ICA

Press release: 25 August 2015

Artwork and design courtesy of Ben Sansbury & Fergadelic

ICA Off-Site: , In association with Selfridges Live + Loud Public opening dates: 2 - 4 October 2015

The ICA, in association with Selfridges, presents ICA Off-Site: Digbeth, Birmingham. The off-site programme coincides with Selfridges’ Live + Loud Festival and is the ICA’s first project in the city. ICA Off-Site: Digbeth, Birmingham, aims to reference recent trends in contemporary urban sub-cultures and features a temporary exhibition and music programme that draw on Birmingham’s mix of industrial and post-war brutalist architecture, celebrating the city of Birmingham as a centre for creativity and a source of inspiration. Participants include Fergadelic, Tyrone Lebon, Ben Sansbury, Tim & Barry / Just Jam and Ashley Williams.

ICA Off-Site: Digbeth, Birmingham will be located in a disused industrial space on Floodgate Street, and will feature commissions by artists Fergadelic and Ben Sansbury. They will directly reflect on Birmingham’s rich music heritage and architecture to inspire their illustrations and physical interventions within the building and the project in its entirety. Photographer and filmmaker Tyrone Lebon will present a new work on slide projectors featuring photographs of local people from Birmingham interspersed with photographs of both his own family as well as the family of late 90’s fashion designer Christopher Nemeth who live in the city.

Contemporary fashion designer Ashley Williams will present a site-specific installation featuring a unique print from her forthcoming AW16 collection that will be applied to a series of fabrics draped around the walls of the space. Situated within the space will be a collection of related objects that will be accompanied by a new video work made in collaboration with Lev Tanju.

Film and photography duo Tim & Barry, of celebrated online TV channel Don’t Watch That will present a video programme of rare and unseen archived footage of past Just Jam broadcasts alongside the full-length footwork documentary, I’m Tryna Tell Ya. The film presents an oral history of the ground- breaking Chicago based dance and music genre, delivered by its pioneers and brightest stars.

Tom of will head-line the opening live music event with support from Tim & Barry and their signature psychedelic visuals. On the Saturday night Just Jam will present and broadcast a programme of live performances by Midlands and UK based contemporary electronic musicians including Barely Legal, Crack Stevens, Scratcher and Tsunga. To accompany the exhibition and events programme Voodoo Rays will provide New York style pizzas and drinks inspired by local Birmingham flavours.

Digbeth is located in an inner city industrial area rich with heritage, in a city known as ‘the city of a thousand trades’. It soon became of national importance, as a centre of production and trade at the height of the Industrial Revolution, with rail and canal links to the rest of the country. Iconic brands such as Typhoo Tea and Bird’s Custard located their factories here and The today is now an arts complex bordering the canal. Home to different communities ranging from Polish, Italian, Irish and Chinese, the area has a long and rich history of immigration.

Also the birthplace of DIY rock and heavy metal, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin originated from Digbeth whilst the brick lined streets and dark warehouses of the area also became a hotbed for electronic music and cult clubs such as The . The Tin Can played host to bands like Southern Death Cult, Alien Sex Fiend, New Model Army, Billy Bragg and The Meteors. When Digbeth's Custard Factory opened its doors, Birmingham’s club scene congregated inside around the Medicine Bar; a two-level space that was home to some of the city's best hip hop nights. Birmingham is also known for Barbarella's, the legendary punk venue, and The Crown, where Black Sabbath originated. Blur and Oasis played to crowds on the dance floor of Snobs, while Ian Curtis's last live performance on 2 May 1980 took place at Birmingham University.

More recently Digbeth has been thrown into the spotlight with the BBC drama ‘Peaky Blinders’, a TV drama based on the notorious gang which formed at the end of 19th century and included members such as David Taylor, Baby Face, Ernest Haynes and Stephen McNickle, all of whom were involved in illegal betting, protection rackets and trading on the black market. The contemporary art scene continues to grow with venues such as Ikon Gallery, Eastside Projects and Grand Union making their mark both locally, nationally and internationally.

For further press information about ICA Off-Site: Digbeth, Birmingham, please contact: Naomi Crowther | Press Manager ICA | [email protected] | 020 7766 1407

Listings information: ICA Off-Site: Digbeth, Birmingham In association with Selfridges Live + Loud 119 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5TL 2 - 4 October 2015

Opening hours:

Fri 2 Oct Tim & Barry present Tom of England, 8 - 12pm (18+)

Sat 3 Oct Exhibition opening hours, 11am – 6pm Just Jam present, Barely Legal, Crack Stevens, Scratcher, Tsunga, 8 - 12pm (18+)

Sun 4 Oct Exhibition opening hours, 11am – 6pm

Access information: All events are free, with a limited allocation of tickets available on the day at the venue. Please check the website to book tickets and for further information. www.ica.org.uk/digbeth | Twitter @icalondon | www.facebook.com/icalondon | Instagram @ICAlondon Book online www.ica.org.uk Call Box Office +44 (0)20 7930 3647 Textphone +44 (0)20 7839 0737 Follow and tag the ICA’s Off-Site programme on Twitter using #ICAOffsite

