An impossible maze with no end forms the basis of a gallery installation and inner-city billboard campaign by artist and activist Foka Wolf.
Foka Wolf’s installation Why Are We Stuck in Hospital?, produced by Ikon, illustrates the invisibility of people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people in long-stay hospitals.
Comprising graphic design and declarative captions, Birmingham artist Foka Wolf’s posters respond to Why Are We Stuck In Hospital?, a research project conducted by the School of Social Policy at University of Birmingham, in partnership with rights-based organisation Changing Our Lives. The research raises awareness of the 2000 people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people who live in hospital settings for long periods of time, often for many years and with no planned date to leave.
Foka Wolf’s artwork is also displayed on Jack Arts billboards around Sheffield.
Exhibition launch: Tuesday 26 March
Join us from 4.30pm onwards to tour the exhibition, with an introduction from Site and University of Birmingham. Kollective Kitchen will be open for drinks.
Read the press release here.
The original research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Social Care Delivery Research Programme. Tour funded by NIHR School for Social Care Research. This project is produced by Ikon, Birmingham in partnership with The Exchange and Jack Arts. This exhibition was originally exhibited at Ikon Gallery (7 – 19 March 2023) and The Exchange, Birmingham (7 March – 17 June 2023) and tours to Fabrica, Brighton (8 – 18 July 2024).
Lead image: Foka Wolf, Why Are We Stuck in Hospital? (2023). Installation view, Ikon Gallery. Image courtesy of Ikon. Photographer Tegen Kimbley.