{"id":38071,"date":"2014-11-15T12:49:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T12:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=38071"},"modified":"2014-11-15T12:49:27","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T12:49:27","slug":"gillian-wearing-redefines-birmingham-for-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=38071","title":{"rendered":"Gillian Wearing redefines Birmingham for the 21st century"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gillian Wearing redefines Birmingham for the 21st century<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Telegraph<\/a>
\nLondon, United Kingdom
\n2014-10-31<\/p>\n

Bernadette McNulty<\/strong><\/a>, Music Editor and Arts Writer<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nGillian Wearing’s A Real Birmingham Family<\/em> Photo: Courtesy of Birmingham City Council, Arts Council England and Ikon<\/small><\/p>\n

With her statue of a mixed-race, single-parent family, Gillian Wearing has transformed Birmingham’s city centre, says Bernadette McNulty<\/em><\/p>\n

Birmingham<\/a> has had an uneasy relationship with public sculpture over the last few decades. In 1991, the council unveiled a work by the city-born artist Raymond Mason<\/a> in the newly created Centenary Square<\/a>. Called Forward<\/em>, it depicted a throng of the city\u2019s great and good at key moments in the area\u2019s history – including Joseph Chamberlain<\/a> and Josiah Mason<\/a>. Made out of butter-coloured polyester resin, the monument was comically dubbed the Lurpak statue by locals and in 2003 destroyed by arsonists.<\/p>\n

In nearby Victoria Square<\/a>, Antony Gormley\u2019s<\/a> ominous Iron Man<\/em> looms over a corner, while Dhruva Mistry\u2019s<\/a> 1994 River Goddess<\/em> – known as the Floozie in the Jacuzzi<\/em> – is currently trussed up in a neon pink bikini for a breast cancer campaign. To her left, a towering column props up a magisterial Queen Victoria<\/a>, who looks away disapprovingly.<\/p>\n

But the latest statue in Centenary Square, while no less controversial than Mason\u2019s, stands a better chance of connecting with the feelings of the city\u2019s residents. Gillian Wearing\u2019s<\/a> A Real Birmingham Family<\/em> was unveiled on Thursday outside the new Library of Birmingham<\/a>. This flagship building, thronged with people, has transformed the square, now unrecognisable from its Mason days. Before it was revealed to a small, excited crowd (including local dignitaries and the artist), the piece looked dwarfed by the monumental proportions of the library behind it…<\/p>\n

…It wasn\u2019t until plans for the new library were finalised in 2010, with a site in front of it designated for a statue, that the project was set in motion. The Ikon set about a painstaking two-year search for entries of what people nominated as their \u201creal\u201d family, including groups of friends or even single people. In the end a committee whittled down hundreds of entrants to the two mixed-race, single parent Jones sisters<\/a>: \u201cThey were passionate about knowing their identity as a family and the bond between them. They also spoke of how proud they were to be from Birmingham and how Birmingham was such an accepting place, and how they can be a family here more than anywhere else.\u201d…<\/p>\n