Review

Top 10 Artworks to See at Friends in Love and War in Birmingham

Candy Bedworth 11 November 2024 min Read

The exhibition Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es is presented at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK until February 23rd, 2025. Get there if you can, but otherwise, enjoy our selection of the top 10 works celebrating friendship in all its guises.

Ikon Gallery is known for exciting and expertly curated exhibitions. Their newest presentation explores the meaning of friendship in contemporary life using video, sculpture, painting, photography, and textiles. Works from The British Council Collection have been curated collaboratively by friends Marilou Laneuville, Head of Exhibitions and Publications, at macLYON, France, and Melanie Pocock, Artistic Director of Exhibitions, Ikon Gallery. UK.

Friends in Love and War: Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

Defining friendship is difficult, and its meaning and relevance change through time. Are friends just people who offer us benefits? Or are they our best selves offering each other trust and affection? Is friendship unconditional—or can friends become critics and enemies? The artists in this exhibition consider how society, politics, culture, and social media influence friendships. Not just as individual humans, but across species—maybe your dog is your most trusted friend? And not forgetting nation-state diplomatic friendships—how might cultural organizations work together across the globe? Let’s dive into the friendship debate!

1. Pogus Caesar

Black British photographer Pogus Caesar was born in the West Indies and grew up in Birmingham. Also a curator, director, and TV producer, his photography captures the simple and poignant moments in ordinary lives that are (of course) extraordinary. Starting out as a painter, Pogus Ceasar fell in love with what he calls “the organic ecstasy of film.”  This image is from his Schwarz Flaneur series, celebrating the themes of love and friendship within diverse communities.

Friends in Love and War: Pogus Caesar, See Dat, London, 2008, Schwarz Flaneur series. Image courtesy of the artist and OOM Gallery Archive.

Pogus Caesar, See Dat, London, 2008, Schwarz Flaneur series. Image courtesy of the artist and OOM Gallery Archive.

2. Tereza Buškovà

Born in Prague, now settled in Birmingham, Tereza Buškovà explores ritual and tradition, asking us to imagine and actively construct community. Her work focuses on genuine connection and collaboration within communities, especially with mothers and children. Her Clipping The Church processional performance brought together a neighborhood in Erdington, Birmingham with a re-enactment of a forgotten English tradition, weaving in Central and Eastern European heritage.

Friends in Love and War: Tereza Bušková, Clipping the Church, 2016. Video, colour, sound. Duration: 8 minutes 14 seconds. Courtesy of the artist.

Tereza Bušková, Clipping the Church, 2016. Video, colour, sound. Duration: 8 minutes 14 seconds. Courtesy of the artist.

3. Luke Routledge

Did you have an imaginary friend in childhood? Luke Routledge allows viewers of all ages to explore friendships of the imagination. Living and working in Birmingham, Luke Routledge creates human-scale, figurative sculptures that inhabit a speculative, fictional world. Discovering the mind-blowing hypothetical notion of “strange matter” involving neutron stars and quarks started him on a world-building quest. Animatronics, animation, and short story narratives help create an absorbing multiverse where anything might happen as his “strangelet” creatures travel through their fictional world.

Friends in Love and War: Luke Routledge, Strangelets, 2024. Installation view at Ikon Gallery. Photo by Tod Jones. Image courtesy Ikon.

Luke Routledge, Strangelets, 2024. Installation view at Ikon Gallery. Photo by Tod Jones. Image courtesy Ikon.

4. Fabien Verschaere

Spending long and lonely periods in the hospital as a child, Fabien Verschaere developed a passion for creating imaginary worlds. His art brings together drawing, painting, comic books, illuminated manuscripts, dreams, fairy tales, and graffiti. His Seven Days Hotel is a 60-page illuminated tale of a sick child’s encounter with the world, seen through the eyes of a princess. With this artist you get two for one—as you enter the Ikon Gallery the visitor is greeted by a huge swirling black and white Verschaere mural, winding its way through the gallery.

Friends in Love and War: Fabien Verschaere, Seven Days Hotel, 2007, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

Fabien Verschaere, Seven Days Hotel, 2007, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

5. Delaine Le Bas

Short-listed for the Turner Prize in 2024, Delaine Le Bas is a truly multidisciplinary artist. Her installations might include embroidery, costume, decoupage, sculpture, painting, film, photography, and household ephemera. Exploring her Romani heritage is a key part of her work, but she is also fascinated by our relationship with land and nature, belonging, and nationhood. This exhibit, called What We Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Us?, has evolved over a number of years to consider love and the people who support us in times of loss.

Friends in Love and War: Delaine Le Bas, What We Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Us? (Self-Portrait), 2006–2018. Mixed media sculpture. 293 x 54 cm. © British Council Collection. Photo Alexander Christie. Courtesy of the artist.

Delaine Le Bas, What We Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Us? (Self-Portrait), 2006–2018. Mixed media sculpture. 293 x 54 cm. © British Council Collection. Photo Alexander Christie. Courtesy of the artist.

