Friction Arts has been around in one form or another since 1992, mostly based in Digbeth, Birmingham, UK. Founded by Lee Griffiths and Sandra Hall we spent our early years learning our craft, nomadically travelling the UK and beyond, performing, intervening and discovering how to work in the public realm. Since then we’ve made hundreds of projects, with and for thousands of people.

This document is designed to give you a flavour of what it is that we do.‘Art Where You Live’ is our most enduring strapline and call to arms. Art is not something separate from our lives but embedded in everything around us, inextricably linked, and also something inside us all. To this end we are outward-facing in our approach, consistently experimenting in new places, with new people to create new opportunities for artworks and projects in ever-shifting contexts. We firmly believe in the power of art

to help us develop, individually and collectively, and are evangelical in our approach to include as many people as we can, finding new audiences and new participants for our own, and others’, work. Our practice is both domestic and nomadic. We work hyper-locally, as with our ongoing Echoes programme, and have an international practice that has taken us as far afield as South America and Australia. This approach allows us to bring international perspectives to our local work, and vice versa, a major part of our approach to connecting people through art. Our programme for the next few years will reflect both our history and our practice and includes:

PHB (Punk Heritage Brum) – a large-scale programme to celebrate and document our city’s contribution to the ‘Second Wave’ of punk rock, new wave and beyond, including exhibitions, online resources and archiving.

Intro‘Friction releases

energy’Tandem – International project with the European Cultural Foundation – interventions in European cities, beginning with Leeuwarden in the Northern Netherlands.

A Word From the Wise – a programme of events, performances, exhibitions and publications celebrating the role of the elder artist in our society.

The Edge – continuing to develop our base as an ad-hoc venue for our work and the work of others.

The Edge is our base in deepest, darkest, post-industrial Digbeth, Birmingham, UK. Worryingly described as ‘Birmingham’s Shoreditch’, there’s still an authenticity to the area, with endemic street art, empty units and working factories, beautiful old pubs beside a burgeoning coffee-shop and hipster culture. It has a personality all its own and we love it.

Since 2007 we’ve inhabited The Edge, a two-story factory building with two adjoining single-story units and yard. The Edge is our studio and base, a place for exhibitions, film nights, community dinners, seminars, gigs, theatre shows, international artists’ residencies, festivals, all night sleepover cinemas, make and do events and more. We don’t curate as such, but we only support activity that is interesting, quirky, engaging, participatory and available (which we prefer to merely accessible) and we often take risks. The building is The Edge for a number

of reasons. It’s on the edge of Digbeth and neighbouring Highgate, a low-income district of industry and social housing surrounded by a concrete collar. We often work in Highgate, helping to connect it with Digbeth through our cultural and social activity. We’re also on the edge of the arts ‘scene’, as we don’t fit neatly into a category - which suits us fine.We see The Edge and ourselves as the interface between the arts and joe public. Nothing we host needs a fifteen page summary quoting Zizek to deliver its artistic payload. We never dumb down, but we hate the fine arts practice of clevering up.

We house others in the space, too. Unit 1 houses a cohort of recent graduates, led by MSFAC, an art-punk collective of artists and activists who run the space independently, with mentoring from Friction. Unit 2 is set to be our pre-graduate space, designed to help fill the diversity gap in the developing arts workforce.

The Edge‘Compose drunk

edit sober’We host a regular Art Club for children from 8 years up, a monthly Yard Talk dinner for elders and local residents, and all our groups co-nurture and cross-peer mentor each other. And us. We’re all still learning, after all.

Photo: Dr Roland Miller performance during Birmingham’s International Festival of Live & Time Based Arts (B.I.F.L.T.B.A.)

Deritend, Birmingham - since 2007

We ran the Curio City Shop for three years from 2004. Based in Auchinleck Square, Five Ways, the shop was a long-abandoned curry-house in a Brutalist 1960s concrete shopping precinct where only 3 of the 30 shops were still open. We were next to the Redbrick Estate, a hidden inner-city neighbourhood only a few hundred yards from Birmingham’s cultural centre.

We moved in, put the kettle on and opened the doors, inviting local residents to contribute to the shop’s future direction – and of course the local kids were the first to visit. Within weeks we hosted our first performance made with local young people, My Conceptual Garden – their title – a multimedia performance based around their search for a virtual sanctuary in their concrete playground. Over the next three years we made dozens of projects with local people, as well as taking our ‘Curio Crew’ elsewhere.

