Artwork celebrating childhood set to feature at Games exhibition

"Jambo Cinema - The 1980's Indian Living Room & Bollywood VHS Rental Shop Experience" by Dawinder Bansal is set to be a featured part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival at the Mailbox.

The piece is a multifaceted immersive exhibition emerging from a nostalgic time in artist Dawinder Bansal's childhood in Wolverhampton.

It is influenced by her time growing up as a young girl in her parents' electrical shop, Bansal Electrical, which also rented VHS Bollywood films.

It also draws upon her memories of watching Bollywood films with her Sikh extended family, pays homage to her Kenyan roots, and explores the social history of South Asian home entertainment in 1980s Britain.

The Birmingham 2022 Festival iteration will feature a new short film called Asian's Don't Kiss (but we know how to make babies) inspired by the classic film Cinema Paradiso (1988) and the humorous musings of Dawinder's life growing up as a young Indian girl in the Midlands during the 1980s.

Additionally, Dawinder will draw on her experiences of attending 'daytimers' which were daytime discos for young South Asians.

This underground moment meant that teenage South Asians had a safe space to experience the nightlife they were forbidden to engage with due to cultural traditions and in some cases, safety from racial abuse.

Nightclubs were taken over in the daytime, starting at midday and finished at 6pm.

One Birmingham nightclub to hold these daytime gigs was The Dome.

Dawinder will exhibit posters and material not seen by the public before and it is her hope to make this an exhibition that represented the lived South Asian experience in Birmingham and beyond.

"Jambo Cinema - The 1980's Indian Living Room & Bollywood VHS Rental Shop Experience" will be at the Mailbox each day between July 28 and August 20 from 12pm to 7pm, although it will be closed on Sundays and Mondays.

To find out more, go to dawinderbansal.com