For information about Selfridges Live + Loud Festival, please contact:

Bruno Barba | Senior Brand PR Manager, Selfridges | [email protected] | 020 7318 3204 Claire Fry | Clive Reeves Public Relations | 0121 227 8227

Twitter: @Selfridges Instagram: @TheOfficialSelfridges www.facebook.com/Selfridges #LiveandLoud

Editor’s notes:

About the ICA’s Off-Site programme: The ICA developed its Off-Site programme in 2012 with a display of BMW Art Cars in a multi-storey car park as part of the London 2012 Festival. Since then the ICA supported presentations at Glastonbury Festival and Latitude, as well as an outdoor film season 'Cinema on The Steps: Contemporary Middle Eastern Film'. 'A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now’ at The Old Selfridges Hotel in 2013, was followed by a project with Art on the Underground and its Canary Wharf Screen. In 2014 collaborations include Comme des Garçons with an off-site exhibition at Dover Street Market, where the ICA was originally located between 1950-1968 and The Old Selfridges Hotel in autumn for a week of live events to coincide with Frieze including performances with New York- based artist Korakrit Arunanondchai and Berlin-based artist Isabel Lewis. Most recently the ICA organised Duddell’s presents: ICA Off-Site: Hong Kongese, its first overseas off-site project. ICA: Off- Site: Digbeth, Birmingham marks the ICA’s inaugural project in Birmingham from 2 – 4 October 2015 and the third time the ICA has collaborated with Selfridges.

Participants:

Fergadelic Fergus Purcell aka Fergadelic is a commercial artist, working as a freelance designer but using each job to explore his artistic concerns and thematic expression. He is in love with the brash immediacy, the seductive gloss and subliminal power of graphics that combine an aesthetic with an ethos that is usually reserved for the world of fine art; to achieve maximum self-expression and explore personal philosophies. Purcell has worked with a variety of individuals and their respective brands, including Palace Skateboards, Marc by Marc Jacobs, 2manydjs, Man About Town magazine, Paul Smith, Hysteric Glamour and Idea Books among many others.

Tim & Barry /Just Jam Filmmakers/Photographers Tim & Barry established their name photographing and filming a number of subjects key to underground music and fashion scenes, specifically the grime music scene, Chicago footwork and most recently the yet to be classified Angolan/Portuguese music genre emerging from Lisbon. The pair have also had their work published in various magazines including The Wire, Dazed, i-D and Colors. Just Jam is a live audiovisual stream. It showcases some of the most progressive electronic music from around the globe, set to a backdrop of Psychedelic visuals. The visuals are mixed live featuring the work of highly celebrated digital visual artists alongside curated artefacts found on the Internet by Just Jam team.

Tyrone Lebon Tyrone Lebon’s photographs and films are rich and vital celebrations of people, the possibilities of contemporary life and image making. Lebon began experimenting with analogue photography and moving image as a teenager and his material and collage sensibility is present equally in both

mediums. His capacity for creating intense visual experiences through photography is evident in his editorial work for various magazines including Arena Homme+, Double, i-D, The New York Times Magazine, POP, V, and Vogue. He has also worked on various commissions for commercial clients including Apple, Calvin Klein, Celine, Louis Vuitton, Maison Martin Margiela, Nike, Stussy, and Supreme. Lebon has created short films from the outset of his career. He has made compelling and original films - including ‘UT & The Life’, commissioned by , ‘Atlanta Dreams’ and ‘SFV Acid’ for Sundance TV, and ‘Reely and Truly’. Lebon is also the founder and creative director of DoBeDo, the host and supporter of photographers’ and filmmakers’ exhibitions, books, screenings and events.

Ben Sansbury Ben Sansbury is a self-taught artist whose work has evolved from a distinguished career as an art director and graphic designer. His multifarious practice utilises a variety of mediums including sculpture, found objects, digital video and collages to suggest alternative perceptions of reality. Sansbury’s work is informed by a re-reading of popular culture that reflects upon our progress and entrapment through technological experience, uncovering anthropomorphic relationships between historical and contemporary architecture. Recent exhibitions include Space, London (solo), Baltic 39 Project Space, Newcastle (solo) and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (group).

Ashley Williams Ashley Williams is a promising young British designer based in London, who for Spring-Summer 2015, made her NEWGEN debut, presenting her first solo runway show at London Fashion Week to critical acclaim. Upon her graduation in fashion design from The University of Westminster in June 2012, Williams was hotly tipped as a standout designer. Williams showed her first collection in February 2013 with the pioneering scheme for emerging talent, Fashion East. Ashley continued to show with Fashion East for a further 2 seasons. For her Spring-Summer 2015 collection, Williams joined the prestigious Swarovski Collective and continued to expand her international stockist base. Ashley Williams is currently stocked internationally in leading retailers including Browns Focus in London, Colette in Paris, Nordstrom in North America and Joyce in Hong Kong.

The project is organised in partnership with Selfridges & Co and supported by the Arts Council.