Le, Mendelsohn and Mark @ Ikon Galleries Reviewed

The Ikon currently has three new exhibitions: The Colony by Dinh Q. Le, Varna Road by Janet Mendelsohn and 108 Leyton Ave by Kelly Mark. The former takes up the first floor of the gallery and the latter two the second floor and Tower respectively. All three exhibitions run from today (27th Jan) to 3^rd April 2016.

The Colony is a set of films about the Chincha Islands which are based in the South China Sea and are rich in Guano, a bird manure of particular high quality. Upon first sight these films appear another twist on the theme of area of natural beauty which is blighted by now disused factories. The films are shot partly by drone and one gets the feeling that the artist is seeking to use the strategy of subversion in their work. You understand this when in some of the footage you see the drone at work.

It is a clever piece of art, but to me a distant piece. It had the feel of a documentary that you were removed from but one where you appreciated the work of the cameraman and editor. It has an associated event on 17^th March, (as part of the Arts and Science Festival 2016), when Dr. Frank Uekotter, Reader in Environmental Humanities at the University of Birmingham is going to be looking at The Legacy of Guano.

It was unfortunate as I started to make my way around the second floor of the exhibition that the fire alarm went off. It was preview night and the building was full. Whilst the staff were very professional and calm in dealing with the emergency it did take some time to empty. I must admit it left me slightly perturbed. If there had been a real fire and it had taken hold would I have made it out? Yet I know this level of activity in the gallery is not the norm. This was preview night and normally the Ikon is less packed.

When I made it back to the second floor I entered the Janet Mendelsohn Varna Road exhibition. This is a piece of social history made up of black and white photographs which is well curated and presented. In addition to the main Exhibition Guide there is a sheet outlining the title (and subject matter of each photo). It is an exhibition of works lent by the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham.

Wandering round one was struck by the images of the period. Images one would not have been surprised to see in films such as Cathy Come Home. That is perhaps not surprising as that film was produced in the mid-1960s and these photographs were taken between 1967 and 1969 when Mendelsohn was a student at the University of Birmingham. She was studying within the renowned Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) with its neo-Marxist focus on cultural analysis.

Her photo essay of this area of Balsall Heath and particularly the life of a sex worker she befriended are a clear exploration of the connections between ethnicity, class and location.  They do not seek to romanticise rather they seek to make the viewer question both their own assumptions and what they are seeing.

There is an associated People's Archive Event on 12th and 13th March where people are invited to come in and share their memories, stories, photos and memorabilia of this former red light district which was so much more than that as Mendelsohn shows us.

I really enjoyed this exhibition with its focus on social history and cultural studies. That of course is in a large part because it hit on my own area of interest, (in a way that the 1^st floor exhibition hadn’t). I also was interested to see how, again, the legacy of the late Stuart Hall lives on in the work of the Ikon. I hope at some point they may consider a full exhibition dedicated to him and his influence.

 

The third and smallest exhibition was more of a traditional piece of art and less of an inter-disciplinary exploration. It was a film which was very cleverly put together by the artist. This film by the Canadian Artist is built upon clichés which relate to the concepts of “everything” and “nothing”. Kelly Mark uses split screen projection to have a conversation with herself which looks like it might be twins bickering.

In addition to being very clever in production it is also clever in that it is based upon a deceiving simplicity. I found myself connecting with this film much more easily than the Dinh Q. Le films because whilst it challenged me to think it was easy to connect with.

So an exhibition with three parts over two floors. All are worth a look and this is an exhibition that is definitely worth giving time to. With the films making up a large percentage of the work on display you need to allow time to watch a good chunk of each.

This is not the only art in the building though. On the way out I noticed a glass ear trumpet which I had not seen there before.  This piece enabled one to listen to the outside world in a mediated way and was fascinating.

Then there was the temporary unintentional art left by people who had either left in a hurry or deposited glasses and guide during the fire alarm. I am a great believer in keeping your eyes open because you often find art in the everyday, not just in the work produced by great artists as are on display here.

