This was the first survey exhibition of work by the acclaimed British artist Anya Gallaccio, comprising of new sculptural projects alongside some of her most celebrated work. Concerned essentially with the notion of performance and the balance struck between growth and decay, Gallaccio is renowned for her engaging light touch and paradoxical grasp of the ephemeral. Described as ‘wonderfully unreliable experiments,’ her installations make use of a wide range of commonplace materials such as chocolate, flowers, sugar, chalk, candles, vegetables and lead, revealing the everyday as remarkable.

The exhibition included a new version of Stroke (1993) in which the audience is surrounded by painted walls of chocolate and Aspire (1999) in which lit candles are suspended from the ceiling on large discs, the wax aroma filling the gallery space. In contrast to these more transient works, her bronze cast twigs and tree were exhibited along with cast sprouting potatoes.

Simultaneously, in collaboration with the Arts Council’s Creative Partnerships scheme, Gallaccio initiated an ongoing project with an inner-city school in Birmingham, George Dixon International, which involved making a vegetable garden to celebrate the diversity of the pupils and their backgrounds.

Supported by the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, The Henry Moore Foundation and British Sugar.