Izaak Brandt presents No Place Like Home, a new solo exhibition investigating ideas of memory, home, and physical embodiment. This is Brandt’s second solo show of the year, and first at this space.
A bold next step following from Brandt’s recent exhibition Sporting Goods, No Place Like Home
features a new body of work focusing on ghostly, drawn PLA sculptures while being accompanied by new large-format sculpture, performance, film, and sound work. With Bristol, Brandt’s hometown, at the exhibition’s core, the artist plumbs the spaces and images of his youth – city streets and graffiti culture – to produce ghostly sculptures of the items that defined adolescence: shoes, bikes, caps. Likewise, Brandt uses graffiti as kind of “tattoo” for his trademark sculptures; as the human figures work as cyphers for greater, non-corporeal meaning, the application of graffiti, which covers a city’s “skin”, is applied here to the sculptural object.
Adding to the exhibition is a new film work exploring communication through dance in urban spaces. Exhibited in the basement of the gallery, the work draws on the legacy of pioneer Jonzi D, using locations from Brandt’s childhood as backdrops for his own dance performance. This is then paired with music produced by Brandt himself, his brother Magnus, GUTTR, and Digital Angel. Continuing with this logic of memory and evocation, a performance with take place within the gallery at 7PM on the night of the exhibition’s opening, drawing the constituent themes full circle.
No Place Like Home marks the first time that Brandt his collaborated with curators Jacob Barnes + Jonny Tanna.
As such, the exhibition reflects Barnes’ first foray into the aesthetics of hip-hop and breaking, and Tanna’s career-long commitment to the aesthetics of hip-hop and Black culture writ large.
Izaak Brandt, No Place Like Home, 17th October – 7th November 2024, 96 Robert St, NW1 3QP
Art opening: 117th October 6PM-9PM Performance by Brandt scheduled for 7PM
