Rhythm is a vibration of sound, movement and frequencies. It is the ensemble of life and routine, it is finding your own tempo and orchestrating your own voice. The shared space of this zine contains a community seeking a rhythm through practice.

Ikon, with support from G . F Smith, showcases a new zine titled Rhythm, an output of Art School Laboratory initiated by Osman Yousefzada, Visiting Professor, Birmingham School of Art.

Rhythm has been created by artists Lydia Bell, Alissa Blackshaw, Bonnie Campbell, Hayley Clark, Ileana Cooper, Fatou Fergusson, Alex Gledhill, Naomi Reid, Grace Riley and Hannah Victory. The collective has written a manifesto based on their shared artistic values and visions of art school pedagogy. The zine, including interviews with Vanley Burke and Foka Wolf, brings together student work submitted in response to an open call on the theme of rhythm in art, writing and/or process.

The showcase includes archival material – ranging from student zines, Mail Art and Fluxus – on loan from Birmingham City University, Royal College of Art and William Allen of Word & Image. As well as reflecting the history of Birmingham School of Art, it references Ikon’s 60th anniversary.

It also features Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays (2021), an experimental film by Roo Dhissou, exploring multiplicity, prayer, ritual, religiosity, Sufism, mythology and states of being. Using sound, iconography, performance and animation, Dhissou contemplates authenticity, humour, the repetition in ritualistic practices and entanglements of shared histories. Tuesdays are Mata’s day, Thursdays belong to the Phir and Sundays to the Shaheed.