Dean Kelland : The Englishman’s Panacea

4 Dec 2013-9 Feb 2014

Overview

Offsite Exhibition at Fletcher’s Walk, Birmingham B3 3HJ. British artist Dean Kelland works with performance, photography, film and appropriation to explore portraiture, producing engaging observations of our collective cultural identities. Kelland’s work is preoccupied with the British sitcom of the 1960s and borne out of an interest in the language of popular culture. For Ikon, Kelland returns to the iconic British comedy character Harold Steptoe in The Englishman’s Panacea (2013). He stands before a mirror in what is seemingly his morning ritual. Referencing Samuel Beckett’s plays Waiting for Godot and Film, the action is repeated with each new manifestation taking us closer to the identity of Steptoe while simultaneously examining the mechanics of performance.