3-minute culture

We were held up by traffic on our way into the centre of Birmingham yesterday, so our intended visit to Ikon was a short one. We dashed up the staircase (shown clad in glass in my photograph) and just had time for a whistle stop tour of the two exhibitions. On the second floor, Bedwyr Williams called his show "My Bad" - an American slang expression from the world of basketball, apparently. It was an eclectic mix, as one has come to expect from Ikon - sculpture, photography, audio and installations; but what I enjoyed most were the 50 or so very varied drawings in the little Tower Room. Thurber came to mind. Yto Barrada's "Riffs" was likewise something of a variety show, but her large photographs of life in Tangier were what left the strongest impression in my mind. Both exhibitions would have repaid a longer look. We came away with the Guide and read it later: a model of it's kind, I'd say, full of illumination and wit.