Prem Sahib @ Grand Union, Birmingham

Review by Sacha Waldron | 10 May 2016

It’s the day Prince died. Now all our favourite cultural icons seem to be falling from the mortal realm pretty quick recently, so we should be used to it... but Prince! The slightly oily-haired raspberry joy of him. Found dead in an elevator at 57. None of us want that. We find out the news during Prem Sahib's private view at Grand Union, Birmingham, and everyone takes a moment to clink glasses of prosecco. The mood in the air, and indeed the work on display, is 'to Prince.'

This is actually Sahib’s first major outing in the North. His work (you may recall the white backlit disco club box) was included in last year’s Hayward Curatorial Open Listening which travelled to the Bluecoat in Liverpool. Grand Union are lucky to have him as Sahib is seriously hot shit at the minute; fresh from a solo show at the ICA in 2015, he's part of the younger gen of QBAs (Queer British Artists) that seem to be in control of the art world at the moment. Sahib, along with several of his contemporaries, is going to be among the artists we talk about in 20-30 years' time, and they're the closest thing we have in the UK right now to a defined ‘scene’.


More from Art:

 Art in Liverpool and Manchester: May 2016

 Liverpool Biennial 2016 programme announced


The work on show is carefully considered and rather gorgeous; unpretentious and sexy, displaying craft and style with the added bonus of a slick and interesting tactile narrative that runs through everything like the message in a stick of rock. A large white-tiled wall occupies the centre of the room, a urinal or gym shower. A small square hole is cut out so you can sit within the wall or look through to the people on either side. Two gold aluminium portraits hang on the tiled surface, titled Alex and Rene – they have tiny flecks of resin picked out on the surface, piss portraits of two people the artist encountered in the toilets while clubbing. Another wee-coloured resin sculpture sits on the floor, a beer crate capsuled in an amber cube entitled Glory, and hanging from the ceiling a tyre size black rubber cock ring (Beast II) swings in front of the white tiles. Abstracted by its size, the ring doesn’t feel overtly sexual but has the look (and smell) of the cheap jewellery that, as teens, we would buy at Quiggins or Afflecks Palace.

The gallery is lined on all four walls with black benches designed in collaboration with Xavier Llarch Font (a spatial designer based at Central St. Martins), and again we could be at a boxing gym. You can consider them as a work but they also cleverly make a social space for the audience – a place to sit and look at the exhibition as a whole or just to hang out on, chat, and drink your cup of wine. The benches are the key to getting Sahib’s work. It’s all about the useable architecture that is both created and informed by a particular lived and social experience. And it’s also fun. Serious fun, where you may start with after-work drinks and end up, three days later, at a spanking party in Essex. 

Prem Sahib at Grand Union runs until 3 June. Open Wednesday to Saturday 12-5pm. http://grand-union.org.uk/