In April – May 2007, Ikon presented an exhibition of work by Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera. The artist’s practice involves taking familiar imagery, often sourced from popular culture and deconstructing it, only to recombine it with references from modernist abstraction and surrealism. These fragments, reconfigured by the artist through densely layered cut, painted and printed paper; result in rich and abstract hybrids.

At the same time as his Ikon show, Herrera exhibited a series of photographs at Kettle’s Yard Gallery in Cambridge. In order to reveal and explore some of the processes behind Herrera’s work, Ikon invited a group of pupils from Ninestiles School in Birmingham to collaborate with a group from Impington College in Cambridge.

The two groups of pupils subsequently exchanged images, drawings and ideas before exhibiting the results at each venue.