Cheapside Show

Digbeth is the oldest part of Birmingham, where the original settlers made their home. Later becoming a major industrial centre during the Industrial Revolution. Many iconic products of the modern British era, such as Typhoo tea, Birds Custard and Brylcream, were produced here. Today, one of the few remaining areas of small industrial & manufacturing businesses in central Birmingham, the Cheapside area is in flux.

Demolition of the industrial landscape and its replacement with modern residential apartment blocks has begun. An ever-decreasing number of  small industrial businesses remain. This is a crucial moment, the final stage of change from industrial to residential.

Strange Ways’ intention was to witness, respond to and document this moment, but also to act as a focus for the new residential community and the existing working community to interact. 

The Edge is in contrast to both the sweeping away of the old and the incursion of the new. Intent on fostering creative ideas through exhibiting and presenting experimental live and time-based art, it encourages and supports artists wishing to access the communities local to the Edge.

To find out more about The Edge you can use the following link to visit the frictionarts web site

For Cheapside Show Strange Ways will be exploring the following:

Elena Cassidy-Smith

I am interested in the industrial heritage of the Digbeth, in particular toy making (buttons and buckles etc.) and the reputation Birmingham had as the 'Toy Shop of Europe'. My work for Cheapside Show will investigate the working conditions experienced by children who were directly involved in the production of toys/novelty items in the post-industrial revolution period. The work will take the form of sculptural pieces within The Edge and an audience participatory 'toy hunt' in the immediate region surrounding the exhibition venue. I will be working with children from St Catherine’s of Sienna RC Primary School, Birmingham to create site specific pieces that will form the 'toy hunt'.

Fung Ye Tsang & Harmeet Chagger Khan   

Trading Places: The Emotional Currency of Trade

Scratch the surface and find the thread that follows an exchange across the world.

Working in Cheapside and across the Southern Hemisphere, two artists explore value, emotion and experience as currency; exchanging items, stories and experiences.

The captain of a ship who is travelling the world trades a teapot for a bolt from a ship. The bolt was made in Birmingham over 150 years ago. As the bolt completes its global trek as the tea pot begins it’s journey….

From other sides of the world, Harmeet Chaggar-Khan and Fung Ye Tsang  invite people previously unrelated to participate in exchanges that show no matter the distance, we’re really not that far apart.

Avril Elward and Sharon Walford

The ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ 
 
The collection of found objects from Cheapside existed as either utilitarian, manufactured items, things which occur in nature and things that happen purely by accident. We have picked up the found objects by chance, they have no monetary value but their conations imbue a sense of intrigue and the ‘real’ elements of Cheapside. Each piece will be preserved and documented in booklets for everyone to view and re-evaluate ways of seeing the area.
 
They will also be creating a room, the ‘unreal’, which represents the new artificial Cheapside, using acid colours of the post modern city combined with colours of nature we have created a space of confusion  altering our perceptions of how we experience places through thought, memory and imagination .

Annette Bowery

The theme for my work for Cheapside Show is the death of a Victorian woman on bonfire night in Cheapside in 1865. I will be creating an intimate animated installation were the audience will become immersed in death, beauty, and Victoriana.

Helen Grundy and Angel Stripe

Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad, or Pest or pet?

Helen Grundy and Angel Stripe will be creating a show reel of short silent films that highlight the complex relationship between humans and animals. What words come to mind when we think about the animals that live in close proximity to us, beloved pets, unwelcome pests, vermin, food, wildlife?  As Cheapside rapidly transforms from industrial to residential there will be a shift in the amount of tolerance people will have for the rats, mice, insects and pigeons that abound in the area.  Our work will present an audience with moving images that provoke the sense of disgust people feel when faced with unwelcome animals that invade the privacy and comfort of the home.