Ikon presents the first UK solo exhibition of work by Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman.

Dijkman’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is an ever expanding collection of photographs, assembled since 2005, that observe how people organise their living environments across the world.

These images form the heart of the exhibition at Ikon. Referencing Abraham Ortelius’ Theatre of the World (1570), thought to be the first atlas, it is an ambitious archive seeking to map the planet through thousands of digital images.

The images are classified into three groups: Gestures, depicting human intervention in the natural world; References, which geographically translate architectural and design language from other locations; and Speculations, recreations of other times, past and future.

Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is a kind of anthropological survey, playfully revealing basic behavioural similarities around the world and universal human systems of thought and values.

Published with Spike Island to coincide with exhibitions at Ikon Gallery, (February – April 2011) and Spike Island, (April – June 2011).