BILL DRUMMOND: HALF WAY TO DIGBETH & THREE MONTHS IN BIRMINGHAM
Bill Drummond is now half way to Digbeth on the first date of The 25 Paintings – World Tour.
So far he has:
Arrived in the city of Birmingham on his raft made from my bed.
Constructed the sculpture 400 BUNCHES OF DAFFODILS under Spaghetti Junction.
Begun his twelve year World Tour.
Built a house of cards from The 25 Paintings.
Banged his drum along the Coventry Road.
Blown his horn from the top of the Rotunda.
Given away forty bunches of daffodils to complete strangers.
Polished sixteen pairs of shoes.
Baked forty cakes and given them to forty strangers thus constructing the Birmingham CAKE CIRCLE.
Flyposted thirty of the 100 Head Painting Posters that have to be done.
Begun work on the Birmingham Dead Oak Ring.
Flown forty flags of The Atlantic Archipelago from forty lampposts.
Built two beds out of wood on the streets of the city. Two more beds to go.
Given five of the ten performance lectures that he is scheduled to give in the city.
Begun work on The Million Stitch Blanket, which is to be a gift from the rest of the World to Birmingham.
Done one large graffiti under Spaghetti Junction.
On Saturday 14 June Bill Drummond will be celebrating the conclusion of his three months as artist at large across the city of Birmingham. The celebrations will be taking place at Eastside Projects which has been the focus for much of the work Drummond has carried out over these three months.
The schedule for celebrations is as follows:
09:00 – 10:00
Drummond will be plying his sometime trade as shoe shine boy. This being the final part of his Forty Pairs of Shoes In Birmingham.
10:00 – 12:00
The deconstruction of the house of cards made from The 25 Paintings and then the reconstruction of the same house of cards on some wasteland close to the city centre.
13:00 – 14:00
Drummond’s Saturday Soup Kitchen. This will include one large vat of vegetable soup freshly made by Drummond. Bowls of this soup will be served with a hunk of bread and chunk of cheddar until the vat is dry.
14:00 – 16:00
The final Knit & Natter session. This will include the sewing together of all the squares for The Million Stitch Blanket completed in Birmingham. The topic of conversation will be agreed on the day.
16:00 – 17:00
Tea & Scones. Drummond will have freshly baked forty scones to be served with cream and strawberry jam.
17:00 – 18:00
Drummond will re-paint the first of the five promotional paintings in readiness for the Berlin leg of his World Tour.
18:00 – 19:00
Drummond will transform into his sometime alter ego Tenzing Scott Brown.
19:00 – 22:00
Tenzing Scott Brown will play a DJ set that will include the A-sides of all forty of his complete collection of 7″ 45s. You will be invited to dance. The gallery bar will be serving alcoholic drinks.
22:00 – 00:00
Tenzing Scott Brown will disrobe leaving Drummond to pack up The 25 Paintings exhibition into his container. You will be invited to help him.
00:00
Drummond will re-launch his raft made from his bed, into the Grand Union Canal under Spaghetti Junction and make his ceremonial leaving of Birmingham and heading for Berlin. He will wave goodbye and disappear into the night.
The next four cities on the World Tour are:
Berlin, Germany: 2015
Guangzhou, China: 2016
Memphis, Tennessee: 2017
Kolkata, India: 2018
The World Tour will conclude underneath Spaghetti Junction on the evening of the 28 April 2025 if Drummond does not die beforehand.
