Balsall Heath Biennale Colouring In Book by Chris Poolman

This is a colouring in book. The idea is borrowed from Balsall Heath carnival who produce a colouring in poster each year that is distributed around the local area. Whilst this has the handy advantage of cutting costs (being black and white), the poster format invites a level of instant participation - and a sense of ownership - within the yearly carnival. The colouring in poster format is one of many things we have learnt over the last six months. During this time we have been running a consultation with the local community called the Balsall Heath Biennale. Our interpretation of the concept of the Biennale is not as an event that happens every two years, but a project with a commitment to an area for a two-year period. From it’s inception in October 2011, through a research period with the local community, the Biennale will culminate in a series of projects and events in the Summer/Autumn of 2013. This publication is a record and capturing of the consultation process; it also includes hypothetical propositions and ideas for the project in 2013 (see entries in boxes). The A-Z format was chosen for three reasons: (1) it enables a non-hierarchical, democratic presentation of the consultation findings; (2) it acts as a basic directory and audit of creative activity in Balsall Heath; (3) it represents a deliberate attempt at linking up the huge amount of information we have gathered. Linking up or ‘linkages’ is a term that has popped up repeatedly over the consultation process as something that community groups in Balsall Heath are very good at doing - and it’s an important concept within the context of the publication and the project. The A-Z format hopefully captures this process - a linking up of what’s going on in Balsall Heath. The publication is not exhaustive in its knowledge of Balsall Heath. Rather it reflects our interpretation of the local area based upon the views of people collected during the consultation process and our own knowledge having lived here as residents for seven years. Please colour in creatively. 3

A Boards

The most important component of any Biennale. A street level, visible sign that something unusual is occurring. Does a Biennale require anything else other than A-Boards and merchandise?

See Community Biennale, Merchandise

Activism

Not to be confused with going to the gym regularly, Balsall Heath’s history of activism was one of the reasons we were excited about developing a project in the area. We had downloaded a pdf of an old copy of the local community magazine ‘The Heathan’ from the 1970’s, produced on a typewriter with hand drawn graphics and printed on a bandana machine. The front page detailed the planned closure of the Art School and the protests being organised against this.

See Art School, Balsall Heath, Balsall Heath Forum, Heathan, Common, Residents Meetings, St Paul’s Trust, Street Watch

Adoption Agency

Not for children or small furry animals, but for all the ‘confused’ and ‘unadopted’ spaces across Balsall Heath. Often the result of Victorian housing coming into conflict with 1960s re-development, the agency would seek to ‘re-home’ these spaces so that they became affiliated to a particular street or individual and began to have a use value beyond dumping.

See Common, Confused Spaces, Green and Clean, Unadopted Alleys

Agricultural Show (Balsall Heath)

Building on the success of the Balsall Heath Chilli Farm and Cheddar Road Gardens, this project would incorporate two events: a day of Open Gardens and a Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Show.

See Cheddar Road Gardens, Chilli Farm, Common, Green Trail, Open Gardens

Al Nakheel Restaurant

A Yemeni restaurant on Edward Road. Al Nakheel opened in 2011 in a building formally run as a public house called The Coach & Horses. The staff are friendly and the food is cheap - unlike its previous incarnation as a pub which was a fairly terrifying experience.

See Pubs

Apna Town

Several years ago, there was a contest to rename the Balti Triangle. The public voted for their favourite and it it was won by a Sikh gentleman from Handsworth who had come up with â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Apna Townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. At this point the council abandoned the idea and stuck with Balti Triangle.

See Balti

Artists

The Balsall Heath Biennale project was initiated by artists Chris Poolman and Elizabeth Rowe - who have lived in Balsall Heath for seven years. Chris and Liz are based at Grand Union studios and project space in Digbeth. www.chrispoolman.com www.elrowe.com www.grand-union.org.uk

See Contemporary Art, Local, Stray Cats, Superspace

Arts Council

The Arts Council are a national funding body for the arts. They funded the consultation project through their Grants for the Arts scheme. They are based at The Hive in Manchester. www.artscouncil.org.uk

See Beekeeping, Funding

Art School

Otherwise known as The College of Art on Moseley Road. When it opened in 1900 it was the first municipal branch School of Art in Birmingham. It closed in 1975 and is now owned by the British Association of Muslims. The Moseley School of Art Association was established in 2002 as a forum for past students and teachers. Although a Grade II listed, the building is slowly falling into a state of dilapidation. We’ve discussed the possibility of programming a number of events and talks in locations on the Moseley Road in close proximity to the derelict art school, (i.e. Ort, Hillac Cafe) - literally an ‘art school’ surrounding the art school. The content of the programme would reflect one of the problematics of the consultation: the role and value attributed to creative activities (i.e. art, craft, design, dance, drama and music) within education and society more generally. This idea was partly a response to the difficulty we had in gaining interest for our workshops with local schools.

See Engagement, Talk Series, Workshops

Awards

Organised by Balsall Heath Forum, award ceremonies are a long established part of the community calendar in Balsall Heath. The Dynamic Youth Awards (rewarding young people who have played a positive role within their community) and The Heart of Gold Awards (celebrating the long term achievements of people helping to improve the area) happened during 2012. Both events attracted up to 300 people; they also included a free curry.

See Balsall Heath Forum, Community Meal, Engagement, Food (Free), Peerages

Badge

Opposite is a badge produced for the Balsall Heath Festival in 1969. We hope to re-instate it on T-shirts, badges, tote bags and posters as Biennale merchandise in 2013.

See Festival, Heathen, Hyperlocal, Local

Balsall Heath

An inner-city, multi cultural neighbourhood of Birmingham, identified as being socially and economically disadvantaged, Balsall Heath also has a growing number of people living and working in the area who produce and engage in arts activity. It also has an intriguing history of community activism and is currently involved in a central government pilot as part of the Localism Bill to develop a Neighbourhood Plan and Neighbourhood Budget. Lying between the city centre and it’s more affluent neighbour Moseley, Balsall Heath’s is undoubtbly a creative area, yet there is a lack of cohesion between key partners and a significant gap in terms of marketing the wider cultural offer of the neighbourhood. This is something that our project seeks to address. In addition, there are significant barriers preventing local people engaging with existing cultural provision based on lack of understanding and possibly a lack of trust.

See Activism, Health Statistics, Neighbourhood Plan, Neighbourhood Budget, Politicians, Space, Statistics

Balsall Heath Arts Forum

Despite the growing number of arts organisations in Balsall Heath, they exist with limited knowledge of each others work and the individuals who run them. It would strengthen the area’s creative identity if there was a Balsall Heath Arts Forum.

See Sparkbrook Art Agenda

Balsall Heath in Bloom

Balsall Heath in Bloom is part of Britain in Bloom, an annual national campaign run by the Royal Horticultural Society. Over the last year we’ve been involved in Balsall Heath in Bloom and we hope to develop a number of projects as part of the Biennale that continue this interest. 13

Balsall Heath TV 14

Our involvement was through a chilli growing project working with 60 students at Nelson Mandela school to grow chillies for a display on the Balsall Heath in Bloom judging day. The community garden we’ve set up Cheddar Road Gardens - also formed part of the judging trail.

See Agricultural Show, Cheddar Road Gardens, Chilli Farm, Clean and Green, Common, Curating Balsall Heath in Bloom, Growing, Open Gardens, Planter Sculptures

Balsall Heath is Our Planet

Balsall Heath is Our Planet or BHIOP is run by John Newson. With a focus on the environment, BHIOP is a community initiative that aims to cut the carbon emissions of our inner city neighbourhood. www.balsallheathisourplanet.wordpress.com

Balsall Heath TV

One idea that proved popular across the consultation was a Balsall Heath TV station. This would report on the events, exhibitions, projects and spaces associated with the Biennale, as well as Balsall Heath more widely. These would be transmitted and stored on-line for the public to access as a legacy for the project.

Balsall Heath Tourist Information Centre

One of the key findings of the consultation was a need for greater ‘joined up’ marketing of the cultural offer of Balsall Heath. We would like to set up Balsall Heath Tourist Information Centre. This will function as an information hub for the project and a distribution centre for printed publicity from other organisations. It would include information on the other projects and events we are organising as part of the project (e.g. Balsall Heath World Cup, Public Art Shares) and feature a small shop selling BHB merchandise (e.g. tote bags) and souvenir’s produced in the ‘craft’ workshops. The Tourist Information Centre would also extend to a series of pop-up stations around Balsall Heath.

See Balsall Heath Arts Forum, Craft Activities, Dogon Tribe, Ladypool Road, Neutral Spaces, Sparkbrook Arts Agenda 15

Balsall Heath World Cup

This idea was used as one of the posters advertising the Biennale and proved very popular; we even had people knocking on our front door asking when the Balsall Heath World Cup was taking place. Many of the questionnaire’s contained the answer ‘sport’ as an activity people would like to see more of. People’s questionnaire responses to defining their ethnicity prompted many different answers, including one where a girl listed it as ‘unofficial country’. The idea of a World Cup in an area that contains people from so many different countries seems to be a pertinent way to explore how people develop loyalty to where they were born, where they live and each other. Working with Local Leagues, a local not for profit organisation organising sport for children (based at the end of our road), this event would be organised with their support. We plan to devise games that subvert the traditional two-sided football structure. This event draws on the idea of three-sided football, a variation of association football with three teams instead of the usual two. It was devised by the Danish Situationist Asger Jorn to explain his notion of triolectics, his refinement on the Marxian concept of dialectics, as well as to disrupt one’s everyday idea of football. Played on a hexagonal pitch, and unlike conventional football, where the winner is determined by the highest scoring of the two teams, no score is kept of the goals which a team scores, but conversely a count is taken of the number of goals conceded and the winning team is that which concedes the least number of goals.

See Common, Local Leagues

Three-sided football pitch. Asger Jorn. ‘The Application of the Triolectical Method in General Situology’ 1964

Ladypool Road Balti Museum 18

Balti

Balti is a British style curry cooked to please the Western palatte, prepared in a round metal dish and then served straight on the table. It was developed in Birmingham with Balsall Heath at the forefront of this Asian food revolution, though few restaurants still cook using this method today. Back in the 1980s, someone said to us, balti was ‘rock and roll’. It brought masses of people into the local area and changed peoples eating habits. Our publicity poster - Ladypool Road Balti Museum - outlined a hypothetical idea for what we assumed would be a good thing for Balsall Heath: a museum celebrating and documenting the history of the Balti in the local area. The poster however, came to represent something of a problem for us. The Balti - or at least the expansion of Balti restaurants in the area - isn’t uniformly embraced by everyone. In Balsall Heath there is no limit on restaurants – and this brings problems such as litter and vermin. A constant complaint from residents at meetings, specifically those based on or near the Ladypool Road, was the litter produced by these restaurants and the effect this had on their lives on a daily basis. The Balti is also a contested issue because of the 30+ Balti houses in the Balti triangle only six of them are authentic Balti houses. They are: Al Frash, Popular, Diwan, Adil, Shabab and Shahi Nan Kebab (this one is slightly outside the area on the Stratford Road; apparently the chef is a former Pakistani navy chef whose curries are very very hot). Andy Munro, chairman of the Balti Association, is currently campaigning for the name ‘Birmingham Balti’ to be given EU protected name status.

See Biennale Balti, Health Statistics, Ladypool Road, Litter

Beekeeping

A questionnaire response - ‘would like to see a beekeeping area in Balsall Heath like in Highbury Park, Kings Heath’.

See Arts Council, Agricultural Show, Wastelands Twinning

Biennale

In preparation for an expected level of disinterest towards the art world’s lingua franca, the information booklet we produced described the concept of a Biennale as follows:

‘Biennale is an Italian word for ‘every other year’. It is most commonly used within the art world to describe an international festival of contemporary art that occurs every two years. Venice is perhaps the most famous Biennale, although other cities across the world - Berlin, Moscow and Liverpool for example - also have Biennales. We want to create a Biennale that reflects and celebrates the history, culture and people of Balsall Heath.’ If we achieved one thing in six months, it’s that 100% more Balsall Heathan’s now know what a Biennale / Biennial is compared to this time last year - they also know there are two alternative ways of spelling ‘that word’ (its exact pronunciation was also discussed widely at Resident’s Meetings). We now interpret the concept of the Biennale in terms of a project that has a two-year life cycle that is committed to a specific geographical area for this period of time.

See Community Biennale, Common

Biennale Balti

A special Balti for the Biennale. Curators would be asked to ‘curate’ a Balti in conjunction with a restaurant such as Al Frash or Popular Balti.

See Waitor Curator

Bin Bags (Limited Edition)

A series of limited edition bin bags designed by artists to be distributed around Balsall Heath for a set time period. Although functional bin bags, their use and ‘arrangement’ on the streets of Balsall Heath would produce unusual, brightly coloured sculptural configurations. Whilst brightening up the streets on rubbish collection day, they would also draw attention to the rubbish bag as an object we have become accustomed to in the West (and perhaps make people think about their rubbish consumption).

See Common, Dogon Tribe, Fly Tipping, Green and Clean, Litter

Birmingham City Council Cultural Commissioning

Birmingham City Council provides funding for cultural activity taking place in the region. The department is called Cultural Commissioning. You can apply to this department to fund your cultural activity. www.birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham Surrealists

The Birmingham Surrealists were an informal grouping of artists and intellectuals associated with the Surrealist movement, based in Birmingham from the 1930s to the 1950s. The key figures were the artists Conroy Madox and John Melville alongside Melville’s brother, the art critic Robert Melville. Other significant members included artists Emmy Bridgewater, Oscar Mellor and the young Desmond Morris. The Birmingham Surrealists would meet in the Kardomah Cafe on New Street, the Trocadero pub on Temple Street, or in later years in Maddox’s house in Balsall Heath which would also often play host to more eclectic gatherings including figures such as jazz musician George Melly, poets Henry Reed and Walter Allen and writers Stuart Gilbert and Henry Green.

See Surrealist Nights

Blues

Andy Munro, chairman of the Balti Association (and also editor of a Birmingham City Football Club fanzine), believed that the origins of the first Blues ground where near the ‘Ladybrook Road’ in 1877. It may have been where the former pub The Crown is on St Pauls Road.

See Balsall Heath World Cup, Pubs

Buckminster Fuller

May have designed Balsall Heath Forum’s pyramidical home.

See Forum, Truffle Hunters

Buddhist Centre

Although based slightly outside of the area defined as Balsall Heath by the local authorities ( by about 100 metres), the Buddhist Centre on Mary Street has been mentioned several times on questionnaires. www.birminghambuddhistcentre.org.uk

See Faith

Businesses

Although largely in favour of a Biennale, several local business owners were keen to stress that ‘cultural events’ had previously had a disruptive effect on their business. One shop owner in particular, a Halal butchers on Edward Road, gave two examples when two recent events had a detrimental effect on his business. The Skyride and Bupa half marathon saw the roads closed around Balsall Heath and people unable to drive into the area to visit his shop. At the Sparkbrook Arts Agenda meeting at The Hubb, the local town centre regeneration manager outlined how arts and businesses can work together. The Arts Council publication ‘Adding Value and a Competitive Edge: The Business Case For Using The Arts in Town Centres and Business Improvement Districts,’ expands on this.

See Sparkbrook Arts Agenda 23

Cabbadi

A fictitious Asian wrestling based team sport involving teams of taxi driving firms (of which there many in Balsall Heath).

See Kabbadi

Calthorpe Park

Calthorpe Park is one of the largest parks in Birmingham, but perhaps a poor cousin to it’s wealthier neighbour Cannon Hill Park. Our meeting with its park keeper suggested that the park lacked a cohesive identity. Although it’s well used for cricket and football, there is no point of communication between all of the different groups that use it. The park keeper stressed that it would really benefit from a noticeboard and effective signage that captured and linked up all of the groups and people who use the park. This would make a good start in forming a stronger identity for the park, and could perhaps lead onto a Friends of the Park group being created. We found out that the hills in Calthorpe Park were man made in the 1960s when the council used the area as a dumping ground for earth dug out during the building of the Belgrave Middleway.

See Common, Clean and Green, The Harborne Factor

Calthorpe Park Play Centre

Children’s play centre on Edward / Cheddar Road; venue for the Cheddar and Court Road residents meetings.

See Neutral Spaces

Cannon Hill Park

The questionnaires that we distributed contained an image of a map of Balsall Heath. On this we asked people to mark three of their favourite places in the local area. The most popular destination was Cannon Hill Park, which geographically sits just outside the boundary (literally by metres). Cannon Hill Park has recently been awarded Green Flag status.

The reasons people gave for using Cannon Hill Park were predominantly recreational, such as sport and play areas, but rarely for the Midlands Arts Centre. In contrast, questionnaires conduced at a Mac workshop suggested that most of its users came from outside the local area, and had traveled to Cannon Hill Park specifically to visit the Mac.

See Mac, Space

Carnival

Balsall Heath has a yearly carnival that attracts up to 5000 people. Many of the local schools are involved in this, preparing costumes and props for the carnival procession. Carnival was cancelled this year because of the weather. The theme for the carnival in 2013 is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bugs, Butterflies, Bees & Bloomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

See Community, Linkages

Cash Points

Hardly any. Live in Balsall Heath to save money.

Celebrating Sanctuary

Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham works through the arts to raise awareness of the contributions that refugees make to the UK, and in particular to the city of Birmingham. Their events celebrate the tradition of offering sanctuary in the UK to those fleeing persecution, and support refugee artists to further their careers and reach new audiences. We ran an information stall at a Celebrating Sanctuary event at The Old Printworks.

Central Mosque

Not quite in Balsall Heath (15 metres away), Central Mosque is the second largest mosque in the UK. www.centralmosque.org.uk

Chaos Acoustic Night

Every Sunday night at The Old Moseley Arms public house on Tindal Street. Possibly organised by someone from The Move. Brilliant.

