Ikon gallery continues to mark their fiftieth anniversary with a look back at a decade of style and subversion.
Those Were the Decades is a series of special events planned to reflect on the five decades of Ikon Gallery’s history. Each event examines the social, political and cultural context of Ikon’s work within one decade, through talks, debates and film screenings.
Those Were the Decades continues on Saturday 14yt June with 1970s: Politics and Protest, the second in Ikon’s engaging retrospective series.
The day begins with an illustrated talk by Dr Chris Moores entitled No future?: The Politics of Crisis in 1970s Britain. Dr Moores, a Fellow in Modern British History at the University of Birmingham, will discuss the seventies as a ‘watershed decade’ in post-war Britain, exploring cultural politics and narratives of crisis.
A panel discussion will subsequently take place between definitive members of the seventies art scene, chaired by Ikon Director Jonathan Watkins. The artist Ian Emes, former Ikon Gallery Director Simon Chapman, former Arts Lab co-ordinator Peter Stark and Jeanette Koch will all contribute.
Over a lunch break visitors will be offered the chance to see a special exhibition of Daniel Meadow’s ground-breaking Early Photographic Works, exploring Meadow’s astonishing record of British urban society and his role in spearheading the independent photography movement of the early 1970s.
This will be followed by two illustrated talks on art and seventies music culture. Popular Political Sexual Raw from Johnny Goldring – Professor of Philosophy & Fine Art at Birmingham Institute of Art & Design and Director of the Centre for Fine Art Research (CFAR) – will take listeners on a musical ‘walk on the wild side’. Afterwards, Ian Emes will present his pioneering animated film French Windows (1972): the work which introduced and established the style for subsequent Pink Floyd animations.
A film screening and Q&A session will be then be held on Motorcity Music Years: Birmingham Blues. Directed by Jonnie Turpie, this 30 minute film presents the rise of glam rock and heavy metal from the emergence of Slade, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest from Birmingham, to the birth of bands such as the Electric Light Orchestra, and Roy Wood’s Wizzard, who bought orchestral music to pop. The following Q&A will bring together the film’s producers – Chris Phipps and Roger Shannon – plus former Black Sabbath manager Jim Simpson.
The day culminates with a film screening of Derek Jarman’s brilliantly chaotic Jubilee. Filmed in the summer of 1977, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year, Jarman’s work plays with history and perfectly captures the violence and nihilistic swagger of Punk. The film is remarkable for featuring early appearances by pop luminaries as Adam Ant and Toyah Wilcox.
