly alien. France is as real to me as Narnia. So I have other worlds just beyond the horizon that I’ve only read about, or seen in films, that I’m told definitely exist. Then that kind of blurs with all the fictional places I’ve read about which are alien too, so when I draw, it’s the resultant mix of all of that. Rubery is just on the outskirts of Brum where grey brick scum metal suddenly hits the solitude of green fields and hills, and I’m fond of that proximity between nature and society, but I definitely feel like I’m drawing largely from childhood memories of British coastal towns a lot of the time, but ones that’ve become overrun by every demigod or culture you’ve never heard of. I do love the local countryside like Lickey, Waseley, Clent and Malvern and it has been massively inspiring to me, but then I think there’s something about the way Victorian artists used the sudden influx of eastern art being injected into their lives allowing them to change and evolve things that I want to rip off, so I don’t stick to just forests and hills. With the internet, there’s no excuse not to start mixing all types of influences from the furthest reaches of the globe with the kinds of things I enjoy drawing already and it’s a privilege to be able to do that.

A lot of your work also features a range of these phenomenal bizarro human/animal/nothing that officially exists hybrid characters with no bones and wearing fezzes and stuff. Do they have whole stories? And do you dream them?
When I was younger, between 11 and 16, I filled books with pages and pages of character bios. There would be a picture of the character (none of which were human. I guess mainly because my favourite cartoons often focused on mutants, robots or jumbo jets with faces) and then a very brief description of their names, abilities and allegiances. The main character was a ninja bee. I suddenly found that after I’d filled a book, I’d started creating a universe of sorts, one that I had complete control over and is the same one I draw my personal work from today. So innocent doodling turned into a minor god complex. I think I still have that feeling now when I see a studio Ghibli film or play a Final Fantasy game… ‘I want a book with ALL of this beautiful information in it, in one place, collected’ and though I can have that, with books or the internet, it’s more fun and completist to author my own, mixing parts of things I like. I don’t dream about them during the night, they’re more daydream things I guess. Things that I see when I put my imagination filter on or just put pen to paper. A world that’s as true as any one I’ve read about. Parts of their stories and histories come out when people ask about them and I think about them before I fall asleep. They all have origins and connections for me as I’ve grown up with them and stayed faithful to their world.
So who and what are your artistic influences in music and film and literature and the rest of the world, as well as in art?
So many… Okay, the first handful that come to mind and in no particular order: Tove Jansson, Aubrey Beardsley, William Morris, Alan Moore, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki, Johnny Foreigner, Grant Morrison, David Attenborough, David Bohm, Jeff Jordan, Reggie Pedro, Shigeru Miyamoto, Storm Thorgerson, Roger Hargreaves, Gustav Doré, Stewart Lee, Peter Venkman, Hermes Trismegistus.

Have you considered doing a graphic novel or a children’s book?
It seems wise.
Absolutely. They’re both high priority. Though both I’ve found a lot harder to do well than I’d imagined they would be. I just haven’t got the skills there yet to nail the ideas I’ve been having for both, but I have faith I’ll get there. I found an Aesop’s fables book, illustrated by Walter Crane that is definitely close to something I’d like to do. I think I’ve spent the last few years learning what I need, and drawing as much as I can, so I can produce something I’m happy with and proud of. That’s the side-effect of constantly finding new influences and having perceptions changed by art, is that you’re constantly having to update your work to fit with your mindset. Constantly trying to better the last piece…So I’ve found when I draft a first page, by the time I get to the third I hate the first and am rapidly going off the second. I’m getting better though, and hopefully I’ll get some help soon.