See Old Moseley Arms, Pubs

Cheddar Road Gardens

As recently as 1992, Cheddar Road was one of the worst roads in Birmingham, if not the UK, for prostitution. Although no longer the case, the road still retains a reputation of a sort with people coming from outside of Balsall Heath to fly tip and dump rubbish. The road is also one of the main arteries through Balsall Heath as the Rea Valley Cycle route runs along Cheddar Road. Behind many of the houses on Cheddar Road, there are a number of legally binding shared gardens – literally common spaces - that no one takes ownership of. Balsall Heath Forum have been cleaning one particular space for years (approximately the equivalent of seven back gardens) only for it to become neglected again. We’ve recently been awarded a small amount of money from Community First to develop the space into a community garden. Whilst its a gardening project, and now includes a polytunnel and raised beds, the space is primarily conceived of as a social space in which people might come together – and whether this can have an impact upon Cheddar Road’s litter problems. The garden formed part of the Balsall Heath in Bloom 2012 judging trail. The judges were impressed, except for the three metre high Giant Hogweed growing in the corner. Apparently this is one of the UK’s most poisonous plants whose sap can cause scarring and permanent blindness. Later in the year we will be organising an event and a chilli plant sale; money raised from this will be re-invested into the garden, buying seeds and compost for 2013. www.cheddarroadcommunitygarden.tumblr.com

See Agricultural Show, Chilli Garden, Clean and Green, Common, Contemporary Art, Extra Curricular, Health Statistics 29

Children’s Centre

Impressive organisation and space dedicated to quality care and provision for young children and parents. Situated off Clifton Road next to the City Farm. www.stpaulstrust.org.uk

See St Paul’s Trust

Chilli Farm

During our initial research into Balsall Heath and Sparkbrook in 2011, we came across a little known, but pioneering community food growing project that was set up in Sparkbrook, Birmingham in the 1980s. The project was called Ashram Acres, and it involved local people, many of them unemployed migrants, reclaiming derelict land to establish a large community growing initiative. Although pioneering as a model of self-organisation, in that it resisted outside financial support (relying upon ‘sweat equity’), we became interested in the projects growing practices: it specialised in producing Asian and West Indian vegetables; their success relying upon the knowledge and expertise brought by migrants from abroad. Fast forward 30 years, and ‘exotic’ vegetables are a mainstay of the UK’s culinary landscape. The chilli for example, is synonymous with Balsall Heath, in that the area is home to the famous Balti Triangle. We began to develop a project called Balsall Heath Chilli Farm, which was conceived as a mass community growing initiative. Balsall Heath Chilli Farm would have no permanent base; rather it would be the sum of its many parts and be based across Balsall Heath in peoples gardens, in kitchens, on windowsills and scraps of wasteland. Alongside the growing side of things, the project would include an ambitious programme of events related to growing, including a Balsall Heath Chilli Festival. Although in it’s early stages, our ambition is to make Balsall Heath the chilli growing capital of the UK by 2060. (Just in time for the UK to flood because of global warming).

We’ve made a small start: Cheddar Road Gardens hosts a chilli growing space (17 different types of chilli on offer) and we worked with 60 primary school students at Nelson Mandela school to grow chillies for Balsall Heath in Bloom.

See Balsall Heath in Bloom, Cheddar Road Gardens, Curating Balsall Heath in Bloom

Church Centre

Designed and purpose-built in the late 1970s for worship, community gatherings and as a meeting place for local elderly people, the Church Centre is on the corner of Mary Street and Edward Road. A venue for many of the Balsall Heath Forum’s events, it has a great garden complete with an auditorium. www.balsallheathandedgbaston.org.uk

See Faith

Cinemas

We met with Ian Francis, director of 7 Inch Cinema (who lives in Balsall Heath) about the possibility of either outdoor screenings or films shown in unusual locations around Balsall Heath (i.e Raja brothers, the global food superstore on the Ladypool Road that used to be a cinema). The Balsall Heath Local History Society published a book called ‘The Flicks’ which has information on all the cinemas that used to be in Balsall Heath.

See History Society, Raja Brothers, 7 Inch Cinema

City Farm

Not many other areas in Birmingham have a City Farm, Balsall Heath’s is located just off Clifton Road. Balsall Heath also used to have a Zoological gardens in the 1800s. The stray cats that now stalk the local area may be related to the lion that escaped in 1887. www.stpaulstrust.org.uk/community/balsall-heath-city-farm

See Children’s Centre, St Paul’s Trust 31

Clifton Primary School

Clifton School is quite unique in that the week prior to Balsall Heath Carnival, the school has a creative arts week dedicated to preparing for Balsall Heath carnival. We went into the school during this week and ran 10 workshops over two days; these focused on finding out about the current Balsall Heath and fictionalising a future for the area. www.cliftonprimary.bham.sch.uk

See Fictionalising, Workshops

Clifton Road Mosque

Large mosque off the Moseley Road.

See Faith

Colouring In

The carnival organisers produce colouring in posters for Balsall Heath carnival each year. They then run a competition off the back of this for the best entries. Apparently grown men still dispute their lack of prizes 20 years down the line. The colouring in posters create opportunities for ownership of an event. We used the colouring in model for the street party we helped to organise on Eastwood Road. Adapting Andy Warhol’s image of the Queen with a Sex Pistols album cover using DIY cut out newspaper lettering, we distributed posters to the 60 houses on Eastwood Road. This was something of an experiment for us, as we had no idea how many would go up along the road, but over the course of the week the road became peppered with posters, several of them quite beautiful. In the end, with the coloured in Queen’s face, the road represented something of a Republican stronghold. As a next step we would produce 10 different colouring in posters to be distributed via the Balsall Heath Tourist Information Centre and local schools. These would relate to fictitious re-imagining’s of Balsall Heath’s public space and present 10 famous public sculptures digitally integrated into the Balsall Heath landscape.

See Common, Experiment, Ownership, Public Art Shares, Reasons, Street Party 33

Commissioning

An idea we are currently exploring is the possibility of commissioning people who live or work in Balsall Heath. This was framed by an interest in neighbourhood budgeting, and discussions around how a Biennale might be shaped by local people. Unlike a conventional Biennale the funding won’t be spent on bringing artists into the area, rather it will be spent within a specific geographical locale. Something that prompted this model was the number of creative people we met who are simply unfamiliar with making any form of application for funding, as well as all of the professional creative people that we know who are based in Balsall Heath.

See Common, Destroyers, Local, Local Artists, 7 Inch Cinema, Skill Exchange

Common

Across the consultation, there is one word that has continually re-surfaced in relation to Balsall Heath: community. Balsall Heath is often referred to as a model of the ‘big society’, as a ‘community’ that works. It is an area that has been turned around from one of Birmingham’s, if not the UK’s, worst areas for prostitution, drug dealing and crime to what it is today. It has an expansive infrastructure of community groups and not-for profit organisations, a network of residents associations and a packed calendar of community events. It’s also a place where children still play openly in the streets. But as a community space the area still has problems: litter and dumping on shared public spaces, vermin, low levels of job opportunity and high levels of health problems among residents. Balsall Heath Forum and local councillors are currently developing a series of initiatives designed to combat this with a ‘Green and Clean’ agenda - an attempt to revitalise the physical fabric of Balsall Heath to compliment the social fabric of the area. In light of the above, the concept of ‘the common’ has helped us begin to understand Balsall Heath as a community and a geographical space. 34

In their recent book “Community Art: The Politics of Trespassing”, Paul De Bruyne & Pascal Gielen introduce the ‘common’ as follows:

‘When, in the sixthteenth and seventeenth century, first in England and then all over Europe, the meadows, where animals grazed, and the forests, where everyone could gather wood, were privatised, the conflict about common ground was born.’ The common as a concept is multi-faceted. Etymologically it is related to community. It arks back to ideas of ‘common ground’, but has relevance today in terms of the selling of natural resources to private enterprises. In cyber culture we can think of the ‘creative commons’ for example, which is open access to cultural products such as information and ideas. Our interpretation of the common as a concept within the context of Balsall Heath is that it is concerned with the politics of sharing - be that space, information or natural resources. We’re interested in ‘the common’ as a way of conceptualising Balsall Heath and as a theme for the Biennale. It captures the good of Balsall Heath (the community spirit) but also the bad (litter and common spaces that have become neglected).

See Balsall Heath in Bloom, Balsall Heath World Cup, Cheddar Road Garden, Community Art, Confused Spaces, Contemporary Art, Public Art Shares, Neutral Spaces, Street Party, Unadopted Alleys

Community Art

From it’s inception the Biennale was conceived as an experiment into community engagement with the figures and tropes of community art coming into contact with the methods, structures and thinking of contemporary art. It asks: Can contemporary survive if open to any audience? How do we talk about contemporary art with a non-specialist audience? Broadly speaking, the Balsall Heath Biennale project could be defined as a community art project. By this we mean that it is a project within the community in which we live on a day-to-day basis. It asks how we, as artists, can play a role within this community (or be chased out for witchcraft).

See Commissioning, Common, Community Biennale, Contemporary Art, Local, Stray Cats 35

Unadopted or confused spaces as identified by Joe Holyoak in the Neighbourhood Plan for Balsall Heath 2012 36

Community Biennale

The project took as it’s starting point, and continues to be framed by a proposition put forward by Lucy Lippard at the 2010 Falmouth convention: the ‘community biennale’. Lippard asks:

“What about a “Community Biennial,” subverting the notion of high art by inserting a practice often scorned by the global art world. Curators could consult with various agencies and non- profits to discover the root social issues in the location, the community and activist organizations dealing with them, and seek out artists who could provide models for thinking and acting about these issues.” Our consultation period was modelled upon this idea of consulting with local groups and organisations to find out about Balsall Heath as a social space. As artists we will select the most relevant and interesting projects that respond to this period of research.

Community Meals

Balsall Heath Forum organise communal meals roughly every three months. These are open to anyone within the community. These involve a form of entertainment, (music, poetry, dance or drama) and a free curry at the end. Often they attract over 300 people and are an important way of people coming together over food.

See Faith, Free Food, Picnic, Reasons

Confused Spaces

Balsall Heath is full of what Balsall Heath Forum call ‘confused spaces’ patches of land owned by the City Council or Housing Associations that have become neglected and under used.

See Common, Curating Balsall Heath in Bloom, Green Trail, Open Gardens, Planter Sculptures, Wasteland Twinning

City Farm gets a whale 38

Consultation

We developed a proposal for Arts Council England that sought to initiate a period of consultation to develop ideas and relationships for the Biennale project. The consultation included:

Meetings Early on in the consultancy we realised that winning people’s trust, and talking to people in person, was central to the success of the project. We had 24 meetings during the consultation period. Residents Meetings Part of the legacy of Balsall Heath’s activist history is the residents meetings that are still organised by the Balsall Heath Forum. These allowed us to find out about the local area in detail and form key relationships with active residents. We attended 20 residents meetings. Information stands We held 4 public information sessions at Mac, Ort Café, The Old Printworks and Calthorpe Park (as part of The Drum’s ‘Brum to Brazil’ event). Workshops We worked with four partnership organisations, The Hubb, Clifton Primary School, Queensbridge School and The Balsall Heath Children’s Centre to deliver 15 workshops. See Ice Cream Vans, List, Residents Meetings, Splat the Balsall Heath Rat, Stray Cat Sock Puppets, Tour Guides, Workshops

Contemporary Art

Adorno described the Avant Garde as:

‘Driv[ing] about in a type of gypsy wagon; the gypsy wagons, however, roll about secretly in a monstrous hall, a fact which they do not themselves notice’ (pg.118) Culture and Administration, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (2001) Theodor W Adorno and J.M. Bernstein Routledge UK.

Craft Activities

Questionnaire responses often listed ‘craft’ or ‘hands on activities’ as something people would like to see more of in Balsall Heath. We would incorporate these as part of another project - The Recycled Cosmology of the Zaffs Tribe of Balsall Heath. An unusual craft activity that took place at the Balsall Heath Festival in 1969 was Tree Knitting; you sit in a tree and knit until it touches the ground.

See Carnival, Commissions, Common, Dogon Tribe, Festival, Picnics, Zaffs

Cultural Differences

Living in Balsall Heath you can’t help but become aware of cultural differences. A few things we didn’t know six months ago: feeding pigeons may encourage vermin, but it is often underpinned by a religious belief; the correct etiquette for a mosque; leeks are big in Yemeni culture – they will make a leek go further by continually cutting off the top to eat and allowing it to grow back.

See Common, Faith, Pigeons, Vermin

Curating Balsall Heath in Bloom

We hope to continue our relationship with Balsall Heath in Bloom and build upon the current Green & Clean agenda initiated by Balsall Heath Forum and local councilors. Ideas include ‘curating’ planters and identifying other key ‘unowned’ sites in Balsall Heath for development. The planters and spaces will form a permanent trail through Balsall Heath, working in conjunction with the Map and Open Gardens event. A good example of an artist developing a conceptually rigorous growing project is Jacques Nimki’s 2007 Ikon Eastside exhibition. For this exhibition, Nimki created ‘Florilegium’, an indoor meadow of the kind of plants that grow in the neglected and hidden areas of Birmingham’s Eastside district. The artist researched and catalogued these specimens and produced a large ﬁeld in Ikon Eastside - a disused factory that Ikon occupied.

See Agricultural Show, Bin Bags (Limited Edition), Common, Dogon Tribe, Green and Clean, Map, Planter Sculptures, Wastelands Twinning 41

Dark Room

Balsall Heath now has a community darkroom, run by Dan Burwood at The Old Printworks. www.darkroombirmingham.co.uk

‘Darkroom Birmingham offers analogue black and white photographic facilities and training for individual and community use.’ Membership £20/quarter, £50/year Hourly rate : Off peak £6 / hour, peak time £8 / hour Email: danburwood@gmail.com Telephone: 07779159217

Decorate Your House Competition

This came from a questionnaire response – and we felt it was a really simple, but quite brilliant idea. It presents a common objective that could look spectacular if it occurred on a mass-scale across the local area over the course of one summer weekend. This idea builds on the finding that people will respond to ‘reasons’ for coming together (as seen in the success of the street party) and would be an experiment in to how a creative activity can bring people together. We plan to use the street that we live on (approximately 60 houses) as a site for the realisation of this project. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ will be documented by a professional photographer. The event will have an unusual theme: decorate your house in a surreal way. This relates back to Balsall Heath’s history of surrealism and will hopefully produce some unpredictable results.

See Awards, Birmingham Surrealists, Common, Street Party, Sweeping

Destroyers

15 peice mega folk band. Various members are based in Balsall Heath. www.thedestroyers.co.uk

DIY Exhibitions

This was another questionnaire entry; it’s something we are keen to see happening during the Biennale.

See Commissioning, Surrealist Nights

Dogon Tribe

‘The Recycled Cosmology of the Dogon of Mali’ is the name of an essay by Laurence Douny. This essay outlines the approach of the Mali Dogon tribe towards rubbish. Unlike Western attitudes towards waste, the Dogon retain all their domestic waste, putting it to new and unexpected uses. Their recycled cosmology ‘encompasses a plurality of entangled world-views that inform us about the life cycles of people, environment and society.’ This involves selling novelty items to tourists who come to see the Dogon tribe and their waste. (See centre pages). Given the litter and rubbish problems in Balsall Heath, the Dogon tribe offer an interesting framework for thinking about Balsall Heath and western ideas towards waste more generally. The Dogon’s attitude towards rubbish is an ethical one: they retain all the waste that they produce. We are developing a project called ‘The Recycled Cosmology of the Zaff’s Tribe of Balsall Heath’.

See Cultural Differences, Litter, Zaffs

Eco House

This private family home on Tindal Street, Balsall Heath was completed in 2009 and is the UK’s first and only retrofit house to “zero carbon” standard (Code for Sustainable Homes level 6). It generates all its own renewable energy with no use of fossil fuels, and has won six design awards including Civic Trust Commendation and RIBA Architecture Award. www.zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk

Engagement

Our objective was to try and do a consultation differently by creating novel forms of ‘consulting’ that played with the figures and tropes of community art. To find out about the local area we used devices synonymous with the local area. We also wanted these devices to be inherently creative in themselves. There were three main engagement tools -

1. Remote control Ice cream van + map As the entry ‘Ice Cream Vans’ outlines, Balsall Heath probably has the world’s most enthusiastic ice cream vans. We had a large 6 x 4 vinyl map of Balsall Heath printed and constructed two remote control ice cream vans. Children were drawn to these, often seeing it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to pull the arial off a miniature ice cream van. These were a useful tool for facilitating a discussion over a bird’s eye view of Balsall Heath. 2. Stray cat sock puppets Balsall Heath has a rich lineage of stray cats, particularly ginger ones. We developed sock puppets, albeit stray cat sock puppets. We ran workshops at Balsall Heath Children’s Centre, Clifton primary school and Queensbridge School using these. At Queensbridge, a local secondary school, we ran a stray cat writing workshop exploring some of the problems of the local area. This involved generating a new language or vernacular combining street / youth patois and a fictionalised cat idiom.

3. Splat the Balsall Heath Rat Balsall Heath has a vermin problem. Local people were more than willing to fill in a questionnaire if they were rewarded with the opportunity to viciously attack a plastic rat with a baseball bat.

