15.10.2012
Eye Candy Festival
Not many people (outside the Midlands) seem to associate Birmingham with creativity. Well, I hope that this weekend we proved those folk wrong. A few months back it started as just whispers, maybes and several pleas to venues, but over the past 3 days the streets of Southside have been alive. Eye Candy Festival created an umbrella for several projects and collectives within Birmingham - commissioning public art, hosting live talks and screenings.
I launched the third Pointe Blank series in Cardiff earlier in the month (really should get round to writing a post about that…) and Eye Candy gave us an opportunity to bring the works back to Brum. At home in the Hippodrome's IMI studios we exhibited the Swan Lake collection and offered our space to the Fridays speaker programme. Having seen Mr Bingo at Glug London I has high expectations (I wasn't disappointed) and we also had an insightful look into Jonny Costello's graffiti / design life too.
The Saturday was jam packed with events. As part of the Pointe Blank project we'd teamed up with contributor (and best buddy) Sam Pierpoint to hold an informal workshop with her Loco shoes project. Teas, coffees, biscuits, doodles and ballet shoes… what's not to enjoy? Was lovely to see our Cardiff contributor Joanne Hawker turn up too.
Inkygoodness held at Sketch event at new venue Le Truc. Heaps of doodlers and Ammo Magazine launched a new charity project - Axe Aid.
Brothers of the Stripe took over Gallan House with a two day residency creating a 3D illustration with boxes and FAKE magazine invited doodlers to take part in a game of consequences.
I couldn't document everything (Birmingham Zine Festival, Jon Burgerman, Lucy McLauchlan, Kino 10 to name a few…) but it was a super weekend and reminded me how ace Birmingham can be with a little collaboration. Great festival, superb artists and a cheeky little round up video from Craig Bush.
