Claudia Losi - Balena Project at Mailbox, Birmingham - 24-09-08 to 26-10-08

Italian artist Claudia Losi returns to work with Ikon Gallery.
Losi’s current project centres around a life-
size whale, a dramatic shift in scale that relates
not only to the physical object, but also to the
epic concept of time evoked by a species that has
survived for some 50 million years. Made in Italy
in 2002, the whale has since travelled the world,
becoming the catalyst for an extended collaborative
process engaging thousands of people.

The project initially arose from Losi’s awareness
that even the highest peaks around her home
town of Piacenza were once covered by water in
which whales swam, the traces of which are still
evident today. This sense of the passing of time
is elaborated in her practice through the manual
processes used, including sewing, embroidery
and ceramics, as well as extended collaborations
in which the whale is used as a trigger for other
people’s stories and memories. Prior to the
exhibition in Birmingham, the artist worked with
pupils at Erdington Hall Primary School to produce
drawings of whales. These were then used by local
residents, in a temporary tailor’s shop on Erdington
High Street, as patterns to produce hundreds of
small fabric whales that now provide company for
the large creature in its temporary home.

Open Tuesday – Sunday, 12noon–7pm
Admission free, Level 5 (bottom of escalators)
The Mailbox, Birmingham b1 1xl

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