See Colouring In, Common, Ice Cream Vans, Ownership, Stray Cats, Splat the Rat, Trust, Workshops

Environmental Warden

When discussing the problem of litter at residents meetings people would often talk about the need for fines to deter people. There was much debate around who could issue fines and the evidence they would need to enforce such measures. Balsall Heath has now appointed an Environmental Warden whose name is Jacqueline Vaughan and if you want to contact her telephone number is 0121 3030033 or email Jacqueline.vaughan@birmingham.gov.uk

See Litter, Vermin, Wirewool

Essay

We’re developing a larger piece of writing on Balsall Heath entitled ‘How are you going to engage? A Balsall Heath Cat Speaks’. Cats have a distinguished history in contemporary art, ranging from Marcel Broodthaers Interview with a cat in 1970 to Liam Gillick’s animatronic cat at the 2009 Venice Biennale (A Kitchen Cat Speaks). The essay is currently being written by a cat called Roger (who is ginger). Roger writes in a combination of cat-speak, local youth patois and aphorisms - a reflection of his upbringing as a stray cat in Balsall Heath, before he was brought into a house and made to read philosophy.

“yo yo yo, furry brothers an’ sisters - and jelly lickers. I’m from the Big G dynasty tinnit. I stink, therefore I am. Peter pong today. Mog wan?” [Hello my furry brothers and sisters – and also those cats that only lick the jelly on the catfood. I’m from the Balsall Heath ginger cat dynasty – Isn’t it? I really smell today you know. What’s going on?] See Engagement, Stray Cats, Vermin

Experiment

Balsall Heath is something of a test-bed for experiments into community. During the late 1980s and early 1990s the area became renowned for it’s resident activism. Today, perhaps because of this history, it is the only place in the country that is a pilot for both the Neighbourhood Plan and Neighbourhood Budgeting. We also consider our interpretation of the Biennale as something of an experiment.

See Activism, Community Biennale, Neighbourhood Budget, Neighbourhood Plan

Extra Curricular Activity

Over the last six months, the consultation has expanded to include a number of activities not in the original Arts Council application.

See Awards, Cheddar Road Gardens, Community Meals, Street Party

Faith

Balsall Heath is a strongly religious space, comprised of multiple faiths. Faith related issues came up numerous time - from the suggestion of a faith book fair by a Ladypool Road shop keeper to the owner of SMS supermarket on Edward Road saying he would welcome the opportunity to show video work in his store, as long as it adhered to one golden rule: ‘No Nakedness’.

See Faith Book Fair

Faith Book Fair

Could there also be a stand for books on contemporary art – a different type of faith?

Fast Food

Alongside the Balti houses of Balsall Heath, there are numerous fast food outlets. Many of these become permanent sites for litter, such as the kebab house on the junction of Edward and Cannon Hill Park Road. In the workshops we ran at Clifton school, we asked the children to design and paint an enormous floor drawing of an imaginary Balsall Heath - an ideal Balsall Heath. Many of the children drew or painted fast food outlets.

See Balti, Litter, Vermin, Workshops

Festival

William McCabe of St Pauls Trust kindly emailed us a selection of newspaper cuttings relating to the 1969 Balsall Heath Festival. (See images, pgs 54-57.) The festival was organised by Anne Harwig, a 23-year-old Dutch student who had undertaken a survey in the area as part of her university course. The newspaper article explains that she found this a deeply sad experience:

‘It was so depressing. I met so many women who worked all day and spent all evening bringing up children or doing housework, and they had no energy for anything else. I thought what the area needed was cheering up’ 54

The festival included peerages, tree knitting, street-cleaning-cum-teaparties, wandering folk singers, children’s plays, car rides for children, pop concerts, picnic’s, dancing, sports, town criers and film shows. Even pubs were involved with Yard of Ale competitions, domino contests and armwrestling bouts. The festival attracted a lot of interest within the city, as this Birmingham Mail reporter explains:

‘Balsall Heathan’s, from the oldest inhabitant down to the smiling fiveyear-old who tried to take the hub-caps off my car, are taking a delighted Whatever next? View of their home-grown fun festival’ See Carnival, Commissions, Picnics, Pubs

Fictionalising

In the workshops we asked people to ‘fictionalise’ Balsall Heath as if they had an unlimited budget. We wanted to create an imaginary interpretation of local public space.

See Fast Food, Workshops

Fly Tipping

Balsall Heath continues to be a site for fly-tipping - either by certain residents or people coming from outside of the area. Balsall Heath Forum regularly go through bags of rubbish to identify their origins; we heard stories of people coming from the Black Country to dump all their fast-food restaurant business waste in Balsall Heath. One Cheddar Road resident explained to us that at night she would often see trucks coming to the road to dump rubbish.

See Cheddar Road Gardens, Litter, Street Furniture, Vermin

Food (free)

The community get-togethers that Balsall Heath Forum organise every three months at the Church centre all conclude with a communal meal - a free curry. Attendance is always high.

See Awards, Common, Community Meals, Engagement, Reasons 55

Birmingham Mail, 2/07/1969

Forum (Balsall Heath)

Text taken from Balsall Heath Forum’s website:

“Twenty five years a go, a few intrepid people formed a ‘Building a Better Balsall Heath’ campaign. The leading lights included representatives from a Mosque, Anglican and Methodist churches, and a voluntary organisation. They were joined by a Trades Unionist and half a dozen residents. Together, they made progress in changing the image of the area, forming and representing the local voice to ‘the powers that be’, helping organise a mid -summer carnival, starting & contributing to a community newspaper. They achieved a number of successes and eventually decided to become a Company Limited by Guarantee and to be called the Balsall Heath Neighbourhood Forum. In 1992 the first elections to the Forum’s executive were held. Today, out of a population of 15,000 with 9,000 of voting age, some 1,000 are members and 600 take part in the vote. There are 12 resident elected members, 6 residents who represent voluntary and faith organisations and 4 who are co-opted. In 1992, there were no employees. All the efforts of the Forum were voluntary. But, so much needed to be done - rubbish and graffiti removed, crime reduced, more people involved and supported - that it was decided to raise the funds to recruit and manage staff. Today, the voluntary elected committee employs 20 people. The Forum now both represents the local voice to the public and private sectors and undertakes a variety of tasks with the help of its staff and an array of volunteers. It is rearranging the way Balsall Heath is managed and governed. It is enabling more and more local people to improve the quality of local life.” The Forum have been enormously helpful in the consultation process, allowing us to sit in on 20 residents meetings, facilitating space for the community garden and sharing information, contacts and networks. www.balsallheathforum.org.uk

Friends Institute

Large Victorian building on the Moseley Road that hosts a number of community organisations - and the Matchbox cafe.

Funding

Our approach to securing funding for the Biennale is is develop a modular approach, with particular projects matched to specific funds. If one or two funding bids fails they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t affect the overall Biennale, rather it will be just short of a few projects. The organisations we are making applications to are: Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council Cultural Commissioning, Birmingham City Council Neighbourhood Budgeting, Near Neighbours, the Police Proceeds from Crime Fund, Community First, Awards For All and Young Roots. We will also seek funding from businesses and through private donations.

See Peerages

Games

Carnival organiser Ian Edwards, who is trying to bring back the competition ‘It’s A Knockout’ to Balsall Heath (this used to be a regular feature on the Balsall Heath community calendar), talked of trying to involve a police team within the contest, because it allowed the police to be ‘humanised’. Games are an important means of engaging people and disrupting social hierarchies.

See Balsall Heath World Cup, Common, Police

Giant Map

In conjunction with the remote control ice cream vans, we used a giant vinyl map of Balsall Heath. This proved extremely popular with children.

See Engagement, Ice Cream Vans, Workshops

Green and Clean

Across the local area at the moment, there is a Green and Clean policy coming into place. This is co-ordinated by the Forum with the support of local Labour councillors. We hope to contribute towards this push for a greener and cleaner neighbourhood with a number of our proposals for the Biennale.

See Agricultural Show, Curating Balsall Heath in Bloom, Map, Planter Sculptures, Wastelands Twinning

Growing

A number of the projects we are developing for the Biennale have a growing impetus. As will become apparent across the publication, litter and dumping are a recurring problem in the local area and we feel the best way to combat this is by making a permanent contribution to the physical environment in Balsall Heath. Growing projects needn’t be an uncomfortable partner with contemporary art, as Neville Gabie’s recent Orchard commission for Sneinton Markets in Nottingham shows. In this the artist planted a series of apple trees in the new square of Sneinton, intended for communal use and enjoyment. The artist also donated apple trees of over 100 different varieties, through his 64

apple tree adoption network to local residents, schools and community organisations of Sneinton and St Ann’s in order to create a diverse urban orchard spanning the east side of the city. Over the weekend launch of Sneinton Market, Neville Gabie invited Nottingham based artists and organisations to join him in creating a varied programme of events to celebrate the planting of the apple trees. This programme comprised an exhibition, a symposium, a market, and a feast alongside night-time projections and sampling of delicious local produce. The project was designed to, ‘to link one of the oldest fruit and vegetable markets in the country to the wider debate of sustainable food in a city centre context.’ Although not always obvious, and lacking any City Council allotment provision, Balsall Heath is probably greener than you think. Dotted across the area are numerous micro green initiatives. All of the local primary schools have active gardening clubs and there is a well-established local gardening competition run by Balsall Heath Forum. The Forum also run The Tree Nursery, a small oasis in the heart of Balsall Heath. Nestling behind the Church centre is a wonderful garden and auditorium, a community garden is been set up at The Old Printworks, Elliot House has a gardening club and Martineau Gardens sits right on the boundary of Balsall Heath.

See Balsall Heath in Bloom, Cheddar Road Gardens, Common, Curating Balsall Heath in Bloom, Health Statistics, Green & Clean, Martineau Gardens, Planter Sculptures, Statistics, The Tree Nursery, Wasteland Twinning

Gudwara Singh

Balsall Heath has several Sikh Temples; two on Moseley Road and one on Mary Street.

See Faith

Harborne Factor

Naseem Akhtar of Saheli Women introduced the phrase ‘the Harborne factor’. By this she meant that Balsall Heath often gets a bad deal in terms of council provision (road repairs, street furniture) in relation to some of Birmingham’s more salubrious neighbourhoods such as Harborne. Naseem’s approach was if it’s not good enough for Harborne, then it’s not good enough for Balsall Heath.

See Balsall Heath, Saheli Women

Health Statistics

The Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Partnership (BHWP) outline in their Balsall Heath Health Profile 2010 that ‘the health of residents of Balsall Heath is on the whole worse than the Birmingham average.’ In this report they lay out some of the problems faced by citizen’s of Balsall Heath: ‘Life expectancy is much worse than the Birmingham average, along with self reported health status and long term limiting illnesses’, whilst ‘Mortality rates are generally higher than the Birmingham average, as are admission rates’. Furthermore, they note that there are ‘very mixed ethnicities with unhealthy lifestyles’ and multicultural groups ‘with heavy cardiovascular disease needs’. This is within the context of Birmingham having the least physically active adult population, the highest proportion of adults, with type II diabetes, and the second highest rate of childhood obesity among children in year 6, amongst the eight core cities in the UK.

Heathan

‘The Balsall Heathan’ community newspaper is the longest standing publication of its kind in Birmingham. It was established in 1973 and is still published on a monthly basis and distributed to all homes in Balsall Heath by the Forum and volunteers. We had two Biennale related articles published in the Heathan, and it proved to be a useful way of letting people know about the project. In 2013 we would like to guest edit the Heathan drawing on early editions of The Heathan as inspiration.

See Activism, Balsall Heath, Forum, Networks, St Paul’s Trust

1970’s Heathan Posters

The original Balsall Heathan magazine had something of a radical edge to it. We would reproduce five front pages of the 1970s edition of the Heathan as large posters and distribute them around Balsall Heath in visible locations (i.e. shops along the Ladypool Road). But the reproduction would come with one major difference: they would be translated into a number of languages now spoken around the area, thereby giving people new ways to access their local history.

Hillac Cafe

Somalian restaurant on the Moseley Road, next to The Old Printworks. Great value food. Alongside chicken and lamb dishes, it also does pasta (Somalia used to be an Italian colony). Illy expresso is half the price of anywhere else. If you go into the back, there is free soup on the right hand side and a large selection of private eating booths. Cavernous upstairs space for hire - includes two large ornate thrones, often used for weddings.

History Society

Balsall Heath has an active Local History Society with an incredible archive that is now available online. www.balsallheathhistory.co.uk

History Plaques

An idea to make visible the history of Balsall Heath. Like the blue plaques often seen on buildings in London, this would celebrate the people who have lived and worked in Balsall Heath

Housing Associations

About a third of the housing in Balsall Heath is run by Housing Associations for people on low incomes. Representatives from Housing Associations, particularly Midland Heart, were nearly always present at the 20 residents meetings we attended. www.midlandheart.org.uk

See Cultural Differences, ‘Mix of Things’ 69

How to Talk About Contemporary Art to a Dead Rat

A Balsall Heath version of Joseph Beuys famous performance piece ‘How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare’.

Hubb

The Hubb is an art space in Balsall Heath if you go through one entrance and Sparkbrook if you go through the other entrance. This is how they describe their work:

“The Hubb is an exciting new arts centre launched by Soul City Arts in partnership with Feed The Poor, in the heart of Birmingham’s inner city. In April 2010, Soul City Arts transformed a former men’s social club, which was a haven for drugs and alcohol into one of the UK’s first performing arts spaces that combines faith and creativity in a unique way, right in the heart of Birmingham’s most ethnically diverse communities. Leading artists, activists and educationalists have performed and spoken at the intimate venue, bringing people together from all walks of life, young and old. The Hubb has been described as the only venue of it’s kind in the western world - a centre which is inspired by an Islamic ethos – but has been visited and appreciated by people of all faith who have felt completely engaged within the programs delivered.” We ran a workshop at The Hubb and were also invited to present there at a meeting organised by Abid Hussain of the Arts Council. www.soulcityarts.com

See Murals, Soul City Arts, Sparkbrook Arts Agenda

Hyperlocal

When you get really excited about working in your local area after consuming too many cheap fizzy drinks.

Ice Cream Vans

Balsall Heath is home to the world’s most optimistic ice cream vans, persistent even in the coldest months of winter. In Balsall Heath it is possible to get an ice cream in the snow. Many years ago two artists tried to convince a Balsall Heath ice cream van man to play the socialist anthem the ‘Internationale’ through it’s sound system and give away free ice cream to children for one afternoon. The ice cream van driver was enthusiastic to this suggestion saying he would come back later - he never appeared down Eastwood Road again.

See Engagement, Workshops

Information Stands

We ran Biennale Information Stands at Calthorpe Park, MAC, The Old Printworks and Balsall Heath Children’s Centre. We developed a mobile, portable set up of paste table, A-Board, Splat the Balsall Heath Rat, Publicity, Giant Map and Remote Control Ice Cream Vans. And it all fitted into a Fiat Seicento Mia.

Jericho Foundation

“Based on Edward Road, the Jericho Foundation is a social enterprise that works with disadvantaged individuals to help them overcome barriers and become fulfilled, skilled and employed. They run a broad range of outreach, training and employment related programmes that are funded through a combination of public sector contracts and grants from grant making trusts, corporate donors and individuals.” The Jericho Foundation produced all of the printed publicity for the project (flyers, posters, learning booklets, questionnaires). www.jcp.org.uk

See Local Resources, Jericho Tension, Neighbourhood Budgeting

Jericho Tension

We coined the term ‘The Jericho Tension’, after our experiences with The Jericho Foundation who produced all of the printed publicity. It was intended to capture the pros and cons of using a non-specialist printing agency because of wanting to invest in the local economy. Although the Jericho Foundation is a social enterprise with a limited range of paper and printing options (only digital), they bent over backwards to help us. They are also local - literally at the bottom of our road, which was important to us in terms of developing a model of working where we used local resources as much as possible.

See Jericho Foundation, Local, Local Resources, Neighbourhood Budgeting, Quality

Joseph Chamberlain College

Enormous sixth form college in Balsall Heath. Joseph Chamberlain is also one of the few colleges in the UK to be a recipient of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further & Higher Education and an outstanding (grade 1) classification from OfSTED. www.jcc.ac.uk

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T H E M AT E R I A L I T Y O F D O M E S T I C WA S T E The Recycled Cosmology of the Dogon of Mali

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L AU R E N C E D O U N Y

University College London, UK Abstract This article explores some of the multiple forms and uses of Dogon domestic waste, considering daily shared experiences of the matter. It examines the implicit meanings objectified in the materiality of, and the daily praxis associated with, rubbish that the Dogon select and allocate to particular places in and out of their ‘home container’. These are framed within a recycled cosmology that encompasses a plurality of entangled world-views that inform us about the life cycles of people, environment and society. Key Words ◆ Dogon ◆ domestic waste ◆ materiality ◆ recycled cosmology

In memory of Mary Douglas (1921–2007). To understand garbage you have to touch it, to feel it, to sort it, to smell it. (Rathje and Murphy, 2001: 9)

Rubbish! It’s all about rubbish! Waste, garbage, detritus, litter and dirt have become a significant concern within the anthropology of the last 10 years. Beyond classics such as Douglas’s Purity and Danger (1966), Thompson’s Rubbish Theory (1979) and Laporte’s olfactory History of Shit (2002 [1978]), or even Rathje and Murphy’s Archaeology of garbage (1992), the flourishing recent literature on rubbish investigates a diverse range of topics. Examples of these include the work of Norris (2004, 2005) on the divestment and recycling of clothing in India, and an edited volume Journal of Material Culture Vol. 12(3): 309–331 Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore) [DOI: 10.1177/1359183507081897]www.sagepublications.com Downloaded from http://mcu.sagepub.com at University of Pennsylvania Library on August 2, 2009

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by Hawkins and Muecke (2003) that offers an eclectic panel of views on the ‘waste culture’, the everyday ethical meanings of which are further explored by Hawkins (2005). Substantial work has also been done by Lucas (2002) on the disposability of waste, while Edensor (2005a, 2005b) looks at the materiality of industrial ruins. A more historical perspective is taken by Strasser’s (1999) history of trash-making and by Rogers’ (2005) examination of trash in the USA’s ‘throw away society’, as well as by Amato’s (2000) account of dust and Cohen and Johnson’s Filth (2005). As far as West African literature on the topic is concerned, there has been a growing interest in the problems of waste impact, management and disposal (both rural and urban) since the 1990s. These issues frequently raise matters of legislation and health policy, and are often explored under a demographic perspective (e.g. Kwawe, 1995). There have also been studies from the standpoint of agronomy that deal with soil management and local uses of manure and compost in terms of agricultural development (e.g. Badiane and Ganry, 1998). In the surveys of French anthropologist Jacky Bouju and his team (Bouju et al., 1998), local notions of cleanliness in the towns of Bandiagara, Koro and Mopti are investigated. These are framed within a context of water management and supply that itself raises issues about health and traditional local politics regarding water access. Finally, beyond the brief accounts of composts and manures found in Denise Paulme’s Organization Sociale chez les Dogon (1988), Rogier Bedaux and Paul Lane’s (2003) study on Dogon attitudes towards rubbish investigates, using an ethno-archaeological approach, the disposability of waste within local practice, focusing particularly on reused and discarded domestic objects. This was done by use of statistics and a systematic itemization of detritus found in 29 compounds, which in turn led them to investigate the degradation phases of waste. In this article, I propose to take a perspective on domestic waste that differs from those I have briefly introduced. In fact, I offer an account of Dogon conceptions of rubbish, and practices incorporating it, based on the daily shared experience of the matter: that is, through participant observation. Hence, the world-views that I recount are framed within a practical and dialogic approach. I examine the spatial and temporal aspects of Dogon garbage, in order to ground analysis and interpretation with arguments based on materiality (Dant, 2005; Miller, 2005). Observing waste conversions in an African context and writing about it back in the West, constitutes another form of conversion. That is, a conversion to the ‘here’ of my own world-views on the matter. In fact, although I introduce the Dogon conception of waste as temporal, as that is the way I learned to see it when I was living in the village, back in the West I tend to see waste as spatial again. I am still, in fact, engaged in the process of discovery brought on by moving back and forth between western and Dogon conceptions of waste.