Favourite Music, Books and Exhibitions from 2015 Revisited

So we’re coming to the end of 2015 and I am rounding off with a list of my “favourites” of 2015.

Best Live Act

Skinny Lister – saw them at Cambridge Folk Festival and absolutely loved them, as detailed in my review of the festival. Also really enjoyed their Down on Deptford Broadway album.

Best Album

This was a hard category. I was very tempted to go for a Skinny Lister double, but The Young ‘Uns Another Man’s Ground gets it primarily for the track “You Won’t Find Me on Benefits Street” but is overall a great album, which I reviewed here.

Best New Act

This year I have encountered loads of great new music. This has to go to Lady Sanity though. As this post on the Radio Six Music Introducing event at the Hare and Hounds says I was blown away by her. However, I have to say that Finch and the Moon were great too. Note I am not including Skinny Lister because whilst they were new to me Down on Deptford Broadway was their second album.

Best Festival

Cambridge Folk Festival was wonderful this year. Absolutely loved it. The Birmingham Literature Festival came in very close to this one and I was unsure whether to go for this one in first place. This post links to my review of my favourite Lit Festival Event.

Best Non-Religious Book

The Mistresses of Cliveden by Natalie Livingstone. This one was a bit of an impulse book and it really caught my imagination, as I made clear in my review.

Best Religious Book

Mission on the Road to Emmaus: Constants, Context and Prophetic Dialogue edited by Cathy Ross and Stephen Bevans. This was a deep book which is well worth more than one reading. This is my review from my other blog.

 

Best UK Exhibition

At Home with Vanley Burke at the Ikon Gallery. This was a full installation and it really caught my imagination, as the obligatory blog review shows. This category was a very close run thing with Provincial Punk by Grayson Perry which was on at the Turner Contemporary in Margate coming in as a close second. This was again reviewed on my other bin a post which also gives mention of Leonie Dawson's Life and Biz workbook which if it had a category would be my best self-improvement tool of the year.

Best International Exhibition

This has to go to the John Paul Gaultier Exhibition in Paris which was amazing. The post where I reviewed this is placed at the bottom of this page and again originally appeared on my other, personal, blog.

The Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the Grand Palais is both stylish and innovative, as one might expect from an exhibition this designer has a hand in. It mixes media involving photography and music as well as textiles.

It’s not your average exhibition, unlike the neighbouring American Icons. That exhibition which is on in another part of the same venue until 22nd June 2015 describes itself as “60 emblematic works from the SFMOMA and the Fisher collection (one of the world’s largest private modern and contemporary art collections, now curated by the museum).” To be fair it’s not bad containing some works by both Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein which I hadn’t come across in their retrospectives at the Tate Modern but it is distinctly underwhelming compared to the Gaultier exhibition which is an experience designed to draw the visitor into an experience.

There are photos and artifacts which reference Gaultier’s early life and influences but this is minimal because the focus is on his haute couture.

The sailor suit stripes are part of the designers own trademark look and are shown in a variety of ways, most strikingly by a manikin in a  jumper and neckerchief. This was no standard manikin though, as with several others it was an android programmed to speak to you as it displayed Gaultier’s face.

There was a Dr. Who feel to these manikins which, on occasion, were ready to make eye contact with you which Karl found unsettling.

As I said the clothes were the central focus of this exhibition and you were reminded of this as you moved into a room with a revolving catwalk. On one side sat a range of guests he’d dressed including Nana Mouskouri and Conchita Wurst. On the other stood a range of London Punks alongside Bowie and Boy George. This was pure beautiful art.

Wedding dresses, corsets and Madonna cones mixed with bondage style wear and more as you worked your way through an array of beautiful and challenging style.

The architecture of the building housing the exhibition was also used to maximum affect as you made your way up a sweeping stone staircase which was lit and had pumping music to a space where you could watch a film illustrating the sheer diversity of the models Gaultier used.

My one criticism was that on the whole the manikins did not reflect the diversity and inclusion the designer is famous for.

