Capsule were invited to curate an exhibition for the Royal Shakespeare Company in response to the Roaring Girl Season, we worked with the Girls Who Draw, a group of female illustrators from across the UK. Inspired by the Swan Theatre production, they playfully explore the tradition of cross-dressing in theatre and how clothes are used to express identity, the exhibition is entitled ‘Who Wears The Trousers‘.

Here is a sneak peak from our install yesterday, a huge thanks to Nicola Salmon from the RSC who has been a dream to work with, as has the ever amazing Jo Weldon who has magically fabricated the moving structures and of course Karoline Reerie and Ruth Green from the GWD who have worked alongside Capsule to make the exhibition a reality.

Go and see it for yourself, the show opens on the 7 May till the 31 August and is free to the public.
Artists include – Anke Weckmann/Elle Donlon/Jane McGuinness/Karoline Rerrie/Kristyna Baczynski/Laura Kate Chapman/Mina Braun/Ruth Green

Kristyna Baczynski

Laura Kate Chapman

Anke Weckmann

photos by Karoline Reerie

Thanks to all who came to visit The Outcrowd Collective in residency last week, with the House of Beorma Archive. A beautiful homage to the lost customs of Birmingham. Images by Katja Ogrin.

Creating offerings to the House of Beorma

One of the lost relics resdiscovered by the Outcrowd Collective

Carousel. Image by Keith Dodds

In partnership with Vivid Projects, the next Discovery season is Carousel. All this week the Pavilion will house Cathy Wade’s residency, she is creating an immersive environment that explores ownership, time, sound and image. Come and meet Cathy artist and work with hand held projectors or carousels, with original slides and mementos, to create ever changing projected environments. Catch this residency from Tuesday 15th October til Sunday 20th.

Characters from the Festival of the Rea – part of the House of Beorma archive of the city’s lost origins

Six weeks into the Discovery season and we’re getting great feedback on our celebration of the new library. The Discovery Trail is open for you to explore throughout the season. And each week there are one off events and workshops to get involved in.

This week the Outcrowd Collective are in residency. They present the House of Beorma archive, a selection of artefacts from lost local history. Come visit them til Sunday 13th October in the Pavilion, and make your own offerings in honour of Birmingham’s lost customs and festivals.

Reference Works is an exhibition featuring new works by photographers Brian Griffin, Andrew Lacon, Michael Collins and Stuart Whipps. Each artist diplays their creative responses to the new Library of Birmingham, the ‘old’ Central Library building and the build, transition and relocation. Stuart Whipps will be giving a free exhibition tour this Saturday 12th October at 11am.

There’s still time to sign up for the Shangaan Electro dance workshops. Your chance to be part of the South African dance craze that became a youtube sensation – workshops are 1pm or 3pm on Friday 25th October at Dancexchange, Thorp Street. Workshops are totally free, you just need to sign up via [email protected]

Shangaan Electro will also perform as part of the Bring To Light weekend of adventurous music, 25-27 October. The next in the Discover New Music series, this event features the artist Dinos Chapman, roboticist Sarah Angliss, the Brain Pulse Music of Masaki Batoh and many more. Day and weekend tickets are available viawww.theticketsellers.co.uk

Studio Myerscough are in residency and they’re on a mission to create a new typeface, with live contributions from you. Visit the Pavilion all this week, it’s totally free.

In addition Morag Myerscough will be presenting an instinctive journey through colours, patterns and her design practice at Volume, accompanied by fellow designer and collaborator Luke Morgan and his band The Highliners, creating a punk rock design performance! This will be headlined by Bill Drummond. Tickets available HERE

Tonight from 8pm, come see four amazing local bands at Rise of Birmingham. Tickets are £5 from www.birmingham-box.co.uk. Read more about Free School, Victories at Sea, Youth Man and Victor here.

Saturday 5th October 2pm and Sunday 6th October 11am
Laura Kate Chapman workshop, Middle Earth, Free
Join artist Laura Kate Chapman whose work takes inspiration historic Parker Collection of Children’s Books and Games, celebrating the tradition of hand drawn artistic methods.