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CONTEXTUALIZING DOGON DOMESTIC WASTE

The Dogon Bandiagara escarpment area in Mali constitutes an idyllic place, classified in 1989 by UNESCO as a world heritage site (Cisse, 2003). In this respect, this unique Dogon cultural landscape comprises a major target of tourist pilgrimage. The landscape’s aesthetics derive from a specific geomorphologic setting and configuration, defined by the cliffs that cross the land from south-west to north-east. Undeniably challenged by an increasing desertification process which has been triggered by dreadful climatic variations, the Dogon are critically dependent upon the natural environment. Along with this common sub-Saharan predicament, Dogon people constantly face shortfalls of rain that limit the growth of cereals. The magnificence of the place obscures a dimension of absence that replicates itself, and which pauperizes local daily life. This extremely dry and dusty landscape of scarcity generates a local obsession with water that focuses concerns about the fertility of the soil, the production of crops and the prosperity of families in relation to both human and environmental factors. The Dogon landscape is also characterised by the presence of rubbish. Surrounded by agglomerations of flies, multiple forms of straw, rags, tin cans, animal bones, tree leaves, dung, torn plastic bottles, and shredded plastic bags to name but a few items, accumulate in the furrows of the paths that weave around Dogon households. By virtue of airy open spaces and exposure to heat, the long-term rubbish is mostly odourless. This local garbage is also mixed up with the refuse of the tourists, such as tissues, toilet paper and condom packages. These are transported by the wind, or by kids as they rummage in the hostel bins. It is no surprise that, in the western view, this eclectic landscape of waste detracts from the visual and pictorial qualities of the place and its culture. Multiple governmental and international NGOs’ programmes are dealing with the issue. They see waste as a threat to local well-being as well as to the tourism industry that constitutes one of the mainstays of Mali’s economy. As a resident in a Dogon village escarpment, I was constantly stepping in rubbish. This stuck to the soles of my sandals or became trapped between my toes. I regularly entered into interminable discussions with villagers about the collection and destruction of garbage. It was inevitable that I came across the issue of rubbish, as I made my daily progress through it. It was really through the experience of waste as ‘culture on the ground’ (Ingold, 2004) that I became interested and fascinated by this abject matter, as I was literally living in what I perceived as garbage. In the same way, my coexistence with domestic animals, such as goats, sheep and chickens, which defecated in the compound, constantly attempted to approach everyone’s plates of food and would finally end up squatting on my sleeping bag, was indeed beyond my understanding. Although at the beginning of my fieldwork I struggled to get used to this, as I

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progressed into Dogon daily life I did begin to obtain interesting insights into local conceptions of their domestic waste. I suggest that, contrary to the general western views on Dogon people as filthy, one can understand the issue of the non-disposability of waste as a local desire to retain things that are usable and meaningful to them. It also seems to me that the usual questions of health and hygiene associated with rubbish do not apply in this particular hot and dry environment, even though waste is scattered all over the place. Putting aside the aspect of mess, waste is transformed, recycled or reused in a local way. This is done according to the degree of utility that is found in the materiality of the rubbish. Hence, I examine here some of the multiple forms of rubbish that are found in and around the Dogon compound, which I shall consider as a container for domestic matters. My overall objective is to show the implicit meanings objectified in both the materiality and daily praxis of the residue that people select and allocate to particular places, or which they simply expel and retain on their own body. While the first aspect of this article concerns the identification of emic categories of garbage, the second implies an investigation into daily dynamics of ‘doing’ and ‘un-doing’ the household and, by extension, the body. I shall conceptualize this in terms of a recycled cosmology. I propose to define it as a complex of changeable world-views that encompass the life cycles of people and the environment through systematic conversions (and therefore cycles) of domestic residue, to which people attribute a new life. I suggest that the Dogon compound acts as an epistemological enclosure that contains life through the validation of certain formless and creative elements (Douglas, 1966). The discarded residue that stands outside of the compound is regarded as ‘nothingness’. However, this potential nothingness can always be retrieved inside, so long as a use is found for the matter. In addition, the temporary inside waste always terminates in the outside soil. Thus, the compound enclosure is permeable. In sum, I attempt to explore Dogon cosmology, or more precisely their recycled cosmology, as it is objectified in domestic waste, and by focusing on the temporality and efficacy of litter’s materiality as it is gathered, or refused, outside of the compound. In this view, rubbish becomes more complex than ‘matter out of place’ (Douglas, 1966). TIDYING UP THE CONCEPTUAL GROUND

Domestic waste is messy by nature and culture. As products of daily routines, these jumbles of disparate residue stand as cultural constructs (Douglas, 1966). They are endowed with particular, but changeable, meanings according to the context in which they are handled. Although this versatile domestic matter constitutes a form of disorder, by being processed it induces ontological order. In other words, as Douglas suggests, dirt corrupts order as well as it continually re-creates it

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(Douglas, 1966). There are at least three distinctive processes the Dogon undertake in treating their domestic residue. I translate these into the western terminology of recycling, reuse and composting. I define recycling as the processing of plastic and metal waste into new commodities. I shall talk about composting when describing the transformation of organic matter. It involves a process of decomposition that occurs in particularly arid environments. This is accelerated by addition of liquids such as used water or hot urine. Finally, the concept of reuse refers to waste that is used more than once and without being transformed or broken down to form a new object. In the West, garbage is defined as useless and unwanted matter. In the Dogon, this conception seems only to apply to elements that stand outside of domestic life. Nevertheless, outside residues always potentially constitute a life resource. In order to cope with the ambiguity of the term, the notion of Dogon waste is used here to refer only to part, or indeed whole, elements that do not have any use in their current form. However, its utility may have the potential of being re-created by the object being physically, or functionally, turned into something else. Following one aspect of Thompson’s argument (1979), Dogon waste stands within an ongoing process of the creation of value of things in a particular context of poverty in which nothing is really thrown away. Dogon rubbish, and consequently the notion of dirt, therefore remain relative and ambivalent. Dogon people employ a series of generic terms that classify various materials according to their intrinsic properties and materiality. I came across the native classifications of waste through my awkward and repeated participation in the cleaning of my host-family’s compound, as well as through the management of my own waste. This constituted an interesting interactive and reflexive ground that enabled me to locate myself within the native daily recycled cosmology. Their categories of waste enact a conceptual ordering of daily life that allows them to set up and to maintain their socio-cultural and symbolic boundaries. It appears that through the naming of rubbish, Dogon take control over the fuzzy reality of the matter. The local classification of refuse is versatile, being a daily practice that constantly redefines and generates new categories of waste with which differing world-views are associated. In other words, rubbish categories, even though solid, endow a certain fluidity. This conceptual and physical flow of waste is made manifest though particular transformation processes. In one way or another, domestic waste, as fundamentally temporal and mutable, is always in a state of becoming. Consequently, waste can easily move from one category to another. Domestic waste was defined to me by the Dogon as neme, which means ‘dirt’. This refers to a substance that may endow either a positive or negative connotation, depending on the uses and meanings that are attributed to it. On the one hand, the term encompasses both repellent

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elements and awkward things that are in the way, and are therefore rejected. On the other hand, neme also includes useful residue that is recycled, reused or composted, and as it constitutes a by-product of activity it is therefore a life sign and of vitality. Finally, the sense of the term neme that applies to the household also relates to the body. RETAINING ‘DIRT’ AS A SIGN OF POSITIVE DOMESTIC DISORDER

I shall now look at some of the residue that this concept enfolds, beginning with its ‘positive’ connotations. In Dogon it is often said that the messier a household is, the better! In fact, the sayings ‘Ama ginu nemegere’, meaning ‘May (god) Ama make your house dirty’ (also found in CalameGriaule, 1968: 199), and ‘Ama gonte woun logudjio’, meaning ‘May god turn your courtyard very dirty’, express desires for a house to become increasingly dirty over the years (Figure 1). Such idioms are pronounced at the foundation of the house, and wish a long life to the inhabitants (also found in Calame-Griaule, 1968: 199), and the multiplication of the family. Dirt therefore communicates the capacity to feed people as well as to fulfil their needs. FIGURE 1

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Domestic disorder in the household.

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As a first element, the fire, with its index of smoke that daily fills up the air of the compound when women are cooking or brewing, connotes the stability of life as time is passing. This sign of normality and stability is found in the expression ‘Ama sebu geoun nogno’, meaning ‘May god blacken the roof of your kitchen’. As it is repeated daily, even in the context of famine, setting up a fire as if the cooking pot was full constitutes a form of psychological resistance against the dismay of paucity. It indicates the hope for prosperity. In that respect, before entering the compound, the entrance walls are regularly grasped. The surfaces tend to get darker over time, as the sweat and dirt of hands impact on the dry mud walls, which, so it is said, will never be roughcast. These bodily traces are seen as a sign of life created by people, more specifically by the children’s daily passage in and out of the compound. Hence, touching and impregnating the home with body dirt expresses life, as opposed to the death that would be signified by a clean place. In fact, a compound empty of dirt indicates the precarious condition of the life of the people who occupy the place. In other words, spotlessness becomes lifelessness. Similar to the accumulation of smoke (Figure 2) that gives an impression of thickening the surfaces, the dried and smelly food residue stuck on the cooking-pot sides (Figure 3) indicate the dynamics of the place. In the same perspective, the cooking utensils left unwashed until the next preparation of food give a positive sign of domestic disorder. Women say that cleaning them straight after eating brings scarcity. In fact, as was pointed out by my host mother, this action makes the food that was consumed leave the body. In other words, it draws down hunger. Once the cooking pots are about to be used, the dry matter is scrubbed off and watered for a while in a separate pot, to be given as a drink to the sheep. In addition, the layers of dirt on people’s skin and clothes possess a positive connotation, from the moment they are associated with labour or with the intense and energetic physical work deployed in daily routine called wanaguet. This refers to the capacity to live by the sweat of one’s brow. Furthermore, this accumulation of sweat, which impregnates and accumulates on clothes daily, is perceived as a form of comfort as well as vitality of the person. It creates a sense of reinforcement of the self. On the contrary, it is said that someone always clean is someone lazy. This also applies to people with long nails. Finally, it can be mentioned that the layers of mud mixed up with animal dung and used to roughcast the house each year act as a second skin for it. Consequently, whether by crystallizing on surfaces or filling up the compound air, all this residue conveys a sense of activity and of everydayness. They create an ontological security that makes people ‘at home’. Most of the compound’s surfaces (with the exception of water jars and cooking and eating places) are characterized by multiple layers of litter

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F I G U R E 2 An accumulation of smoke on the house wall where a kitchen was formerly located.

FIGURE 3

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Cooking pots left unwashed.

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(Figure 4). This includes scattered manure, which evaporates, giving off an aroma of sewage with a hint of ammonia that is discernable amongst the multiple scents of smoke and rotten condiments drying out on the rooftop or boiling in the cooking pot, and which intensifies as the heat increases. This organic matter, called bĂŹnugu, consists of a mixture of animal excrement, dirty liquids and chopped millet straw. Although it is mostly found where the domesticated animals are kept, it sometimes extends to all the surfaces of the courtyard, as well the latrines. At harvest time, this mature compost is brought back to the fields to fertilize the soil, and therefore to bring forth crops. The humid straw becomes compressed and crushed under peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feet. This spontaneous action activates the process of fermentation. Additionally, the manure is constantly reimbued with animal dung and urine, enriching it. In fact the addition of urine during the composting of millet residue considerably augments the productivity of the crops. In many places, it is in the patriarchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s compound and fields that most of the binugu is found. The thick blend of compost that regenerates the fields also materializes the temporality of millet cereal, and by extension the environment that hosts it. In fact, as it is incorporated into the soil, this organic residue, originally collected from the fields and constantly dampened, revives the life cycle of the cereal. It helps develop the seeds FIGURE 4

Manure, made out of millet straw, scattered in the compound.

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FIGURE 5

Manure taken to the onion fields.

and transmits vital substances to the new millet plants, which will in turn return to the compound once the harvests are gathered. A lack of vital substance in the soil will weaken the plants, and when this happens people often say that the fields are becoming â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cleanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; again, which means that the binugu needs to be brought in. Accordingly, cleanness is associated with sterility, while dirt signifies productivity. A second type of organic element encountered in most Dogon compounds, specifically in the latrines, is the yugodie. In some places, it too is combined with manure made from millet straw. While this matter is brought to the fields, it is mostly used in the gardens where onions are cultivated (Figure 5). It constitutes a precious fertilizer, and is used alongside ashes and dried leaves. Yugodie corresponds to the core of the millet ear, and takes the form of small sticks. Se, which consists of the millet sheath, also results from the processing and, especially, the sifting of the grain, and is kept inside the compound. Both yugodie and se are preserved in the latrines, though some families keep their stocks outside of the compound in rock cavities. In the households where this manure is kept humid by daily additions of domestic liquids, the fermentation process of the binugu responds to a double principle of fecundity, one both pragmatic and symbolic. Indeed, I was told in many villages that a small clay pot called me kunu

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toroy, which contains the umbilical cord and placenta of a new born, is provisionally buried where the manure is stored. According to CalameGriaule (1968: 185) this place is called me, which means ‘the exteriorized placenta’. By permanently retaining humidity, the binugu maintains the principles of fertility of both the woman and the cereal. After a birth, the mother has to wash in the menstruating women’s latrines for 35 days. Then she has to disinter the pot. Paulme (1988: 436) describes how the contents are thrown in a hole dedicated to the purpose that is watched over by the Lebe priest, who protects the newborn and the mother against evil spells. The pot is thrown into the latrines of the menstruating women, in the place where they discard calabashes and pots that can no longer be used. According to Calame-Griaule (1968: 185–6), this particular rite is undertaken in order to keep the placenta ‘alive’. Hence, the fertility of women is symbolically ensured through the connection made between the residue of the womb and cereal. One should underline that both sterile women (gunu) and fields are metaphorically said to be ‘dry’. The notion of ‘dryness’ or ‘ma’ refers to conditions of scarcity in life, such as poverty. In that respect, various expressions are found in daily language, such as living in a ‘dry’ place. This refers to the harsh, sterile and scarce conditions of the place. By extension, someone miserly has ‘dry hands’, someone who always makes problems and is rude has ‘dry eyes’, someone with a ‘dry mouth’ (anga ma) will never admit to being in the wrong. As reported by Calame-Griaule (1968: 185), ‘kine ma gabay’ (dry heart) means careless, and ‘ku ma’ (dry head) means whimsical. Contrarily, someone with ‘humid hands’ has substantial material means. Compost matter is significant in warranting the prosperity of Dogon families, and is a preoccupation in the same way as fundamental economic (and, for some of them, ritual) factors in sustaining the stability, harmony and continuity of life in a milieu of scarcity. It is sedimented to a considerable depth in the formation of local world-views that bring together environmental and human life cycles. In other words, compost materializes, through refilling and transformation processes, temporalities that regenerate both the everyday and seasonally revived. I have shown that the retained, collected, curated and transformed domestic waste and body residues comprise a celebration of ordinary life. Indeed, as a ‘positive disorder’, they create domestic and symbolic order as well as a form of vitality. EXPELLING ‘NEGATIVE’ DIRT: POLLUTION AND TEMPORARY ‘NOTHINGNESS’

Now I propose to examine some elements that are considered as ‘negative’ neme. This repellent and useless domestic waste embraces the

