A recent trip to Birmingham city centre took me back to gaze up at the facade of
St Martin's church. As a Victorian building, dating back to 1873 when the original 13th century edifice was demolished, it lacks that unique Medieval stature and strange quirkiness.
However, many of its details catch our attention and the whole offers such a striking contrast with the surrounding 21st century urban landscape that the effect cannot go unnoticed...
The church as it stands today is encircled by the ultra-modern shopping complex - the Selfridges Building - and the older, more traditional retail market of the Bull Ring....
The curious blob-shaped structure of the shopping centre with its futuristic silver hubs contrasts with the stonework of the dignified spires of the church which in turn stand out against a horizon punctuated with the latest contructions.
Looking up at the sculpted heads, grimacing faces and expressive gestures on the facade, you wonder when and why we lost interest in such detail...
That said, our screen-fueled existences mean that we rarely lift our eyes up and beyond, to observe what or who is directly in front of us in the present moment...
And our thoughts are consumed by consumerism; how and when to purchase the next actively trending item or ticket to some 'experience' as seen on social media, as if we were trapped on a frenetic merry-go-round that spins us round and round...
How would those who attended St Martin's at the end of the 19th century view our 21st century take on the path to fulfilment, I wonder? Blue skies or storms ahead?
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