A Grand Day Out

So to Birmingham for a day out & friends-meeting purposes, before which a while-u-wait potter around the Ikon gallery, featuring exhibitions of Carmen Herrera's somehow timeless modernist formal abstractions - geometric in nature, excepting a few early lyrical examples, mostly either colourful-&-black rhythmic patterns of interlocking (tri)angular shapes, some within circular canvases, or otherwise more severely minimalist monochrome designs that sometimes suggested (referring to something outside the purely formal harmony of the self-sufficent & -reflexive picture) architectural details (such as the descending steps of a staircase) or spaces (such as the corner of a large room) - & also 'Bad Faith', a selection of videos of David Sherry's absurdist performances. Was particularly taken & inspired by the image adorning the poster advertising the latter show...


...which seems to illustrate rather succinctly a mental state familiar to numerous parts of any given day.

Also the sculpture garden in Oozells Square, in front of the Ikon:





minimalist & coolly harmonious, in terms of objects, space & textures (including the trees also), in something of a Japanese style (although perhaps a bit too symmetrically ordered to be wholly in keeping with such a particular aesthetic), what with the channel of water too - a pleasing, quiet combination of the overtly designed, man-made & natural elements.