Ikon Ikon Ikon...
Oliver Beer was oh exhibition when i stopped by with no inkling as to what to expect as Ikon is always rather hit and miss. Frankly when i go there i always feel like an OAP in an O2 shop. Staring unblinking at walls covered in stuff that i am unmoved by and don't care about. This walk through was no different. Beer's work for me was well... boring and did nothing for me. whilst it might have moved others mountains, for me it did little to stretch my face muscles around.

His work included a large amount of ready-mades and vessels like his grandmothers chamber pot with microphones in them whilst the 'Tristan Chord' played to an almost ear bleeding volume. but in that room of white walls and wooden floors. it did nothing. it sat there, a large mass of wood and ceramics piled in a room, carefully, but not in any many i deemed captivating. Getting a kick out of flicking the pot and hearing a loud 'ding' before reading a signed marked 'do not touch the exhibit. For me this was a let down. Honestly this would have worked better if it had incorporated an interactive element.

his best work of the day was his reanimation of 'I Wanna Be Like You' from the Jungle Book. But where each of the 2,500 frames that go into that film had been split frame by frame, and been coloured in by 2,500 school children from around Birmingham. with the first frame starting with the youngest children to take part through to the oldest students colouring in the frames at the end. Leading to a natural growth and progression to the piece.

There was also an old cathode ray TV on the wall playing a Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech but where each word had been placed in alphabetical order... for literally no reason at all.

Personally given the genius and iconography of that speech. I looked at that as more of a vandalism of art than anything else.