Art Around Birmingham

ARTAROUND

BIRMINGHAM

ARTAROUND

BIRMINGHAM

ContentsPages 2 - 4 Birmingham,s Bull

Pages 5 - 8 Custard Factory

Pages 9 - 12 Zellig.

Pages 15 - 16 Selfridges & Co

Pages 13 - 14Street Art & Graffiti

THE BULL

Many people know, or have seen the iconic bronze statue, that stands in the center of the Bullring. Un-fortunately not everyone knows how it was made and who designed, and created it.

The finished sculpture, stands at 2.2 meters high and approximately 4.5 meters in length. It is a twice life size sculpture, which takes the form of a fearse, bull, turning in motion. The sculpture, weighs in at about six and a half tones, making it one of the largest bronze animal sculpture in the country and one of the biggest in the UK.

Art Around Birmingham | 2

Inside of the finished bull, lays an inter-nal stainless steel frame. This armature runs down the

three legs, where it is con-nected to a sub-frame. The sub-frame is set a distance be-low ground and covered with paving stones, to make the

bull appear as if it is walking thought the bullring. This stainless steel frame, allow the bull to be on the same level as the public, which is great for interaction. This is

sculpted by Laurence Broderick

“The bull has be-come the recognised

symbol of the city and the adopted

mascot of its citizens.”

The Bull was un-veiled on the open-ing and completion of The Bullring on the 4th September, 2003.

another factor which makes the bull a tourist at-traction, as well as a focal point and symbol of the area.


The Custard Factory is a young, colourful and vibrant area in Birmingham bursting with atmosphere. It is home to small inde-pendent shops and restaurants. There is also gallery and studio space for rent. The Custard Factory is now home to the new ‘Zellig,’ gal-lery, which opened its doors in May 2010.


The Custard Fac-tory is set in five acres of old factory build-ings. These factories were originally home to ‘Bird’ Custard’, and in January 1992, the redevelopment of the Custard Factory began. It is now the main arts and media production centre in Birmingham.

The Deluge, 2010 at ‘ZELLIG’


THE

GALLERY

Chaos.This amazing sculpture and peice of archi-tecture, was designed Philip Watts and took four years plan-ning and build-ing.

constantly does this, from every angle it assumes a different com-position, it has a mass rather than a definable form. People move through its nega-tive spaces with-in it rather than walk on it. The molten puddles at the base are evidence. Evi-dence of the fact that the sculp-ture has grown organically. The truth is the form

made itself.” Philip Watts.

“This white space is beautiful, but on its own screams silence like an empty room, a building has no emotion without its inhab-itants. The sum of Chaos is every-thing, individual-ly parts are sim-ple, but together they make some-thing extremely complex. It is important to defy convention, Chaos


Chaos, 2010 at ‘ZELLIG”

The Green Man, 2002


Tawny Gray or Toin Adams was born in 1965, in Zambia. She is a sculptor and works with steel, acrylic and fibreglass, among oth-ers. She is a devoted and established visual artist. In 1985 Tawny Gray moved to England, where she began her career in sculpting. In 2007, she changed her name back to Toin Ad-ams. Toin Adams’s best known works, are ‘The Green Man, 2002,’ which is Birmingham’s largest sculpture, which stands at 12 meters high, and ‘The Deluge, 2010,’ which is located inside ‘The Zellig Gallery’ and is a 10 meter high, hanging sculpture of falling bodies. The two sculptures have both been commissioned by the Custard Factory, in Digbeth, B-ham.

& LOCAL GRAFFITI

Street Art Around Birmingham

• All graffiti has been photographed in Digbeth, Birmingham, around the area of The Custard Factory.

• The image on the right, is a four times life size knight or Fairytale type, histor-ical character. This image is black and white with long yellow, blond platted hair, which draws your eyes towards the character and makes the viewer ques-tion its past and context.

SELFRIDGES & CO

SELFRIDGES & CO


The Selfridges Birmingham store was designed by a London based architecture company, ‘Future Systems’.

The building is covered in 15,000 spun alumini-um discs on a Yves Klein Blue background.

Since it opened in 2003, the store has been awarded: ‘One of the top 100 stores to visit in the world’, by industry magazine, for the past 9 years.

ART AROUND BIRMINGHAMwww.artaroundbham.co.uk

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Art Around Birmingham