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compound sweepings, decomposing food remains, plastics and other nonlocal elements. While most of these ‘negative’ elements are regarded as ‘nothingness’ and progressively integrate with the soil or are swept away by the wind, body solids and menstruated blood are polluting and dangerous substances, and both are expelled from the village. We shall also see that in some places plastic and metallic pieces are reclaimed from the outside of the compound in order to make craft items for tourists. Human excrements and vomit are called samu. The term refers to ‘bad smells that provoke disgust’. This body waste is evacuated in remote areas of the village. In Tireli, these local toilets, called begouno, are located at the top of scree. Although body solids are acknowledged as repulsive, they still symbolically indicate life. In fact, children’s faeces found in the courtyard are regarded with disgust, yet they are also seen as signs of the life present from having children in the place. They are, however, always removed. In the same view, one of my informants explained to me that he forbears from travel for a few days after consuming sacrificial meat. For it is believed that defecating in someone’s fields or village scatters the benefits of the prayers. The power of the incantations is contained in the meat, which is digested, and some part always remains in the faeces. Menstrual blood, called punu, constitutes a rather complex polluting substance that notably detracts from the power of magic objects and taints water. It is therefore excluded from the compound and from the village. The state of menstruating women makes them impure, puru. This term also refers to a particular state of diminution of an individual’s spiritual and vital forces called gnama (Calame-Griaule, 1968: 229). In theory, menstruating women are not allowed to leave their temporary enclosure to approach water places, nor should they use the common public toilet. They stay in a house dedicated to them called ya punulu ginu. There, they cook for themselves with specific utensils that remain on-site, because they are polluted. Today there are fewer and fewer women who attend this house, because of religious conversions. However, it is still largely believed that the presence of menstruating women inside the compound affects the powers of magic and shrines, which then need to be purified. As I was informed by a potter (female), once women’s periods terminate they have to cover their body with oil extracted from the pips of the ‘wild grapes’ called sa, which stands as a symbol of fecundity. They use this to purify their body and, therefore, to recover their reproductive potential. It is considered a male substance, and enables women to regain their sexual power (Bedaux and Lane, 2003: 86). As Paul Lane observed in the escarpment village of Banani in the 1980s, if a village gets polluted because a woman came outside her house while menstruating, the purification of the village takes place by the removal of all women’s cooking materials. These are thrown into a place called punulu didiu, where the

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utensils are left amongst the rocks while the clay pots are shattered into pieces. With the same logic, each compound’s water jars are emptied and left to dry in the sun, in order to cope with the soiling. Lane suggests that emptying the water jars, which are called loy, a term that also refers to the foetal envelope, could be symbolically associated with the purification of a woman’s womb. By breaking the polluted containers and utensils, which constituted a contamination of food and drink, the pollution stops (Bedaux and Lane, 2003: 87–8). Useless residues that are expelled from the compound are called toro and logo (Figure 6). Although the former is mostly organic and is sometimes integrated into the compost, the latter is inorganic matter that has been thrown away. In my host family, however, the toro is included under the category of logo when organic and inorganic matter are mixed together. Non-edible pieces of herbs and the thorny branches left by domestic animals are toro. Regarded in the same light are incongruous things found in people’s food, such as little stones, sand or rotten cereals. The category of toro also includes light sweepings, such as dust or tree leaves brought in by the wind or by people (Figure 7). I frequently took part in the cleaning of the compound, which is always done by women. Sweepings are collected in a calabash, and by FIGURE 6

Sweepings found outside the compound.

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FIGURE 7

Sweepings found inside the compound.

means of a small hand-broom made of straw, called a sana. The compound generally gets brushed once eating, sitting, resting and walking in dirt becomes inconvenient for the occupiers. Domestic animals also naturally clean the place up, as they eat discarded food remains. The category of logo comprises useless, unreformable and disparate scraps of pots, dust, pieces of cloth, torn-up plastic bags, pages of school books, pieces of shoes or tin cans and other unrecognizable metallic and plastic fragments. Included in this category of domestic waste are weeds that grow and dry in the cracks of walls or on rooftops, and which connote neglect and absence of life. By extension, a field in which weeds colonize the ground and menace the growth of crops conveys the same idea of squalidness. However, as indicated by my host mother, the sweepings that clutter public paths make people aware that these residues have once served purposes. They are therefore a testimony of the dynamics of daily life. Amongst the logo sweepings are found discarded rags (Figure 8). They constitute another form of waste that takes on a particular conception of the body and of life (Norris, 2004). Ideas of the longevity and prosperity of the body and the individual are conveyed throughout the life cycle of this matter. Clothes that are falling apart are commonly put aside, termed in the local language, as ‘Ama semele daga’, which means ‘make Ama take

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this impotent rag out’, that is, outside of the compound. This voices the wish of the person who wears the rag: long life and prosperity. Once it cannot be worn, it has to be thrown away. While the act of buying new clothes testifies to a financial investment, discarding rags translates into a capacity to reject those useless elements that have become unnecessary. The rag that accompanies the living body for a stretch of time reflects its longevity and also a need for renewal. Thus, the regeneration of the individual is symbolically F I G U R E 8 Discarded rags outside the marked by casting out the compound. impotent matter. New clothes are always kept for celebrations, such as weddings and funerals, in which people manifest their personal improvement and embellishment. This is often described as ‘parader’ or ‘l’art de la parade’ which means showing off with new gear. During the Dogon New Year’s Eve (occurring after the harvest at the apex of the hot dry season between mid-December and mid-January), people sing that ‘those who don’t have cotton (indigo) can only blame their parents, because they were not able to offer it to their children who merit it’. The renewal of the year stands as a form of regeneration of the self that transpires through clothes and conceptual value. Wearing these clothes daily is usually perceived as an assertion of superiority, and stirs up jealousy. So, after the event people slip back into their workaday outfits. However, due to the great availability and diversity of clothing in local towns, and frequently those purchased in the escarpment markets, young people enthuse in the art of displaying themselves in the latest fashions while they are working in the fields. By contrast, older people wear the same clothes everyday. As was pointed out to me by one of my assistants, the older people’s attitude emphasizes the daily accumulation of labour. Their clothes express the passage of time, with the smell and the decay of the fabric providing psychological comfort. In sum, the everyday rags that people wear efficiently objectify daily bodily performance. The value of the faded and shredded textile covered with soil, perspiration, oil or dust is that it shows people’s engagement in daily life and labour.

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Furthermore, it contrasts with the longevity of the healthy body that wears it. Consequently, changing clothes enables people to distance themselves, corporally, from daily routine and to show the renewal of the self in public. Similarly, it testifies the ability of overcoming the everyday and its harsh conditions by buying and wearing new clothes. Put in this way, rags can be seen as a form of biographical matter that contrastively defines the body, as well as objectifying social dynamics and temporalities, as they are worn. By contrast, if it is thrown away, the rag reinforces the longevity of the body. In this perspective, the excessive use of fragranced soap and body lotions veils the everyday, in the way that clothes do if excessively washed. Young people often spend the little money they have to buy soap bars. As, in a more stylish and expensive way, they may purchase bags of washing powder. Wearing fresh and redolent clothes is locally associated with the ethos of modern town life, which appeals to ‘clean’ and ‘attractive’ people. The qualities of these imported ‘modern’ products generate new perceptions of the self and society in young people’s minds. Dogon peasants are often perceived by other ethnic communities as filthy, especially by Muslims, who are particularly obsessed with cleanliness, washing several times a day – something the Dogon do not do. As my 25-year-old host brother said: ‘Poverty makes Dogon people become unclean. When I cultivate at the Plain, I don’t have any means. So, I become dirty again.’ By this, he means that he does not have the money to buy soap and proper clothes. The daily hard and intensive cultivation work affects his physical conditions and appearance. In contrast, when he stays in the village he can find small jobs, wash as often as he likes, and become presentable. This constitutes one of his main concerns. Finally, the logo litter (Figure 9) that is expelled from the compound includes multiple forms of elements that cannot be repaired, medicine packages, batteries, envelopes, flip-flops, lids, bottle tops and broken plastic containers of imported products that can no longer be used. These are mainly brought into the village by westerners, such as tourists and myself. This waste generates new world-views, as the matter is potentially and creatively repurposed and recycled – that is, turned into a new commodity or reused for domestic and ritual purposes. In this case, the top of a tin can may serve to scour the cooking pots or to carve clay pots, and pill packaging may function as decoration on masks (Richards, 2005). In many Dogon areas, this ‘modern’ residue tends to be retrieved for the manufacture of small mask-figurines and vehicle miniatures to sell to tourists (Figure 10). Kept in the granaries or in the house, the shiny tin cans of milk powder, coffee, sardines or tomatoes are kept to store money, spices and other things. Other similarly valued containers, including plastic mineral-water

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bottles, shampoo bottles, body-cream pots and film canisters, to name but a few things, constitute a separate category that is neither positive nor negative neme. In fact, it seems that the container that remains after the consumption of the product is perceived as an object. They are constantly begged for by the locals. As they put it in French, ‘Toubab donnes-moi un bidon’, that is, ‘White, give me your bottle’. This sometimes turns into real harassment. Small plastic bottles are given to the children, and used by them as toys. When the youngest ones cry, they nibble on them or scrape the soil with them. Children also often hang small bottles of medicated syrup around

FIGURE 10

F I G U R E 9 Litter composed from pieces of flip-flops and medicine packages.

Miniatures for sale to tourists, made from a can of tomatoes.

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their necks, to act as pendants. These often contain a sour mixture of water and baobab powder. Dogon say that the plastic bottle represents ‘white people’ as they permanently carry around their bottle of water, something the Dogon children enjoy mimicking. Cultivators and shepherds carry water and millet-cream in these bottles for practical reasons. In their view, this represents considerable reduction on the weight and space a pot would normally take. It therefore relieves them from pain and exhaustion and endows a greater mobility. The bottle is hung from the neck or is carried laterally, as they would carry a bag. Sometimes women fill them up with the millet beer that they sell at the market or send to the compounds. A full bottle of the drink constitutes a form of measurement, to which the price of 350 CFA (35p) is attached. People also say that liquids are easier to transport this way, since the small opening is hermetically sealed. However, the container does not protect from heat, and the plastic changes the taste of the content unpleasantly. Using a similar approach, adults collect empty film canisters left by the tourists for their tobacco. They recover shampoo bottles to store salt, sugar, stock and spices. Refillable containers such as glass bottles are also sold at the market. These are used to store petrol or motor oil. Once they are broken or leaking, plastic bottles and pots are thrown outside of the compound, where they accumulate over time. However, they can always be reclaimed to manufacture objects or to serve domestic purposes. THE RUBBISH OF WESTERNERS AS AN INTERACTIVE GROUND

Living in a Dogon compound, I rapidly found that my own waste constituted interesting interactive elements. In fact, they enable me to examine local uses and perceptions of the ‘western waste’ that Dogon people made some inclusion of in their own daily life. Additionally, it allowed me to locate myself largely within the cosmology of my host family. Hence, using a reflexive approach, I shall here briefly expose the confrontations of local perceptions of ‘modern’ waste with western conceptions by looking at my own waste. In contrast to the Dogon habit of scattering, and therefore displaying, rubbish, I always contained my waste in a bin that I made from a recycled wooden wine rack that I found in a local hostel. I hid it in the corner of the house’s roof, since I did not want the locals to see my rubbish. However, my bin was constantly a target for the children. Several times I caught them re-chewing my gum, licking the desiccated soup envelopes and toothpaste tubes, and bringing my shampoo and other plastic containers to their mother. As the accumulated waste attracted bugs, mice and flies, my host brother suggested that I empty my bin

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outside the compound in a pit. I was not surprised to notice the gathering of the children reproduced itself around the waste pit. Uncomfortable about the idea of damaging the local environment with my own waste, and embarrassed by local attitudes towards my rubbish, which constituted it as an object of curiosity, a compromise needed to be made. It was not without difficulty that I managed to convince my host family to burn what I claimed to be useless and dirty. Shocked by my attitude, they finally decided that I would keep the matter – containers for the most part – that they attested to be reusable. I would destroy the rest. There was some kind of authority being exercised here. Through my rubbish, I progressively approached, without fully integrating into, my host family’s cosmology. By asking to burn my detritus, though, I refused to show what I was consuming. I did not allow them to scrutinize my privacy. So far as my waste water was concerned, I was told to tip it in the gutter of the terrace. The liquid, imbued with soap and toothpaste, poured out into a path alongside our compound. In fact, for most Dogon people (especially the old ones) soapy matter constitutes a polluting element that is never mixed with the compost, as ‘millet does not like that’. According to this perspective, bathing or washing clothes in the part of the river near the gardens, as well as in the place where the Nommo (water spirit) stands, is strictly forbidden. As my waste water poured out of the rill and, partly, sprayed into the neighbour’s compound, I got chastised by an old man because the substance was contaminating the place where he did rituals and sacrifices. Each time I released contaminated water onto it, this place had to be repurified. As I observed in many other compounds, soap is never used in a shower place that contains manure. Soapy liquids are always evacuated outside, where they collect and dry in the public paths. The compound enclosure, which supposedly retains waste, is here leaking, as waste water always flows out from it. This, in addition to the residue that is expelled, gives us an idea about local conceptions of private and public space. My daily observations of my host family’s treatment and recycling of waste were substantially contrastive. Firstly, there were differences between what my host mother and uncle said and what the family, especially the young people, actually did. Secondly, my host family did not seem to subscribe completely to local world-views, notably those about manure or binugu. In fact, as presently half Muslim and half Catholic, my host family adopted views on waste that were different from those traditionally followed by the majority of people. However, my host mother and uncle’s conceptions of waste and domestic residue coincided with the practices and discourses observed in many other compounds of the escarpment and the plateau. Hence, it seems that the core cosmology that concerns symbolic and embedded world-views about the life cycles of people and the environment is fundamentally changing.

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In fact, the young generations that are converted to Islam and Catholicism and who attempt to adopt ‘modern’ or town-like ways of living possess different conceptions of domestic waste and dirt from their parents. The modernization of their habitat, sanitary campaigns and politics about domestic and body hygiene, as well as access to a wider range of fragranced products, have shaped people’s conceptions of cleanliness and dirtyness. One of my host sisters, who worked for years as a maid to a doctor’s family in the town of Mopti, has clearly introduced new ways of cooking, cleaning and washing to the compound. In addition, my presence as a ‘white’ person in the compound also influenced their daily ‘cleaning habits’. ORDERING A JUMBLE OF WASTE CATEGORIES

As I have suggested, useful and meaningful body dirt, compost and smoke are temporarily kept on the body or in the household. By comparison, body excretions, decomposing matter, fragments of western/modern rubbish, as well as sweepings, rags, soapy liquids and menstrual blood are all excluded from the compound. They are summarized in the diagram (Figure 11), which shows the different contexts of Dogon waste practice. As I have demonstrated, certain outside matter, such as western/modern F I G U R E 11

An attempt at ordering Dogon domestic waste practices.

Decomposing matter

Body solid dejections Compost/

Body dirt

Western/ modern rubbish (Sweepings and other)

manure

Soapy liquids

Inside of the compound

Rags

Dry food

smoke

Sweepings (Organic and others)

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Outside of the compound

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Menstrual blood

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plastic and metallic elements, can always be retrieved to be turned into something else so long as a particular use and meaning is attributed to it. Dogon domestic waste inhabits fluid categories that reveal complex modes of relating (Hawkins, 2001: 7). In other words, the inside-out conceptual and ordered domestic framework materializes local worldviews that are variable and changeable, as the domestic matter takes on different meanings according to different individuals. The place where domestic waste is deposited, that is on the body or inside/outside of the household, is based upon its materiality. It is materiality, the tangible qualities of rubbish that determine a new potential use. However, I hope to have shown that this dichotomist vision also possesses a more complex dynamic. In fact, metallic and plastic things can always be reclaimed. Consequently, I propose that the epistemic boundaries of domestic waste are porous, to indicate that ‘Dogon dirt is a matter all over the place’, that is always ‘in’ and ‘out’ of the household. Using multiple examples, I have proposed that Dogon garbage materializes particular temporalities, and that it only appears in the form of that which is temporarily retained or temporarily refused. Hence, rubbish always remains in a state of ‘becoming’ (Hawkins, 2001). For the Dogon, it is fundamentally (re)generative. This is manifested in the reuse, recycling and composting of domestic matter. Any kind of rubbish that can potentially contribute to the renewal of people and places is seen as positive, that is, as a source of life. Although rubbish and residue are considered as disorder, they possess the capacity to introduce order in the way they enable the negotiation of scarcity, as well as by introducing new forms of economy. In fact, the detritus that remains after the consumption or use of imported or local products constitutes a form of wealth and prosperity. Through multiple daily ‘cyclia’ and ‘recyclia’ (Kratz, 1995; Cerny and Seriff, 1996; Saunders, 2000, 2003) of waste that operate according to their materiality, Dogon domestic waste takes part in what I have called a recycled cosmology. As it is always in the making (Barth, 1987), this cosmology of return embraces the life cycles of people and of the environment. ON A CONCLUDING NOTE

Dogon domestic waste as ‘matter all over the place’ is locally disciplined according to the meaning that is attributed to it by people. That is, according to the potential use that is found in its materiality. Dogon domestic waste objectifies both particular temporalities and ways of relating and engaging with the world by containing and expelling (‘de-containing’) waste in and out of the home and the ‘living’ body, the boundaries of which remain permeable.

