Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing has revealed her latest artwork, A Real Birmingham Family, depicting two single mothers, Roma and Emma Jones and their sons. The sisters and their children were selected from 372 nominations to be the face of Birmingham, following the artist’s four-year collaboration with Ikon gallery.
The £100,000 bronze sculpture now sits outside the city’s new library, which opened to the public last year, and is intended to raise questions about civic identity and what constitutes a family today.
“I really liked how Roma and Emma Jones spoke of their closeness as sisters and how they supported each other, it seemed a very strong bond, one of friendship and family, and the sculpture puts across that connectedness between them,” Wearing explained. “A nuclear family is one reality but it is one of many and this work celebrates the idea that what constitutes a family should not be fixed.”
Stuart Tulloch, curator at Ikon gallery, added: “The variety of nominations to A Real Birmingham Family has shown to us that whilst the traditional, nuclear family may no longer be the norm, the ties that bind us together are as strong as ever. The sculpture will draw attention to the everyday and the unsung; a lasting memorial to the people of Birmingham who are the lifeblood of our city.”
Wearing is also currently shortlisted for the 50,000 euro Vincent Award alongside Pierre Huyghe, Manfred Pernice, Willem de Rooij and Anri Sala, the winner of which will be announced at Gemeentemuseum in The Hague on 21 November.
