The kitsch space ship has landed at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, which stages the first museum scale solo exhibition by local artist Ruth Claxton.‘ Land’s End ’ is a complex installation of steel hoops that moves organically through the upper floor galleries. Some of these grey rings hold candy coloured plates or mirrors whilst others remain empty and hollow. The uncertainty of surfaces, whether real or fake confuses the viewer as they navigate the towers of spirals and curved edges.

The first gallery leaves little room for manoeuvre as the immense sculptures dominate the space. A carefully placed mirror taking up the entirety of one wall adds to the depth and magnitude of the floor to ceiling objects. As you move through the galleries the disc structures dissipate and dissolve into floors and walls. In particular the fungi like shapes that exit the walls up high, and the peak of mountains that possibly once were resting upon the floor.

The further through the galleries I went the more I enjoyed the work, the spaces between them allowed me to explore the structures and adornments, and I could enjoy what I was looking at. Porcelain figurines usually found upon your Nan ’s mantelpiece sit shyly upon their huge display stands. Found at car-boot sales they lack the sentimentality and nostalgia usually associated with such ceramic birds and figures. Personally the element that most affected my pre-conceived notions of such objects is what Claxton does to these figures that make them alien and vaguely unrecognisable. Through detaching heads and replacing them with jewellery, modeling clay and sequins, or linking one figures eyes to another with string they become something else, something more sinister. There is something grotesque about these figures, something reminiscent of a child pulling the head off her dolly as the figures are prevented from looking at each other due to their genetic modifications. These porcelain pieces for me add an undercurrent of feminist critique to the hardened, unemotional metal woodlands that engulf them.

What is problematic about this exhibition are its links to the internet and technological landscapes. The accompanying Press Release concentrates upon computer technology and an on-line community called ‘Second Life’ that “provides its users anonymity alongside a platform to participate in a real, financially-driven economy.” This thin association of the internet is not reflected within Claxton’s work, the expanse of the installation echoes something more organic

This connection seems to lure towards buzzwords and key contemporary ideas whereas I did not think they were clear in any aspect of ‘ Land’s End.’ The female gaze, nods to kitsch/retro ideals, construction of landscapes and an awareness of curatorial techniques are all more obviously apparent in Claxton’s practice. Even through the metallic grey structures there lies an element of nature opposed to a clinical connection with technology.

Overall Claxton has presented a lively and provocative show. The steel constructions are attractive and you have the want to delve further into them like a jungle explorer. As you continue less and less work fills the space and you are allowed to engage with the objects, rather than the stands. You begin to bring your own interpretations to the ceramic models, their locations and amputations. Although the exhibition feels repetitive in part I found the work enjoyable and a great use of the gallery space.