Join Vivid Projects this November for an exhibition and events season exploring the surprising and dark side of art and the body.

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EXHIBITION PROGRAMME:

Friday 06 – Saturday 21 November | admission free
X-Ray Audio: Forbidden Soviet Music ‘On The Bone’

Many older people in Russia remember seeing and hearing strange vinyl type discs when they were young. The discs had partial images of skeletons on them and were called ‘Bones’ or ‘Ribs’.

Vivid Projects is delighted to present X-Ray Audio: Forbidden Soviet Music ‘On The Bone’, a project set up by Stephen Coates with Paul Heartfield to research, record, collect and publish the images, stories and sounds of these extraordinary records and the people who made and listened to them.

In this expanded exhibition developed for Birmingham, we bring together original X-Ray plates obtained from hospitals and engraved with the grooves of copied gramophone discs, with interview footage of the bootleggers, new moving image works and ephemera. Read more.

Exhibition launches Friday 06 November, 7-9pm and continues to Saturday 21 November, open Thursday – Saturday, 12-5pm.

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EVENTS PROGRAMME:

Friday 06 November, 7-9pm | admission free
Launch Event – Digbeth First Friday

Vivid Projects celebrates the launch of X-Ray Audio on Digbeth First Friday. Enjoy molotov cocktails from our Cold War Bar!

Friday 13 November, 7-9pm | admission £5 on the door
Live X-Ray Pressing

Join Stephen Coates, author of the X-Ray Audio project, composer and music producer, as he tells the story of the X-Ray records and bootleggers. Stephen is joined by musician and vintage recording specialist Aleks Kolkowski, who provides a live demonstration of recording onto X-Ray plates using vintage analogue record-cutting lathes and commentary on groove-based recording techniques. Aleks will cut a new x-ray record from a live performance by a local musician. Read more.

Friday 27 November, 1-5pm | advance tickets £7/5 (conc)
Talking Death

Academia meets art; join academics and artists for an afternoon of discussion and film exploring the relationship between creative practice and death. The salon features reflections on the work of artists including Derek Jarman, Ian Breakwell and George Saxon, together with academic perspectives from Universities of Birmingham and Bath. Read more.

Friday 27 November, 6.30 – 8.30pm | advance tickets £12.50
Art Macabre Death Drawing Class

Art Macabre, London’s purveyors of ‘death drawing’, inject a lethal dose of theatricality, curiosity and playfulness into the art of drawing from life. Drawing upon concepts, questions and ideas shared earlier in the day, Art Macabre invite you to explore deathly themes through a hands-on, creative event. RIP life drawing! Read more.

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