News

We have a new website at www.frictionarts.com, with more regular updates, more media and more of everything - go there and update your bookmarks

For news about what's coming up at the Edge, click here

Current 'postcards from the Edge'

Update: We'll be updating the site quite significantly over the next two months - as well as moving it over to www.frictionarts.com, so update your bookmarks and keep checking back. We'll redirect from here once it's up and running, so don't worry - you won't miss anything!

Due to a nasty back injury I've had the time to learn some new web skills whilst stuck at home - see www.heardandnotseen.com for the results.

Speaking of which: Heard And Not Seen is our current major project (there's several others concurrently of course - not bad as we've slimmed the personnel down to two - yep, Sandra and myself are Friction Arts in all its glory). HANS, as we call it for short is a collaborative project with lead artists Sandra Hall and Mitra Memarzia and seeks to help demystify the perceived differences between people of Islamic faith and others in the community. A timely project in these days of distrust and fear, we want HANS to be a place where we can learn about each other and engender a sense of trust between the people we share our communities with. The exhibition consists of a beautiful installation using reactive media, audio and video projections (you'll see what I mean) and sculpture to convey ideas and opinions gained through exhaustive research and intense interviews with a whole range of people. The website is an important part of the project, so pop over and join in. The show opens on the 7th of November at the Mailbox, Birmingham, running until the 28th, before touring next year and, hopefully, beyond.

Heritage Disaster: The rapacious gentrification of Digbeth continues apace. Here on 'The Edge' we've got a ringside view and have been witnessing further destruction of the heritage of our city. Right across the street from our studio they are clearing the lot to build more flats to ensure we can deal with the massive inner-city apartment shortage from which Birmingham is suffering. As they levelled the block it revealed a fantastic little back-to-back workshop, right behind Cleary's pub. We 'gained access' to the site and took loads of footage for posterity's sake, but this precious piece of history will soon disappear. According to all the council's information about Digbeth it is being sold on the creative industries, heritage and the Irish community. According to the planning department, almost the whole of Bradford Street will be levelled and replaced with poorly designed (IMHO) generic apartment buildings, leaving only the White Swan as any kind of indication of any 'heritage'. It saddens us immensely that the policy makers in the city are failing to do what they say they are doing and, in effect, selling off our heritage around us. It seems like it's too late to do much about it, but we are committed to documenting, recording and archiving as much material as possible, before it is taken from us forever.

SATURDAY SESH: Unfortunately we're having to suspend Saturday Sesh for the rest of the Summer. I shall miss those rambling chats, laughs, and Si bounding about on his bouncy stilts. The good news is that we've got some funding to improve the space, including finally getting the disabled loos, a fully-equipped kitchen and, best of all, a heating system to allow us to operate all year round. So Saturday Sesh will be back after the Edge has had its makeover.

HANS project underway: We're currently working with BCC's policy department to create a touring installation/environment as part of the 'Heard and Not Seen' project. Originally the project was all about creating positive images of Muslim people to help understanding between the UK's diverse communities. The project is now all about getting Islamic and non-Islamic people together to ask the questions they always wanted to- a place to ask questions of Muslims which you've always wanted to ask, but were afraid to, for fear of looking daft, or worse, rascist, and vise-versa. So save up those stupid questions and we'll attempt to sort out the answers together this Summer when the exhibition tours - we'll be launching a website soon, watch for links here.

Finally: Sandra started getting some wierd text messages - stuff like 'congrats, Mrs 43' and stuff. It not being her birthday and no criminal convictions pending this was a little strange. Turns out she'd been voted number 43 in the Birmingham Post's 'Power 50' - a list of the 50 most influential people in the West Midlands. This was a bit of a surprise to say the least, but she's intending to wield her new-found power and influence like an iron rod - better watch out!