Ayşe Erkmen

This catalogue accompanies Ayşe Erkmen's first exhibition of work in the UK, for which the artist built a false ‘ceiling’ across Ikon’s second floor galleries using 88,000 metres of silicone thread. The different coloured translucent thread, normally used for furniture upholstery, was stretched wall-to-wall across the space.

By allowing light to pass through it whilst casting shadows, Erkmen’s ‘roof’ therefore transformed the three separate rooms of Ikon’s second floor through one broad gesture. The horizontal plane that resulted suggested the surface of a fluid medium finding its level to submerge the occupants, contrasting with the distinct gothic details in the real ceiling.

Often producing work for public or non-art spaces, Erkmen enjoys blurring the line between works of art and everyday life, a sentiment strongly evidenced in the recorded conversation between the artist and curator Andrea Schlieker that appears in this catalogue.

Interspersed throughout, full page colour photographs show the galleries at Ikon during the exhibition, including close-ups of the thread itself and broader images of the space as a whole. The publication is completed by a foreword from Ikon Director Jonathan Watkins and several images of the artist’s previous exhibitions, including those in Istanbul, Frankfurt and Vienna.