Briefing

Horror in the Modernist Block: The dystopian underside of the modernist vision

By 2023-01-12T05:00:00

Horror in the Modernist Block (2022). Image courtesy Ikon. Photographer, Stuart Whipps-14

Source: Image courtesy of Ikon Gallery. Photographer, Stuart Whipps

Contemporary artists shine a light on the haunting aspects of building design, writes Joe Holyoak

A new exhibition featuring work by 20 contemporary artists is set to explore the relationship between modern architecture and horror.

The show at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery – based in the Victorian grade II-listed former Oozells Street School, converted by Levitt Bernstein Architects – will include a mix of film, installations, photography, sculpture, textiles, sound and printmaking.

Horror in the Modernist Block curator Melanie Pocock said modern architecture was often associated with the horror genre, pointing to the work of author JG Ballard, such his dystopian 1975 novel High-Rise.

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