You’ve done a whole load of artwork for bands and gigs and things, most prolifically for Johnny Foreigner and This Is Tomorrow. Did you always see your work being used for musical projects or did it just happen that way?
I always used to mess around on mspaint making pretend album sleeves for my favourite bands. They were pretty dreadful, but I always had fun messing with logos, photos and colours, creating different moods to suit the music. Reggie Pedro was a massive influence early on, because his painting was so eye-explodingly good, and I was lucky enough to talk to him a few times before he sadly died. He was hugely talented and very positive about my work and it was seeing his posters for Gomez on walls near my house that made me realise album art was important and that the artwork alone could make you buy an album, or entire discography, as I ended up collecting all the singles and promos as art objects more than anything. I used to collect books by Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis too, and though they featured little illustration in their finished work, the symbolism, obsession with metaphor, technique and sheer scale was attractive to me. Music and art naturally sit well together and I’ve always enjoyed both drawing and listening to music, so it seemed inevitable really, in retrospect, that I would end up doing gig posters and album art at some point.
I hear a lot of people bellyaching about the lack of a cohesive music scene in Birmingham, though I get the impression that it’s at least a bit more accessible and inclusive than any similar art or literary scene. Do you feel part of an art scene? Or would you consider yourself more as part of the music scene anyway? Or is it reductive or destructive to treat these ‘scenes’ as separate or important or existent at all?
This is a hard question for me to answer. I risk making myself sound like an uninformed idiot, but I’ll be honest, I don’t get scenes. I don’t understand what a scene is. I don’t know if a scene is a good or bad thing. I go to the occasional gig and exhibition, but I feel I know very little about what’s going on in my city, art and music-wise, though I get the impression gigs have drastically improved in quality and consistency recently. I get that musicians and artists want to feel like they belong to a local movement of some sort, so if ever there’s a retrospective book collecting everything from that’ scene’, they’ll be included…but it seems a limiting concept in that it creates an Us and a Them as well. All I know is, about 4 years ago I thought Birmingham had Jasper Carrot, Ocean Colour Scene, Ozzy and Noddy Holder to be proud of and little else, which was quite depressing. Though that may’ve been down to ignorance on my part, now I feel there is lots more, music-wise especially, from Birmingham to be proud of.

Do you have any kind of general mission statement for what you want your art to be?
I just want it to be useful. No one knows what their art will become. I doubt Joseph Ducreux contemplated rap or memes when he was painting away. But I feel everything important becomes useful and vice versa. Some people say one of art’s defining features is that it serves no practical purpose. My nice picture won’t bring your cat back to life or help you get that mortgage payment down. But it is an expression of how much fun I can have with just thoughts in my head, a pen and paper. Even if in 200 years time someone remembers a picture I drew and it gives them the idea for a type of curve they should use in the bonnet of their parallex space-time folding escape vehicle for the last survivors of the human race, I’d have done my part. It won’t do that, but it could lead to anything, and it may lead to something good. At least it stands a chance once it’s outside the confines of my head. In simpler terms I’d like my art to help show people the exits and that an enjoyment of the world and maintenance of childhood wonder can be created with just a pen and paper.

Some of your new work I’ve spied is incredible and also quite different to the style that most people know you for, eclectic as that is within itself. Was it a conscious decision to do some different kinds of things or just a natural artistic progression? And WHATEVER’S NEXT?
Thank you. It’s weird, I like both learning new techniques and focusing on a uniform and recognisable style. Hopefully I do both simultaneously and they’re changing noticeably but not dramatically. It also goes round in waves, in that I find myself returning to things after learning in a particular field for a time. I always used to draw with pencils, then I realised I could use the pencil to perfect an ink-line over the top and then erase the pencil. After a time of doing that, I realised my pencil drawing had naturally changed to fit the needs of the ink. So I thought; what happens now if I remove the ink? And my pencil style had indeed changed for the better, as it now incorporated two styles instead of just one, which sounds like quite a mathematical and logical artistic progression to me. Trends go round in circles, changing ever-so-slightly each time, and it’s a comfortable way to grow, so hopefully I’ll keep doing stuff that’s recognisably me, but constantly bringing new things back from itself.

As for what’s next, the aforementioned compendium of all things ‘my head’ is definitely going to go off. More This Is TMRW stuff, which I really enjoy as it’s a good parallel to my personal work. New prints next month; hopefully my first exhibition; a Dusseldorf based project involving limited tees, prints and stickers; new Johnny Foreigner album; Pandas and People E.P. and a couple of supersuper-exciting maybethings that I don’t want to jinx. Plus, I want to make toys. Mighty Max style.

