Marie Lorenz - Icknield Port Loop
Ikon is preparing its first Offsite project for 2007, with American artist Marie Lorenz, from 1st April – 31st May. The artist, whose practice encompasses elements of engineering, social engagement and performance proposes to build a boat, and then take visitors on a trip around Icknield Port Loop, a hidden canal path situated in an area currently under regeneration.
Lorenz’s barge will be formed not of wood, but of the detritus pulled from the canal-motorbikes, shopping trolleys and fridges. Whilst created out of wholly unconventional materials, the unusual-looking barge will nevertheless fit in with the canal it sails on and has arisen out of, as some ghostly machine resonating with untold stories of the area’s past.
The artist recently visited Ikon to discuss her proposal, and has now returned to New York to draw up plans for the boat, which she will build at Icknield over a week, from 1-5 April. This creative process will be open to the public to view at designated times, before a week of boat trips commence at the end of May. The artist hopes to take members of the public on free journeys around Icknield Port Loop, which will be documented on a website specifically designed to represent this project.
Throughout the project, Ikon will be working with the Ladywood Health and Community Centre, engaging local people with workshops around the boat project, culminating in a community festival at Icknield Port Loop at the end of May.
The project is supported by ISIS, the British Waterways Development Company, who is working with MADE and Urbanistics to commission four art projects as part of the area’s regeneration.
Ikon Offsite has been running since 1998 and aims to present quality, innovative artworks and projects outside of the gallery space, to directly engage with the public and the surrounding environment, challenging the idea of where art should be encountered and by whom.
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