Ikon presents the most comprehensive exhibition to date of work by British artist Oliver Beer. Through film and sculpture, with a strong emphasis on sound, it exemplifies his preoccupation with both the physical properties and emotional value of objects.

At the heart of this exhibition is a new work, commissioned by Ikon, Reanimation (I Wan’na be Like You) (2017) which is a ‘re-animation’ of a scene from Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book. 2,500 children, from early years until the age of 13 from Birmingham, were involved, each drawing a single film still put in order of the children’s ages, so that the animation becomes increasingly ‘grown up’. Frame by frame the scribbles of infants progressively give way to the increasingly lucid drawings of children and then adolescents. This work touches on the inexorable passage of time – through a time-based medium – in order to develop our consideration of what it is like to be human.

A catalogue will accompany the exhibition, with essay by Ikon Director Jonathan Watkins and Mami Kataoka Chief Curator at Mori Museum, Tokyo.Available from Ikon shop for a discounted price for the duration of the exhibition.

Oliver Beer’s exhibition is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac London, Paris, Salzburg, and the Ikon Investment Fund.