The idea of 鈥渘egative space鈥 is essential to British artist Oliver Beer, whose work confronts the audience with what is not there, and, through revealing absences, has the somewhat paradoxical effect of highlighting the emotional value that we invest in objects. In his first show at Ikon since 2011, Beer presents a series of new and recent pieces including some specially commissioned for the exhibition.
A recent interest is the creation of vessels, often from ceramics, which become idiosyncratic musical instruments as the empty space within resonates in response to a particular musical note, and, when amplified with microphones and sound systems, creates a soundscape of harmonics feeding back 鈥 the sound of an absence singing. In Silence Is Golden 鈥 a new work for Ikon 鈥 among a series of these musical objects are three glass spheres, each holding an actual-size golden model of the tiny bones of the inner ear that make hearing possible, but sealed silently inside crystal.
One of the centrepieces of the exhibition is another commission for Ikon.聽I Wan鈥檔a be Like You聽(2016)聽is a 鈥渞e-animation鈥 of a scene from Walt Disney鈥檚 Jungle Book. Beer invited 2,500 local school children, aged 聽from early years until the age of 13, to join in, drawing film stills which are arranged in order of their age, so that the animation style becomes increasingly 鈥済rown up鈥 as the scene unfolds. Frame by frame the scribbles of infants progressively give way to the increasingly lucid drawings of children and then adolescents. Here, the artist uses a time-based medium to demonstrate the inexorable passage of time central to the human condition.
Family relationships recur throughout the work on display, such as Oma鈥檚 Kitchen Floor (2008) a wall-mounted section of linoleum, taken from his grandmother鈥檚 kitchen. The human traces left by decades of his grandmother鈥檚 feet moving across the linoleum and wearing down its pattern are revealed as a picture built up over 40 years through half-a-lifetime of movement.聽 Meanwhile, one of several video works, Mum鈥檚 Continuous Note (2013), is both a touching portrait of Beer鈥檚 mother and a celebration of sound, as she appears to be singing a single note for three minutes without drawing breath, while creating harmonies on a blue guitar.
Oliver Beer, 15 March 鈥 4 June, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. For more information:
Credits:
1.聽Oliver Beer, Tristan Ensemble (2015). Live sound installation based on tuning the harmonics of antiquities from the collection of Robert Wilson. Installation view, Watermill Center, New York. Image 漏 the artist.