We worked on the estate itself, with projects like Growth Impact that provided free plants and gardening advice to residents, as well as installing window boxes and hanging baskets in the quad to create the Hanging Gardens of Five Ways. Local young people, taught by professional chefs, used window-box herbs to cook food for community dinners.

We worked with artists to create performances and exhibitions ranging from painting and sculpture to poetry and dance. The 20 metre shop windows presented a constantly evolving gallery that residents enjoyed on their way to the Post Office or Tesco. We ran exhibitions for emerging artists like Behind Closed Doors and for participants from Creative Alliance, and commissioned established artists like Darryl Georgiou and Mark Storor for Test Bed. It was a vivid and eclectic programme of events, challenging and accessible.

Curio City Shop‘’

‘We lived next door for 20 years and never talked and now we’re best friends’ – resident

‘The area feels safer, people talk more and I feel safe walking around the estate at night’ – elderly resident

Our tenure in the shop came to an end in 2007, just ahead of the developers, but we went out with a bang: Reality Estate.

Funded by: Birmingham City Council - Urban Fusion Commission

Photo: Installation in disused butcher’s shop

Five Ways, Birmingham 2005 - 2007

‘Reciprocity & authenticity’

We culminated our three-year residency at the Curio City Shop with a large-scale performance, Reality Estate. The project was inspired partly through our connectiojn with Boston peace campaigner Isaura Mendes. She and her son Matthew had visited the shop and met local young people, Matthew particularly was affected by his visit, saying he had found his voice during his visit.

After his tragic murder only weeks later Find Your Voice became a rallying cry for his local community against the violence. We decided that we would find a way for Redbrick estate to find it’s voice as a tribute to Matthew and the people who so affected him during his time in Birmingham.We worked for months with local residents and developed Reality Estate – a performance featuring local people and taking visitors around the estate and the near-abandoned shopping centre next door. We brought in celebrated director Mark

Storor to develop the performance, working alongside designers and set builders to help transform the bleak landscape of Five Ways. Dutch composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven came over and used local people’s words to create a contemporary score for the performance, helping us to bring together what eventually became a cast and crew of over 500 people.Reality Estate began with the audience being led by local children onto the estate, where they were greeted by a 300-strong choir singing the words of the people from the estate back to them – words of loss, of space, of children and words of hope for a better future. Large projections on the building made it look like children were tumbling from windows into the quad, a local woman continually washed and hung dozens of sets of baby clothes. As the audience walked through the estate rose petals would flutter down onto them from above, women singing work songs to them from the upper floors of a multi-story car park as a

Reality Estate‘Seduce with integrity’

Funded by: Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council

Photo: Tony Pencheon - The Angel of the estate

Five Ways, Birmingham 2007

young black-winged angel looked on. In the shopping centre artist George Saxon had created a ‘virtual choir’, projected onto 24 separate shop windows. The audience were led finally to Five Ways traffic island, where scattered trombonists echoed the traffic above, and large banners, printed with images of local people sleeping brought intimacy to the brutalist surroundings.Reality Estate was a fitting celebration of our time at the Curio City Shop and was dedicated to Alex ‘Matthew’ Mendes.

In 2009 Visiting Arts invited us to a residency in Johannesburg, South Africa as part of their 1 Square Mile programme. We worked with local artists Kyla Davis and Anthea Moys, based at Jo’burg Art Gallery in the heart of the inner-city, adjoining some of its most dangerous districts including the white no-go area Joubert Park.

We hosted dinners of local artists, activists, politicians, gang leaders and police chiefs, and invited them to share thoughts about their city and the issues it faced. Personal and community safety was a huge concern, so we investigated further. First we set a stall in Joubert Park and gave out freshly squeezed orange-juice. As the oranges were ‘squozen’ we asked people to write on a luggage label their name and where they felt safe and unsafe in the city. The area of Hillbrow was universally seen as the danger zone, so we told our new friends to meet us there at the same time next week.

