Born in 1965 in Ayutthaya, Thailand artist Surasi Kusolwong studied in Germany for several years and now lives in Bangkok. During the last ten years he has shown work all over the world in both solo and group exhibitions.

Kusolwong encourages audience participation, blurring lines drawn conventionally between art and life. He makes large-scale, interactive projects that combine sound, sculpture and everyday objects.

For Ikon, Kusolwong made Bangmingham (Come as you are), an ambitious installation that encouraged interaction between people, art and music. Like a village of simple wooden structures, it involved ‘platforms’ furnished with luxurious Asian fabrics where visitors could play the various musical instruments provided – drums, guitar and a piano. The exhibition also included makeshift observation towers, elavated rooms decorated in a tropical vein from which the entire scene could be taken in.

In the tough, unrefined interior of the Ikon Eastside building, Kusolwong  played homage incidentally to a cultural history of the West Midlands, a local tradition of rock music that has produced such influentail bands as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Slade and Deep Purple. Kusolwong insisits on performative response, collective play and experimentation with a celebratory feel.

Ikon Eastside is supported by Advantage West Midlands, Birmingham City Council, Business Link and the European Regional Development Fund.