Programme September – November 2014 www.ikon-gallery.org Free entry Alongside these seminal works is a new commission Lee Bul made possible through the Art Fund International scheme in collaboration with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and The New Art Gallery Walsall. Exhibition After Bruno Taut (Devotion to Drift) alludes to the 10 September – 9 November 2014 architect Bruno Taut (1880–1938), a great influence First and Second Floor Galleries on Lee Bul’s works. The suspended sculpture, dripping with an excess of crystalline shapes and glass beads, references the exponential growth and unsustainability of the modern world. Unlike Taut’s Ikon presents the first UK solo show of works by early twentieth century optimism, Lee Bul conjures Korean artist Lee Bul. This survey of early drawings, up beautiful dreams she knows won’t come true. studies, sculptural pieces and ambitious installations – including a new commission made especially This exhibition is organised in collaboration with for Ikon – showcases the visually compelling and the Korean Cultural Centre UK, EACC Castellón intellectually sharp works which have established and Musée d’art moderne et contemporain Saint- Lee Bul as one of the most important artists of her Étienne Métropole. generation. In conjunction with Ikon’s exhibition, the Korean Born in 1964, under the military dictatorship of Cultural Centre (KCC) UK in London presents a South Korea, Lee Bul graduated in sculpture from large-scale floor installation entitled Diluvium (13 Hongik University during the late 1980s. Her works September – 1 November 2014). Lee Bul has created became preoccupied with politics, delving into a new version of the work, which is specifically the many forms of idealism that permeate our designed for the exhibition space of KCC. civilisations, and from the beginning she created www.kccuk.org.uk works that crossed genres and disciplines in 1 provocative ways. Early street performance-based A major new publication accompanies the pieces saw Lee Bul wearing full-body soft sculptures exhibition, priced £12, special exhibition price £9.95, which were both alluring and grotesque. Her later with essays by Jonathan Watkins, Ikon Director and female Cyborg sculptures of the 1990s drew upon Lorand Hegyi, Director of Musée d’art moderne et art history, critical theory, science fiction and contemporain Saint-Étienne Métropole. Visit Ikon’s popular imagination to explore anxieties arising online shop at www.ikon-gallery.org for the full out of dysfunctional technological advances, whilst range of Ikon’s catalogues and limited editions. simultaneously harking back to icons of classical sculpture. Exhibition opening Lee Bul’s more recent works have similarly dual Wednesday 10 September, 6–8pm – FREE concerns; at once forward-looking yet retrospective, Join us to celebrate the opening of our new seductive but suggestive of ruin. Sculptures exhibition. Pay bar. suspended like chandeliers, elaborate assemblages that glimmer with crystal beads, chains and mirrors, poignantly evoke castles in the air. The sculptures reflect utopian architectural schemes 1 Lee Bul of the early twentieth century as well as images Via Negativa (interior detail) (2012) Photograph by Jeon Byung-cheol of totalitarianism from Lee Bul’s early experiences. Courtesy Studio Lee Bul, Seoul Mon grand récit: Weep into stones … (2005), with its mountainous topography is reminiscent of 2 Lee Bul Mon grand récit: Weep into stones … skyscrapers described by Hugh Ferriss in his book (2005) The Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929). Scaffolding Polyurethane, foamex, synthetic clay, stainless steel and aluminum rods, supports several scale model structures: a looping acrylic panels, wood, acrylic paint, highway made of bent plywood, a tiny Tatlin’s varnish, electrical wiring, lighting 2 Monument, a modernist staircase that features in 280 × 440 × 300 cm as installed Collection HITEJINRO Co., LTD., Seoul Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, and an upturned cross-section Photograph by Watanabe Osamu of the Hagia Sofia. Courtesy Mori Art Museum, Tokyo Ikon presents an early video work by Birmingham- Gillian Wearing born artist Gillian Wearing in a disused shop unit in Fletchers Walk, central Birmingham, a space we have occupied since December 2013 to present film Dancing in Peckham works. Off-site exhibition A kind of self-portrait, Dancing in Peckham (1994) 10 September – 18 November 2014 shows the artist dancing for 25 minutes to music Monday – Saturday, 7am–11pm only she can hear in a shopping arcade in south Fletchers Walk, Birmingham B3 3HJ London. The presentation of this work coincides with the unveiling of Wearing’s A Real Birmingham Family sculpture outside the Library of Birmingham. 4 3 Yinka Shonibare’s exhibition at Ikon in 1999 was Yinka Shonibare seminal. We now show Five Under Garments and Much More (1995), an early suspended installation that prefigures the artist’s mannequin works. Each MBE piece mimics the structured corsetry of period noble dress but the dramatically enlarged proportions and exuberant textiles suggest a provocative de-robing Ikon Icon: 1990s of social and class constructions. 