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Acknowledgements I am particularly grateful to Mary Douglas for her valuable feedback and I dedicate this article to her. I also have to thank Murray Last, Mike Rowlands, Chris Tilley, Daniel Miller, Susanne Küchler, Lucy Norris, Rogier Bedaux and Gay Hawkins. I would like to thank Audrey Prost for her help on the editing of a previous version; the audiences of the Material Culture Seminar (UCL) convened by Victor Buchli and the West African Seminar (UCL) convened by Phil Burnham for their insightful comments; and Rodney Reynolds, Fiona Jordan and John Stewart for their valuable advice. Very special thanks go to all the Dogon families with whom I worked during my fieldwork between 2002 and 2005, and to Nshoum Guindo, Balugo Saye and Atiambe Tembely who assisted me throughout my fieldwork. This article has benefited from editorial work by Sean Kingston Publishing Services. I acknowledge the Journal of Material Culture for financial support through its student bursary. References Amato, J. (2000) Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible. Berkeley: University of California Press. Badiane, A. and Ganry, F. (1998) ‘La Valorisation Agricole des Fumiers et des Composts en Afrique Soudano-sahelienne: Diagnostic et Perspectives’, Agriculture et Développement (special issue: Sols tropicaux’) 18: 73–80. Barth, F. (1987) Cosmologies in the Making: A Generative Approach to Cultural Variation in Inner New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bedaux, R.M. and Lane, P. (2003) ‘L’attitude des Dogon vis-à-vis des Dechets’, in R.M.A. Bedaux and J.D. Van Der Waals (eds) Regards sur les Dogon du Mali, pp. 83–91. Leiden/Ghent: Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde/Editions Snoeck. Bouju, J., Tinta, S. and Poudiougo, B. (1998) ‘Approches Anthropologique des Strategies d’Acteurs et des Pouvoirs Locaux au service de l’eau a Bandiagara, Koro et Mopti (Mali)’, Operation de recherche 10 (Rapport final). PS-Eau – Ministere de la Cooperation. Calame-Griaule, G. (1968) Dictionnaire Dogon: Dialect Toro So. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck. Cerny, C. and Seriff, S., eds (1996) Recycled, Re-seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap. New York: Harry N. Abrams (in association with the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, a unit of the Museum of New Mexico). Cisse, L. (2003) ‘La préservation d’un site du patrimoine mondial’, in Bedaux, R.M.A. and Van der Waals, J.D. (eds) Regards sur les Dogon du Mali, pp. 207–12. Leiden/Gent: Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde/Editions Snoeck. Cohen, W. and Johnson, R., eds (2005) Filth: Dirt, Disgust, and Modern Life. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Dant, T. (2005) Materiality and Society. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Douglas, M. (1966) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Edensor, T. (2005a) ‘Waste Matter: The Debris of Industrial Ruins and the Disordering of the Material World’, Journal of Material Culture 10(3): 311–32 Edensor, T. (2005b) Industrial Ruins: Space, Aesthetics and Materiality. Oxford: Berg. Hawkins, G. (2001) ‘Plastic Bags: Living with Rubbish’, International Journal of Cultural Studies 4(1): 5–23.

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Hawkins, G. (2005) The Ethics of Waste: How We Relate to Rubbish. Sydney: UNSW Press. Hawkins, G. and Muecke, S., eds (2003) Culture and Waste: The Creation and Destruction of Value. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Ingold, T. (2004) ‘Culture on the Ground: The World Perceived Through the Feet’, Journal of Material Culture 9(3): 315–40. Kratz, C.A. (1995) ‘Rethinking Recyclia’, African Arts 28(3): 1, 7–8, 10–12. Kwawe, D.B. (1995) ‘Culture of Waste Handling: Experience of a Rural Community’, Journal of Asian and African Studies 30(1–2): 53–67. Laporte, D. (2002 [1978]) History of Shit. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Lucas, G. (2002) ‘Disposability and Dispossession in the Twentieth Century’, Journal of Material Culture 7(1): 5–22. Norris, L. (2004) ‘Shedding Skins: The Materiality of Divestment in India’, Journal of Material Culture 9(1): 59–71. Norris, L. (2005) ‘Cloth That Lies: The Secrets of Recycling in India’, in S. Küchler and D. Miller (eds) Clothing as Material Culture. pp. 83–105. Oxford: Berg. Miller, D., ed. (2005) Materiality. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Paulme, D. (1988) Organization Sociale chez les Dogon. Paris: Domat-Montchrestien. Rathje, W. and Murphy, C. (1992) Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Richards, P. (2005) ‘Masques Dogon in a Changing World’, African Arts 38(4): 46–53, 93. Rogers, H. (2005) Gone Tomorrow. The Hidden Life of Garbage. New York: The New Press. Saunders, N.J. (2000) ‘Bodies of Metal, Shells of Memory: “Trench Art”, and the Great War Recycled’, Journal of Material Culture 5(1): 43–67. Saunders, N.J. (2003) Trench Art: Materialities and Memories of War. Oxford: Berg. Strasser, S. (1999) Waste and Want. New York: Metropolitan Books (Henry Holt and Company). Thompson, M. (1979) Rubbish Theory: The Creation and Destruction of Value. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ◆ L AU R E N C E D O U N Y has recently been awarded a PhD in Anthropology from University College London. Her fieldwork was amongst the Dogon of Mali (West Africa). She looked at the daily production and expression of local cosmologies through the ‘making’ and ‘doing’ of containers and in particular in the domestic sphere. Her current interests lie in issues on waste and recycling practice, African domestic material culture, Mande architecture and building techniques, indigenous conceptions of the weather and astronomy, praxeology and anthropology of techniques. Address: Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK. [email: l.douny@ucl.ac.uk]

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Kabbadi

Asian wrestling sport, primarily played by Sikh’s. The owner of the offlicense on Willows Road always has it on in his shop and told us about the Handsworth sikh temple team who put on exhibition matches. A possible Biennale event.

See Cabbadi

King Kong

A statue of King Kong by Nicholas Monro was commissioned in 1972 for display in Manzoni Gardens in The Bull Ring. After the statue had been on display in Manzoni Gardens for six months, Birmingham City Council decided not to retain it and so it was sold to a local used-car dealer who changed the name of his dealership to King Kong Car Co and displayed the statue at his sales lot on the Ladypool Road / Stratford Road in Balsall Heath. While there, it was dressed up as Father Christmas in season. Wolverhampton Art Gallery have a maquette of the statue.

Khat

Not to be confused with the other types of cat (stray) prevalent in Balsall Heath. Khat is a plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Among communities from these areas, khat chewing has a long history as a social custom dating back thousands of years. It contains an amphetamine-like stimulant, which is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite and euphoria. In some countries such as America it is classified as illegal, but it is still legal in the UK. Balsall Heath is home to a large Yemeni population, which means that Khat is openly sold in the local area, either in certain newsagents, or from Khat houses, identifiable by the constant unloading of boxes of the plant wrapped in banana leaves.

See Cultural Differences, Pubs

Nicholas Munro’s sculpture, ‘King Kong’ outside ‘King Kong Car Co.’ 107

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Ladypool Road

Ladypool Road runs from the top to the bottom of Balsall Heath. It houses many of the restaurants in the Balti Triangle, Asian sweet houses, exotic supermarkets and Asian fabric and jewellery stores. Talking to shopkeepers along the Ladypool Road, a consistent theme was the failure of local authorities to promote the area effectively. As one shop owner remarked, ‘it doesn’t shout as loudly as it could do’. This was something borne out in our conversation with the chairman of the Balti Association, who had proposed to the council entry point signs for roads, a ‘Palms and Plants’ zone and having all the shop shutters painted in murals. For him, nothing signified that Ladypool Road was the heart of the Balti Triangle. He also proposed a pavement trail similar to the one in the Jewellery Quarter.

See Business, Balti, Map, Sparkbrook Arts Agenda

Library

Balsall Heath Library plays an important role within the community as evidenced in the upsurge of support for the listed building when it was faced with having its opening hours drastically reduced. The library has now won its battle to stay open.

See Common, Harborne Factor

Linkages

‘Linkages’ is a term introduced by Carnival organizer Ian Edwards. It has different connotations, but broadly speaking it’s concerned with how the Biennale might link in with all the organisations and activities occurring here already. Balsall Heath has an extensive community infrastructure, and our job has been made easier by being able to tap into these networks. Indeed, much of the consultation process has simply been about creating links and partnerships with people. But linkages is also about capturing and incorporating the creative activity that is already occurring within the Biennale framework and making it visible under a collective banner. In this sense, we hope this publication offers a rough audit of creative activity currently occurring in Balsall Heath.

See Common, Map 111

Litter

One of the biggest problems in Balsall Heath is litter. The area has a litter problem, and this proved one of the main complaints /feedback in the residents meetings, during workshops and through questionnaires. The Forum and local councillors are currently launching a, ‘Beat the Blight’ campaign as part of a wider Green and Clean agenda. A few notes on litter: One way to combat litter is to improve the physical make-up of the area; curating planters as part of Balsall Heath in Bloom for example, or creating more green, communual spaces. We noticed how Asian women will often sweep the area outside of their house in the morning. One resident became so fed up with litter on her road that she set up a children’s Samba band called Homer Street Clean who perform noisely along the road in protest at the rubbish. The lack of restrictions upon restaurants in the local area undoubtedly increases the litter problem. The Forum noted that they had done litter campaigns before, handing out leaflets at the school gates - which the children dropped on the ground. The council’s changing of rubbish collection days contributes to the problem; often bags of rubbish will lay out in the street for a week. Dumping, strangely, will often occur at the bottom of ‘No Dumping’ signs. The police and community wardens don’t have the power to fine people on the spot for dropping litter. Behind the Ladypool Road, at the back of restaurants, the problem is particualrly severe, especially for residents whose houses back onto these restaurants.

See Balti, Common, Decorate Your House Competition, Dogon Tribe, Environmental Warden, Fast Food, Fly-Tipping, Limited Edition Bin Bags, Merchandise, Open Gardens, Planter Sculptures, Rag and Trombone Men, Street Furniture, Samba Band, Vermin 112

Local

The project reflects a desire to go really local and work in close proximity to our home, to cut down on travel and work literally on our doorstep within our local community. Francis Frascina recently argued in Art Monthly that the modern biennale is captured in Roman Abramovich’s 377ft super yacht mooring alongside the Giardini at the 2011 Venice Biennale. She argues that as ‘members of the recent global-traveling elite, they are opaque to the particularities of locality - a phenomenon associated with the ‘biennialisation’ of the contemporary art world’. Our interpretation of what a community Biennale might be, is explicitly rooted in the ‘particularities of locality’ - and how structures of thinking associated with contemporary art can have a direct and useful application within a clearly defined geographical space and community setting.

See Community Biennale, Hyperlocal

Local Artists

Across the consultancy period we met a number of local artists and collectors living in Balsall Heath. At a residents meeting we met Roy, an old Jamaican gentleman and accomplished painter. At a workshop run at a Mothers Coffee Morning at Balsall Heath Children’s Centre we met Rubi Ben Khunti, who had several suitcases of her aunts embroidery hidden away. Victoria Quinn, the local Labour councillor let us know about Brian Cleaver, fast becoming a local legend after he spent two years building an exact scale model replica of the Belgrave Middleway out of whiskey box cardboard.

See Commissioning, Local Resources, Skill Exchange

Local Leagues

‘Local Leagues Ltd is a voluntary (not-for-profit) organisation based in Balsall Heath and founded by local residents in 1996 to provide organised sustainable sport and recreational activities for children and their families living in deprived communities across Birmingham. Local Leagues’ aim is to provide these people from inner city areas of Birmingham with interesting, exciting, supervised, structured and sustained physical activities that take 113

Balsall Heath World Cup

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place within walking distance of their homes. To this aim, Local Leagues also pro-actively works to train coaches from the local communities to play an integral part in the delivery of this concept. We aim to create a coherent sports, leisure and recreation strategy for young people and provide constructive environments in which they can develop social and personal skills.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; www.localleagues.com

See Balsall Heath World Cup

Local Resources

Using local services, resources and people has become an important aspect of the project, and one we hope to continue in 2013. All of the publicity material was produced by social enterprise The Jericho Foundation for example. Another organisation we discovered when we attended an open day there in June, was the Sparkbrook Resource Centre on Ombersley Road. This is a Birmingham City Council funded organisation that provides work opportunities for people with learning difficulties. Alongside office services (i.e. photocopying) they also run a picture framing service. The use of local resources, within the context and constraints of the neighbourhood budget framework, is important to the conceptual integrity of the project (i.e. spending the funding / using resources within Balsall Heath).

See Budget, Commissioning, Community Biennale, Jericho Foundation, Jericho Tension, Linkages, Neighbourhood Budgeting

Localism Act See Neighbourhood Plan

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MAC (Midlands Arts Centre)

Arts Centre based in Cannon Hill Park that has recently re-opened after extensive renovation. Today the Mac’s programme:

‘Concentrates on the contemporary, showcasing artists across the full range of arts practice: film, theatre, dance, literature, visual arts, music and comedy. Mac retains a particularly strong reputation for work with and for children, families and young people, while continuing to welcome people of all ages and cultures to its diverse programme 363 days a year. There is also a strong emphasis on participation, with around 120 arts courses running for people of all ages and abilities each week.’ Although the Mac is located right on the border of Balsall Heath (falling just outside), the consultation threw up some interesting findings in relation to this. Several people commented that historically, the Mac isn’t so good at engaging it’s local area of Balsall Heath. Indeed, our meeting with the learning programmer at Mac suggested that people will come to use Cannon Hill Park, but not the arts centre (or if they do, it will be to use the toilet). Many of the questionnaires completed by Balsall Heathen’s listed Cannon Hill Park as their favourite place in Balsall Heath, but hardly any listed Mac. www.macarts.co.uk

See Cannon Hill Park, Neutral Spaces, Picnics, Spaces

Map

Our consultation suggests there is the need to market the permanent cultural offer of Balsall Heath through a printed map and online presence. An easy to use guide to Balsall Heath could be distributed through local partners and key city centre locations such as tourist information, libraries, museums and galleries. It would also be available online. On one side: a map of Balsall Heath with a colour coded and numbered system of dots that indicate different categories such as, arts venues, faith centres, a green trail, historic buildings, places to eat and drink and other partner organisations. On the reverse side: the name, address, other contact information and brief description of all venues listed.

See Balsall Heath Arts Forum, Sparkbrook Arts Agenda 118

Martineau Gardens

Long established community garden located just outside Balsall Heath. www.martineau-gardens.org.uk

See Growing

Meetings

We underestimated the number of meetings we would need to make as part of the consultation but one of the great advantages of working in Balsall Heath is people’s willingness to share information, knowledge and contacts (underpinning the community infrastructure of the local area is an emphasis on sharing). We had meetings with, among others, Balsall Heath Forum, Central Mosque, The Old Printworks, Local Police, Balsall Heath Neighbourhood Plan, The Hubb, Park-keepers, Calthorpe Park Play Centre, Saheli Women, The Drum, the Somalian Foundation, Birmingham Children’s Centre, The Mac, Balsall Heath Church Centre, Balsall Heath Carnival, The Balti Triangle Association, Ort Café & Gallery, Clifton Primary School, 7 Inch Cinema, Queensbridge Secondary School, Swanhurst Secondary School, Ulfah Arts, Birmingham City Council.

See Linkages

Merchandise

Visitors to any Biennale, will often acquire a tote bag advertising the event in question. We hope to produce badges and T-Shirts too.

See Badge

‘Mix of things’

Naseem Akhtar, director of Saheli Women, used this phrase to describe housing provision in Balsall Heath (approximately one third rented, one third social housing, one third owned). Balsall Heath also has a mix of people from different countries and cultures. It’s a useful phrase because it captures why Balsall Heath works as a space and a community.

See Saheli Women, Cultural Differences 119

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Model

The project, conceived as having a two-year life cycle (of consultation / response), offers a different take on the concept of the Biennale. Working closely with established community groups and networks, it hopefully offers an innovative model of working that is transferable beyond its locality.

See Commissioning, Community Biennale, Housing Associations, Networks, Linkages

Murals

Mohammad Ali has a number of large outdoor murals in Sparkbrook, and we have discussed the possibility of extending these into Balsall Heath. It has also been suggested that the Ladypool Road could be transformed cheaply and effectively if all the restaurant and shop shutters had murals.

See Hubb, Soul City Arts

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Neighbourhood Plan

One of the five key measures of the recently introduced Localism Act (2011), is allowing local communities the opportunity to develop their own neighbourhood plans:

‘Neighbourhood planning will allow communities, both residents, employees and business, to come together through a local parish council or neighbourhood forum and say where they think new houses, businesses and shops should go – and what they should look like’. Balsall Heath has been selected as one of the first 17 places across the country to develop a neighbourhood plan. Parish and town councils or, where they exist, neighbourhood forums will lead the creation of neighbourhood plans, supported by the local planning authority. Neighbourhood planning will allow communities, both residents, employees and business, to come together through a local parish council or neighbourhood forum and say where they think new houses, businesses and shops should go – and what they should look like. Once written the plan will be independently examined and put to a referendum of local people for approval. The consultation was designed to act as a parallel line of enquiry to this process. Counterpointing issues of housing and building, the consultation asked what issues the Biennale project should respond to. www.planningbalsallheath.info

See Common, Neighbourhood Budgeting

Neighbourhood Budgeting

Birmingham has been selected by the Government to be one of ten neighbourhood-level community budget pilots. The Birmingham pilot includes Shard End, Castle Vale and Balsall Heath. Small scale community budgets aim to give residents a greater say over the services they want and use, with the local community playing a leading role in shaping public services so that they work from a customer’s perspective, testing how local places can make best use of the money that is spent in their area to solve local problems.

See Common, Neighbourhood Plan 124

Nelson Mandela Primary School

Yes, Nelson Mandela really did visit Balsall Heath in 1993. We ran a workshop at the primary school as part of our chilli growing project.

See Chilli Farm, Workshops

Networks

The modern history of Balsall Heath, of its transformation and regeneration, is built upon a dense network of community groups and organisations supporting one another. Our job has been made significantly easier by people’s willingness and openness in allowing us to tap into these pre-existing networks. An example of this is when we had 200 photocopied flyers produced by the Sparkbrook Resource Centre to advertise our workshops. These were then distributed to every house on the Kinver Croft estate by local residents we had met at the Kinver Croft Residents Association meeting.

