For One Night Only

Stick with this because it's brilliant. Phorm is the name of a new platform for Birmingham's creatives. A roaming but ever evolving exhibition, two years in the making, it's the creation of Birmingham-based photographer Tom Bird. Phorm's first expo goes live on September 22 at the stunning Tramshed, a 19th Century former rolling press, in the Jewellery Quarter (above). That exhibition is called BHX'IT. Everyone keeping up so far?   

Don't read too much into the name. A play, of course, on 'Brexit', it's more a meddling with a word that's now imprinted in our lexicon than it is any sort of political point-scoring. But that doesn't mean the art isn't thought-provoking. In fact that's exactly what it is. Take Imbue, one of those exhibiting. This is a guy who created a sculpture of Jesus nailed to Facebook's famous 'f' logo. He'll be showing 'Are We Nearly There Yet?' (above). Make of it what you will.    

"We need to celebrate the city more than we do," says Bird. "Celebrate its creatives. It's artists, its designers, furniture makers. All and any creatives. In London this sort of work is pedestalled. The talent is here, it's just not championed enough."

Also on display will be the brain-bathing visual bliss that is Plume Collective (above). Their artwork focuses on organic processes using high-speed photography to capture ink in water. It'll melt your mind, if you let it.    

"All of those on display have an angle in their art that is quite unique to what anyone else is doing," explains Bird. "They provoke debate. That comes down to way more than just raw talent. Way more than being handy with a paintbrush or a camera."

Birmingham-based Pryce Lee has only ever exhibited in Amsterdam and New York. Until now. Laughing in the face of seven years bad luck he be displaying something not dissimilar to his paper plane cracked mirror (above left). Sign-writer Atelier Zoot(above right), meanwhile, will display an old traditional frame housing art that blends gold leaf on panes of glass, petrol and white spirit erosion, and enamel written typefaces. Nope, we've no idea what that means either.

"I came across Filfury [above] on Instagram," says Bird. "What he manages to do with familiar objects — reconstructing them as he does — is nothing short of extraordinary." Heavily influenced by a 90s childhood, hip-hop, UK garage and an addiction to sneakers, expect real, tactile sculptural pieces probably involving footwear moulded through immaculate cut and sew, into a bird.

And expect Tom Bird, himself. Probably fair enough that he shows something of his own. For over a year he's been photographing shop or factory shutters, in Birmingham. "The city is sometimes lacking in colour, I think. And sometimes the colour that punctuates is found in the most unexpected of places."

Find the above and more, under one roof, September 22. There'll be beers and OPM on burgers. RSVP here, just to give Tom an idea of numbers. You should go. Such is his commitment he personally spent fours hours pressure-washing the venue.