Ikon hosts Midlands-based artist Exodus Crooks’ exhibition Epiphany (Temporaire), commissioned by Ort Gallery and International Curators Forum (ICF), and curated by Orphée Kashala. Originally presented at Block 336, London, in Summer 2023, the exhibition includes sculpture, film, text and sculptural installation and runs 9 February to 21 April 2024.
For Epiphany (Temporaire), Exodus has invested in a process of carving out (sometimes literally) dialogues from the layers of history, heritage and culture around them. Through an interrogation of domestic and familiar surfaces, Exodus is investigating the embodiment and repository of memories, histories and traditions, inherited, stored and transferred through time and shared space. A succession of profound experiences converges within the exhibition to form an allegory of personal stories of love, loss and pain.
Key works in Epiphany (Temporaire) include Doing Duties for Miss Dell (2023), an installation comprising a washing line, turf, clothes and a bedsheet with text. Inspired by a memory of the artist hanging out laundry for and with their maternal grandmother, this work speaks to the
relationship with the artist’s matriarchal lineage, where chores and domestic duties were prioritised over, or equated with, the duty to love. Another installation, A message from my ancestors (2022-23), uses the significance of the wardrobe, seen in biblical and magical contexts, to represent a portal to other worlds. When visiting their ancestral land, the artist received a poem, originally titled For your twelve year old self, which has been carved into the wooden wardrobe, itself sourced from their childhood home. The exhibition also includes film works
(Leti’guh (2022-23) comments on the process of gathering, having, holding and letting go of ideas), mixed media (Y: the symbol of man (2023) considers western discourses on gender which continue to be complex and inhibited) and archival materials.
The exhibition itself stems from Ort Gallery and ICF’s Emergence(y) project for emerging curators, in which Orphée Kashala participated in 2021. Together Exodus and Orphée have explored the themes of epiphany, temporariness, displacement, home, heritage, tradition, imagination, diaspora, creativity, honesty, spirituality, and self-determination. Epiphany (Temporaire) follows Ikon’s numerous collaborations with Exodus as an artist educator on Slow Boat, funded by Freelands Foundation, and on the Creative Connections Primary Schools Consortium.
This exhibition is presented as part of Ikon’s 60th anniversary year.
Following their Ikon exhibition, in June 2024 Exodus presents new work commissioned by Ikon and
University of Birmingham at The Exchange, the University’s city centre venue.
Ikon Gallery
Brindleyplace, 1 Brindley Pl, Oozells Sq, Birmingham B1 2HS, United Kingdom
