With last night’s (19 June) artist-designed fundraising dinner for the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham coinciding with the first day of Brexit negotiations, it was appropriate that Cornelia Parker, fresh from her duties as the official election artist, rose to the occasion with a main course entitled The Full Brexit. This toothsome plateful, described by its creator as “soft and hard, with lots of textures”, consisted of a UK-tastic array of ingredients, including Welsh lamb in an English wholegrain mustard crumb, Birmingham beetroot and butterbean purée, and a crispy Scottish haggis risotto.
Other participating artists also made sure their menu items reflected the events of the day as well as the Ikon’s exceptional global and aesthetic reach. Hew Locke kicked off proceedings with a spicy Caribbean-style Locke Down cocktail of spiced rum, passion fruit, lime and tamarind syrup, while Haroon Mirza’s Bridges Not Walls plate of amuse-bouches took us to the Indian subcontinent with an array of dhokra, paratha and chana dahl dosa. Langlands & Bell kept the agenda more artistic with their Untitled entrée of hake and saffron, as did Oliver Beer, who riffed on the nature of his sliced-through artworks with a dessert that provided a jellied cross-section of nasturtium, dragon fruit and blueberries.
The whole evening ended firmly back in northern Europe with A.K. Dolven celebrating her native (and non-EU) Norway with a stirring combination of Viking bread, goat’s cheese and aquavit whose evocative title (Sunny Arctic Nights and Other Insomnia Issues from a Whale Hunter’s Grandchild) also acted as a reminder that whatever happens in Brussels the world keeps turning, with this week also marking the summer solstice. All in all, a rich and diverse evening with everyone present agreeing that the Ikon’s version of Brexit on a plate was infinitely more palatable than the real thing.