LOOK here…
LOOK AND READ here…
BUY here…

Words: Eve Philips

Girls Who Draw, a group of illustrators from the West Midlands and beyond, invite you to their Magic Show. The exhibitors – Jane Anderson, Mina Braun, Chloe Cook, Helen Entwisle, Ruth Green, Kate Hindley, Mary Kilvert, Sarah Lippett, Beth Morrison, Sarah Ray, Karoline Rerrie and Daisy Whitehouse – are a mix of recent graduates and emerging and experienced illustrators.

Girls Who Draw collaborate to produce a limited edition postcard book once a year, based on a theme and accompanied by an exhibition; this year’s theme is magic, and the Magic Show its exhibition. Each illustrator has explored the theme, interpreting it in their unique style and creating new work especially for the gallery. They’ve stitched, paper cut, painted and printed unusual artworks to adorn the whole space, ranging from small artists’ books and hand-sewn characters to large-scale installations.

Magic Show will be at Solihull Gallery from 4th April to 11th June, and throughout its run there will be opportunities to meet and even work with some of the illustrators involved.

Illustrators’ Afternoon Tea, G1 Gallery, 14th April, 3.30-8pm, free – Mary Kilvert and Sarah Ray will lead informal open portfolio reviews, giving those attending the chance to share their work with the group and gain feedback and encouragement. To book a place call the Solihull Gallery box office on 0121 704 6962.

Illustration and Print Fair with ‘Live Drawing’, Solihull Central Library and Arts Complex, 4th June, 10am-5pm – A chance to buy limited-edition prints, artists’ books, handmade cards and other unique artwork; the exhibitors will also be running ‘live drawing’ activities throughout the day – everyone is invited to participate in some large-scale drawing.

Chaired by Mario Minichiello, Head of the School of Visual Communication at BIAD, the talks will take place around a specially constructed table – LUNA, 2010, which forms part of the current Theatrum Orbis Terrarum exhibition by Marjolijn Dijkman – replicating the ‘Lunar Table’ at Soho House.

There’s an impressive range of speakers lined up, including Guardian cartoonist extraordinaire Steve Bell, president of RIBA Ruth Reed and Clive Dutton, former Director of Planning and Regeneration, Birmingham City Council, and now Executive Director for Regeneration, Planning and Property in Newham, host borough of the 2012 Olympics.

The talks will all run from 7-9pm on 9th March (Heritage and the Role of Art in Contemporary Society), 23rd March (Education), 6th April (Urban Design and Regeneration) and 20th April (Medicine and Science). Tickets are £10 (£8 concessions and Lunar Society members), and those attending can take advantage of a special offer at Cafe Ikon: three tapas and a glass of wine for £10, available 5-6.30pm on presentation of your ticket.

For full details of the talks, and all other events and exhibitions at Ikon, go to www.ikon-gallery.co.uk.

The line-up has been confirmed and the full programme released, so here’s what you can look forward to. Modified Toy Orchestra, Martin Creed and his band and Fyfe Dangerfield will be headlining the three-night festival, with a host of other acts, the pick of folk, pop and electronic talent from Birmingham and beyond, in support.

These include the first UK video installation from US band Matmos – who will be touring later in the year, calling in at the mac on 15th May – and a Birmingham debut from Bristol-based folk-poppers Lulu and the Lampshades. And there’s plenty of local, homegrown talent on show as well, representing Birmingham’s burgeoning music scene: try epic45, Boat To Row, Shady Bard, Friends of the Stars, Timothy Parkes and Arc Vel for size; you’re bound to find something that fits.

During its five-year presence in Digbeth, Ikon has made many connections with artists and musicians, as well as encouraging new artist-led ventures in the city. Come along to Rites of Spring and help make Ikon Eastside’s last hurrah a celebration of its time, rather than mourning its passing.

Tickets are £12 per night or £30 for all three and can be booked via www.theticketsellers.co.uk or by calling 0844 870 0000. For full details of the Rites of Spring festival and everything else going on at Ikon, visit www.ikon-gallery.co.uk.

Images (from top): Modified Toy Orchestra; epic45; Martin Creed; Boat To Row; Modified Toy Orchestra.