Our next stop was the nearby white suburbs where we asked residents to donate one flower from their garden to beautify Hillbrow. We soon had 2 carloads of flowers and some very intrigued residents. The flowers decorated the outdoor boxing ring on Hillbrow’s main street, drawing dozens of kids from nearby blocks who treated us to an unexpected dance workshop in the ring. The next two interventions saw us teach people to make maps of their city, how to grow food on the balconies of their flats using recycled no-cost materials, and hold workshops on native tree and plant identification. We invited the residents who donated flowers and all the people we met on our street interventions to an art exhibition opening at the gallery. A carnival atmosphere developed as street children ran around the gallery, climbing on sculptures, using the largest contemporary art gallery in Africa as their playground while bemused suburbanites grinned on. We gathered the crowd, led them out of

Jo’burg‘Who am I, who are

we together?’the gallery and held a ribbon-cutting opening ceremony and declared Joubert park open for everyone. The whole crowd toured the park, tiny street children guiding middle-aged women, our ranks swelling until hundreds of us returned to the gallery for a great party.

Funded by: Visiting Arts, 1 Mile2, British Council

Photo: Mapping in the Eco House - Joubert Park, Johnannesburg

Johannesburg South Africa 2009

Heard and Not Seen (HANS) was an arts project and exhibition by artists Sandra Hall and Mitra Memarzia in collaboration with Friction Arts that created a unique, safe space for people to meet and discuss issues and concerns about faith, religion and spirituality with a particular focus on Islam.

When we created it in 2009, media representations of Islam were polarised with an unhealthy fixation on “radical” Islam and few moderate Islamic voices given platforms. We sought to create an environment in which open discussions could take place. We undertook a series of arts workshops with community groups in Birmingham. We met people from a huge range of backgrounds; cab drivers, dinner ladies, doctors, police officers, fanatics, moderates, believers and non-believers. From Catholic Rastafarians, Christians, Reverts and beyond, our conversations took place on the streets, in pubs, living rooms,

community centres, places of faith and cabs. The project became part of our daily lives as we explored, learnt and shifted our own perceptions. From these conversations we responded to create an interactive exhibition that used audio, video, photography, reactive media and installations. We wanted this art work to reflect the diversity we had uncovered and to catalyse further conversations between disparate groups, so we hosted discussions between members of the public and the people who inspired the exhibition; BBC teams based in the venue came to join discussions around representations of Islam in the media. A project website provided an evolving platform with opportunities for users to upload stories, ask questions and make comments. The exhibition showed at The Mailbox and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Visitors called it ‘a beautiful contemplative space’ and ‘thought provoking’. We’re satisfied that we represented people’s stories, created a highly conceptual, available,

H.A.N.S.‘It’s all about the

conversation’contemporary art work without a fixed or defiant viewpoint, providing space for an audience to reflect and engage. As HANS remains relevant, we are keen to tour it as a flexible framework that can house bespoke workshops and community co-created work in each location it visits.

Funded by: Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council - Prevent programme, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Photo: Installation at The Mailbox

The Mailbox, Birmingham 2010

We were invited by Sandwell Youth Services to work with young people with autism for two hours a week running arts and drama workshops. Lead artists Sandra and Simon were so inspired by their thinking, improvisation and imaginations that we sought our own match funding to create the programme of work that became To You From Super Me.

The group’s interest in ‘Super Heroes’ was clearly a metaphor exploring their difference. We devised a range of arts workshops where they named and explored original Super Hero identities based on their values, stories, interests and eccentricities. Marvel/DC comic book illustrator John McCrea and celebrated image-maker Chris Keenan collaborated with us. Fusing animation and film we created an exhibition that celebrated the young people’s unconventional and liberated approach to the world. This was first exhibited at The Public West Bromwich in June 2010 and invited back for

5 months in May 2011 as a result of its overwhelming popularity. The finished work includes an enormous video projection across three screens that enclose the audience. The video installation provides a fascinating glimpse through and behind the eyes of young people with whom we rarely make eye contact. This exhibited along with original super hero illustrations of each young person by John McCrea. Media artist Babis Alexiadis captured the art process in an accompanying documentary. The process and outcome of the project had a profound effect on the young people and their families. Behaviour shifts, confidence, relationship building, language development were all unexpected outcomes as the group defined and shaped their own projects. The project was awarded the West Midlands Arts Health and Wellbeing: third sector award for 2013. As a result of this work Friction Arts were awarded funding to research and evaluate the high impact we have with autistic groups.

