A Real Birmingham Family is Ikon’s ongoing project (2011–2014) with Birmingham-born, Turner Prize winning artist Gillian Wearing: a quest to find, and immortalise in bronze, a ‘real’ Birmingham family.
The project draws attention to the unsung, raising questions about civic identity and what constitutes a family today. During 2011/12, residents of Birmingham were urged to nominate their families to be the face of Birmingham. No limits were placed on how the twenty-first century family might define itself.
From the many hundreds of self-nominated families, a shortlist of four has now been chosen by a diverse panel of community, cultural and religious figures. Each family is distinct, from an extended family of neighbours to single parents, representing a diverse range of social and cultural backgrounds.
These families form the core of an exhibition presented in the BBC Birmingham Public Space at The Mailbox 5th August – 8th September 2013.
The panel of judges will select one family to be the model for the new public sculpture, with the decision announced before the end of the exhibition. The final sculpture, created in bronze, will be located in Centenary Square outside the new Library of Birmingham in 2014.
IKON are trying to raise £100,000 to fund the sculpture, and have set up a donation page.