See Balsall Heath, Balsall Heath Forum, Heathan, Linkages, Local Resources

Neutral Spaces

This was a term introduced by Foster Derby, co-ordinator of the Calthorpe Park Play Centre. He explained to us that to engage young people he often had to take the play centre ‘out’ into a more neutral, non-institutional space such as the neighbouring park.

See Mac, Spaces

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Old Moseley Arms

Pubs are rapidly decreasing in number in Balsall Heath. In the last year The New Inn has moved to Las Vegas, The Coach & Horses has become a Yemini restaurant, The George has closed to become a restaurant and in the last month The Clifton has announced that it is closing. But The Old Moseley Arms continues to thrive. It has regular beer festivals, focuses on real ale, serves curry seven days a week and has a weekly ‘Chaos’ acoustic night upstairs.

See Chaos Acoustic Night, Pubs

Open Gardens

This was another questionnaire idea that we’re keen on. People living in Balsall Heath will be invited to take part in a day of Open Gardens.

See Agricultural Festival, Balsall Heath in Bloom, Growing

Ort Cafe & Gallery

New community cafe opened in 2011 based at The Old Printworks, on Moseley Road. Serves great value food and hosts a packed schedule of talks, events and live music. Now features a licensed bar and a gallery upstairs. www.ortcafe.co.uk

Ownership See Carnival, Colouring In, Reasons, Stray Cats

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Parking

One of the major complaints at residents meetings regarded parking in Balsall Heath. This veered from the congestion on Ladypool Road to the ongoing saga faced by residents of the Strensham Road group where a resident abused his disability bay by parking elsewhere and allowing his non-disabled family to park in his bay (now resolved). We pondered over this scenario, wondering if contemporary art could actively play a constructive role in the parking problems of Balsall Heath. We decided it probably could - the best way being to purchase a Hummer and fit it out with large wooden cart wheels. You could then simply drive over other people’s cars or nudge them out of the way. Matthew Harrison’s, ‘Hummer’ is something we considered for the Biennale. (See image on previous page).

Parks

Given that it is an inner city area, Balsall Heath is blessed with numerous parks and backs onto Cannon Hill Park. From the Belgrave Middleway, on bike or foot, it is possible to almost walk across the whole of Balsall Heath (and up to Kings Heath) via parkland and green spaces.

See Common

Parkour

Parkour is a discipline of movement focused on overcoming obstacles. Usually occurring in urban environments, participants learn to pass diverse obstacles by combining a variety of movements like running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, leaping, and rolling. A Balsall Heath version of parkour was an idea suggested by someone at a residents meeting. As a playful response to fly-tipping, Balsall Heath parkour would involve creating courses out of the abandoned furniture that is dumped in the local area.

See Fly Tipping

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Peerages

Balsall Heath Festival 1969 included the quirky and quite brilliant idea of Balsall Heath peerages. The Birmingham Mail at the time explained that:

‘And anyone with £50 will be able to purchase the glorious and unique title of Archduke of Balsall Heath. People with rather less will be able to buy some modest titles in the Balsall Heath peerage.’ We’re thinking of bringing this event back, perhaps as a fundraising event in the build up to the Biennale.

See Awards, Festival, Funding

Picnics

We’re interested in ‘curating’ a number of picnic’s for the project (perhaps with the Balsall Heath Children’s Centre for example). This idea has three important reference points: (1) it was something that occurred in the original Balsall Heath Festival 1969; (2) we’ve learnt from the events that Balsall Heath Forum organise that food is an effective means of bringing people together; (3) questionnaire responses often listed ‘hands on craft activities’ as something they would like to see in the Biennale (the picnic’s would incorporate this).

Pigeons

A perennial favourite complaint in residents meetings, particularly in relation to Cheddar Road and Pickwick Park where people regularly feed the pigeons. This in itself isn’t a crime; rather it’s the excess bread that proves excellent complimentary fodder for vermin. Some residents were so fed-up with this that they wanted CCTV installed to try and capture the pigeon feeders. The problem is that many religious groups including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs feed pigeons for religious reasons. Many older Sikhs feed pigeons ceremoniously to honour the high priest and warrior Guru Govind Singh who was a known friend of the pigeon, whilst other Sikhs for example, feed pigeons because they believe that when they are reincarnated they will never go hungry if they have fed pigeons in their previous life.

See Cultural Differences, Faith, Vermin 133

Planter Sculptures

We propose to design and produce planter sculptures that protect plants from being stolen or vandalised whilst being pleasing objects in their own right. A starting point for our thinking is the style of the classic Victorian copper cloche. However, our planters would be built of durable materials, possibly coloured concrete and installed in planters at the end of Cheddar Road (or other locations, depending upon budget).

See Runner Beans

Plonk Art

Great term to describe inappropriate and unwanted public art, especially of the sculptural kind.

See Public Art Shares

Police

We got to know the local police officers well at residents meetings and they were very helpful, making us aware of another funding avenue - the Police Property Fund (which weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be making an application to). It is a very different experience to see a police officer on the street when you know them personally.

See Funding, Games, Residents Meetings

Politicians

In recent years, a number of well-known politicians have visited Balsall Heath (including David Cameron) to see the work of Balsall Heath Forum. Currently, Sparkbrook (which Balsall Heath is a part of) has three Labour councilors, Tony Kennedy, Victoria Quinn and Mohammed Azim.

Popular Balti

One of the original Balti houses and our personal favourite restaurant on Ladypool Road.

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Printworks, The Old

Ambitious low carbon initiative based in the factory of a former printworks on the Moseley Road. The Old Printwork’s mission statement is:

‘For people who want to sustain themselves and their community by learning, using and sharing practical knowledge and making-skills, we provide a unique and beautiful space of local significance, with a creative and welcoming atmosphere that enables everyone to be more self-sufficient and resilient. Unlike other venues, which have opportunities for coworking and co-existence, The Old Print Works offers since 2011 a historic, but bespoke, versatile, low-carbon and fun space in the heart of Balsall Heath that gives a vibrant community endless reasons to meet, learn, collaborate and grow.’ www.oldprintworks.org

See Ort Cafe & Gallery

Problems (consultation) See Hyperlocal, Jericho Tension, Publicity, Questionnaire, Workshops

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Key sites for significant local landmarks to show entry points to Balsall Heath. Taken from the Neighbourhood Plan by Joe Hollyoak 2012

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Pubs

There is a pub at the top of Edward Road that like so many pubs in Balsall Heath, isn’t really a pub anymore. The New Inn has closed and taken on a second life: internally as a business centre; externally as a billboard, garishly advertising one of Balsall Heath’s many pharmacies. The pub 100 metres down the road, formerly The Coach & Horses, has recently become an Arabian food centre. But The New Inn, unlike The Coach & Horses, lives on. It’s entire contents - of Victorian decor, tiles and furnishings - have been brought up and shipped to Las Vegas to be installed as an Irish theme bar. It now has a ghost like existence 2000 miles away from it’s original home. Balsall Heath, like many working class inner city neighbourhoods, used to be full of pubs. But today, pubs in Balsall Heath are swiftly disappearing to be converted into other establishments. It came up several times from elderly, white people at residents meetings that the loss of pubs was a lamentable issue. They outlined how pubs used to fulfill a valuable role in the community. Indeed, newspaper articles reporting on the 1969 Balsall Heath Festival noted how pubs joined in the festival with Yard of Ale competitions and dominoes contests. This is a million miles from Balsall Heath in 2012. At the workshops we conducted at Clifton School, a fair few of the children - in response to the question ‘Would you change anything about Balsall Heath’ - wrote that they would ‘Ban Pub’s.

See Balsall Heath Festival, Cultural Differences, Khat, Old Moseley Arms

Public Art Shares

A new proposition for the acquisition of public art, this project will invite residents of Balsall Heath to collectively buy a Franz West sculpture. (See p136) Although this is an absurd and unlikely conclusion, we believe it could make people ask questions about how their local area could be improved and what public money should be spent on. It also takes the notion of the art market (a place, generally speaking, where rich people buy shiny, beautiful things) and gives the everyday person a point of access into this investment structure.

See Common 137

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Publicity

The project used exaggerated hypothetical local scenarios - ‘Calthorpe Park Space Shuttle Launch Pad’, ‘Stray Cat Olympics’, ‘City Farm Gets A Whale’ - as a way of attracting people’s attention. On reflection it may have been overly complicated and ironic. Our slogans, intended as daft hypothetical ‘Good ideas for Balsall Heath’, appeared to confuse people. One problem was that people really thought we were proposing these fantastical occurances. We also used the colours of Balsall Heath - green / yellow - on the website and in publicity for instant recognition. We thought this reflected a consensual decision by residents to paint street furniture in these colours; in reality, we later found out, it hid a split between the use of Kashmiri Green and Irish Green. Likewise, our poster promoting a fictional Ladypool Road Balti Musuem overly aesthetisised the Balti and didn’t take into account the detrimental effect the upsurge in curry houses within the area have had on the environmental state of Balsall Heath. After an initial opening push, and believing it key to the project, our online publicity gradually diminished. Many people in Balsall Heath aren’t on the internet let alone Twitter or Facebook. Our mailing list became filled with postal addresses and 0121 numbers.

See Problems

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Queensbridge School

We ran several workshops at Queensbridge Secondary school. Their intake includes many young people from Balsall Heath. See Stray Cats, Workshops

Questions

At the beginning of the project, we outlined seven simple, straightforward questions. These were used in questionnaires and meetings. *What do you like about Balsall Heath? *Would you change anything about Balsall Heath? *Are you part of or do you know of any creative activity in Balsall Heath? *Would you be in interested in a Balsall Heath Biennale - a contemporary art festival in the local area? *If yes, what would you like to see in the festival? *If no, what would you like instead? *Would you like to be involved in the Balsall Heath Biennale 2013?

Questionnaire

We had 1000 questionnaires produced by the Jericho Foundation and managed, by hook or crook - but mainly by offering the reward of splatting a Balsall Heath rat - to get 378 responses. Initially it was incredibly difficult to engage people even on the most basic level of filling in a questionnaire. We had to devise novel solutions for this - in exchange for filling in a questionnaire people were offered the chance to Splat a Balsall Heath Rat. One problem we found with the questionnaire process, particularly with shop-keepers, is that although they could speak English, they couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t write it. They were more than happy to fill in a questionnaire if we did the writing for them.

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Rag & Bone Men

Although Balsall Heath has a visible litter problem, it also has an inherent recycling process. The area is still visited daily by the modern day version of the rag and bone man - the Scrap Metal man. Within the area there is a custom of leaving out unwanted metal goods on the street. This expands to people in the area leaving unwanted, but usable goods, outside their houses for others to take. In the London borough of Hackney, the colloquial expression for this is ‘the Hackney credit’. It’s similar to a slightly unorganised take on free-cycle.

See Common, Dogon Tribe, Fly Tipping, Green and Clean, Rag & Trombone Men

Rag & Trombone Men

All of the scrap iron vehicles have recordings of a cacophony of sounds related to the trumpet family that announce their arrival in to the area (so if people haven’t put stuff out, they can bring it out). An old idea was to have a jazz trombonist stand on the back of one of these scrap metal vans and deliver an impromptu performance around Balsall Heath.

Raja Brothers

Around the world’s food in 80 aisles. Enormous world food specialist on the Ladypool Road. Stocks pretty much everything. Why go on holiday?

See Cinemas, 7 Inch Cinema, Ladypool Road

Reasons

One thing we leant through attending community events in Balsall Heath and the experience of the consultation more widely, is that people will come together if you give them a reason and a shared purpose. Participation can be further increased when you add in games, awards, competitions and the opportunity for ownership over an event. We’re hoping to initiate a number of projects that set up a structure in which people can participate around a shared common agenda. All, one way or another, relate to ideas around ‘the common’.

See Balsall Heath World Cup, Common, Communal Meals, Decorate Your House Competition, Open Gardens, Bin Bags (Limited Edition), Street Party 146

Residents Group

Having attended 20 residents meetings, and helped to organise a street party. We’ve discussed the possibility of setting up a residents group for our street.

See Street Party, Residents Meetings

Residents Meetings

The Balsall Heath Forum organise residents groups across the area; at the moment there are 10 groups, although this number fluctuates depending on the number of active residents there are and the concerns of each area. Each group represents a small geographical area of Balsall Heath, five or six roads for example. The current groups that we attended are: Court & Cheddar, Jakeman, Hallam and Lincoln Road; Alexandra; Chesterton, Colville, Queen St, Alfred St Residents Group; Mary Street Residents Association; Sherron Gardens, Cobden Gardens, Vincent St; Kinver Croft; Tindal Street, Homer St, George St, Edgbaston Rd and Cromer Road; Clifton, Roshven, Taunton, Kensington Avenue; Seven Streets Residents; Strensham, Beaconsfield Road. Meetings are held every two months with a Forum representative, local councillors, the police, housing association representatives as well as active residents. Although in the original application we said we would only go to one round of these we ended up going to two rounds (a total of 20 meetings). At these we presented our ideas for the Balsall Heath Biennale and gathered feedback, ideas and questionnaires. Each resident meeting had it’s own individual style as it were. The Mary Street meeting often descended into a fairly heated discussion around vermin, specifically techniques for keeping mice out of your house; Kinver Croft Residents Association was fairly passionate and had a touch of the left about it. The residents meetings opened up a range and variety of spaces across Balsall Heath that we weren’t aware of - the Kemble Croft sheltered housing with it’s Ercol furniture for instance. One meeting even occurred in a residents living room.

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Plans for the River Rea, taken from the Neighbourhood Plan for Balsall Heath by Joe Holyoak 2012 148

We would like to work with a group of key residents to write a script for a performance of a residents meeting. This would involve a fictitious reworking of the residents minutes (perhaps along an absurd and radical agenda). This would form a video work and also be performed at the Balsall Heath Forumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community meals.

See Balsall Heath Forum, Space

River Rea

The River Rea runs through Balsall Heath, although it is largely excluded from view and not accessible. In the Neighbourhood Plan there are plans to open up the River Rea and possibly create a lake in Calthorpe Park. (See image opposite).

Runner Bean Consultation

As part of the consultation we developed a community garden on Cheddar Road and put some runner beans in planters at the end of the street. We ended up replacing the bamboo canes holding the beans up three times as they kept being stolen. At this point we stopped replacing the canes, and let the beans grow as they pleased. One way or another, the runner beans were an effective and different means of consultation: we are now developing ideas around street planter sculptures that protect the contents of planters.

See Planter Sculptures

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Saheli Women

Saheli Women’s Group is a charity based in Balsall Heath working with women and girls, engaging them through sports and empowerment projects to develop their confidence to become actively involved in their community. www.saheli.co.uk

See Harborne Factor, ‘Mix of Things’

Samba Band

Christina Pinero Maese, a resident we met at the Tindal Street Residents Group, became so fed up with litter on her street that she set up a children’s samba band - Homer Street Clean - to protest against the litter. (image, pg 126).

See Litter, Street Musicians

7 Inch Cinema

Devoted to independant film, moving image and animation 7 Inch Cinema host screenings, workshops and events as well as bringing the Flatpack Film Festival to Birmingham. The director lives in Balsall Heath. www.7inch.org

See Cinema, Raja Brothers

Share Space

Otherwise known as Balsall Heath Enterprise Hub. This is an ambitious project currently at the planning stage. Situated on the Moseley Road at the junction with Highgate Middleway, it involves transforming a 1.5 acre site in Balsall Heath into an arts, training and enterprise centre that serves the local and wider community.

Skill Exchange

This idea emerged from our experiences with the community garden and a meeting with a representative from the Somalian Foundation - namely people’s unfamiliarity with any sort of funding and application process. 152

We would offer a bi-monthly Skill Exchange Surgery in which our ‘skills’ as artists (e.g. application writing, knowledge of funding avenues) are offered in exchange for other peoples skills (e.g. playing the bongos). Investigating the notions of exchange and sharing which underpin the Biennale project, the idea reflects upon the use value of the artist, not in terms of their artwork, but their skills and role within a given context.

See Common, Community Biennale

Soul City Arts

“Soul City Arts is a Birmingham-based organisation that has delivered arts interventions throughout the UK and around the globe. Founder of the organisation, Mohammed Ali – an artist and producer – has delivered programs working with the likes of British Council in Malaysia, Australia, Canada as well as city authorities such as City of Melbourne as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Edinburgh, Bristol and Liverpool City Council.” www.soulcityarts.com

See Hubb, Murals

Soul Ful - Lebanese Bakery

Soul Ful, otherwise known as the Lebanese bakery, has been in Balsall Heath for two years now. Situated on the corner of Mary Street and Edward Road, it briefly disappeared to Solihull before it returned earlier this year.

Spaces

Balsall Heath is often spoken of as a coherent, collective space, yet it is comprised of many different spaces, reflecting it’s wide ranging demographic. It could be argued that all these spaces come with different guidelines and modes of behavior (What is the etiquette for a mosque? How do you behave in an art gallery? Should you sit in a booth in Hillac Cafe?). Once, at a residents meeting, an elderly person who had lived in Balsall Heath for over 20 years voiced her concerns that although many of her neighbours were Asian she had never been into an Asian persons house before. She didn’t know if this was allowed. 153

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We’re interested in Balsall Heath as a common space, (as seen with the Street Party and Cheddar Road Gardens). We want the Biennale to activate events and situations where people are invited into one another’s ‘spaces’.

See Adoption Agency, Common, Confused Spaces, Mac, Neutral Spaces, Tour Guides

Sparkbrook Arts Agenda

We attended a meeting at The Hubb that was initiated by Abid Hussain from the Arts Council. The meeting involved key organisations in the local area meeting to discuss how Sparkbrook should move forward culturally. One of the things that really came out of the meeting was the need to link up arts activity in the local area and showcase it to a wider audience.