Throughout the season you ca explore the library via the Discovery Trail, the trail includes the Theatre Jukebox, by Stand + Stare, an arcade-style cabinet that plays stories instead of records and allows you to choose the chapters you want. You can listen to accounts of imagined journeys and travel stories inspired by the Wingate Bett Transport Ticket collection. Wingate Henry Bett was the first president of the Transport Ticket Society and founder of the Electric Railways Society. He co authored Great British Tramway Networks with John C Gillham which became the bible of British tramways. His collection of transport tickets is one of the Library of Birmingham’s collections.

And at the end of the month, Capsule will be invading the library with a programme of experimental music. Very much a Supersonic Festival inspired weekend, Bring To Light features Josephine Foster, Dinos Chapman and Deafheaven as well a celebration of the work of Delia Derbyshire and a special Kids Gig with Richard Dawson. Read more or purchase tickets via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

Sarah has been working with the fossils and fauna in the university’s collections

Capsule have embarked upon a new partnership with the University of Birmingham, supporting an artist in residence to make and display work in response to the university’s fascinating and varied collections.

Sound artist Sarah Farmer has spent a number of months working and researching intensively at the Lapworth Museum of Geology  and the Winterbourne botanical collection. Farmer has explored the collections, spent time with the curators and staff, and has created a number of sound based works, as well as screenprints, in response to her time there.

Lapworth Museum of Geology

The exhibition will begin at Winterbourne on Thursday 24th October, her work will be on display in the Cactus House for two weeks, before moving to Lapworth Museum of Geology on Thursday 7th November until Sunday 24th November. Come and explore the university’s collections in a way you’d never imagined.

Winterbourne House & Garden / 10am – 4pm weekdays 11am – 4pm weekends /58 Edgbaston Park Road

Lapworth Museum / 9.00am – 5.00pm weekdays 12.00pm – 5.00pm weekends / Aston Webb building, Edgbaston Campus

This project is supported through Connected – a University of Birmingham Cultural Engagement initiative.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/culture

Here is another sneak preview of the work we’ve commissioned for the Discovery Trail which is being installed over the next week or so. The Juneau Projects commission is a site specific piece in response to the vegetable beds located on the 3rd floor garden terrace at the Library of Birmingham, Vegetable Quest is a series of vegetable family dioramas sheltered within the vegetable beds, exploring the idea of self- sufficiency and how people and communities might survive following an imagined global disaster. The artists have devised a folklore that explores the diverse origins of each species and link this with the idea of settlement. Migration is one of our key themes within the Discovery Season.





All photos courtesy of Juneau Projects

The Library of Birmingham opens on the 3rd of September and the Discovery Season runs until the end of December.

Here’s a little sneak preview of the work we’ve commissioned by artist Lucy  McLauchlan for the Library of Birmingham Discovery Trail.  Lucy  McLauchlan’s  site  specific artwork sits within the spectacular  surrounds  of  the   Book  Rotunda. Yesterday Joe and team began the complex task of installing the work, and they’re doing an amazing job, we can’t wait to see the finished piece it’s going to be really stunning. Each block is being carefully placed on the book shelves in this massive space.
The Library opens on the 3rd of September and the work will be on display until the end of December.

Lucy describes her process “I spent some time in John Madin’s library making sketches, rubbings and photographs documenting the architectural features and absorbing Madin’s style and use of materials. This research material has influenced my final artwork (which was important to me to include some of the old into the new, a nod of respect) as has the new library been my other source, with it’s constant circles, ever connecting.”

With thanks to Katja Ogrin for the photographs

Inspired by the library’s most treasured works and collections, and their iconic new home, Capsule has curated a trail of art works for the Discovery Season which will lead visitors around the new building and encourage visitors to explore more of what the library has to offer. The works encompass a wide range of media, including sound, digital media, and extraordinary objects. Some are new commissions, and others we have chosen for their ability to stimulate ideas and questions about what a library can be.

Here are some photos of a new commission in progress, created by artist Jennifer Collier.

Jennifer Collier’s Paper Typewriter makes a timely comment on the fragility of knowledge and ideas stored in the printed word. Situated directly next to the Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, most often overlooked in favour of internet research, the form of the typewriter – an extinct technology – feels all the more poignant.
Artist Jennifer Collier re-imagines domestic objects from paper; bonding wrapping and stitching to create her sculptures. She often draws inspiration from the narratives that reside on the paper that she re-uses: Paper Typewriter is made from pages of old typewriter manuals and discarded encyclopedias.