For the final ARC of 2010, Anneka French presents Important Artefacts, an exhibition which brings together six artists from the West Midlands and beyond to exhibit works including paintings, works on paper, installation, live work, projection and text.

Important Artefacts draws on the history of site as a place for keeping objects of value. It seeks to address the idea of collecting as a process of investigation or accumulation, the idea of collections as things to display, and of the collector as someone driven by a particular passion. How objects are chosen, ordered and presented, and how these decisions are marked by emotional, aesthetic and conceptual judgements are central to this exhibition.

The slides shown by Matthew Andrews are selected from a large collection of vintage slides, valued for their aesthetic qualities and the narratives they inspire. Similarly, Jane Morrow presents a series of live ‘lots’ that look at the gaps between word, image and object, and how we might fill these. Her work specifically refers to a novel of 2009 by Leanne Shapton, from which this exhibition takes its title.

Following a more historical approach, ideas of museum collections and displays are alluded to within the paintings of Tutte Newall, and an installation of objects by Tim Robottom. These painstakingly created works contain references to the discoveries of archaeology and natural history, amongst other forms of enquiry.

The works of both Molly Rooke and Joanne Masding take a more conceptual approach to collections. Everyday objects such as postcards and plastic bags are displayed in a way which invites close consideration. The works might be said to address notions of development, relating specifically to the selection, editing and context of objects and ideas.

Important Artefacts is curated by Anneka French and is accompanied by a small publication. The exhibition is open from 6pm until 8pm on 24th November 2010 and is held at The Vaults, Newhall Hill, Birmingham B1 3JH.

Founded in 2007 by Abigail Duffty, IMI is a platform for experimental performance which focuses on the relationship between social identity and conditioned behaviours through participatory events and the creative language of performance.

Indeed, this month’s ARC will draw together artists whose works are both experimental and participatory for an evening that promises to be both thought-provoking and fun.

Artists include: Emily Bullock, Anna Tzini, Laura Brannon, Luke Robert Mason and the Institution of Meaningful Interaction

ARC – Wednesday 27 October 2010 | 6-9pm at The Vaults. Newhall Place, Newhall Hill, Birmingham B1 3JH

To learn more about IMI visit:
abigailduffty.posterous.com
twitter.com/abyandimitalk

Join ARC on Wednesday 29 September, 6-8pm for Bawdyville! – an evening of absurdly arresting gestures, one-on-one performances and installation laced with a healthy dose of humour and frivolity, curated by Companis.

Companis will take the audience on a sensuous, subterranean journey punctuated with a series of interactive performances and installations to intrigue, beguile and cause hilarity. Visitors are invited to embrace the forbidden, the ludicrous and to partake in mischief with abandon!

Commissioned artists, performers and collaborators include Antonio Roberts, Chaz ‘Saintly Sin’ Farmer, Emily Ayres, Olivia Zetterstrom-Sharp, Graeme Rose, Cara Gould, Cassey North, Becci Snape, Lin Nuiju and Theatre and Professional Practice students at Coventry University.

Join us for what promises to be an evening of fun, frolics and titillation! Free cocktails – if you can catch one!

Exhibition address: The Vaults | Newhall Hill | Birmingham | B1 3JH

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Companis, meaning to ‘break bread with someone’ is a nomadic curatorial and artistic practice based in Birmingham, UK. Companis develops and produces high quality, participatory art works and experiences which explore the exchanges between artist and audience, and engage people in acts of social or relational participation; specifically exchanges involving gift-giving, gestural or transient acts such as eating, play and conversation.

Companis also creates bespoke and memorable dining experiences to challenge the norms associated with eating, immersing the diner in a fusion of performance, food and spectacle. In 2011-12 Companis aims to open a café/project space, which will provide a venue for good food, social discourse and artistic presentations and projects.

Companis was formed in 2009 and consists of Kaye Winwood and Siân Tonkin.

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Links

http://www.companis.co.uk/

http://arcbirmingham.wordpress.com/

http://www.vaultsbirmingham.com/

The exhibition will be presented as part of ARC (http://arcbirmingham.wordpress.com/), a monthly event offering regional curators the opportunity to present work. IMI have been invited to curate ARC #8 which will take place on the evening of Wednesday 27 October 2010.

Submissions should include:
- Artist CV and background statement
- An outline of the work (250 words)
- Relevant supporting material (images, recordings etc, file sizes should be no larger than 1MB)
- A list of technical requirements and needs.

Submissions should be emailed to aduffty@hotmail.com by 5pm on Thursday 30 September 2010.

Please note, although this is a zero budget venture it is a fantastic opportunity to have your work presented and nationally marketed.

