Thing of the week: Ravenna of the new towns
Midlands Thing is certainly no stranger to the arts, even if we do occasionally prefer a night on the planning portal to a night on the tiles.
So if you were to ask us for our top tips for a culturally enriching, life affirming afternoon admiring the summit of human creative endeavour, we’d surely have no hesitation in recommending the Kingfisher Shopping Centre in Redditch.
It seems Thing, for once, has it’s finger on the cultural heartbeat, at least as far as the 20th Century Society is concerned – who have recommended some of the shopping centre’s artwork for protected status this week, following a chat with Historic England.
Pop art pioneer Eduardo Paolozzi’s colourful murals line the walls of the retail outlet’s double-height Milward Square atrium, co-incidentally sitting above Thing’s other preferred cultural destinations of Next and Coffee #1.
Described as the ‘Ravenna of the New Towns’ by historian Owen Hatherley, the 12 mosaic panels each measure 21ft by 10ft, and depict abstract images of the industrial history of Redditch and it’s famed needle industry.
Paolozzi is perhaps better known for his 1984 mosaics at Tottenham Court Road tube station, which were saved from destruction thanks to an intervention by long-term pop art mural fans, C20 Society, in 2015.
According to C20’s press release, the murals were intended to create a ‘multi-evocative metaphor, floating in some cases against woven material, symbolising the uses and results of the needle in its widest sense – a vital tool for the uniting of many substances in both a global and metaphysical sense’, a statement which Thing finds hard to argue with, on a number of levels.
Get yourself to Redditch for a dose of the good stuff – or alternatively, check out C20’s press release and imagery here.
Dudley’s drone delivery
Councillor Patrick Harley, leader of Dudley Council, with the authority’s new off-road motorbike deterrent. Credit: Dudley Council
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime – we’ve heard it all before, somewhere.
Probably not from Dudley Council’s Conservative leader Patrick Harley, in all fairness, who is nonetheless hoping a whizzy new drone will help them tackle a “scourge” of anti-social behaviour in the borough, particularly focused on the issue of off-road motorbikes.
“At the moment we can’t apprehend them as they are too fast at getting away,” he lamented, although Thing can’t help but wonder how practical a council officer hunting them down with a drone will prove to be.
By way of possibly more sensible applications, the kit will also be used in fly-tipping investigations and to identify potholes, while “thermal technology” will allow them to identify properties being used to harvest and grow illegal drugs.
Dudley Council says its drone will be flown for up to 200 miles per week in an effort to find “those making others lives a misery” in the borough. You are invited to insert your own punchline here.
On the motorbike issue specifically however, Thing suggests fighting fire with fire – and buying a faster bike to chase down the hoodlums.
