Jon McCurley’s Monsters of the World focuses on the global chocolate trade through the lens of his Irish-Vietnamese roots, and his parents’ experience of meeting whilst working for Cadbury’s in the 1970s.
What do you see when you stare at the Commonwealth connections of Birmingham’s industrial past?
Monsters of the World considers Cadbury`s role in the Age of Globalisation and draws parallels to the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery. The so-called ‘edges of the known world’, where mythical monsters were claimed to have existed in previous centuries, appear to mirror today where multinational companies extract resources, exploit labour, open new markets, and sell products.
Before you meet the ‘Monsters’, join McCurley at a potentially humorous, and definitely satirical, Taste Test – an interactive stall as part of the Bournville Village Festival, where audiences are encouraged to interact with his live consumer survey before taking a whirl on the bumper cars or helter-skelter or enjoying the maypole celebrations of the village.
Monsters of the World Tour
Date and Time |
Location |
| Launch - Digbeth First Friday, 1 July, 6PM-8PM | Eastside Projects, 86 Heath Mill Lane, B5 5SR |
| Saturday 2 July, 10AM - 4PM | Women's Recreation Ground, Bournville. Access via Bournville Lane or Mary Vale Road. B30 2LU. |
| Saturday 9 July, 10AM - 4PM | Bournville Park. Access via Linden Road or Selly Oak Road. |
About the Artist
Jon McCurley (b.1982, Toronto) works in performance, film, sculpture, and theatre. He was half of the art group Life of a Craphead (2006 - 2020), projects include King Edward VII Equestrian Statue Floating Down the Don River (2017), where a life-size replica of a well-known colonial statue was dumped into a Toronto river on a weekly basis for a month; and Doored (2012 - 2017), a monthly live broadcast performance art show that featured over 150 performers over the span of 5 years. In 2018 Life of a Craphead was nominated for the Sobey Art Award.
His work investigates the diaspora, identity and white supremacist culture. His most recent show, Skull Island (2022) at Écart, Rouyn Noranda, is a collection of work about a trip to Vietnam where he discovered that the King Kong movie Kong: Skull Island (2017) had been filmed in the city where his family comes from, Ninh Bình. In 2023, he has an upcoming show at Richmond Gallery (Vancouver).
Website: eastsideprojects.org