For more information please email Abigail Duffty at aduffty@hotmail.com

Join ARC at The Vaults (Jewellery Quarter) on Wednesday 25th August, 6-8PM, for an exhibition of artist’s moving image, performance, and sculpture exploring the ways in which we experience sound as light, movement, noise, and colour.

Artists include: Linda Bagnall, Benedict Drew, Laurence Hunt, Juneau Projects, Ben Russell, Alexander Small, Joe Snape.

Image: Benedict Drew. Writing Music (2008). Image courtesy the artist.

The Vaults | Newhall Hill | Birmingham | B1 3JH
Admission FREE | offers on selected drinks

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ARC #5

Peace out June! (Piece in June)
Curated by An Endless Supply

Featuring:

Gabriel Lester

At 7pm there will be a re-staging of Gabriel Lester’s ‘The One Man Wonder’. Previously shown at Performa 2009 the work touches on the doubling up of roles in production and society through a reading and a live performance from a one-man-band: at ARC, it’s the turn of Birmingham’s own Banjo Dave.

The recorded sounds of Fenn O’Berg
& guests

Improvisational computer-music trio Fenn O’Berg recorded their debut LP live during a legendary tour in 1999. Taking this as a starting point, An Endless Supply present new audio and print works made in collaboration with artists invited to consider the studio place and the changes in artistic production facilitated by technology.

An Endless Supply’s recent curated projects include An Endless Supply #14 with Ruth Claxton and Sean O’Keeffe, and ‘The Decade 2010-2020′. The museum as hostage to fortune, The Pigeon Wing, London. Group exhibitions include Thanks for sharing! D12 Kunsthalle, Leipzig, Day 0, Max Warburg, London, Meanwhile in Birmingham, Rogue Studios, Manchester, and In Support of Destroying What You Support, Central-Reservation, Bristol.

For more information visit: www.anendlesssupply.co.uk

The Vaults | Newhall Hill | Birmingham | B1 3JHE
E: arc.birmingham@googlemail.com

Submissions should include:

- Artist CV and background statement

- An outline of the work (250 words)

- Relevant supporting material (images, recordings etc, file sizes should be no larger than 1MB)

- A list of technical requirements and needs.

Submissions should be emailed to arc.birmingham@googlemail.com by 5pm on Friday 2nd July 2010. Due to the tight turnaround, please be realistic if you are proposing new works.

Please note, although this is a zero budget venture it is a fantastic opportunity to have your work presented and nationally marketed.

For more information please email Laura at arc.birmingham@googlemail.com

This month, Art Detection Services Ltd. bring their detection and correction services to The Vaults Bar & Grill.

 Fresh from a residency at the Created in Birmingham shop, Art Detection Services are seasoned curators. The Good Art Gallery project grew from submissions by local artists – only those confirmed as art by the keen eye of the infamous art-detecting machines made it onto the gallery walls. Extending this curatorial rationale to The Vaults, Art Detection Services invite you to an exhibition of works guaranteed to be 100% good – in fact, visitors can witness the live correction of bad works until they are nothing short of good.

If you are itching to find out whether your own creations are indeed art, bring them along! Art Detection Services Ltd will scan and certify your works, free of charge. There will also be artistic supplies available in order that you can create your own work to be scanned, or correct that which is deemed bad. For more information about Art Detection Services visit: http://artdetectionservices.blogspot.com/

Admission is FREE + there’ll 8-bit tunage from Pete Ashton & Matt Snowden.

The Vaults | Newhall Hill | Birmingham | B1 3JH
E: arc.birmingham@googlemail.com

Taking its name from Alice Sheldon’s 1976 novella ‘Houston, Houston, Do You Read?’ in which an all female society present a feminist utopian vision aboard spaceship Gloria, the exhibition celebrates female practitioners, showcasing an international selection of seminal and contemporary works.

At the centre of Gloria’s Crew is an investigation into the methods and processes of knowledge transfer particular to the work of women. Functioning across a range of media including text-based works, audio installations, film and sculpture, the artists reference literary narratives, exploit open sources of knowledge such as the internet and advertising billboards, and appropriate female icons to highlight that the way in which we communicate is consistently politicised and gendered. Artists include: Andrea Greenwood, Hayley Lock, Cecile Emmanuelle Borra,the Guerrilla Girls, Marysia Lewandoska (WAA), Ellie Rees, Karien Van Assendelft + more.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a special set from DJ duo ATTA girl, who’ll be spinning their love for (predominantly) female vocalists throughout the evening.

Drop in from 6pm, admission is free and there’ll be drinks offers on selected beers.

The Vaults | Newhall Hill | Birmingham | B1 3JH
E: arc.birmingham@googlemail.com

A photographer, videographer, and visualist, Trimble VJ’s at clubs and music festivals internationally. For more information: http://chromatouch.wordpress.com/

Doors open at 7pm and tickets are a mere £2 before 8pm. Miss it, miss out.