Ikon at Selfridges

Infinity Pattern 1 at Selfridges Birmingham is a new, large scale art installation by multidisciplinary artist Osman Yousefzada.

Co-commissioned with Ikon, the temporary architectural structure launched in July 2021 and transforms Birmingham’s skyline, covering the iconic Selfridges building and injecting it with a bold colour palette of pinks and black, arranged in a striking tessellated pattern. Infinity Pattern 1 addresses the issues of race, labour and migration which have shaped Birmingham’s past and present whilst carrying a deep sense of optimism, connectivity and hope. For Osman, who is Birmingham-born and the son of Afghani-Pakistani migrants, the work contains some autobiographical elements, but at its core it stages the concept of a world without borders, whether physical or in the mind, represented by the endlessly tessellating pattern.

This major public artwork will remain in its completed state until the end of the year while the store undergoes renovation work. Ikon led an international competition to find the winning design and presented Osman’s first solo exhibition, Being Somewhere Else in 2018. Read more here. 

To coincide with Osman’s installation, Ikon presents an associated exhibition and art trail at the store. Osman shows new poetry, film, sculptures and screenprints, alongside work by three Birmingham artists, Hira Butt, Farwa Moledina and Maryam Wahid. Read more here.