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22/9/2008

Claudia Losi - Martin Creed

Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Claudia Losi

Italian artist Claudia Losi returns to work with Ikon following the presentation last Spring of her Aria Mobile, a small globe embroidered with threads flowing in the direction of high altitude winds. While this delicate work could be held by a human hand, Losi’s current project centres around a life-size whale, a dramatic shift in scale that relates not only to the physical object, but also to the epic concept of time evoked by a species that has survived for some 50 million years. Made in Italy in 2002, the whale has since travelled the world, becoming the catalyst for an extended collaborative process engaging thousands of people.

The project initially arose from Losi’s awareness that even the highest peaks around her home town of Piacenza were once covered by water in which whales swam, the traces of which are still evident today. This sense of the passing of time is elaborated in her practice through the manual processes used, including sewing, embroidery and ceramics, as well as extended collaborations in which the whale is used as a trigger for other people’s stories and memories. Prior to the exhibition in Birmingham, the artist worked with pupils at Erdington Hall Primary School to produce drawings of whales. These were then used by local residents, in a temporary tailor’s shop on Erdington High Street, as patterns to produce hundreds of small fabric whales that now provide company for the large creature in its temporary home.

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Martin Creed

This is a survey of new and recent works by acclaimed British artist Martin Creed, including pieces commissioned by Ikon, plus associated events. It is one of Creed’s most comprehensive and ambitious exhibition to date.

Since his emergence as an artist, during the early 1990s, Creed has developed a practice characterised at once by conceptual stringency and a touching, deceptive, simplicity. Logic is often taken to humorous extremes, resulting in something that is next to nothing, or alternatively a work that is completely arresting in its effect on the audience. Creed memorably won theTurner Prize in 2001, exhibiting at Tate Britain his installation Work No. 160 (The lights going on and off, 1996), a version of which is located in Ikon’s Tower Room.

The idea of art as something distinct does not apply to the work of Martin Creed. The unpretentious realism, asserting continuity between his artistic gestures and everyday life, is powerfully obvious in Works No. 583 and 730 (the Sick and Sex films respectively, 2006 and 2007), which could not be more engaging in their stark depiction of basic human behaviour. Other works here have an irresistible charm, revealing Creed’s distinct take on life, making sense of random experience through idiosyncratic order.

Work No. 587 (2006) consists of potted cacti placed in a line according to their increasing height, ranging from ten centimetres to over two metres, whilst Work No. 670 (Orson and Sparky, 2007), features two dogs, one very small and one very large, simply walking across a studio floor. These works epitomise the artist’s amused fascination with the world and his impulse to respond with a candour that is compelling.

Elements of this exhibition contain explicit images which some people may fi nd offensive. Access to the First Floor Gallery is restricted to persons aged 18 and over. Following Ikon, the exhibition will tour to Seoul (Artsonje Centre), Hiroshima (City Museum of Contemporary Art) and Lima (Museo de Arte).

A catalogue, illustrated with installation photographs, will be available in November 2008 for £12.95 (including free postage and packing for pre-orders).

Martin Creed’s exhibition is supported by The Henry Moore Foundation.

Image: Claudia Losi

Opening sept. 23 2008

Ikon Gallery
1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace - Birmingham
Free admission

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