Would I recommend a trip to this exhibition? Certainly, indeed whilst we discovered this quite by accident whilst wandering through the city towards the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triumph I would say that for the true love of fashion and spectacle it may worth a trip to the French capital. This was one of the best curated exhibitions and certainly one of the most innovative I’ve encountered. Also in France you get the benefit of being able to take photos of these exhibitions if you wish, although this wasn’t the case for the David Bowie Is exhibition on at the Philharmonie De Paris  until the 31st May 2015.

The Bowie exhibition was what had initially prompted our trip, having missed it at the V & A but having been memorized it via event cinema. It was a good exhibition with a number of original song lyrics and videos of Bowie’s classics as well as costumes and other memorabilia but after the Gaultier exhibition it had neither the impact or wow factor it may otherwise have done. Indeed whilst technologically advanced in many ways it seemed dated compared to the manikins at the Grand Palais. The venue for the Bowie exhibition in an outlying part of Paris was interesting, yet it required a specific visit. Unlike the Gaultier this was never going to be one of those wonders you unexpectedly come across. 

#LoveBrum Review 2

Another weekend exploring Birmingham on a budget – this time with the benefits of the Birmingham Weekender Festival as we wandered around.

First stop after a beautiful stroll down the canal into the city was the IKON gallery, as I introduced Karl to the Vanley Burke exhibition (which I have previously reviewed) before it disappeared. I love this space which is free to enter and it was great revisiting the Burke exhibition and getting to notice some of the detail I missed the first time round.

The gallery is providing one of the venues for the forthcoming Birmingham Literature Festival. This weekend the space outside provided one of the venues for the Birmingham Weekender events. One of the acts on there we enjoyed was The Choir With No Name. Looking at this choir it was obvious this was a scratch choir with a purpose for the participants. They gave a great performance of a range of songs from the sixties to the present. Whilst there were aspects of the performance which could have been a bit more polished they were very good and any odd (and they were very few and far between) deficiencies in quality were certainly made up by passion.

From there we wandered through to the new Library of Birmingham via the Birmingham Rep where Karl played dressing up. Like Manchester’s redesigned library this is a building which is intended very much to be a community destination. It has a very contemporary design but is also quite classic. As we went exploring we saw signs to “The Secret Garden”. This got us interested and so we headed up to the seventh floor, (squeezing in to lifts which are a tad too small, and listening to random Shakespeare quotes within said elevator). The secret garden was more than we expected. It really is a beautiful space where plants and seating provide a place to chill and be whilst looking out over the ever changing city. On a fine day like we had it was a wonderful place to be….and being a public library it is free. As somebody who used to enjoy sitting and reading up on the Tate Modern members room rooftop terrace when I was in the south I was excited to discover this space. There is a Coke machine in the nearby corridor if you want to pick up a drink whilst you’re up there. One of the things I loved about this though was it was a non-commercial area.

Then it was off to the Museum and Art Gallery to have a wander round and pick up a snack. One of the things we wanted to do was visit the Edwardian Tea Rooms. Now, we were a bit worried about what the price would be and were ready to be really careful. Yet, we were surprised. For under £14 we were able to get a great lunch. Karl got a big bacon butty with door steps of bread and a tasty, healthy, fresh salad together with a drink whilst I got one of the best tea and scone combo’s I’ve ever had. The tea came out in a huge metal tea-pot and I was worried how I was going to get through it, but in reality it was enough for two large cups. There was a lovely tea strainer to use and the tea was not bad. It was the scones, cream and jam which got me though. I was completely bowled over.

There were four small scones who came out on a log tray with a small glass jar with strawberry jam in and another with clotted cream. The scones were still warm and were just the right consistency, so they weren’t dry or too crumbly. The one drawback was our cutlery holder was out of knives so we had to go and raid a nearby cutlery tin.

As we sat in the comfortable arm chairs looking at the art on the wall and the museum gallery above we reflected on whether this was value for money or not. Now, it was a little more expensive than you would normally pay for lunch but not that much more. We sat and reflected how much you would spend in Starbucks for a drink and sandwich or cake and the difference was not as much as you would think. Additionally, the butty was much larger than you would get and the scones were something you would not pick up in an average coffee shop. Yes, this is a treat not an every weekend thing but in an otherwise free day it was well worth the investment.

