Tuesday – Sunday, 11am-5pm. Closed Mondays except Bank Holidays
Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square , Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS
Free
Our Sculptors Exhibitions
This is the most comprehensive exhibition to date of work by British artist Hew Locke. Involving a wide range of media – painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and installation, Locke explores the languages of colonial and post-colonial power, and the symbols through which different cultures assume and assert identity. Fusing historical source material with a keen interest in current affairs, often through the juxtaposition or modification of existing artefacts, Locke focuses attention especially on the UK, the monarchy and his childhood home of the then newly independent Guyana.
Through appropriating coats of arms and trophies, weaponry, naval warships, public statuary and the costumes and regalia of state, Locke subtly critiques governmental authority, its iconographies and legacies. Ships and boats recur as leitmotifs. Carriers of countless possible meanings, evoking centuries of warfare, trade and strategies of cultural imperialism, they also hold personal significance for the artist: “Here’s the thing: Guyana means ‘land of many waters’ – you are constantly aware of boats. I went to Guyana as a five-year-old kid on a boat. I came back here on a boat. So many things, good and bad, travel by sea.”
Tuesday – Sunday, 11am-5pm. Closed Mondays except Bank Holidays
Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square , Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS
Free