Bill Poster

Tame Valley Canal, Beneath M6, Birmingham, July 2016

I've been monitoring Bill Drummond's activities under Spaghetti Junction for a while now.  Each time I go back there, he seems to have added another chapter to his catalogue of philosophical, Situationist musings.  It pleases me immensely that he's chosen the darkest reaches of the canal, beneath the M6, for this, as it's a location I've come to think of as the psychic as well as the geographical heart of England. 

Just now, the fact that the place resembles a dark, forbidding cavern, just feels even more symbolically relevant.  Drummond is clearly channelling the same topical zeitgeist here, and the back story of how this piece came about shows he's nothing less than engaged.

I do admit to being slightly baffled by the relevance of the tropical garden image at its centre. Is it even Drummond's work, or someone else's subsequent intervention?  Knowing his previous efforts, there'll be some incongruous, absurdist connection, known mainly to himself.  Anyway, it turns out the garden is situated just a few hundred metres away, adjacent to the massive road interchange, so maybe that incongruity with the immediate environment is the whole point.

Gravelly Hill, Birmingham, July 2016

Coincidentally, as the tunnel images were being taken, a passing dog walker identified himself as the garden's owner.  I love it when things get odd.


(This one's for Liz.  Thanks for coming with to share the strange).