Undercurrents, 2025

Curated by Eastside Projects. Commissioned by West Midlands Combined Authority and Birmingham City Council for Eastside Projects, curated by Gavin Wade, with Zoë Sawyer and Tim Mills.

When early settlements were forming in this area, which hundreds of years later became Birmingham, it was because of the proximity to the River Rea. In this part of the city centre, it flows underground, and the idea of a subterranean river caught my imagination. Underground rivers have been used a lot in Greek mythology, Dante’s inferno and many more stories. This bit of town also is an intersection for other bits of art, like the John F Kennedy mosaic and graffiti in Digbeth. It’s also an intersection for travel, with train stations, the road, bus station and tram all flowing over and around the river. There is so much energy in this space.

I like the idea of creating something that is integrated with the existing landscape works, but adds a layer of reflection, like an X-ray of the street. During the design process, we did a workshop with St Basil’s youth charity. We went to the river and filled jars with water, then brought them back to the gallery to examine under the microscope. We were amazed, disgusted and inspired by what we found! We talked about the scale of the project. We also talked about the fear of starting a drawing. In order to get people out of their comfort zones, we took large rolls of paper to the floor and used extra long tools for painting. This technique helped us flow by using the entire arm, or the entire body to create the drawings.

The process of going big, then small, then big again allowed us to create a series of images and symbols that were part real, part imagination. Abstract forms that echoed the flow of our drawing bodies drawing the river.

https://eastsideprojects.org/projects/digbeth-public-artworks/

Photo credit: David Rowan / @section_8

Video credit: Ashley Carr