Locking eyes across a dark, sticky room; the music pulses through you as glistening limbs cut through the smoke and lasers like they’re coming up for air. A smile that suggests a promise, a communion, an anticipation that you’re not leaving alone tonight. A rubbed thigh followed by a wink and a slightly sharper intake of breath outside the public urinals. A head subtly cocked towards the footpath that snakes down the side of the canal bridge. Sex, and the hope of human connection, penetrates the streets of Digbeth… or at least it always has done.
The re-densification of Digbeth is speeding up. As HS2 draws ever closer, high rise buildings packed with luxury flats have begun to populate the skyline, larger institutions are making their way in, and historically lax landlords have turned their attention to squeezing profits out of previously forgotten land. As the landscape shifts, who/ what experiences (that lie outside of the consultation process) are being lost and erased? What happens as the safety and anonymity of a post-industrial area with minimal infrastructure falls away into regeneration?
We ask where does the sex go when venues are forced to close to makeway for the latest tower block? Where does the sex go when the flats are too expensive for anyone to own a bed in them? Where does the sex go when the harsh stage lights shine down on a sterile production set, illuminating every corner and every pore? Where does the sex go when the clubs shut their doors at 11pm to avoid noise complaints, turfing people out just as the night gets going? And where does the sex go when the secluded footpaths that once led to cruising spots become bustling thoroughfares?
Join us for April’s Digbeth First Friday, as artists explore what the gentrification of Digbeth means for sex and intimacy, what happens to the ‘margins’ that have fostered sweaty human connections, and navigate the precarity of spaces where humans are free to make and seek a whole range of experiences- sexual and emotional.
About the artists
brutalisturinalOpen accordion
brutalisturinal is an artist, carer, sex worker and death worker from Birmingham, UK with a research focus in trans and queer sex, BDSM and cruising practices, public space and temporality. He also runs the queer sex party Temporary Cruising Zone. For the event, he will be reading a new text titled ‘It’s (not) safe in the city to love in a doorway’ – a collection of memories, ideas, fantasies and remembrances set in cruising sites which are now dead or disrupted due to gentrification.
You can find out more about brutalisturinal here.
Ryan AsburyOpen accordion
Jessa MockridgeOpen accordion
Jessa Mockridge is an artist, writer and library worker from Cape Town, living in London. She works with DIY print publishing, performance, sound and video. She’s interested in the power dynamics of media in relation to bodies and a politics of listening; a feminist ear that can also be an eye, skin or fist. She will be restaging two performances: ‘A scene with human furniture’–BDSM puppy play between PAGE and VOICE; and ‘Spivak_rub’–time-based writing on the erotics of rubbing out pencil in library books.
You can find out more about Jessa Mockridge here.
Access Information
This event is centred around discussions of sex and other mature themes, we approximate that it would receive a BBFC 15 rating and it may not be suitable for children.
There will be a pay bar serving alcoholic and soft drinks. Alcohol may also be used within some of the evening’s performances.
Each artist will perform for roughly 20-30 minutes each, with 10-15 minutes between each set. We will share specific timings to our instagram stories and in the gallery on the day of this event so you know when to expect each performance.
Each performance will be live captioned by 1-2-1 captions.
Expect dim and varied lighting throughout the evening.
Grand Union Gallery is located up two flights of stairs with no lift access. There is one spacious gender-neutral bathroom with no mobility aids. You can find a more detailed access guide to our building and space here.
