In summer 2023, Ikon transforms its galleries into a platform for performance art, with the first UK exhibition by acclaimed Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo.   

Melati Suryodarmo is one of Indonesia’s most important living artists. Mentored by renowned Butoh dancer and choreographer Anzu Furukawa and performance artist Marina Abramović, Suryodarmo’s physically demanding performances can last several hours, testing the limits of the human mind and body. Her longest work, I’m a Ghost in My Own House (2012), involves the artist grinding blocks of charcoal with a rolling pin continuously for 12 hours. Visually spectacular, Suryodarmo’s performances are feats of endurance that interrogate notions of time, labour and identity.   

The exhibition at Ikon features live performances by Suryodarmo and “delegated works” performed by artists and communities in Birmingham.  

This exhibition is supported by the Bagri Foundation, the British Council through the Connections Through Culture grants programme and the Melati Suryodarmo Exhibition Circle: A.I. Gallery; ShanghART, Tanya Michele Amador and Michiel Verhoeven; Michelangelo and Lourdes Samson.

It is developed in collaboration with Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), Jakarta, Indonesia.