POLLY APFELBAUM: WAITING FOR THE UFOs

The work of renowned New York-based artist Polly Apfelbaum will challenge pomposity, notions of entitlement and hierarchies in cultural practice.

The second exhibition of the artist this year, Waiting for the UFOs (a space set between a landscape and a bunch of flowers) features large-scale, colourful installations created with textiles, ceramics and drawings. Framed within sociological and political contexts and the legacy of post-war American art, the exhibition will incorporate the artists own interest in “space, obsession and otherness”.

Incorporating the title from, British singer, Graham Parker’s 1970s song Waiting for the UFOs, the exhibition recalls the vast, void landscapes of America and the obsessive marginal characters anticipating the arrival of extra-terrestrial life to our planet, as well as it’s potential threat. Feeding into this is the work of surrealist René Magritte’s definition of a garden: ‘a space between a landscape and a bunch of flowers’ with particular reference to his landscape painting The Plagiarism (1940) tying in the theme of appropriation.

This topic is delved into by Apfelbaum’s characteristic use of allusion and quotation, blurring conventional line drawn between popular culture and high art. This theme within the artists work is symbolically appropriate given that Ikon’s premises are a refurbished Arts and Crafts school building.

At Ikon, Apfelbaum aims to create communication and participation between the visitors and the piece. Perceiving the gallery space as a landscape, to be populated by both her and visitors to the exhibition, “Its important to me that people have to move through the work so the spectator activates it and participates in the experience. As you move through the installation, perspective, light and parallax are constantly changing the way you see the work in space.”

By emphasising formal qualities such as colour and texture, to asset the importance of popular culture craft activity. Her use of various stained and dyed fabrics and glazed ceramics throughout is both beguiling and refreshing in its offering of simple pleasures.

Supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, the exhibition will run from 19th September – 18th November 2018.

Polly Apfelbaum: Waiting for the UFOs (a space set between a landscape and a bunch of flowers), Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 19 September — 18 November 2018.

Eleanor Forrest