To You From Super Me‘Find your voice’

We are currently working with special schools, an academic partner and Creative Health CIC, regional branch of the Arts Health & Wellbeing National Network to evaluate the sources of this success.

Funded by: Arts Council England, Sandwell Youth Services, The Public

Photo: Young participants

The Public, West Bromwich 2012

In 2012 we travelled to Vitória, in southern Brazil, to take part in Espírito Mundo, an arts festival that celebrates the culture of the small state of Espírito Santo. Vitória is Brazil’s largest port and the centre of the rapidly expanding offshore oil industry. What started as a research trip became an intervention artwork with a legacy.

We invited a dozen local artists, activists, architects, poets and philosophers to meet us for dinner, and in true Brazilian fashion found ourselves hosting a party of 50. Three subjects emerged in discussions: the local transport which was noisy, polluting, overcrowded and slow; abandoned buildings in the city; and the catraieiros, local ferrymen who row people across the bay in their tiny boats. The trade of the catraieros is over 500 years old but was not officially recognised and the ferrymen had no labour rights. The building where the catraieros repaired their boats and ferried people between

downtown and the favela opposite was a urine-smelling, graffitti-covered concrete shell, on land almost engulfed by the port. We saw all Vitória’s issues reflected in the plight of the catraieiros and resolved to make an intervention.

Working through an art process with local allies we came to a proposal that satisfied the catraieros. With our volunteers, local people, artists, students from the university we set about transforming Casa Catraia. First we scrubbed away the smell of urine and laid down a thick, white coat of paint. Wall artist Glenn Anderson and art students created colourful murals, patterns and paintings. We crowd-sourced a PA and decks, then invited everyone from the local favela, artists, festival-goers to a party at Casa Catraia with world mixing champ DJ Switch, local DJs, visiting musicians and dancers entertaining the crowd, all while the catraieros rowed people back and forth. Three TV crews, national radio and newspapers came to see the party.

Casa Catraia‘Development

with heart’Just before we returned to the UK we received a telephone call from Roni, an organiser from the Association of Catraieros.

‘I’ve got a piece of paper in my hand, it’s from the government. It says that my job, being a catraiero, is now an officially recognised trade.’

Funded by: Arts Council England, Espírito Mundo

Photo: The Catraieros

Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil 2012

Friction has been based in Digbeth, Birmingham, UK for over 21 years, and our roots here go back as far as lead artist Lee Griffith’s grand-mother, who worked here as a chromer. Historically both a heavily industrialised and residential area, housing some of the city’s poorest people, the district has undergone massive change as it finds its post-industrial niche.

Our connection to the area has allowed us to develop relationships with many current and former workers and residents and in 2008 we turned this into a formal programme gathering oral histories before the stories are lost.These tales inspire Echoes, a programme of events and a (truly) immersive and interactive exhibition pressed, stitched and spun from the words of residents. You are lured through a series of environments by the voices of residents and workers, poking, prying into every nook and cranny, dressing up, playing,

sometimes even singing and dancing as you discover the history of a unique area that still resonates with people of any age and any background. At the end of the tour you are invited to join the artists and your fellow travellers at a table for tea, biscuits and to reflect on your experience, find out more and to be together, as people. These discussions continue at our monthly Yard Talk monthly at The Edge, where we respond to audience interests with discussions and presentations on historical themes, issues, memories and common interests.Some of our participants are now developing their own projects, such as Ray O’Donnel’s Brummies, Boozers and Bruisers. Ray delivers a lecture and discussion on ‘gangs then and now’, detailing his experience as a gang member in the 60’s and his experience since, working with youth at risk. Echoes continues as a programme examining our shared histories and their current relevance with Punk Heritage Brum examining

Echoes‘Art Where You Live’

post 1980 ‘second wave’ punk music in the West Midlands, and its social and political consequences such as Rock Against Racism, squat culture and the early 1980s anti-capitalist and anarchist protest movements.

Funded by: Heritage Lottery, Arts Council England

Photo: Squat installation

Deritend, Birmingham 2012 - 2014

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For more information:

The Edge, 79-81 Cheapside, Digbeth, Birmingham B12 0QH