3 Yinka Shonibare MBE Exhibition Ikon Icons sees the return of five key British artists Five Under Garments and 10 September – 9 November 2014 from an exhibition programme starting in 1965, Much More (1995) Copyright the artist Tower Room, Second Floor one artist per decade: John Salt (1960s), Ian Emes Courtesy the artist and Only accessible via a number of steps (1970s), Cornelia Parker (1980s), Yinka Shonibare Stephen Friedman Gallery, London Photograph by Mark Blower MBE (1990s) and Julian Opie (2000s). A presentation of work by each takes place consecutively during 4 Gillian Wearing Ikon 50, in Ikon’s Tower Room. The series is a major Dancing in Peckham (1994) Colour video with sound component of Ikon 50, the programme of exhibitions Copyright the artist and events celebrating Ikon’s 50th anniversary. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London Gillian Wearing A Real Birmingham Family Off-site Outside the Library of Birmingham Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND Ikon unveils A Real Birmingham Family, a public sculpture that is the culmination of our four-year project with Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing. During 2011 and 2012, residents of Birmingham were encouraged to nominate their families to be the face of Birmingham. No limits were placed on how the twenty-first century family might define itself and hundreds of families responded, including groups of friends, single parents and people living alone. In 2013 the Jones family – two sisters, Roma and Emma, and their two sons, Kyan and Shaye – were chosen as A Real Birmingham Family by the artist and a diverse panel of community, cultural and religious figures. The selection was made following discussions on what constitutes a Birmingham Associated events family: multiple generations, friendships and diversity as well as evidential links to the city. Launch Event Thursday 30 October, 11.30am – FREE I really liked how Roma and Emma Jones spoke of their Join us as we unveil this new sculpture for the city, closeness as sisters and how they supported each other. outside the Library of Birmingham, to celebrate the It seemed a very strong bond, one of friendship and culmination of this extraordinary project. family, and the sculpture puts across that connectedness between them. A nuclear family is one reality but it is Symposium: one of many and this work celebrates the idea that what Families in Birmingham: change and continuity constitutes a family should not be fixed. Monday 3 November, 11am–4pm – FREE Gillian Wearing Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND This symposium, organised in collaboration with Dr Liz Yardley, Birmingham City University, takes its inspiration from A Real Birmingham Family and asks “What challenges do families face in Birmingham in the twenty-first century?” The day features Support A Real Birmingham Family special guest speakers and is aimed at professionals It’s not too late to support the project and for a working with families and children in a variety of limited period every donation will be matched contexts, including the arts, education, health and by Arts Council England. Those who donate £250 social care. See website for full programme. or more become a Friend of the Family, to be acknowledged in a published list of supporters. Places are free but should be booked, visit To make a donation visit www.ikon-gallery.org, call www.ikon-gallery.org to book online or call Ikon on 5 The Jones Family 0121 248 0708 or text IKON01 £5 to 70070. 0121 248 0708. The exhibition, At Home with Vanley Burke, is an Art Happens ambitious undertaking, and will see Ikon move the entire contents of the artist’s flat in Nechells, north- east Birmingham, to the gallery. We need your Ikon is delighted to announce our partnership with support to raise £17,000. In return for your donation Art Happens, a new national crowd-funding initiative there will be exclusive rewards, designed by Vanley from the Art Fund. Burke, including a special CD, homeware, limited edition artwork and VIP tickets to a summer party. For Ikon, Art Happens focuses on encouraging donations for our 2015 exhibition with Birmingham- Devised to help UK galleries and museums with based artist Vanley Burke. Born in Jamaica in raising support for creative projects, Art Happens is 1951, Burke has lived in the city since 1965 and is a new approach to fundraising. Aimed at forging renowned as a photographer concerned especially an ongoing dialogue with supporters, the scheme with black culture in Britain. Alongside his numerous thanks all donors with exclusive rewards and every exhibitions, Burke is also an avid collector – his penny goes directly to the project. archive is vast and varied, including posters, books, clothes, records, ornaments and countless other Please visit www.artfund.org/arthappens-ikon to items that provide an invaluable insight into make a donation.