After eating we wandered round the museum which gave an enlightening insight into Birmingham’s past. The thing I found most interesting was reflecting on the reason why migration has been so central to the city…..the fact it was not given a royal charter and so had more freedoms to offer religious dissenters and others who may have been viewed as undesirable at various points of our history as well as being a manufacturing centre.

The history’s past wealth does have the shadow of slavery hanging over it and this was acknowledged in an appropriate way without dwelling on it.

Overall, I enjoyed wandering round and feeling that this museum was rooted in the same kind of values as those in Liverpool and Glasgow. Social history has been important and remains so.
 

After we left this magnificent building we headed round the corner to Victoria Square where we picked up some more of the festival. We found seats on artificial grass and were able to enjoy the Hackney CollieryBand playing their contemporary brass. The band had a new Sax player who was particularly talented. The sound quality wasn’t always great, as is often the case with such events where the PA can be a bit dodgy but the music was great and the mixed age crowd had fun.

So far loving exploring this new city which has so much to offer in terms of history, culture and art.

At Home With Vanley Burke @ IKON Reviewed

As the leaves turn and Starbucks start selling their Pumpkin Spice latte I am hitting the galleries at the end of their summer exhibitions.

Today I found my way to the IKON gallery which has At Homewith Vanley Burke on its First Floor Galleries until 27th September.

This is an installation which contains the entire contents of Burke’s flat in Nechells, north east Birmingham according to the accompanying blurb. It was interesting to hear one of the gallery staff explain they did get him stuff from Ikea to use whilst the exhibition is going on.

I found this approach and installation fascinating and really interesting.

Readers of the work of Stuart Hall the late cultural studies theorist will be unsurprised to find overlaps with what Hall talked about and what is represented in this exhibition. It is a collection which showcases not only Burke’s photography but also an extensive archive of objects relating to black culture in Britain.

There were a range of things within the collection which caught my interest. The first was a collection of news stand sheets (i.e. the sort advertising that days headlines) relating to Handsworth which were in the hallway. These were a visual representation of how moral panic works and the scare stories which have been put forward about black men particularly.

This installation, particularly many of the photographs of the early 1980’s, explained why the neo-Marxist interpretation of the treatment of Afro-Caribbean youth, particularly men, is valid. It showed the way in which the police have sometimes treated minority ethnic groups in this country and the way they have had to organise themselves as a result.

The exhibition also contained a number of posters and so on relating to the anti-apartheid struggle which was occurring when South Africa was under white minority rule. These clearly explained what the purpose of the struggle was and how the campaign was certainly not just white liberals in this country.

Amongst the traditional African art which also hung on the walls were some Victorian Christian images of the sort that the UK church now tends to be embarrassed of. This was interesting to me because I know it illustrates a Christian view which still persists in the mind of some minority ethnic groups. It is the image given to them by the missionaries which was last seen reflected in the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book, a hymn book which is still the preferred one for use in Ghana for example.  

As a white liberal I found the persistence of these images cringe worthy, yet I knew they had a place and when we seek to say they no longer have worth we are denying part of somebody else’s culture somehow. I have not explained this well but their inclusion in the installation was challenging to me.

I liked the pile of tapes which were in one room because they held nostalgia for an England that used to be when I was a teenager.

There were also numerous other pieces around which caught my imagination but the most important thing was the whole of this piece. There was an authenticity about it which one so rarely finds, particularly in a gallery.

Social history and art are often one, but somehow iconic images which are part of the social history become sanitised in a gallery space. This exhibition avoided that sanitation and the fact it was a whole flat made it feel. It also had a very comfortable feel to it.

For me a good gallery can be a sacred space and a place to connect with God as you wander through it encountering the images which often vary between the erotic, disturbing and distorted, and the amazingly beautiful. There is also space to breathe in a gallery. As I wandered through IKON I could feel that connection with the spiritual as I encounter it. I have a feeling this will be that place I go when I just need to breathe in large breaths of the sacred just as the Tate Modern was when I lived in the South.