KNOT IN HAM

The last few weekends have been taken up by monotonous bar work in order to save money for our upcoming trip to New York. However, this Saturday we were both free so headed out for a fun filled day in Nottingham. After navigating the city's network of A roads, we ended up parking in Broadmarsh Shopping Centre's car park. We were truly spoilt for choice concerning multistory car parks, but this was as good as any, I suppose. Emerging from the car park into the shopping centre, we were greeted with the largest and most confident Wimpy I have ever seen. I began to think that in the short journey from car seat to commercial concourse, we might have traveled back in time.

Giant Ticket, surprisingly easy to lose.

It was then to the Nottingham Contemporary to see an exhibition of woodcut prints by Gert and Uwe Tobias. The gallery seemed to be full of children; a barrage of discarded prams and empty haribo packets obscured one of the prints. There was a storybook zone in the first gallery room, complete with over enthusiastic storytellers reciting classic kids novels to disinterested 20 month some things. It was nice to see the gallery actively involving the little guys with their exhibitions, but (without sounding like a grumpy old man) the guy parading around dressed as a zebra posing for photographs a little disturbing and even more distracting. The artwork itself was a range of large and some small-scale prints using bold shapes and colours involving references to contemporary and tribal symbolism. The resulting images contained some amusing characters and monsters, perhaps too scary for kids?

Below street level at the NC you will find a room known as the SPACE. This houses traveling exhibitions and its large volume allows for some unique commissions. Last time we visited there was a huge inflated female astronaut that you could walk inside of. The entrance of which could have been more tastefully positioned (unless that was the point and entrants were physically forced aware the gender of this astronaut). 

This time we were greeted with; the much more potentially offensive “Fifty buildings in 50 years, great modern architecture in the East Midlands”. Considering what I mentioned above about the dynamics of the SPACE, this exhibit lacked in ambition unlike the buildings presented by it. I guess this is down to the fact that it is a traveling exhibition, designed to appear in many different spaces (including Leicester’s High Cross Shopping Centre). Nevertheless, it was interesting to read and, judging by the reactions of other viewers, relevant. Most of all, we had fun with the colored spotlights!

The weather was not great and (as I said before) we were saving money, so we had a quick play in the fountains in front of the council house before heading back to the car. 

This small abandoned building (possibly a pub or a shop) made up part of the outer limits of a tiny square housing the alfresco diners of the annexing restaurant.

After seeing the exhibition we decided to find some of the featured buildings so it was off to Loughborough and Leicester!

and you thought hanging baskets were 'naff'

The show piece EFTE clad ‘Thor’ missile canopy was annoyingly disappointing at forgeing a futuristic beacon for National Space Centre, moreover creating a context of a future dystopia waste land complete with foraging ‘survivors’ on the outreaches of the car park.  

'survivors'