See Arts Council, Balsall Heath Arts, Forum, Birmingham City Council Cultural Commissioning, Businesses, Carnival, Linkages, Mac, Map, Old Printworks, Ort Cafe, The Hubb, Ulfur Arts

Sparkbrook Ward

Balsall Heath is part of Sparkbrook. Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council.

Splat the Balsall Heath Rat

Balsall Heath has a vermin problem. Splat the Balsall Heath Rat was a playful response to this and a key engagement tool. In reward for filling in a questionnaire, people were given the opportunity to take their revenge on the despised Balsall Heath rat. The larger version of Splat the Balsall Heath Rat (that also required a step-ladder to work) was modeled on Andreas’s Slominski’s sculpture ‘Woodburner for burning forked branches’. The problem with building the larger contraption is that is nullifies any comfortable use of your living room for six months. Currently upcycled into a deluxe runner bean support.

See Engagement, Vermin 155

Labour politician ‘Nye’ Bevan addresses the May Day Rally, Calthorpe Park, Balsall Heath, 1952.

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Speakers Corner

On the digital Balsall Heath website, there is a wonderful image of labour politician Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan addressing a May Day Rally in Calthorpe Park in 1952. (Image, p130). One residents meeting became a favourite of ours on account of one particular resident who appeared to be on a one man mission to bring down the council and restore the Left on the Kinver Croft estate. This estate, he argued, should be labeled ‘the Bermuda Triangle’ of Balsall Heath, as money apparently spent on it, simply disappears. Voices of dissent were common at residents meeting, particularly in relation to local councilors and the police. Our response to this would be to implement a legally ratified Speakers Corner in the area. The Speakers Corner Trust offer excellent guidance on how to set up a Speakers Corner. www.speakerscornertrust.org

See History Society, Residents Meetings

St Paul’s Trust

“St. Paul’s Community Development Trust is a charity that began in 1973 as a series of groups that were established to work with the community of Balsall Heath, an inner city area in Birmingham. With a diverse and ever changing community the population of Balsall Heath has come or came if you are speaking literally from all over the world. St. Paul’s Community Development Trust had its origins in the desire of people in Balsall Heath to make a better future for their children, getting together to start a nursery, adventure playground and small school. The three groups joined forces to establish the Trust in the late 1970s, and from these small beginnings in voluntary endeavour it has grown to be a thriving organisation. The Trust aims to work with and alongside the people of Balsall Heath in Birmingham and the wider neighbourhood to promote education, recreation and life-long learning.” The City Farm and Balsall Heath Children’s Centre are part of St Pauls Trust. www.stpaulstrust.org.uk 157

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Statistics (Balsall Heath)

The index of Deprivation 2010 (an analysis of Birmingham local statistics) showed that Sparkbrook, Balsall Heath’s ward, is ranked 25th in the most deprived SOA’s in the country. * * (A Super Output Area (SOA) is a geographical area designed for the collection and publication of small area statistics).

Statistics (consultation)

We attended 20 residents meetings, ran 15 workshops, held 4 public information stands and had 24 meetings with various organisations and people. During this time we ate seven curries at Popular Balti and accumulated two stray cats.

Steering Group

We’re currently creating a steering group for the Biennale that will be made up of local residents as well as arts professionals.

Stray Cats

Balsall Heath has a stray cat problem. At the end of our garden their used to be an old mattress. Legend has it that this was one of the best places to be on a hot summer’s day and the mattress would regularly host up to 10 sunbathing cats. The garden was somewhat of a magnet for stray cats, and became more so after we began feeding them. Word went about, and we soon had a garden full of straggly, hungry looking cats. We took two kittens in, as many people do around here. One of these cats – Roger - has given us something to spend our money on. Blessed with herpes and a nosy inquisitive nature that ensures he can climb in holes but can’t get out, he is a regular at the vets with various aliments and injuries.

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Roger comes from a rich lineage of ginger Balsall Heath cats. His mother was a slightly crazed looking creature, fondly remembered by us as ‘the cardboard cat’. One afternoon Roger’s mum had obviously slept on a cardboard box on a very warm July day. The glue must have melted as the cardboard had attached itself to the cats body. The cat was now confined to walking around with a large and unwieldy cardboard appendage. If you go outside on a Tuesday evening for a walk along our street, after people have put their rubbish out for the Wednesday collection, you can spot a motley collection of ginger Rogers breaking into bin bags, on the hunt for chicken bones and cat-food cans with their rims holding stale meat. One time we saw a ginger kitten and its mum eating a box of chips in an empty skip. Stray cats are a problem in Balsall Heath, but it is also difficult not to romanticise them as they are very funny. They are synonymous with the local area. Because of this we used the ever present Balsall Heath stray cat as an engagement tool, creating a stray cat sock puppets writing workshop that combined cat language with local youth patois. Below are examples of what students at Queensbridge secondary school produced. 1. ‘Slang’ Words Write down 10 ‘slang’ phrases or words you use at school or with friends (that adults wouldn’t understand). Translate these. PLZ = Please; M8 = Mate; Wag1 = Hello; Bro = Brother; KK = Okay; Gona = Going; Sup = What’s going on; Sick = Awesome; Cuz = Cousin; Nah - No; Fam = Family; Yo = Hello; Mans = myself; Ting = Thing; Blood = family / friends; Dodgy = Weird; Wack = Crazy; Innit - Isn’t it; Be Cul = Because 2. Stray Cat Language What would a Balsall Heath stray cat call the following? (think cat comparisons - i.e. radiator = hot stone) House = brick thing, litter box; Car = ball; Litter = dinner; Litter dropper = waiter; Dog = devil; Rubbish night = dinner night; Abandoned sofa = home; Rat = exercise machine 3.Script / Performance Using the two sets of language produced so far, write a short script for a conversation between two or three Balsall Heath stray cats that discusses the litter problem in Balsall Heath (in particular any ideas you may have for solutions to this problem). 161

1. Initially write a short description setting the scene: • What are the cats called? • Where is the scene based? (outside Zaffs for example) • What are the cats discussing? 2. Turn this description into a short script between two - three cats. Aim for about 10 - 15 lines of dialogue that incorporate the two sets of language produced earlier.

“Yo TJ! Sup Meoawing sugar? Found a Kitty Kat wrapper Wag1? Timmy come down innit! WW2? Alright Stinky, found any soap? Er, Er, maybe. Alright, alright, look the waiter just been by Too much food, can’t eat it all One more bite we all gunna die I’ve got diahorea from all the Krapp! I’m about to explode 2 Many devils coming We Gottz sort this out!” See Essay

Street Furniture

Street furniture generally refers to objects and pieces of equipment installed on streets and roads for various purposes, such as benches, bus stops and post boxes. But Balsall Heath literally has street furniture Cheddar Road in particular is a dumping ground for old sofa’s, tables and chairs. Whilst this can provide an eyesore, there is also an implicit recycling agenda with people leaving things out that other people then take and reuse.

See Dogon Tribe, Fly Tipping, Litter, Parkour, Rag & Bone Men

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Street Musicians

Wandering street musicians were in the original Balsall Heath Festival in 1969.

See Commissioning, Rag & Trombone Man, Samba Band

Street Procession

A staple of the Balsall Heath Carnival, this has now been challenged and cancelled by the council for being too dangerous.

See Carnival, Common

Street Party

This entry could come under Jubilee Party, but it doesn’t because no one at the street party mentioned the Queen or royalty. We were involved in the planning and delivery of a Jubilee street party on our road. We designed a poster that took the idea of the Balsall Heath Carnival colouring in poster to produce a design that combined the artwork of Andy Warhol and a Sex Pistol’s album cover. This was distributed to all the houses on our road to be coloured in and displayed in windows. The street party was a huge success; it was interesting how people came together for a shared purpose, where it was sanctioned as OK to talk to your neighbour.

See Colouring In, Common, Decorate Your House Competition, Reasons

Street Watch

On the corner of Balsall Heath Road and Longmore Street, there is an old portacabin. It appears relatively insignificant, but it’s the original ‘Street Watch’ cabin, from which local residents would be based to keep vigil for kerb crawlers and prostitutes in the 1980s and early 1990s. Kinver Croft residents Association expressed their concern that the building is now becoming run down and an eye-sore.

See Activism, Balsall Heath Tourist Information Centre, Balsall Heath Forum, Residents Meetings 163

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superspace

superspace is the name of the organisation looking to organise the Biennale. superspace is a not-for-profit-company limited by guarantee. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remit is to investigate how contemporary art can manifest in the public realm in a way which is responsive and useful to people in a given space or context.

See Artists, Community Biennale, Contemporary Art

Surrealist Nights

A set of open submission commissions. Applicants will be invited to develop proposals that draw on the history of the Surrealist group led by Conroy Maddox based in Balsall Heath in the 1930â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to make a series of events, happenings and activities.

See Birmingham Surrealists

Sweeping

People in Balsall Heath, often Asian women, will often sweep the area outside of their homes in the morning.

See Decorate Your House Competition, Litter

Swimming Baths

Moseley Road Baths is a building of national importance. Opened in 1907, it is the oldest of only three Grade II* Listed swimming baths currently operating in Britain. Remarkably for a building now into its second century, it survives almost intact, still used for its primary purpose and with very few alterations to the original layout.

Birmingham Mail. 1969 165

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Talent (Balsall Heath’s Got)

This was an idea suggested by the head of a Housing Association who had previously tried to put this on in Balsall Heath, only to have funding withdrawn.

Talk Series

We would like to programme a series of talks that respond to the wider thematics of the projects (e.g. the ethics of waste; the common & public space).

See Art School

The Drum

The Drum is the national centre for Black British arts and culture, based in Aston, Birmingham. The Drum is the Hall Green Wards Arts Champion (a new scheme by Birmingham City Council that links up large arts organisations in the city with specific areas). Balsall Heath is in Hall Green Ward. www.the-drum.org.uk

Tour Guides

One idea we’re exploring is using local residents as tour guides. In conjunction with a map and website this would enable structured yet idiosyncratic tours through the local area.

See Map, Spaces

Trainers

We learnt many unusual facts at the residents meetings. For example, trainers hanging on telephone wires is often a marker used to convey a drug dealing space.

Translation

Given the ethnic make-up of the area, language and translation were potential pitfalls. Many people would be willing to take part in the questionnaire if you filled it in on their behalf (shop owners for example, could speak English fluently but weren’t able to write it). In some ways this 168

was beneficial to the process as it allowed more intimate conversation to occur. Translation issues were also a problem when we were consulting over the community garden as many people on the road were unable to speak English and we required an interpreter. Subsequently we had a letter translated into Arabic to distribute along the road. Another translation problem is making the language used in contemporary art accessible to a non-specialist audience.

The Tree Nursery

Balsall Heath Forum are based at The Tree Nursery. Alongside the Forumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pyramid home are two commercially sized polytunnels, a vegetable patch and a series of green areas. They also grow plants to sell, specialising in exotic vegetables.

See Balsall Heath Forum, Buckminstaer Fuller, Growing

Truffle Hunters

A term used to describe people on the look out for hidden art-works at Biennales or other large contemporary art get-togethers.

Trust

Alongside ownership and linkages, there was a third term that kept cropping up during the consultation: trust. The project was, and continues to be, time-heavy because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success is dependent upon gaining peoples trust.

See Linkages, Ownership

Twitter

Initially we held a firm belief in the power of social media and the role it would play within the consultation. We had even developed a long list of hashtags for twitter. But as the consultation progressed, and particularly after the first round of residents meetings, it became problematic: many people werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t on the internet, let alone twitter.

See Engagement, Trust 169

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Ulfah Arts

Ulfah Arts is a creative social enterprise that uses arts and media as tools of social empowerment. They develop Radio, film and performing art projects, which engage diverse social groups as artists, media producers and audience members. Ulfah Arts are located in Balsall Heath and Highgate’s old fire station on the Moseley Road. This has now become Highgate Craft Centre and houses a range of other creative organisations. www.ulfaharts.co.uk

Unadopted Alley’s

Peppered across Balsall Heath are an abundance of spaces that are classified as ‘unadopted’. Most often these spaces are alleys or avenues, the residue of Victorian planning (such as the unadopted avenues on Runcorn Road) or they can be areas of land in more modern housing areas such as the Kinver Croft estate. These spaces have now become sites for dumping and fly-tipping or have become overgrown and abandoned. We have discussed setting up an adoption agency for unadopted spaces.

See Adoption Agency, Confused Spaces, Green and Clean

Unofficial Country

In a workshop we ran at Clifton Primary School, one of the children filling in their questionnaires listed their ethnicity as ‘unofficial country’.

See Balsall Heath World Cup

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Venues

Over the course of the consultation period, more and more spaces and potential venues came to the fore. The below include faith centres, parks, restaurants and arts organisations. The Hubb; The Old Printworks; Ort Café; Le Hillac Cafe; Midlands Arts Centre; Balsall Heath Children’s Centre; City Farm; Balsall Heath Forum; Popular Balti; Soul Ful Lebanese Restaurant; Moseley Road Swimming Baths; Library; Friends Institute; Gudwara Singh; Joseph Chamberlain College; Calthorpe Park Play Centre; Balsall Heath Church Centre; St Paul’s Trust; Sharespace / The Hub; Infinity Centre; Pickwick Park; Court Rd Square; Cheddar Road Gardens, Buddist Centre; The Tree Nursery. To name but a few.

Vermin

One of the themes of the residents meetings was the persistence of vermin across the area. Talking to the owner of SMS supermarket on the Edward Road walkabout, he revealed that one of their biggest selling products is mice killer. The council will deal with cockroaches and rats but not mice. Although vermin was often referred to in relation to residential accommodation, one of Balsall Heath’s Forums wardens recounted how on a clean-up they had been attacked by a giant rat. The typical Balsall Heath rat is bigger, quicker and faster than your average rat - it also has a penchant for fastfood and meat balti. This is why we introduced Splat the Balsall Heath Rat.

See Environmental Warden, Litter, Pigeons, Religion, Splat the Balsall Heath Rat, Wire Wool

Volunteers

As part of the Biennale we hope to offer a range of volunteering opportunities for people interested in the project. If you are interested get in touch. balsallheathbiennale@gmail.com

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Wasteland Twinning

One idea has been to work with a project called ‘Wasteland Twinning’ as part of curating Balsall Heath in Bloom and developing a Green Trail. The following is an excerpt from their website:

“Wasteland Twinning hijacks the concept of ‘City Twinning’ and applies it to urban Wastelands in order to generate a network for parallel research and action.By subverting the City Twinning concept that aims to parade a city’s more predictable cultural assets and shifting the focus to wastelands, new questions of value and function are raised. Wasteland Twinning aims to develop an understanding of the potential of these sites through transdisciplinary models of practice. Wasteland Twinning is led by independent artists and researchers, that offers the potential for cultural comparison to take place on a local and international scale – going beyond the obvious to examine often invisible perspectives on power relations, land use, urban development and ecology. Through engaged and critical approaches, we hope to uncover some of the peculiarities and commonalities of the wasteland sites. The project aspires to challenge urban land use policy and bring wastelands and their users to attention – to be valued beyond the notion of ‘interim use.” www.wasteland-twinning.net

See Clean and Green, Common

Waiter Curator

Although offering great curries, Balti restaurants don’t necessarily have fantastic artwork on the walls. One of our original ideas was to redress this balance by setting up a temporary gallery quarter based in restaurants in the Balti Triangle (thereby alleviating Birmingham’s lack of commercial galleries). It would have seen waiters acting as gallerists, selling the work of the contemporary artists being shown on the walls of their restaurants. The project was to be called ‘Waiter Curator’, a title that shared its name with Bruce McClean’s first solo show in Berlin.

Window Gallery

Gallery in the window of 58 Eastwood Road; exhibitions may feature cats.

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Wire Wool

Given the problems with vermin, residents meetings often involved a discussion of the various strategies for dealing with mice. Wire wool was recommended as one of the best ways of keeping mice out. You simply take a kitchen scouring pad and put it in the hole that mice are coming through. Likewise, the best method of deterring the stray cats from ripping your rubbish bags apart on a Tuesday night is shaking a bit of talcum powder over them (the bags not the cats).

Workshops

We ran workshops with Balsall Heath Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Centre (x2), Queensbridge School (x2), The Hubb (x1) and Clifton School (x10). These sought to open up discussion about Balsall Heath.

Map & Ice Cream Van | 30-40 mins | 15 participants | All age groups A 4x6ft map of the local area is laid out on the floor. Participants stand around the edge and take it in turns to drive a remote control ice-cream van around while explaining where they are going and why. Markers of different colours are made by participants with plastic construction shapes and laid on the map to show peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favourite spaces and places as well as those they would like to change. This activity will lead onto workshop participants creating fictionalised drawings, maps and paintings of the local area. We assumed that it would be easy to set up workshops with schools - the workshops were free and we thought schools would jump at the opportunity. In reality it became an endless, and occasionally dispiriting process, of chasing people up.

See Engagement, Ice Cream, Stray Cats, Giant Map

Worthiness

Having set out our agenda - how contemporary art might manifest in the public realm in a way that is responsive to the needs of the local community - we became concerned at the worthiness of the project. We now keep a jar of Worthers Originals next to our computers as a warning to ourselves.

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Zaffs

Legendary kebab house on the Moseley Road. Not necessarily on account of its food, but because it is always open. Many of the children in the workshops listed this as one of their favourite places in Balsall Heath.

See Craft Activities, Dogon Tribe, Fast Food, Litter

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Balsall Heath Biennale Colouring In Book superspace 2012 www.superspace.org.uk superspacegroup@gmail.com Cover Photograph | Dan Burwood

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