The Witching Hour, the successful and high-profile exhibition presented by Art of Ideas as part of their 2010 programme, has been invited to London.

This version, hosted by Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery in Ealing, focuses on darkness and, more specifically than in the original show, the architectural uncanny, relating to the amazing architecture of Pitzhanger Manor itself, designed by Sir John Soane in the early 19th century. It features 10 of the 22 artists who participated in the edition shown at BMAG’s Waterhall Gallery in November 2010, and runs from 21st January until 12th March.

It’s quite possible that you missed The Witching Hour first time round as it was only on for a blink-and-you-miss-it four-day slot. This much longer stay at Pitzhanger will provide the opportunity to experience and enjoy at greater leisure some of the fantastic work brought together by Matt Price and Matthew Collings for that initial show.

The exhibition presents photography, painting and film by internationally renowned and leading established and emerging figures from Birmingham and the West Midlands: Richard Billingham, Graham Chorlton, Ravi Deepres, Chris Keenan, Idris Khan, Sally Payen, Ged Quinn, David Rowan, George Shaw and Toby de Silva.

Many of the works are available for sale. Contact Vanessa Moore, exhibitions co-ordinator at PM Gallery, for details: vmoore [@] ealing.gov.uk. Full information on Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery can be found at www.ealing.gov.uk, and to find out more about Art of Ideas go to www.artsandbusiness.org.uk.

Image credits: Richard Billingham – untitled, from the series Black Country (2003), courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London; Sally Payen – The lost scene – not only forget how it was then. Part 3 (2010-11), courtesy the artist; David Rowan – Abandon in Place (PM008) (2007), courtesy the artist; Graham Chorlton – Hotel Minerva (2007), courtesy the artist and Master Piper, London; Toby de Silva – Jack (Annie Chapman) (2006), courtesy the artist.

VIVID will be hosting a Christmas party with a difference to mark the close of its 2010 programme of events.

Nightmare Before Christmas will feature a line-up of winter horror, creepy electronica and spectral pop. There’ll be DJ sets from COLOUR, Lärmlicht, John Napier and Dan Le Trap, bringing you a mix of dark and jagged sounds combined with intense, psychedelic visuals. And to help you get in the right spirit, The Princes of Risborough have put together Jugend Horror Mix, a free playlist available for download at www.jugendklub.co.uk.

As well as bringing down the curtain on VIVID’s whole year, the party will be closing the LANGUAGE season (3rd – 18th December) which ends with work and performance by Aura Satz, who explores the uncanny aspects of technologies of mechanical reproduction, often focussed on unusual sonic devices and automata.

Nightmare Before Christmas forms part of The Garage Presents, a brand new series of one-off events encompassing music, live arts, installation, performance and digital and sonic media.

VIVID
18 December 8.30 till late
£5

William Lambie

In a project entitled ‘Come Together’ – a collaboration between EC-Arts and McLauchlan – they’ve flocked to the hoardings on the Moseley Road (on the 50 route, opposite The Moseley Arms), bringing some much-needed life to the building sites beyond.

This temporary artistic intervention came about through EC-Arts’ objective to utilise redevelopments in transitional periods and McLauchlan’s ongoing ambition to create a positive impact with her work in the public realm.

The project was sponsored by Birmingham Joinery, and supported by IWIC, the Irish Welfare Information Centre, and Birmingham Irish Community Forum.

www.ec-arts.com

The beautiful folk-inspired work of Clare Rojas comes to the Ikon in Birmingham as the gallery presents the first UK museum exhibition by the American artist.

Using a wide range of media, including painting, installation and print-making the exhibition, comprising much new work, marks a shift in Rojas’ practice. Paintings of empty domestic interiors suggest people have just departed, leaving clues of their identities, subtle revelations of gender and class.

The paintings will form centrepieces in a larger installation that is the entire exhibition, walls of the gallery covered by a patchwork of painted panels akin to a quilt.  Some are focused on particular imagery; others are assemblages of colour and pattern. They combine to recall a myriad of references from West Coast modernism, to Latino folk or Native American craft, outsider art and street graffiti.

Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Birmingham. 0121 248 0708
ikon-gallery.co.uk
Until 21 March 2010
Free entry