6. Géraldine Kosiak

Based on an imaginary correspondence, Géraldine Kosiak connects with figures in art history whose courage and resilience have influenced her work. She is interested in objects, memories, and situations that carry an individual and collective memory. Mon cher, ma chère is a series of paintings, embroideries, and typed letters, dedicated to ground-breaking artists Claude Cahun and Meret Oppenheim.

 

Friends in Love and War: Géraldine Kosiak, Un nuage sur le bateau, les gants, et la tasse, hommage à Meret Oppenheim, 2023, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan. 

Géraldine Kosiak, Un nuage sur le bateau, les gants, et la tasse, hommage à Meret Oppenheim, 2023, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan. 

7. Rose Wylie

Rose Wylie paints freely on large, unstretched, and unprimed canvases, adding in a collage of text and repeated motifs over the paint. Bagdad Cafe is part of Rose Wylie’s (Film Notes). Here, she focuses on Percy Adlon’s 1987 film Bagdad Cafe, which tells the story of the budding friendship between two women in a Californian motel, who find a connection despite facing adversity. Rose Wylie paints from memory, using the sensations the images and music of the film aroused in her.

Friends in Love and War: Rose Wylie, Bagdad Cafe, Film Notes series, 2015, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

Rose Wylie, Bagdad Cafe, Film Notes series, 2015, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

8. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

The smiling woman in this oil on canvas painting looks perfectly self-contained, but might equally be welcoming us in. Interestingly, the figures in Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings are not real people. The artist creates them from found images and her own imagination. The canvas focuses completely on the figure—without objects for historical or social reference, the people in her work are completely open to our own personal interpretation.

Friends in Love and War: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Condominium, 2005, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Condominium, 2005, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

9. Niek van de Steeg

The massive, interactive installation Structure de correction, table de débat, takes up a whole room of Ikon Gallery. It consists of a table and benches made by Niek van de Steeg from very basic materials like plastic tubing and cable ties. The chairs wobble, the table squeaks. Across and above the table unfolds a huge paper tablecloth. The public is invited to sit communally at the table, drawing or writing on the paper, exchanging, and sharing ideas about friendship on a “conveyor belt of ideas.”

Friends in Love and War: Niek van de Steeg, Structure de correction, table de débat, ca. 2000, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

Niek van de Steeg, Structure de correction, table de débat, ca. 2000, as exhibited in Friends in Love and War—L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es, Ikon Gallery, installation view, 2024. Image courtesy Ikon. Photo by David Rowan.

10. Rachel Maclean

The harmony and conflict of nation-state relationships is the subject of a flamboyantly humorous video by Rachel Maclean. The artist uses costumes, prosthetics, green screen, and digital editing to create her satirical work. The Lion and the Unicorn features the English Lion and the Scottish Unicorn from the Royal Coat of Arms, overlaid with real-life archive audio, poking fun at the nature of the relationship between the two nations, and challenging the media representations that stir up public tension.

Friends in Love and War: Rachel Maclean, The Lion and The Unicorn, 2012. Single channel HD video, colour and sound. 11 minutes 30 seconds. © Rachel Maclean, 2012, commissioned by The Edinburgh Printmakers. Courtesy of British Council Collection.

Rachel Maclean, The Lion and The Unicorn, 2012. Single channel HD video, colour and sound. 11 minutes 30 seconds. © Rachel Maclean, 2012, commissioned by The Edinburgh Printmakers. Courtesy of British Council Collection.

Birmingham, the UK’s second city, is a buzzing cultural hub. If you live in the UK, or are planning a trip here, do head to the Ikon Gallery. Bring a friend. Or a frenemy! We loved it, and we hope you enjoyed our top picks. In this sad post-Brexit climate, Franco-British relations have never looked so bold and exciting!

Friends in Love and War — L’Éloge des meilleur·es ennemi·es is presented at Ikon Gallery in collaboration with macLYON, 2 October 2024 – 23 February 2025. ikon-gallery.org

Get your daily dose of art

Click and follow us on Google News to stay updated all the time

Recommended

Review

How the History of Beauty Made Me Furious and Why—All the Rage by Virginia Nicholson

When did you last read a book that made you angry but still wanted to read on? What is a no-legs woman? Are pockets political? Might tanning be...

Kate Wojtczak 7 October 2024

Review

Book Review: Great Women Sculptors. Premiering in September!

There have been a plethora of recent surveys of women artists, including Phaidon’s own Great Women Artists (2019) and Great Women Painters...

Catriona Miller 23 September 2024

Review

Book Review: Beyond Vanity, The History and Power of Hairdressing by Elizabeth L. Block

Elizabeth L. Block, an art historian and Senior Editor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, presents her latest work, Beyond Vanity: The...

Errika Gerakiti 6 September 2024

Review

5 Reasons to See Frida: Beyond the Myth Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art

Frida Kahlo, the Mexican artist known for her powerful and surreal self-portraits, is honored through a unique exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art...

Mary Margaret Swets 19 September 2024