Ikon Gallery
Uppdaterat: 26 aug.
Under the Vast Sky
February 23 - May 29, 2022
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Under the Vast Sky was Britta Marakatt-Labba’s first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom and presented four decades of her practice, bringing Sámi histories, stories and perspectives to an international audience.
About the exhibition
Under the Vast Sky featured embroidered works by Marakatt-Labba for which she was best known, including panoramas chronicling the history, culture and cosmology of the Sámi, the Indigenous population of the northernmost parts of Scandinavia. These were combined with other art forms to demonstrate the wide range of her practice. Her work overall struck a balance between the vernacular, the domestic and the intimacy of daily life, and urgent issues of our time such as climate change and terrorism.
Britta Marakatt-Labba: Storyteller
“an enduring and unending articulation, endorsement and dissemination of Sámi culture – past, present, and future, vernacular, spiritual, material. The ability to affirm, pronounce, tell, share and advocate this heritage and its ongoing transformations, and still acknowledge the colonial wounds and confront centuries of oppression.” Jan-Erik Lundström, curator, Under the Vast Sky
Curators
The exhibition was curated by Jan-Erik Lundström, former director of the Sámi Center for Contemporary Art, Karasjok, Norway, and Bildmuseet, Sweden, with Jonathan Watkins, Ikon Director. It was accompanied by a programme of public events and a full-colour publication, including texts by Jan-Erik Lundström, Jonathan Watkins and Linnea Axelsson, Sámi (Swedish) poet.
Exhibition Views
Photographer Stuart Whipps. Courtesy of Ikon Gallery
Film
Selected Press
"Britta Marakatt-Labba: embroidered survival stories at Ikon Gallery"
Ruth Millington, March 1, 2022 With a unique mix of elegance and an almost naïve expression she elevates everyday life into poetic, visual stories which demand to be seen. >> Read more
"Sámi artist Britta Marakatt-Labba at Ikon"
Martin Cid Magazine, February 2, 2022 >> Read More
"Britta Marakatt-Labba: Under the Vast Sky"
Studio International, April 6, 2022
For Marakatt-Labba it is the imminence of these issues that makes her work so urgent, so timely. >> Read more